The MMO launch subscriber bubble
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Betas, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Business models, Culture, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, Warhammer Online, Academic, Education, Virtual worlds, Star Wars: The Old Republic
It feels like a new MMO is being released every month these days and the market for persistent online games is certainly expanding. At the head of this market is a set of games commonly referred to “triple A” titles. These are popular games from big name studios or games using popular intellectual properties. New games that are considered “triple A” have a unique ability to build unparalleled levels of anticipation and hype around themselves prior to release. In order to draw in as many players as possible, an obscene amount of cash is often spent on advertising to hype these games up for release. But is this appropriate and cost-effective or does it show a fundamental misunderstanding of of the MMO market?
In this article, we look at what can go wrong with over-hyped MMO launches and what happens when the subscriber bubble bursts.
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The MMO launch subscriber bubble originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
