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Big World - Xbox's Secret MMORPG Weapon?

Posted by simoniker on from the bigger-than-small-world dept.

Thanks to the TNL forum regulars for pointing to an Internet.com interview with Micro Forté CEO, John De Margheriti. This Australian company has an original, as yet unannounced Microsoft-published MMORPG for Xbox Live in development, and the CEO (overconfidently?) says "Our technology could very well be the killer app for the Xbox. I think the Xbox killer app is online games in general, and I hope that the BigWorld Technology will play a strong part in that." Interestingly, BigWorld Technology is being pitched as middleware for multiple MMORPG titles on PC and console, but no further deals have been announced apart from the Microsoft game. So.. revolutionary or 'just another MMO engine'? Update: 06/25 14:46 GMT by S : Here's a preview and some screenshots of Citizen Zero, Microforte's dormant PC MMO title that the Xbox game may be somewhat based on.

39 comments

  1. Too bad by Joshuah · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Too bad for all those people with mods out there who cant play xbox live. id kinda be interested in a game like this, but im not about to go unmodding my system just to play it. maybe if xbox were $100 id consider getting another one just to play all the online games....

    1. Re:Too bad by sixb0nes · · Score: 0

      This reminds me of whining for a cd-key that is required to play the latest "juarez" release online.

      It's funny what playing online does to the psyche of the "pirate" mind.

    2. Re:Too bad by RaboKrabekian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Too bad for all those people with mods out there who cant play xbox live

      You can simply install a switch on your modchip to turn it off while you use XBox Live. It's not difficult to do at all.

      Just be careful not to go online with the modchip on, or your xbox will banned for all eternity.

      --
      "Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
    3. Re:Too bad by jnguy · · Score: 1

      If you happen to go online with a mod chip on, you can just change your serial number and play online with the mod chip off http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/restore-blank-s erial.php

  2. Online Gaming is a fad by Milktoast · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think the console world is just reliving the same sort of hype once surrounding PC online gaming. Only the problem is that consoles are even more difficult to get online than PC's are.

    I'm sure each console can support a handful of online only games (an everquest type, maybe a Quake 3), but I think the majority of users are quite happy with single-player experiences. If I want to chat on the internet - I don't see why you wouldn't go to the PC first.

    1. Re:Online Gaming is a fad by Westley · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Note that there's a difference between "not online gaming" and "single-player gaming". I mostly bought my console (a GameCube) for party games such as Super Smash Bros Melee - and I still believe that's the most entertaining type of game around (for me) even though I obviously enjoy Metroid Prime, Zelda etc.

    2. Re:Online Gaming is a fad by Babbster · · Score: 1
      Only the problem is that consoles are even more difficult to get online than PC's are.

      Not true at all. My getting online with the Xbox and the PS2 (not willing to buy a $30-40 adaptor to play one online GC game) took exactly these steps:

      1) Run Ethernet cable from router to console(s).
      2) Insert setup disc.
      3) Tell it to use automatic setup.
      4) Fill in demographic info (and credit card info with Xbox Live). 5) Done.

      With the PC (Windows - I'm a gamer), the first time I set up DSL, I had to:

      1) Order DSL (insert two-month wait) from phone company.
      2) Order service from ISP (didn't want to use the phone company).
      3) Install network card.
      4) Install network card drivers.
      5) Plug in DSL "modem."
      6) Open network neighborhood and configure network settings (this could be multiple steps compared to the auto config on PS2 and Xbox).
      7) Restart computer, hopefully done.

      The only part of console setup that even comes close to difficult is setting up a router (you don't have to) or running Ethernet cable if the console is in a distant room (no different than setting up another computer somewhere else in the house). With router setup, if you pick up any of the consumer cable/DSL routers the setup is fully laid out, and unless you have some "weird" type of broadband (AOL, I'm looking it you) installing will probably be a snap.

      In short, setting a console up for use with the Internet is no harder - and usually much EASIER - than setting up a computer. This is partly because most folks wanting to game online already have Internet connections and PCs, and partly because the software included with the consoles is pretty smart and very streamlined.

    3. Re:Online Gaming is a fad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha ha. You use Windows. Dork!

    4. Re:Online Gaming is a fad by Grand · · Score: 1

      I think you took the statement in the wrong way. I *think* he was getting at how games for consoles are mostly based on single player, and PC games are based on multiplayer. That is why people buy consoles IMO. So it will be harder to get a system that is primarily for single player play to the online market.

  3. Main problem by sixb0nes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The main problem with MMO console games is that they are usually detached from other platforms, losing the player-base on other systems.

    Take Shadowbane & WWIIOL as examples. They both have Windows/MAC clients to connect to the same backend. If there was "just" a MAC client, the population would surely be lower purely based on the number of x86 boxen out there.

    Despite, many of my friends who own Live! will surely be happy with this announcement.

  4. CEO opinion = worthless by truffle · · Score: 3, Insightful


    I don't think I've ever met a CEO who wasn't snarky and overconfident.

    --

    ---
    I support spreading santorum
    1. Re:CEO opinion = worthless by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 3, Insightful
      How many CEOs have you been friends with? I mean, sure - it's easy to get some karma by taking hated group X and making a derogatory comment about them but I think your statement that the opinion of a CEO is worthless is a bit overstated. The CEO's job is to guide the company and help make profit - to that effect, their public statements must always be confident. You don't inspire your workers and you don't attract customers by second-guessing your product. What you mean to say is that the PR released by a company is quite biased and is no real indication of the quality of the product.

      But consider this, if the CEO wasn't saying how great this new technology is, do you think it would have any shot at all? Wouldn't that alert you that either the technology is seriously flawed or that the company is in such a state of disarray that they will never deliver a product?

      In short, a CEO is normally a well-educated person whose opinion is far from worthless but whose public talks on the company's work are going to be quite slanted.

      --
      I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
    2. Re:CEO opinion = worthless by ghostlibrary · · Score: 1

      From my own point of view, I've known 5 'significant' [i.e. company valued over 1 mil] CEOs 'well' [i.e. professionally acquainted]. And I'll support the 'clueless' assertion. But the one that was only half-clueless made himself and his partners millionnaires :)

      To be a good CEO, you shouldn't micromanage, but being further from the trenches makes you precisely the wrong person to be evaluating technology.

      Which is why they invented CTOs. If a CTO has a positive statement on a tech, that should be valued more than a CEOs (eps. given the good PR points the parent poster to this made.)

      --
      A.
    3. Re:CEO opinion = worthless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What clueless assertion? Who are you quoting?

    4. Re:CEO opinion = worthless by truffle · · Score: 1


      I'm pretty sure we agree, I was just more concise and more derogatory.

      I'm fine to revise my original statement to public statements by CEOs are worthless.

      As you state, a CEO needs to lead his company with a vision for success, and this includes basicly pitching his company's strengths and talents to anyone who will hear.

      We all know the MMORPG market is incredibly saturated (perhaps not on the X-box). To bother to make an MMORPG, or to try and finish off the MMORPG you started several years ago, you have to convince yourself that your game has something great, something different, somethign that will make it succeed. Otherwise, you are simply doomed to failure. I think the dot com crash has shown us all the ability for companies to convince themselves, their investers, and their workers that they have the next best great thing that will drive the paying public crazy. I say, show me the money, lay out in detail your great new MMORPG idea that is going to revolutionize the market. Chances are, it's really not that great, it's just your only hope, and you're going to fail.

      --

      ---
      I support spreading santorum
  5. Irony. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "This Australian company has an original, as yet unannounced Microsoft-published MMORPG for Xbox Live in development"

    Ironically, Xbox Live isn't available in Australia yet.

    1. Re:Irony. by Locky · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nor would it do much good to be, Unless Telstra and MS sign a deal saying that all content from Xbox Live will be free, Xbox Live will probably peak at about 11 users.

  6. I'm impressed! by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A CEO talks about a non-existant game, making exorbitant claims with absolutely nothing to back them up, no beta, hell, no alpha even, not even preliminary designs and we are told that this is the big hit that will make XBox users ecstatic. When they actually have something that people can play, please let us know, until then this is not news, it is CEO drivel.

    --
    Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
    1. Re:I'm impressed! by cabra771 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Welcome to our planet
      We Earthlings call this marketing

      --

      -my other sig is your mom
    2. Re:I'm impressed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There was a documentry about this company on australian tv a couple of months ago. It showed them playtesting this game and inteviewed a lot of the people making the game, the doco also covered a counter-strike team the company sponsored to go to a competition in korea...

      also i remember it showed the ceo having a telephone conversation with his client at microsoft about the current status of the game

  7. I've seen this before by CrazyOldGuy · · Score: 1

    I've seen Big World before, a fair while ago in an Aussie games mag, PC Power Play. But I can't find the issue or the CD with the movie on it. Bugger. Aussies can get X-Box live, they just have to import a US kit Oh Well Such is life. First Post! Crazy

  8. Track Record by Kirijini · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Micro Forte has developed or is developing the following games:
    America's Cup
    Bombs Away
    Demon Stalkers
    Fire King
    Nordice
    Enemy Infestation
    Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
    HotWheels: Bash Arena
    Citizen Zero

    Other than Fallout Tactics (the bastard child of the Fallout series) I've never heard of a single one of these. Which leads me to believe that they arn't exactly a AAA developer. I would not expect Microsoft to entrust its MMO technology to a small, almost unheard of developer.

    Sounds to me more like Micro Forte is desparately trying to hype its product. Look at their track record, though, and it becomes obvious that the chances of them creating a "killer app" is pretty damn low.

    1. Re:Track Record by simoniker · · Score: 1

      I think that's a very good point. The interesting thing is that, despite their track record, they got signed with Microsoft to do a first-party title. It's a little mystifying, considering their background.

      Actually, here's a preview of Citizen Zero, which is the former PC title that their Xbox game is likely to be at least partially based on.

    2. Re:Track Record by argel · · Score: 1
      Other than Fallout Tactics [ . . . ] I've never heard of a single one of these.


      America's Cup
      Bombs Away
      Demon Stalkers
      Fire King

      These were all Commodore 64 titles (some came out on other systems as well).

      I think Enemy Infestation was a weak tactical sim.

      --

      -- Argel
    3. Re:Track Record by argel · · Score: 1
      Find out more here.

      I played Demon Stalkers and Fire King when I was a kid. Demon Stalkers was a gauntlet clone, but better. Fire King was a real role-playing game, but based on a significantly enhanced Demon Stalkers engine (levels could now be parallel to the current one, not jus t up or down, lots of new features, etc.). I still remember it as one of my favorite games. If I recall correctly, America's Cup was very well reguarded when it came out. Enemy Infestation was a dissapointment, but it was obviously good enough to land them the Fallout Tactics contract.

      --

      -- Argel
    4. Re:Track Record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look at their track record

      Yeah. And by that measure the companies that made "Commander Keen", "Jazz Jackrabbit", "Grand Theft Auto", "Battlefield 1942" didn't amount to anything either (id and Epic before finding their niches with Doom and Unreal, Rockstar with GTA3 and Digital Illusions with some truly bad games).

      trying to hype its product

      Who doesn't try to hype their product? Yeah, marketing often sucks, but all it means is that their *vision* is aiming high. Who knows if they can they deliver on their promises... but I'll wait till the reviews are in before passing judgement.

      A major yardstick of success in the game development industry is the ability to ship titles, pay the rent - and stay in business. If they can do that and learn from their mistakes - they're set. Each game will (in theory) get better until they hit their stride.

      I would not expect Microsoft to entrust its MMO technology

      Why the hell not? All it takes is an NDA / contact, sign on the dotted line and they're in the palm of Microsoft's hand. Even Bungie - most famous for a shooter series (Marathon) that absolutely sucked - managed to pull off Halo on the Xbox.

    5. Re:Track Record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you must have played marathon on the pc... no wonder it sucked, bungie was primarily a mac company, and their mac games were awesome. try to find shooters that had better gfx, gameplay or story from the time. And just so you know, Pathways Into Darkness, the Marathon series, and Halo, Halo2 are all in the same storyline and each has a rather large cult following.

    6. Re:Track Record by Kirijini · · Score: 1

      "Yeah. And by that measure the companies that made "Commander Keen", "Jazz Jackrabbit", "Grand Theft Auto", "Battlefield 1942" didn't amount to anything either"

      I don't know what you're talking about. Those are all great games. I remember playing Commander Keen when I was a kid. In fact, all of those games stand out. I recognize Jazz Jackrabbit, even though I've never played it. A classic game. If I was a developer, I'd want a game like that in my portfolio. In contrast, Micro Forte has... what? The bastard Fallout game?

      As for what I said about Microsoft and it's MMO tech, I didn't expect Microsoft trust Micro Forte with its stuff, because it looks like Micro Forte will screw it up.

  9. MMORPG tools - very crowded space by MightyTribble · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are a few dozen startups all pitching their toolsets to console makers, seeking to be the 'official' MMORPG SDK for that platform, with all the attendant royalties such a placement would bring. I assume these guys are one of them, though I've not heard of them before.

    Anyway, what they all appear to have in common are a few very skilled programmers and an evangelical CEO who probably doesn't *quite* understand the technology, but knows how to talk to other CEOs. The CEO that gets the best 'buzz' and gets along the best with their target patron (be it Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony) will be the winner, irregardless of the merits of their particular technology.

  10. enough RPG, where's my RTS? by boomerny · · Score: 1

    I'm still waiting for an Xbox RTS. Someone port Myth or Starcraft or something similar. pretty please?

    1. Re:enough RPG, where's my RTS? by Babbster · · Score: 1

      Goblin Commander certainly looks interesting to me. If it makes it's current speculated date, it'll be out by the end of the year or the beginning of the next.

    2. Re:enough RPG, where's my RTS? by boomerny · · Score: 1

      cool, I hadn't heard of this game before. The fact that some ex-Blizzard guys are involved is interesting. I'll definitely be watching for this one.

  11. Broadband Availability by gamgee5273 · · Score: 1

    The Xbox is still hobbled by the fact that broadband adoption has stalled and that there are way too many users out there who think 56k is enough. When you consider how comparitively few people have broadband Internet access, then consider how few of those have Xboxes...I have no doubt that this killer app will be a killer dud.

    1. Re:Broadband Availability by Babbster · · Score: 1

      Xbox Live sold more than 200,000 units in its first 2-3 months of availability (and beat out the PS2 network adapter during the same time period, despite the fact that the PS2 adapter has both dial-up and broadband compatibility). By definition, it can't be a "dud."

    2. Re:Broadband Availability by gamgee5273 · · Score: 1

      200,000 of anything isn't a success. Doesn't matter if it outdid Sony and Nintendo - 200K is still a stellarly poor result when you look at the fact that there are 13 million Xboxen that have been sold.

  12. That's a little optimistic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    History has shown that products not included within the console box are very unlikely to reach 100% market penetration!

  13. Mad Libs by Eric+Savage · · Score: 1

    This comment could very well be the killer feature for Slashdot. I think the Slashdot killer feature is comments in general, and I hope that the Post Comment Technology will play a strong part in that.

    --

    This is not the greatest sig in the world, this is just a tribute.
  14. The DNF of Australian Development by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microforte are probably the second-biggest con-artist developers in Australia, second to Auran.

    Bigworld has been in development for 5 years now, and they still don't have an actual game for it. They've also got a reputation for doing Shiny-style layoffs (wait until the staff finish a game, then lay them off).

    Microforte and Auran make the rest of the decent Australian Game Developers (Infogrames Melbourne, Irrational Australia, Krome, Pandemic Australia, THQ Australia) look bad.

  15. Big World runs on Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Last year I went to a small conference in Sydney on game development. One of the Microforte programmers gave a talk about this BigWorld technology.

    He said the server engine was actually ran on linux. I remember being surprised on hearing this, as it was mentioned earlier that their first game released using this engine would be for XBox Live.