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Turbine Buys Asheron's Call From Microsoft
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Turbine's announcement that they've purchased back the entire Asheron's Call MMO franchise from Microsoft. Turbine, the original developers of the titles, has just announced a large venture capital-sourced funding increase, and will now "assume all responsibility for Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 game and player support, including customer service, tech support, quality assurance and a new billing system." Additionally, a letter from the content developers reveals that "we are going to be making an expansion pack for Asheron's Call 1", the still-popular franchise originator.
..to welcome this change, dragging what seemed to be an otherwise good game from the jaws of evil.. Now just port it to some other platforms so those of us who won't use a Wintendo can play it.
This is a very aggresive move on their parts, I really hope it pays off for them! AC1 was actually a fun little game - hmmm it's almost half tempting to try it again.
I wonder though, what they're plans are for AC2 - seems like a bit of a dead end - I wonder if they could get AC1 up to AC2's standards graphically and then work on things from there? They could can AC2 and compensate those people some how, and then move ahead with one unified game.
Someone Buying Something From Microsoft!
No really though, I'm sure Turbine can turn it into less of a steaming pile of (AC2, Im looking at you).
But as far as profitability, its gonna take a while to get the public interested in a game they've already given up on.
Quite a ballsy move on Turbine's part. There was speculation in the AC community as to whether or not the games (specifically AC2) were going to be shut down. By doing this, Turbine is not only showing their commitment to the franchise but they are also dumping the company that:
.NET platform.
- was responsible for four months of borked chat because they wanted to showcase their new
- was responsible for the server disaster in Jan/Feb.
- would not market the game!! Thus keeping the server populations dropping because of the first two problems.
If whales learn how to use weapons we're all screwed!
Does this mean they won't be using The Zone? If they do drop The Zone, perhaps they will port it to Linux. I would probably start playing again if they did.
MS really screwed the pooch with AC2. Sure AC2 was nicer, but it was DULL. Also I dont really see the need to make a sequel to a MMORPG, I mean DaoC has the right idea, update the graphics with expansion packs.
Why make a sequeal that will possibly split the popuataion across 2 games? Expansions hurt the old areas by making people that have the expansion go there less often, but it's still not as bad as 2 seperate game worlds.
I find this interesting because I thought Turbine was devoting their resources to developing D&D online What a stark contrast that will be to the asstastic failure that AC2 was.
the developers just want to do new things that they feel they can't do in the current game. or they can't justify updating the old client to support the new changes but not increase the system requirements alongside creating the whole new engine.
and naturally they feel attached to their old world, so they don't want to leave it.
so the 'sequel' approach appears.
but they need to realize that the best thing you can do is to isolate one project from the last. by name at least.
as UO has shown, people will play these games for years and years and years with relatively small ongoing development. why screw with what they find fun?
why not just make a new game, and let it stand on its own? I mean, sequels traditionally have been made in games when the developer admits the fun -was- there, but needs some serious tweaking to be fun again. but that just isn't the case with massmogs. not for their fans.
and prospective new customers won't care whether it's AC2 or something entirely new. they only know that AC1 didn't do it for them.
they can't be that short on imagination for new worlds can they?
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
Macroers and exploiters will begone once Turbine gets full control. They never wanted them in the game and MS refused to do anything real about it. Also I have heard numerous rumblings that there will be a much needed graphical update for the aging client.
now there's something new...not every day someone pulls something away from MS....