Russian-Targeted MMORPG Faces Unique Obstacles

Thanks to the Moscow Times for their article discussing the rise of the Russian-based PC MMO title Sphere, which "is the first MMORPG developed in Russia and catering specifically to Russian players." According to a spokesperson, there are markedly different limitations to Western titles: "From the beginning, we faced a big technical problem -- how to make a game that would work well over our absolutely abominable phone lines." In addition, some of the economic problems are also intriguing: "Since few Russians have credit cards, 1C developed another scheme for online payment... [using] Yandex-Dengi, a ruble-based payment service similar to the dollar-based service PayPal. Players interested in a low-tech alternative can also re-subscribe by buying a fresh Sphere CD for about $6 every month." Overall, the MMO's subscription "costs about half as much as EverQuest's, opening the door to cash-strapped Russian gamers", and it's attracted over 15,000 players in the first 3 months.

Comments

It really doesn't look all that great.

[c.emmertfoster]

I beta tested a few Korean made MMORPGs and often wondered why they bother to try to compete with giant conglomerate-made games like EverQuest and Asheron's Call. Setting up a stable server infrastructure is a (pardon) massive undertaking. Not to discourage independant developers, but this really looks like a pretty generic game.

Re:It really doesn't look all that great.

[Anonymous Coward]

Um... but none of the "giant conglomerate-made games" are available in Russian? Some of these "giants" wouldn't even know where to begin translating, selling and marketing to a completely new market like Russia. Their time and effort is better spent on keeping their existing user base happy.

An English language MMORPG is going to sell as well in Russia as a Russian MMORPG will in America - you'd have about six customers, one of whom would never play it, one would be Russian language students, two would be Russians who were now living in the US, and the remaining two would constantly complain about not being able to read Russian.

Okay, so you've played a Korean-made MMORPG, but the average American gamer on the street probably hasn't. Heck, 99% of American MMORPG gamers haven't even *heard* of the most popular MMORPG in the world - Lineage (which has over 2 million active players).

Re:It really doesn't look all that great.

[Errabes]

"An English language MMORPG is going to sell as well in Russia as a Russian MMORPG will in America"

Not sure about it.
In Europe, as we haven't a lot of choice of localized MMORPG, most of the friends I have are playing US MMORPGs on US servers. One goal is to learn the language at the same time.

But maybe me and my friends aren't representative (and I'm playing Japanese beta of Lineage 2 too, so...)

Re:It really doesn't look all that great.

[Anonymous Coward]

>An English language MMORPG is going to sell as well in Russia as a Russian MMORPG will in America
I'll bet you dollars against rubels there are more english speaking russians then americans speaking russian.

new markets and 15k

[ghostlibrary]

One advantage of Russian being a "new" market (for MMORPGs, at least) is that 15,000 subscribers in 3 months can seem like a success. In the US, MMs are closing down because they only have 150k in a year.

Even a straight PC game that sells under 100k is seen as a 'failure'. In some ways this is perception; by being the first, they can survive with subscriber numbers that a bigger corporation would see as tiny.

Go small startups!

Re:Exactly what Russian's need

[curtisk]

screenshots here, for six bucks a month not too bad