Originally posted by Yizle

Originally posted by grimgryphon

Originally posted by Rasputin

Originally posted by Goatgod76

Originally posted by Ambros123

Originally posted by nethervoid
It's funny how a game like UO can be so friggin awesome and published by a pretty small company and budget, but new MMOs can't seem to grasp what made that game a blast. It's only been 15 years guys. You figured it out yet?

Maybe because of the incredibely fast pace of technology is ever changing and the massive change in the demographics of the MMO consumers?  UO eventually was left in the dust.  If it was soooo good then why is it not still kicking?  UO was the pioneer of MMOs and would be incredibely lacklust to modern MMOs.  MMOs nowadays have plenty of incredibely satisfied consumers that far exceed UO's peak sub numbers.

Last I knew...UO is still going, just as EQ is. Sub numbers don't equal success btw. Longetivity does more so.

And not to forget: UO was changed into an EQ-clone with Age of Shadows, leaving almost nothing of the old gameplay intact.

So in a way original UO does not exist anymore.

It was over for UO when they released Renaissance, the second expansion. Trammel killed UO.

Agrred.... This was brought on by EA

The whole game was brought on by EA they owned Origin through the entire development of the game.

Originally posted by jpnz

Originally posted by Castillle

If zynga buys it, Id be like "wtf just happened??"

 

Zynga makes some questionable investments so I guess Funcom fits that bill. :P

Zynga's busy losing money and laying people off, so they won't be buying anybody soon.

Originally posted by niceguy3978

Originally posted by Yizle

Originally posted by grimgryphon

Originally posted by Rasputin

Originally posted by Goatgod76

Originally posted by Ambros123

Originally posted by nethervoid
It's funny how a game like UO can be so friggin awesome and published by a pretty small company and budget, but new MMOs can't seem to grasp what made that game a blast. It's only been 15 years guys. You figured it out yet?

Maybe because of the incredibely fast pace of technology is ever changing and the massive change in the demographics of the MMO consumers?  UO eventually was left in the dust.  If it was soooo good then why is it not still kicking?  UO was the pioneer of MMOs and would be incredibely lacklust to modern MMOs.  MMOs nowadays have plenty of incredibely satisfied consumers that far exceed UO's peak sub numbers.

Last I knew...UO is still going, just as EQ is. Sub numbers don't equal success btw. Longetivity does more so.

And not to forget: UO was changed into an EQ-clone with Age of Shadows, leaving almost nothing of the old gameplay intact.

So in a way original UO does not exist anymore.

It was over for UO when they released Renaissance, the second expansion. Trammel killed UO.

Agrred.... This was brought on by EA

The whole game was brought on by EA they owned Origin through the entire development of the game.

ya, but it only counts when something they don't like happens. Havent you learned this yet? Origin had exclusive control over the game until each individual player stopped liking it, then EA ruined it.

Originally posted by moguy2
Some one , any one, buy them and fix up Anarchy Online please!

Anarchy will always be the best game ever made imo. No game out there can ever come close to it. I have given up hopes though that it will ever be updated. 

Originally posted by NBlitz

Isn't EA going to swallow it whole? 

http://youtu.be/e-LE0ycgkBQ (EA in a nutshell)

At around 4:18, I imagine Funcom amongst the rest. Sigh.

i think either ea or activision will buy it .i will be very surprised if square enix bought it 

Originally posted by OG_Zorvan

Originally posted by jpnz

Originally posted by Castillle

If zynga buys it, Id be like "wtf just happened??"

 

Zynga makes some questionable investments so I guess Funcom fits that bill. :P

Zynga's busy losing money and laying people off, so they won't be buying anybody soon.

zynga is in horrible position i doubt it too 

Originally posted by NBlitz

Isn't EA going to swallow it whole? 

http://youtu.be/e-LE0ycgkBQ (EA in a nutshell)

At around 4:18, I imagine Funcom amongst the rest. Sigh.

Thank you for one the most funnily apt videos I have seen in a long time. :D

EA are a contender. AO would get the boot and TSW would have a easymode makover and P2W cash shop. 

Aa far as Funcom goes Let the " Twinkes " fall where they May. Good Ridance

Originally posted by nethervoid
It's funny how a game like UO can be so friggin awesome and published by a pretty small company and budget, but new MMOs can't seem to grasp what made that game a blast. It's only been 15 years guys. You figured it out yet?

It might sound logical if you dont think about it but UO were released in 1997 and the prices of making games have tenfolded since then.

And it already had gone up a lot since 10 years before that. A lot of the best games ever were made by 2 guys in a garage.

Making a great MMO today is really expensive and FunCom is just too small to really pull it off. Both AoC and TSW have great ideas but way too little content, as well as they were released far too early since FC couldnt afford to wait until they were ready.

I am not saying that UO (or AC, M59 and a bunch of other classics as well) wasnt a masterpiece but if it were released today it would have failed unless it had 10 times the budget of the original game, at least.

Of course a truly masterprogrammer as lead programmer could also cut the costs a lot, but there are just a handful of those in the world and the only one working on a MMO leads Undead labs.

Originally posted by nethervoid
It's funny how a game like UO can be so friggin awesome and published by a pretty small company and budget, but new MMOs can't seem to grasp what made that game a blast. It's only been 15 years guys. You figured it out yet?

That is a pretty sad but true statement.  I don't think the big developers could create the magic that UO was because it wouldn't draw the numbers that investors are looking for.

Originally posted by Venger

Originally posted by nethervoid
It's funny how a game like UO can be so friggin awesome and published by a pretty small company and budget, but new MMOs can't seem to grasp what made that game a blast. It's only been 15 years guys. You figured it out yet?

That is a pretty sad but true statement.  I don't think the big developers could create the magic that UO was because it wouldn't draw the numbers that investors are looking for.

 It wouldn't draw enough customers to survive either.

Still don't think anyone wants Funcom. Their track record of mismanagement and lack of a truly marketable IP dooms them.

Funcom doesn't care about AO that's the sad part. AO has the same bugs for years, decades even. Been waiting for the new engine for so long now.

That game had so many potential before LE came out.

Dream on. 

Funcom is not for sale at this level. 

Everything are sadly for sale when the price is high enought. 

For someone to want to buy a company, it has to "be worth something" and have some kind of reasonable prospects going forward.

From the post TSW launch financial report, everyone knew that FC was in serious financial trouble. That they are looking for a buyer is no surprise: they have been for a while.

But why would anyone want to buy?

The price would have to be stupidly low for anyone to bother.

All in all, it is largely a "who cares" thing.

My guess is that one of the Asian F2P companies will eventually pick up one or more of FCs MMOs should FC go under.

Originally posted by XAPGames
They have to find a buyer first.  That might not be so easy considering the western world economic conditions.

"Perfect World" are Chinese and very intereted in the Western Market, they bought Cryptic and STO, they also have Neverwinter in development.

AO, AoC, and TSW suits perfectly their portfolio

Originally posted by nethervoid
It's funny how a game like UO can be so friggin awesome and published by a pretty small company and budget, but new MMOs can't seem to grasp what made that game a blast. It's only been 15 years guys. You figured it out yet?

It funny that people believe that UO had a pretty small budget. According to wiki " The development cost was much greater than traditional computer games". Not sure what the budget was, but does not sound like "pretty small". Also Origin Systems was not a pretty small company either and by the time UO was released it was owned already by EA.

Yes offcourse compared to right now the budget is a lot lower, but you can not really compare that. Relativly speaking it was not a low budget.