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Auto Assault: Closing Doors
Today, it was announced that Auto Assault would be closing its doors permanently on August 31st, 2007. MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood caught up with NCsoft's David Swofford for a short interview.
As MMORPG.com readers may or may not know, NCsoft and NetDevil announced today that they will be closing the doors to Auto Assault on August 31st of this year. This afternoon, I had a brief conversation with David Swofford at NCsoft about the decision and what brought this announcement about.
In the end, and this probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, it really all came down to low and ebbing numbers. The number of players on the server was small, and it finally reached a point where it didn't make sense to continue.
I think David summed it up best when he said, "What we were putting in, we weren't getting back".
In the end, while they may be games to us, MMORPGs like Auto Assault are a business and a business that loses money just doesn't make any sense.
"It's unfortunate for the players," said David, "any time you have to close something down, but sometimes you have to make these decisions as a company".
The decision, I am told was made mutually between NetDevil, the makers of the game, and NCsoft, the publisher, and while the announcement may have seemed sudden to some, it was a decision made over time.
According to David, their decision was "certainly not sudden. We were looking at the numbers over time and saw that it was the right time."
Auto Assault launched in April of 2006 and will be one year and four months old at the time of its closing.
MMORPG.com will continue to follow this story as it progresses.
For those who may have missed it, here is the original statement as it appeared ont he Auto Assault Website:
NOTICE: Today NCsoft is announcing that it will be closing down service for Auto Assault at the end of the summer. The service will close at midnight on August 31, 2007. As of today, any player currently in the service with an active billed account will not be billed again. If players have previously purchased time via multi-month billing or time cards that extends their service past July 31, NCsoft will reconcile these accounts appropriately. There will be more announcements coming soon regarding the shut down of Auto Assault and its impact on current accounts. Please check back at www.autoassault.com for more information.
No surprise here. An excellent concept with less than stellar execution. At least the players will have Fallen Earth to go to for their apocalyptic fix.
To make a quick correction, Arena.net isn't the makers of the game, Net Dveil is. A.net makes Guild Wars.
bummer, played that game in beta and it wasnt all that bad but i could never get past the fact that there was no projectiles ala twisted metal.
No surprise here!
I closed my account about 4 months ago.
Well all I can say is they tried.
Well thats sad news. I was actually becoming more interested in the game, enough to resub after I heard of the updates they were putting into the game. I was going to try out the new race tracks. I suppose I could, but at this point there is nothing to gain in the long term.
Rest well Auto Assualt.
Thats a real shame, i played the beta, and even with all the bugs it had then i loved the game! i was thinking of comming back, but looks like that wont be happening now! <3 good bye AA...
It is sad to see the game go. I'm suprised though they didn't try a free to play model first.
result of changing gameplay every two months and forcing players to relearn the game instead of focusing on new content ala swg.
Congratz, this is the 3rd thread you have posted this in. going for the fourth later tonight?
Maybe he's a bot!
Good concept for a game. Too bad it didn't work out. I wish them all well though.
Yep, Not surprising given it's non-existent subscription numbers.
But I'd have to say the real victim here is the Diversity in the MMO industry... whats on the top anticipated list here again for the coming year? ...yep, just a bunch more of the same old fantasy MMO's with slightly updated graphic engines. Makes ya wonder if gamers and designers will ever be capable of moving beyond Swords & Wizards.
And yet dungeon runners remains free and playable :/
Auto Assault wasn't bad....to me after beta ended, it just wasn't worth paying monthly for. I would certainly play it had it been free, but not p2p.
It's too bad someone can't come along and buy it up and keep it running and make it free, just put ingame advertising to use on billboards, buildings, etc....
Shame it couldn't go on.
Actually I'm pretty sure they were looking at ingame advertising at one point, though I don't know if it ever made into the game.
Kinda hard to implement ads for something that's supposed to have gone out of business 100+ years ago, and basically everything in the game was destructible, so you'd have a giant Coke billboard that people could just knock down, and the ad wouldn't get as much view time.
What's the point of posting 2 times the same news on the main page ???
Latest News :
ON JULY 1 2007 , I BROUGHT THE GAME FOR $1.
I HAD PLAYED IN THE BETA.
THE GAME WAS COOL.
NOW I AM MAD.
I JUSTED WASTED $1.
The other half knows you didn't...
Well I was still playing it on and off,going to re-subscribe,to say goodbye to old friends.
I think the fact that a few people in this thread have already said they were thinking about resubscribing pretty much says it all.
The idea was good, but the game just didn't pull it off well enough.
I played in the beta and wasn't overly impressed. While the concept was sound, it just doesn't work as a subscription-based RPG. The combat calculation wasn't fast enough, and I think the open driving model was too ambitious. There's no point being able to go anywhere if you can't live long enough to get through it.
Let's hope NetDevil doesn't just give up, but instead uses what they learned to make their next game a success.
what the hell !!!
it was an awesome game!
why they dont make it FREE TO PLAY ?
I tend to disagree.
I don't think is a good concept.
Even before playing Beta I sayd that this game would bomb.
You don't wanna play a car in a RPG, c'mon...............
more ppl are getting jobless, I guess
I couldn't have said it better myself.
I'm not sure if they are out of a job or not. I would guess not since NetDevil is working on LEGO Universe(MMO) and Jumpgate Evolution. Guess those games will get more attention now. Which is always a good thing.
Sad to see this game go, I liked the Idea but it did not came through as good as it sounded. Still most MMORPGs are far worse than this game.
doh
u mighty hack& slash fans have no damn ideea what are you talking here
u play a little in beta and now u think to know the game, u should play it at the end now to see how it is
The game was/is AWESOME and yes there are people who like to play RPG in a car
the game have everything...adrenaline...everything i play mmorpgs for almost 7 years thats includes the bigest hits of the moment and i can say that noone of them give me more satisfaction then Auto Assault
graphics are good, sounds are good the game its good and people started to come to play BUT they announce they will close it and thats all
The fault its on NCSoft hands, they didnt bother to advertise that game at all, noone knows about it at all, look ar warcraft, eve,lotr, everywhere u go u see advertise with them...offcourse they are succes games when u make everyone knows about them
NCSOFT thought that if they are a big company players will fall from the sky just because that...
a lot of us like cars games, a lot of us play nfs, carmagedon, car wars and etc and yea we like to play an MMORPG with cars
we, the AA comunity , hope that NetDevil will take back AA and relaunch it like they did with Jumpgate and please this time, ADVERTISE THE GAME
I still have not figured out how they managed to make a game with cars and guns and screwed it up. Beta tested it until I could not force myself to log on anymore and with every session I was amazed at how "not fun" the game was after I had waited since Mad Max for a game with that concept.
sad...
played from beta all the way though till now (even quit guildwars and wow to play), low pop but no advertizing was done after the launch was pushed back the 1st time. hopfully netdevil takes it over like they did with jumpgate, it almost died too at one point. sad how very few non-fantasy mmos can survive in today's market. really sad i just bought a new 60 day timecard for ncsoft and the rest of their games suck
Sad that is.
I was kind of hoping then in two, three years it will become really good game. Too bad.
But then there were not enough "driving" in it. So it didn't appeal to car games fans. At least I was excited about driving idea but then with AA, well you "were a car" but there was no "driving car" in it.
Anyway too bad for AA.
While I'm not positive on this, I don't believe NCSoft supports the free to play model..... Nor is there any real evidence that investing money in such a system would pay out in the long run....
bummer, should have activated the account this weekend to get a little bit in. ah well.
lol
NCsoft doesn't support the free to play? Guild Wars isn't free to play?
GUYS WE HAVE TO ASK TO NCSOFT TO MAKE AUTO ASSAULT FREE TO PLAY !!!
i can't believe that they have spent years in developing this title, and now decide to close the doors definitely...
all that they have to do is to leave the servers up... is it impossible? other games such RFonline and Archlord have done this... why can't be the same for Auto Assault?
If you feel that strongly about it, go over to the official forum and suggest it before the doors close. You are wasting your time talking about it here.
Make sure to tell them how you think they might make money with your plan.
Read the interview, they made it clear that they are trying to run a business, not operate a charity.
Auto Assault wasn't an MMORPG, it was an online MMO version of the early arcade game "Spy Hunter". It was a bad concept for a pay to play MMO. It might have done better if it had followed the free to play model of the "Battlefield" series.
I played it, and it played just like a cheap console video game.
AA has no such franchise to draw upon (maybe the game should have been called Mad Max, Return to Vengence?) so therefore was a tough sell. Couple that with a less than stellar launch (so many games fall victim to this) and player resistance to new concepts and you get no one interested in playing.
Regardless of what we want, people are far more comfortable with games that have humanoid avatars, EVE is even putting them in at player request because some folks just need to "see" their character, and manipulate him/her. Fantasy RPG's fill this need, which is one ( but certainly not the only) reason why they are successful.
For a new concept to be successful designers are going to have to bring to market an extremely well made and fun game, otherwise it will have no chance of being adopted. EVE is a great game, but remains in a niche because it doesn't cater to the desires of a larger segment of the gaming market.... AA apparently had even less appeal.
I had high hopes for Auto Assault... played in beta.. had those hopes dashed. I got the feeling then, and nothing I've seen has changed my mind that a lot of other people felt exactly the same way. This could have been a huge runaway success, except for a couple issues:
First off, the launch/beta issues that have been catalogued and obsessed over by the devs really hurt the game's chances. If you drive away all the potential "early adopters" of a game, then somehow you've got to create buzz and survive on the casual folks who stumble across a game on the store shelves. You better have the best damn game in the universe if you try that approach.
Secondly, I think a lot of us who could get over all the early troubles, were hoping for more Interstate 76, and less Twisted Metal. Ultimately, I think a less arcade feel to the main experience would have served the game better. People like to say that no one wants to "be a car"... but plenty of games have given you a better feel for being in a car, without having a little model person sitting in it.
I'm sorry to see any game close its doors... just not sorry enough to spend the time and money being just one of the many many people necessary to keep it from happening.
I think they should give the game one more chance with a free to play model supported by in-game advertising. They should be able to draw in a decent amount of active players if free, and they could then make money via advertisements. This game would work fine with advertising without detracting from the atmosphere of the game. They could have billboards, name brand car parts, and even name brand manufacturers for the cars.
Don't worry, SOE will buy AA and add it to the Station Pass......
Release the source code and let the general population make it into something worthwhile. We're pretty good at mod'ing, let us have a crack at it. Maybe we could even add a better out-of-vehicle experience. Who knows...
- Mal
Usually im burnout of MMO's; prefer scifi, not fantasy and was tired of the endless WoW-cloning out there. So i gave it a try to AA this weekend and found out that there is more than the betrayed SWG and EVE as options. I really like AA. And now i find myself with a closing door and MMO's diversity seriously damaged.
I understand this is a bussiness and if they are not getting the numbers then its all done with that, but anyhows is sad that a good game fades away.
And yes, its a good game, or at least i find it specially good and original. I cant stand more elven and dorfs. Blegh.
Plz, NCSoft, make Dungeon Runners p2p and convert AA to f2p!!!! It'd be a good move, sirs!
Err Dungeon Runners ?
Whilst NcSoft have said this is an experiment it is F2P as is Guild Wars if you Exclude the regular Expansions.
I remember beta testing this game. It was nice, a good idea, but there just wasn't enough there for me to warrant a monthly fee. In the beginning the physics were way off, but the overall idea was ok. It just felt too much like EvE - target and auto-shoot. That got old very quickly (not that I have anything against EvE). Unfortunately, driving around a landscape, doing the same auto-attack thing just got too old, too quick for me. As a sandbox game, with the ability to make towns and outposts, and such, it might have been cooler. :)
Its a shame as it was a step in a different direction for mmorpgs involving racing and that. This will go on the dead mmo list with AC2 and E&B with no doubt people fondly reminescing AA when its gone.
It's a shame, because I would have reinstalled AA if it was part of the plan. Ah well, hope ND have fun in LEGOland.
If they had made this game with real historic vehicle models instead of the futuristic crap then I think it would have done so much better. It should have been a giant Interstate 76/82 type of game.
I hope other companies out there don't get put off trying new things in MMO's like this one did, they just need to see what the market really wants first.
The game failed for one simple reason - it was bad. No other reason.
The physics were lousy and it was next to impossible to move your 'character/car'. They had a terrible, hard-to-control engine and yet the zones were designed with ditches and obstacles that could result in getting trapped for 5 minutes trying to move.
They say it's nearly impossible to kill a MMORPG. Matrix Online is still going. What does that say about this game?
Boring gameplay is the same as bad gameplay. The only thing that is surprising it why NCSoft didn't shut the game down before it was released instead of losing money on it.
Going by that its easy to determine WoW clones are the way to go. MMORPG.com members isnt the market and for all of the people who whine about wanting something original the numbers point to same ol same ol. Unfortunately original ideas have historically been badly implemented but i dont blame devs for it...a lot of the problem stems from the fact that investors see the market and the market doesnt want new, original and fresh ideas. So original projects are highly dangerous ventures which few undertake and thus most of those projects are vastly underfunded. Im not saying AA was perfect or anything of the sorts, but it wasnt a horrible game imo. I enjoyed it for what it was.
I personaly would like to see more and more companies try something new and dare to be different. At some point one of them will get it right and they may get the genre some much needed variety. Nintendo has done this twice (DS/Wii) and they have shown that sometimes risky ventures can pay off and bring something new to the table. A hardcore gamer may not be in love with a Wii but they cant deny that its a fun machine to play in when you got some friends around and such.
I have tried all of NC SOFT's games and ive never had a gripe with them, the cancellation of AA will be my 1st, i really believe they could have tried another model or simply lower the monthly fee. I dont work for them so i dont know what really happened, but imo there were a lot of options to try before simply shutting down the game. Either way RIP AA
.
Beyond Good and Evil and Riddick didn't sell A LOT or have a lot of players and neither really reached the high aclade of the players.
Phantom Crash as well, an awesome game for the Xbox just before live hit, but again not many went out and bought it, or played it.
So in other words, a game doesn't fail because it's bad, it fails because it doesn't attract the right numbers.
less talking rot please =) thank you !
The company in this case were at least semi-bright in shutting down the game, rather than doing an SoE and keeping crap games going and going. At least this will make sure that they'll work on a new game with the full team and have the knowledge not to make the same mistake twice.
If only Codemasters and SoE had a few brain cells and did this with some of their games ;)
"The game failed for one simple reason - it was bad. No other reason."
That's your opinion man, and you're entitled to it.
However, I will always continue to say that: "I love Auto Assault!"
It is a thrilling, fun game imao, and I will continue to look for similar games to it any day, over those games that have you walk up to an elf, smack him until dead, then rinse and repeat. *yawn* I know most of the people here who are jumping up and down on AA's grave seem to like that kind of game play, but if they had experienced the thrill of 20 vehicles piled on top of each other trying to kill each other, then maybe they would be singing a different tune on these boards.
I have no regrets for playing Auto Assault over the past year. I have loved every minute of it, and am very sad to see it go.
My question for those who like to just come here and yell 'I told you so', why aren't you on the forums of your favorite MMO singing it's praises, rather than come here and tell me that I shouldn't have wasted my time on Auto Assault?
I will always love Auto Assault, and I will always cherish the months of excitement, fun and the pure adrenaline rush that AA always gave me whenever I played it. The vehicles were easy to drive imao, and the gameplay was non-stop action.
Yes, it had a low population base, but the friends that I have made in the game I will keep as friends for years to come. How many close friends can you honestly say you've made in a game where you are just considered a statistic - no more than a number?
Well, that's my 2 cents ne ways.
Thanks for all the great times Auto Assault! Rock on!
Ok games that I think is worse... Guild Wars, Lineage II, RF online, Ryzom, SWG, Archlord, Silkroad, Planetside, Vanguard, Matrix, Flyff
Games I like better: CoV/H, Wow, Lotro, EQ2, EvE
And this is of course what I think
Pretty hard to make a car MMO. There are some other fools out there trying to do the a car MMO, hope their investors are sweating now.
Good riddens, I hope we can add some more crappy games to the closed list soon.
I played in the late beta, found the game compelling enough to pay for a couple months. But in the end, it just go too repetitive. Playing EVE has given me an allergy of grind games.
The concept was good, it could have been a good game, but oh well...
My condolences to the existing playerbase.
I played this from beta till about 6 months after it went live. It wasn't a bad game, I've played worse, but there was nothing to do in the end game except for PvP everynight. If I liked it for one reason, then the main reason would be because it was unique. A game that wasn't afraid of the WoW crybabies saying "thats not the way a game is made" when they are playing just another rehash of a very, very old idea (MUD with fancy graphics folks?) And yes, i play WoW every so often to check out new stuff. After the last patch (and indeed the X-Pack) the game isn't that fun anymore with it leaning towards the 5 mans and not the 40 man raids (yes casual whiners, you did that.)
Anyway, back on topic...
The only place it really failed was the promotional aspect before release.. outside of gaming circles the game wasn't seen often. I commend NCsoft for trying something new and hope they continue to be original, but maybe next time they'll put a better set of advertising so more will potentially come.
Lots of love
Tre
PS. I'm off to put my flame retardent coat on before the Fanboys get here
I following this game from conception and I played this game on-and-off from the beginning (including the beta). I really liked it...it could have been a lot better. I think the devs missed the mark (I always hated the mission system ala WoW and the crappy in town animations) but I will miss it. So long AA...it was fun while it lasted.
As long as they learned something, it's all good.
Great concept, but the mindnumbing "W+LMB" gameplay just wasn't good...
I loved the idea of Auto Assault and wanted to love the game but ultimately I couldn't. I really have to question NetDevils ability. Cars with guns, it's like giving it away. How did they mess that up??
For me, they messed it up when they integrated voice chat, and sold a mic in the box.
I loved the concept. I wanted to play. However, the fact that they would integrate voice on every client made me feel as if Auto Assault included a tacit expectation that everyone would have to use it. Since inviting strange voices into my home isn't my idea of a good time, the integrated voice chat was the factor in my decision not to buy and subscribe to Auto Assault.
I can't speak for anyone else, but if the integrated voice chat was a major factor in my rejection of the game, it might be a factor in why others rejected the game.
"worse" ones that i have played... ddo, eve, ffxi, guildwars (though not truely a mmorpg imo, just a instanced pos), rf online, 2nd life, silkroad, wow, flyff (heh, only tryed it cause it was free), and lotro (only played in beta for a few months).
the list could be longer, that was just based on the games listed on this site that i myself have played. sure, ppl won't agree with this but for me AA is better than any of the above listed game, don't get me wrong some of those games have alot of good things about them (and some have none), but when it's a question of better or worse it's all personal prefrence. sure AA had it's drawbacks but when it comes right down to it it was the game chose to pay for and play
I loved the concept and I too wondered how it could go wrong.
From my time playing, it was the "feel". When you moved, it felt different from any car game I had ever played. Things I would expect from driving, like sliding on hard turns, tire spinning, stuff like that just did not come across well. Seemed very clunky, like driving a akward bowling ball.
The other thing I felt that just wasn't right were the vehicles and their customization. The vehicles looked like ugly boxes on wheels, even the Scion SUV they have out had more appeal than what I was driving. The initial color choices, and patterns also seemed extremely limited. Then when you got into the game and picked up the add-on pieces, they just didnt seem like they fit on the car. Let alone even those customizations were limited. The overall visual appeal of the vehicles just did not work for me.
But even despite all this, I did enjoy alot of the aspects in place. I really wanted to play the game.
actually AA happened to be a great game. not because the game itself was great but because the players and to a point the devs we interacted with were great. i started and ran a weekly free for all called the "dogpile" that we had a blast with and usually fraps'd and that was actually focused on during a e3 type event. (cant remember the name, actually could have been an e3. i'm unsure and lazy.)
the big problems with AA are all the usuall ones.
1.) money.
money dingdongs pushed it out to fast.
2.) support
when something goes wrong do you like automated e-mail?
3. game hookers
i love the fact that the people involved listened to the community and forums but it seemed to me that they were trying to please all the people all the time. it seemed that they based patches and updates on the loudest forum whores.
4. balance
aa = never balanced. there were always things biased towards certain races and classes. even if on paper things were even (doubtfull) the perception was that things were not.
i just hope that they take these lessons and learn from them.
--CheezeBaal
well i hate to see AA go , i have only been playing for 3 weeks but really enjoyed the game. So long to another descent MMo.
I don't think this is likely - but I couldn't agree more.
The main thing that upsets me about failed MMO's is I've paid for the box like I do with non-mmo's but when the server shuts down my DVD becomes more useless than a flyscreen door on a submarine. My other games I can re-install whenever I like and play again (I just re-installed Arcanum and Freelancer again recently) but when an MMO goes tits up then that's it... (barring creation of private server code ala Earth and Beyond)
I realise that there's no percentage in it for netdevil or ncsoft to give away the server code, I don't even know who retains the rights to the IP... but its a nice thought
LoL AA was a pile of crap Hence the reason its dead now.
YO!!! Make it FREE TO PLAY! You will gain more members and more money like that trust me:P
Hope you will reconsider!
Cheers!