Could the sandbox sub-genre of MMOs be set for a revival of sorts? How did the relative failures of both Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars: The Old Republic play into the state of the sandbox MMO? We discuss it all in this week's column.

We know this sad story all too well, and so does SOE, but it was likely this failure of such a high profile sandbox game combined with the unprecedented success of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft that has relegated the sandbox MMO sub-genre into a niche over the last few years. If SOE couldn’t get anywhere near Blizzard numbers with a sandbox game and the Star Wars IP, why should anyone else even bother? And thus the next couple of years saw the release of many ‘themepark’ MMOs featuring linear quest-driven content that was quickly consumed by players, often resulting in even faster subscriber turnover due to players’ voracious appetites for content and the increasingly fickle sense of loyalty gamers show any given title.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Two 'Failures' and the Sandbox Revival.