Many game industry people continue to talk about how MMOs have come and gone. However, we continue to see major events which point to the opposite. Players are seeking more online experiences through console and mobile gameplay. As many in the industry predicted early on, eventually every game will move into the online space. Sure, plenty of RPGs or fighting games might keep off the intrawebs, but as trends continue, there will be plenty of MMOs coming over the next few years.
5. Ashes of Creation Crowd Funding
In the past two weeks, Ashes of Creation has surpassed their Kickstarter goal by a huge margin. Fans of the game are starting to form a solid community and the development team continues to deliver on content videos and updates. After several of the crowdfunded MMOs of the past few years have come and gone in the public eye, Ashes has proven that players still seek worlds to share. It will be exciting to see what they have in store for the next few months.
4. Crowfall Continues Tests and Gains Fans
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The Crowfall community continues to grow. They are now nearing the 200,000 user mark which for many may not seem like the numbers older MMOs had hit. However, the team is doing it correctly by building a game for their audience. As much as every game sets out to gain players, the developers have kept their expectations smart. They want a lasting community over time and not just huge numbers for one week. They want to maintain and grow, not just sprint out of the gate. As their community grows, so will their popularity at launch.
3. Conan Exiles
This game jumped into the survival genre and has done very well for Funcom. Built around the same dynamic survival games which have grown quickly on Steam, Exiles maintains a strong audience with lots of server participation. Some may argue that this is an MMO, however, it does fit all the ideas. The team launched a product that they are now building on very quickly and it is becoming better and better with each update. In some ways, developing the game with the fans not only heralds how MMOs will likely come to be in the future, it maintains the solid community as well.
2. ESO: Morrowind
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Elder Scrolls Online has hit huge numbers on console this past year. The game remains one of the top in the market with very few to challenge its supremacy. Zenimax Online made some extremely smart moves and are now seeing the benefit of a huge community right before their big expansion. Morrowind’s release is being treated like a game in and of itself. Players are excited for the nostalgia and detail that has been put into the product. We will see a lot of new players enter the world this summer as Elder Scrolls continues its reign at the top.
1. Destiny 2
This past week we got a fantastic look at Destiny 2. There were two major points in the event that everyone is excited about. The first is having the game come to PC. This opens up a massive market for Destiny players and will bring in a lot of PC gamers to join the epic battles. The game will also host on Blizzard’s Battle.net. Not really a surprise considering Activision and Blizzard are the same company, but this will open up new doors for players as well. Destiny 2 will be a big hit this fall and as much as people do not like to categorize the game as an MMO, it fits the bill and even the developers don't try too hard to hide it these days.
