I think Darkfall is making the same mistake that WAR made: overestimating the interest in a pvp-centric MMO. Darkfall caters to the same demographic that UO and Shadowbane did which is the hardest of hardcore no-holds-barred full-loot open pvp crowd. That segment is VERY small.
All I can say is I really hope the Darkfall dev's are self-funded and have budgeted around having a tiny niche MMO that has at its hay day a low 6-figure subscription number because they are quite simply targeting a game at the absolute smallest demographic of gamers.
It's like building a car for right-side lateral paraplegics. Yes, the market segment is there, but you're really limiting your growth potential.
That being said the hardest of hardcore full-loot open pvp guys would be very loyal to a new MMO that actually delivers on its promises considering their limited options. Hope this game works out for them. I won't be playing it though.
Self-funded? Not exactly. Aventurine secured a 20 million Euro Bond in 2007 and AudioVisual/Aventurine secured a 25 million Euro bond in 2008. Per the conversion rate at the time of the bone procurements, they were valued at 66 million USD. Keep in mind, that's just since 2007. Obviously, they had some funding prior to that, too.
Reader Comments (3)
Posted: Jan 22nd 2009 9:24AM (Unverified) said
All I can say is I really hope the Darkfall dev's are self-funded and have budgeted around having a tiny niche MMO that has at its hay day a low 6-figure subscription number because they are quite simply targeting a game at the absolute smallest demographic of gamers.
It's like building a car for right-side lateral paraplegics. Yes, the market segment is there, but you're really limiting your growth potential.
That being said the hardest of hardcore full-loot open pvp guys would be very loyal to a new MMO that actually delivers on its promises considering their limited options. Hope this game works out for them. I won't be playing it though.
Posted: Jan 22nd 2009 10:56AM Ripper McGee said
~Ripper
Posted: Jan 22nd 2009 11:13AM (Unverified) said