Sentinel's Fate rises to the top of the charts

Imagine how much more popular this game could have been if they didn't have such a botched and laggy launch.

EQ2 actually had a smoother launch than any MMO I've ever experienced (certainly smoother than WoW, EQ1, DAoC, Anarchy Online, Vanguard, WAR, AoC, CO, etc.) - not in any way botched - there were no significant downtimes and no rushed patches in the first months post-launch. I tested EQ2 in closed beta, and even 6 months before launch the beta was more stable than most MMOs are 1-2 years post-launch. There's plenty I can criticise SOE for (mostly re: game design/management), but they know how to launch and run MMOs smoothly from a technological/logistical standpoint.

The main problem was that SOE launched EQ2 with (what was then) cutting edge graphics, hoping to ensure it would still look impressive years later - which meant that nobody could run the game at full detail on their computers at launch without tons of graphic lag. Of course that didn't stop people trying to run it at graphics settings far beyond their PC's capabilities, hence all the stories of horrid lag.

Sadly the art style wasn't as good as their graphics engine deserved, so EQ2 STILL looked dated 2-3 years post-launch. Blizzard got it right building an MMO for average spec PCs at launch - trying to future-proof an MMO by building it for bleeding edge machines in 1-2 years time is not the way to get lots of subscribers.

SOE's programmers shouldn't have been so overly ambitious with their graphics engine and they should have optimised it better for average spec PCs (and got better artists) and then they'd have had far more subscribers than the 300k-ish that EQ2 peaked at - they still wouldn't have caught WoW though, not with SOE's bad rep from the SWG debacle when compared to Blizzard's worshipful fanbase.

@CCon99: Please read Valdamar's comments below yours because you, apparently, were not there for EQ2's launch which was completely *opposite* the botched and laggy experience of WoW's launch.

Now, if you were talking about the release of the Sentinel's Fate expansion -- you are correct. It has been a *horrible* launch especially for a supposedly *mature* game (approaching 6 years now). Shame on the EQ2 live team!

EQ2 most certainly did *not* have a smooth and bug free launch. I was there. It was a mess.

It should only take 1-2 months to reach cap if you push hard, some have done so much faster.

*raises hand* Went from 19 to 34 in the span of two days of playing. Not hardcore either.

STO has been out just shy of 4 weeks, the EQ2 expansion has only been out for 2 weeks. But yes, in the past 2 weeks it has beaten STO in sales.

They also pushed hard to force players into physical stores by refusing to let download/electronic editions go on sale for a week after launch (except internationally, where they didn't have enough retail partners to support this plan). This has to help the numbers, since those are generally based primarily (if not exclusively) on retail sales.

You wont make it to 90 on a 14 day trial unless you got a buddy power-leveling you, and no there is no free trial with the xpac, the trial gives you up to The Rise of Kunark xpac. The cap for that is 80 but it's still a lot of fun, if you want send me an email at przygockij@yahoo.com and I'll send you a 14 day trial.

Yeah and it's not even on the UK top 5 sales, which is odd...

But the most interesting part of the lists is the PC sales in Japan with SimCity 4 Deluxe on 2nd place, that thing is like 6 years old, lol. I mean its brilliant and one of my favorite games ever, but it's six years old. :)