MMOs are definitely on the decline at this point. They are too big and expensive to make, and companies think GaaS setups are more lucrative.
GaaS took all the profitable pieces of the MMO model, and left the entire genre a desiccated husk populated with zombie games that refuse to die from the 90s, 00s, and 10s. Other than a couple Asian market games (because that market is a lot more accepting of extreme monetization in MMO), Lost Ark, and New World, I literally cannot think of a single MMO released in the 2020s that wasn't just a kickstarter scam, and even those are less common now.
Which seems ironic right? You'd think the type of game best suited for a "games as a service" style would be MMOs.
I don't know. As a fan of the genre there seems to be renewed interest from some very grass roots developers. I would have agreed with your take in 2020, but in 2023 we have announcements of:
the Riot MMO
Ashes of Creation
The Ghost studios MMO
These are all still in development, some still in the very early stages. But I would say there appears to be renewed interest in the genre by developers. These projects are major investments by industry veterans. There is more hope for a major new game.now than there has been in the last decade.
There has always been a steady stream of "promising" MMOs from smaller developers over the past couple decades. So that's not really a new phenomenon.
As for the Riot MMO, I'll believe that when they actually have something that people can play.
AoC will fail in the eyes of mmo players since it cannot possibly live up to the hype.
MMOs are definitely on the decline at this point. They are too big and expensive to make, and companies think GaaS setups are more lucrative.
GaaS took all the profitable pieces of the MMO model, and left the entire genre a desiccated husk populated with zombie games that refuse to die from the 90s, 00s, and 10s. Other than a couple Asian market games (because that market is a lot more accepting of extreme monetization in MMO), Lost Ark, and New World, I literally cannot think of a single MMO released in the 2020s that wasn't just a kickstarter scam, and even those are less common now.
Which seems ironic right? You'd think the type of game best suited for a "games as a service" style would be MMOs.
I don't know. As a fan of the genre there seems to be renewed interest from some very grass roots developers. I would have agreed with your take in 2020, but in 2023 we have announcements of:
These are all still in development, some still in the very early stages. But I would say there appears to be renewed interest in the genre by developers. These projects are major investments by industry veterans. There is more hope for a major new game.now than there has been in the last decade.
There has always been a steady stream of "promising" MMOs from smaller developers over the past couple decades. So that's not really a new phenomenon.
As for the Riot MMO, I'll believe that when they actually have something that people can play.
AoC will fail in the eyes of mmo players since it cannot possibly live up to the hype.