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Outer Empires
Haha, we'll see how it goes, I'll definitely give it a try, but I would be very surprised if this is as good as it sounds.
For it to be up to par, the networking will have to be pretty flawless. Not hard to do on wifi, but it'll need to be solid on 3G too. Otherwise, if people can only play in their homes, they'll take a real game over an iPhone app. The browser version might get some success, but it'll have to succeed on its own merits, as opposed to just being the iPhone-companion.
Plus, not many people are gonna be in to a monthly subscription for an iPhone app. The biggest iPhone app market is quick, casual games. If you watch the Top 25 apps, the most popular are always arcadey games (Flight control, Ocarina, Pocket God, etc. None of these can hold up to the hours of play you spend on a console game, but they're great for pick-up-and-play moments). Larger scale games pretty much require a big publisher's backing (See Assassin's Creed for iPhone. And really, even the name/publisher-support backing wouldn't have brought it to the top 25 if it weren't a solid game on its own). MMO's do not lend themselves to this style of play, which means the people who are only interested in quick casual games (which is at the moment the large majority of iPhone owners) aren't going to give this much of a thought.
And then there's the monthly subscription. Pricing an app above $0.99 is a pretty major risk for developers... even going from $0.99 to $1.99 severely hurts sales. I doubt iPhone owners who are used to getting quality games for $0.99 are going to take a risk on something more expensive, especially when that something requires the monthly charge.
These two factors are gonna hurt the customer base already, and us VO folk are aware, an MMO really needs a filled universe. Less players -> less players as we've seen over the years, so Outer Empires is gonna need all the help it can get.
Really the only way I can see it succeeding is if it's a superb enough game to succeed as the browser MMO, and the iPhone app is marketed as an extra, something for the hardcore players to have and use if they're desperate for a fix of the game and aren't near a computer. As much as I want this to succeed, I really can't see it happening.
For it to be up to par, the networking will have to be pretty flawless. Not hard to do on wifi, but it'll need to be solid on 3G too. Otherwise, if people can only play in their homes, they'll take a real game over an iPhone app. The browser version might get some success, but it'll have to succeed on its own merits, as opposed to just being the iPhone-companion.
Plus, not many people are gonna be in to a monthly subscription for an iPhone app. The biggest iPhone app market is quick, casual games. If you watch the Top 25 apps, the most popular are always arcadey games (Flight control, Ocarina, Pocket God, etc. None of these can hold up to the hours of play you spend on a console game, but they're great for pick-up-and-play moments). Larger scale games pretty much require a big publisher's backing (See Assassin's Creed for iPhone. And really, even the name/publisher-support backing wouldn't have brought it to the top 25 if it weren't a solid game on its own). MMO's do not lend themselves to this style of play, which means the people who are only interested in quick casual games (which is at the moment the large majority of iPhone owners) aren't going to give this much of a thought.
And then there's the monthly subscription. Pricing an app above $0.99 is a pretty major risk for developers... even going from $0.99 to $1.99 severely hurts sales. I doubt iPhone owners who are used to getting quality games for $0.99 are going to take a risk on something more expensive, especially when that something requires the monthly charge.
These two factors are gonna hurt the customer base already, and us VO folk are aware, an MMO really needs a filled universe. Less players -> less players as we've seen over the years, so Outer Empires is gonna need all the help it can get.
Really the only way I can see it succeeding is if it's a superb enough game to succeed as the browser MMO, and the iPhone app is marketed as an extra, something for the hardcore players to have and use if they're desperate for a fix of the game and aren't near a computer. As much as I want this to succeed, I really can't see it happening.