EVE Online developer cancels vampire-based 'World of Darkness' MMO

[Shawn Knight]

EVE Online developer CCP Games has cancelled the development of a fantasy MMO game by the name of World of Darkness. As a result of the decision, the studio also laid off 56 employees working out of Atlanta according to a press release on the matter.

CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson said the decision to end the project was one of the hardest he’s ever had to make. Pétursson added he has watched the team work on it over the years and has personally always loved and valued the idea of a sandbox experience in that universe.

The executive apologized to current and former employees and fans that they could not deliver the experience that they aspired to make. At some point, they simply had to admit that their efforts were falling regretfully short.

World of Darkness players would have assumed the role of vampires blended into normal human society. The game was announced in 2009 and despite some members of the team being laid off two years later, in-game footage was shown back in 2012.

CCP has provided severance packages and job placement assistance for those affected. Furthermore, some team members have been offered roles on other projects inside the company while the remaining staffers will focus on games in the EVE universe. It marks the first time since 2006 that the entire studio will be working on a single universe, the statement noted.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56390-eve-online-developer-cancels-vampire-based-world-of-darkness-mmo.html

 

[davislane1]

Sad to hear they're dumping this title. I'm generally not an MMO person (no time for them), but I was looking forward to WoD.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Sad to hear they're dumping this title. I'm generally not an MMO person (no time for them), but I was looking forward to WoD.

Funny, I think the new World of Warcraft expansion is also going by 'WoD'. I don't have time for them either (I wish I did), but it seems like starting a new MMO is like starting a new car company. There are the big players and a huge barrier to entry to anyone new. They're so expensive to make that it's a huge gamble in an industry where free-to-play is pretty much the only model you can use.

 

[Guest]

I'm not an expert on the topic, but 56 employees working on 1 title for over 3-4 years and the project just gets dropped? If the environment is already created they might as well sell it to a different developer, no?

How did they not see this short-fall coming 1-2 years ago? This seems like a management issue with no one taking responsibility, and the CEO being too kind about it.

 

[davislane1]

I'm not an expert on the topic, but 56 employees working on 1 title for over 3-4 years and the project just gets dropped?

56 were let go; the press release makes no mention of how many employees in total worked on the project.

 

[TomSEA]

I'm wondering if we're coming to a close of the MMO genre. Subscription numbers are down across the board for all MMO's, including the juggernaut WoW. The most anticipated MMO - Elder Scrolls Online - has been released to what can be considered at best, lukewarm reviews. Unless something happens, not sure how viable that game will be in a year or two.

And then most games these days have a multi-player/co-op component to them as is, and free of charge. Titanfall and the upcoming Watch Dogs as example.

Lastly, creating MMO's are very complex and expensive endeavors requiring years of building the client.

Will be interesting to see where MMO's stand in the gaming world 5 years from now.

 

[GhostRyder]

I'm wondering if we're coming to a close of the MMO genre. Subscription numbers are down across the board for all MMO's, including the juggernaut WoW. The most anticipated MMO - Elder Scrolls Online - has been released to what can be considered at best, lukewarm reviews. Unless something happens, not sure how viable that game will be in a year or two.

And then most games these days have a multi-player/co-op component to them as is, and free of charge. Titanfall and the upcoming Watch Dogs as example.

Lastly, creating MMO's are very complex and expensive endeavors requiring years of building the client.

Will be interesting to see where MMO's stand in the gaming world 5 years from now.

Yea, I personally have never been big on MMo's mostly because the few worlds I would really be interested in spending some time playing a game in don't exist or were only released in Japan.

I think the Genre is struggling because most MMO's just do not deliver on what they keep trying to do and just end up being a lackluster experience compared to other games. I played Star Trek Online expecting something really amazing and while at first the ship combat was pretty fun, I found hte ground combat abysmal. Later I found balance issues with the Klingon Faction to be horrid which made me eventually stop playing the game.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Sad to hear they're dumping this title. I'm generally not an MMO person (no time for them), but I was looking forward to WoD.

Same.

 

[psycros]

LOL, WoD has been vaporware for at least two years. At least CCP finally acknowledged one of their many empty promises.