14 DAY TRIAL // The question of the day in the MMO world is: who can take on World of Warcraft and Blizzard and win? Tabula Rasa tried and the results were less than spectacular. Age of Conan, from Funcon, tried and it did well, but not great. Now EA Mythic is giving it a shot by preparing to release what might be the most awaited new MMO of the year, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game is based on the fantasy Warhammer universe and plans to offer some innovative elements, like realm versus realm combat and public quests.
While talking about MMOs and their success and development costs, Chief Executive Officer of then Activision, now Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, stated that he thought nothing short of investing 500 million dollars or even a billion could lead to the creation of an MMO that could rival World of Warcraft.
Now Warhammer Online chief developer and designer Mark Jacobs says that the figure is greatly exaggerated, likely in an effort on Activision Blizzard's part to discourage developers from challenging their MMO.
Jacobs says that, the way he sees it, "realistically, if you're going into this space for the first time, and you want to compete with 'WoW' and you want to compete with us, because we're going into that same space, you've got to make sure that you have at least 100 million dollars."
And this sum is so big because it also includes the money needed for a company to bail itself out if its first project is not as successful as planned. Jacobs was less forthcoming when inquired by MTV Multiplayer about the costs for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, with him only admitting that the money used was "south of $100 million." He also estimated that his project needs at least half a million subscribers to recoup costs and be declared successful.