14 DAY TRIAL // World of Warcraft might still be the largest subscription-based MMO in the world, but one of the developers who have lead its development says that the model that underpins its existence is fundamentally broken and needs to change soon.
Mark Kern, who is now in charge of Firefall creation at Red 5, told Eurogamer that, “It takes billions of dollars of investment to create a console and then you have to milk it for five to seven years in order to get your money back. I think the model is broken.”
The problems are not limited to the MMO space and the entire console ecosystem is “dead” according to Kern, who believes that as more money is needed to support a high-profile title, and that the game creators will try to create a safe experience which in turn will eliminate any sort of actual innovation.
He added, “Even if the heads of these big organisations do get it – which is questionable to begin with – being able to turn on a dime when everybody’s salaries and bonuses are vested in the old business models is a very difficult thing to do.”
Kern believes that publishers no longer understand the risks that developers want to take and believes that in the future other technology companies like Apple, Google and Facebook might soon be more involved in video game creation.
Firefall is at the moment in what the development team calls a rolling beta, which means that a limited number of players are involved and are regularly asked to invite their friends in order to expand the number of gamers.
The game will attempt to mix role-playing and first-person elements while also keeping and expanding the basic MMO structure.
Firefall will envision a post-apocalyptic future in which players need to fight over limited resources after an asteroid narrowly misses Earth and hits the Moon instead.