2008, the year of delayed MMORPGs

I’m a big fan of mmorpg’s. I started playing MMORPG’s some months after Meridian 59 came out, migrated to Ultima Online and finally found my home in Star Wars Galaxies.

Star Wars Galaxies was one of the most amazing mmorpg’s I’ve played up until today. Mind you, I’m not talking Post-NGE SWG. The immersion of the characters into the world, the awesome sandbox principle…just awesome. (A few more games I’ve played are Everquest 2, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Vanguard, Anarchy Online, Neocron, Lord of the Rings Online).

Today I’m stuck in the canceling, playing, canceling, playing-circle of World of Warcraft. Although Tabula Rasa is a good game in between unfortunately it doesn’t hold me long. Hence the circle.

My hope for this year’s mmorpg to break free from World of Warcraft lies in 2 games: Age of Conan and Warhammer Online!

But sadly, Funcom announced that Age of Conan is being delayed additional 8 weeks, the new release date is listed as 23rd Mai 2008. The lead game director explains in this letter why it’s being pushed back…again!

Now there’s a rumor around, that Warhammer Online might get delayed until fall 2008. A bad scan, but I’ll quote:

“BAD: ‘EA can’t get away from the delay bug. Last month it was Army of Two, this month it’s Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game is expected in the summer or fall*. EA CEO John Riccitiello said, “We’re going to give it a little bit more time, a little bit more work, and we think we’ll have a little bit more of a hit on our hands.”

Although CEO Mark Jabobs denies it it remains to be seen what the actual truth is.

My personal opinion is that Warhammer too will be pushed back until fall on the grounds that the Warhammer Online developers are too anal. The game has already been pushed back once. Back then they argued they need a little more time to iron out the bugs, ensure the quality and deliver a pristine game to the audience.

Now don’t take me wrong I’m all for a close-to-perfect game with as little bugs as possible but one can overdo it. You have to draw a line somewhere, release the game and patch ‘n fix the remaining bugs ASAP after the release. And by ASAP I do mean ASAP. Not months later!

A sad year indeed!