Jack Emmert (City of Heroes, Neverwinter) has been working on MMORPGs since 2003 and recently announced his next game. In an interview, he emphasizes how much players are looking for a new MMO and explains why we haven’t gotten a good western title for so long.
What does the developer say? Emmert recently announced his new MMORPG. It will be a Warhammer title that will probably focus on PvE and will be released for PC and consoles.
In an interview, the questioner from Wargamer wanted to know how the MMORPGs 2023 are doing. The developer explains that after the success of World of Warcraft, many have tried to copy the concept:
That meant investing a lot of money, which in turn required a lot of profit. It took a big hit, bigger than Warcraft.
And when they couldn’t – because of course they couldn’t, World of Warcraft was unique – most major studios gave up on MMOs. To this day we live in a world where there are very few MMOs in the west.
But Emmert believes that the demand for such games is still very high and takes New World as an example:
When New World came out, trillions of copies were sold – well over 10 million, which is amazing. This tells me that there are people who want to play an MMO, but there is no one creating them.
He himself now wants to be exactly that person who makes an MMORPG for the masses. His philosophy is that a good MMO thrives on stories and the players. With his game, Emmert wants to create an immersive world in which he himself, as a Warhammer fan, likes to sink.
5 MMORPGs That Should Be WoW Killers But Failed
More videos
WoW killers almost killed the MMOs, but there is some hope
Is Emmert alone with this opinion? No, because the generation of WoW killers has also been problematic from the point of view of other developers.
In 2020, we at MeinMMO spoke to MMORPG legends Raph Koster – lead designer of Ultima Online and boss of Star Wars Galaxies – and Gordon Walton (SWTOR and Crowfall).
At that time, both had a similar explanation. Walton said that the WoW killers have ensured that the genre has seen little innovation over the years. Koster supplemented the statement with an anecdote on the subject of financing:
That’s one of the reasons I haven’t done MMOs for so long. Because if you wanted to make an MMO, nobody would give you money if you didn’t compete with WoW. And to compete with WoW, you have to [finanziell] surpass That’s a ridiculous amount of money that almost nobody in the industry can afford.
Is the MMORPG genre lost? No, because New World and Lost Ark have shown that many players are in the mood for a new MMORPG. And that is currently leading to a small trend reversal.
Because the last big Western games were WildStar and ESO, which came out in 2014. Between 2014 and 2021, Black Desert and WoW Classic were the only highlights and there was no real hope on the horizon for a long time.
But that has changed:
And even that is by no means all MMORPGs in development. With Throne and Liberty and Blue Protocol, two new games are in the starting blocks that Amazon is bringing to us in the West. ArcheAge 2. Perfect New World or the Warhammer MMORPG mentioned here could also become surprise hits.
What do you think of the status of the genre? Were WoW and especially the WoW killers a big problem? And are you more optimistic or skeptical about the future?
You can find out more about all the new MMORPGs in development here: All 59 MMORPGs currently in development for PC.