An experienced developer has been working on an MMORPG after success with the Fallout series. After completion, the game was only online for a few years – which doesn’t surprise the developer behind it.
Which developer is it about? Tim Cain has worked on some of the most iconic games of all time. He was one of the inventors of Fallout and also worked on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds.
But the game he worked on for the longest time is different. We’re talking about the MMORPG WildStar, which was released in 2014. It was developed by Carbine Studios and the publisher was NCSoft. The MMORPG convinced fans with its colorful sci-fi world, action-packed fights and difficult raids.
Unfortunately, the game wasn’t playable for very long. Just four years after its release, WildStar was discontinued – on November 28, 2018 to be precise.
By then, Tim Cain had long since ceased to be part of the development team. He left the studio earlier and now looks at the project in amazement. Cain thinks he knows why WildStar failed.
Anyone who mourns WildStar can find alternatives to the MMORPG on MeinMMO.
Trailer for the discontinued MMORPG WildStar
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A (too) long development
What does Cain say? The developer recalls to PC Gamer when work on WildStar began. Back in 2005 the team would have been very small, with only about ten people involved. They were mostly veterans who had already worked on games like World of Warcraft.
During development, the creative minds behind the project collected and tested numerous unusual ideas. So the work dragged on and on.
Tim Cain worked on WildStar for a total of six years. That’s longer than any other project he’s been involved with. For comparison: Cain worked on Fallout 1 for around three and a half years. Of course, an MMORPG is a much more extensive undertaking, but the developer still believes that the long development has damaged the game.
Cain left the company before completion. When WildStar was released in 2014, the developer was busy with other projects and didn’t have time to play himself. But he watched how the MMORPG performed and how it slowly failed. Cain describes it today like this:
They worked on it for a total of nine years when WildStar finally came out. And that alone caused problems because the games had changed. What people wanted had changed. Other competitors had come onto the market and shown what they could do. You can set a goal and work towards it, but if it takes you so long, the goal shifts.
Tim Cain via PC Gamer
The competition had become bigger and more modern. In addition to WoW, games like Guild Wars 2, ESO and Star Wars: The Old Republic dominated the market.
According to Cain, WildStar was a long time in development and didn’t stand up to comparison with modern MMORPGs. Some features that distinguished other games were missing, which ultimately led to the end. Did you play WildStar back then? What do you think about it? Feel free to write it to us in the comments. Cain recently shared a funny anecdote: The creator of Fallout explains why beans, of all things, play an important role in the wasteland