Important facts about the top four MMOGs are presented in the following sections. Lineage: The Blood Pledge
COMMENTS: Lineage is the current big success story in non-US MMP games . South Korea is probably the most "wired" nation in the world, not excluding the US. This game went from $6 million in revenue in 1999 to the current levels, mainly by cutting deals with Internet caf s in South Korea. Internet caf s are a huge industry in South Korea, with over 200,000 seatings in play at peak hours (think 200,000 simultaneous players). The Internet caf s pay NCSoft per seat for access; each caf usually buys between 16 and 64 seats for Lineage play. Notably, Lineage has seen far less success in US subscription rates, even with the venerable Lord British (Richard Garriott of Ultima fame) at the helm. Figure 16.2. Lineage: The Bloodpledge.
EverQuest
COMMENTS: The most high-profile success in MMORPGs; this one gets quite a bit of press. This game sold about 30,000 units the first day of availability in 1999 and garnered almost 250,000 subscribers in the first year from launch. It passed the 400,000-subscriber mark 24 months after release. EQ is now the "gold standard" for US MMP games. Figure 16.3. EverQuest.
Ultima Online
COMMENTS: UO is widely considered the game that broke open the Internet for subscription gaming in 1997. For the first six months, UO was the fastest -selling product in parent corporation EA's history. The fact that it has fewer subscribers than EQ , even though it has been out 18 months longer than EQ , is due to the sheer complexity of the game and the technical and gameplay problems the game experienced from launch in 1997 until major changes were made in the game. What is key to note is that, despite the complexity of the game, UO has grown steadily over the years until recently. It has had more subscribers every quarter than the last quarter until about June 2001; since then, the game has slowly been losing subscribers, but the rate of churn is low compared to the total subscriber base, which is about 5% annually. The recent release of the Lord Blackthorne's Revenge expansion pack has probably caused a temporary spike in subscription rates. Figure 16.4. Ultima Online.
Dark Age of Camelot
COMMENTS: Camelot is considered to have had the smoothest launch of any of the big MMORPGs; it premiered virtually without a hitch. It is also the current fastest-growing MMORPG, with 200,000 subscribers in the first six months post-launch and approximately 250,000 as of December, 2002. The European and Asian launches of the game will add another 100,000 subscribers to the growth. If Mythic can sustain its US growth gracefully, it is estimated that will have well over 350,000 subscribers by October 2003. Figure 16.5. Dark Age of Camelot.
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