It’s obvious from the falling subscription numbers of World of Warcraft and the dearth of paid titles transitioning to a free-to-play model that MMOs just aren’t what they used to be. Some, if not most, of the luster has been lost, but that won’t stop Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two from investing heavily in these massively multiplayer projects.
However, don’t expect to see much of that cash make its way to the U.S. That’s because according to CEO Strauss Zelnick, these types of games just "don't work" in the region.
"We're actively investing in online MMOs; we're not doing it in the US,” Zenick said at the Cowen Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference in New York today. “Why? Because MMOs don't work here.”
That’s a pretty bold statement, but there’s plenty of evidence supporting it. Games that follow the World-of-Warcraft model just can’t expect to make a quick buck from a tired idea, and Take-Two recognizes that.
"A couple of our competitors have found out that through very, very expensive lessons–one of our competitors just recently announced they're restarting an MMO project in the US," Zelnick said. "We look at it and say 'How many MMOs have ever been successful in the US?' Two. World of Warcraft and EverQuest. That's kind of a bad slugging percentage."
The group Zelnick is referring to is Blizzard, who recently confirmed significant changes to the yet-to-be-announced Titan. It seems like even the king of the MMO understands that things just have to change if money is to be made. Or, like Take-Two, you can look at other regions.
"We've stayed away from that market and instead we went to Asia where at any given time ten or twenty are successful in China generating lots of revenue," Zelnick continued.
If things continue to work out for the publisher, other companies may follow its lead.
