MMO Reporter Predictions Show 2012

It’s time for the annual MMO Reporter Predictions Show! We’re dragged Bill back out for a show to talk to Chris and Harry about last year’s predictions, and to comment on our predictions for 2013. Included in this show are MMO Reporter’s pick for best expansion of 2012, as well as MMO of the Year!

Listen now:

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2012 Predictions

Big winners predictions:
Chris: TOR, The Secret World, GW2
Bill: Guild Wars 2, TOR
Harry: TOR, Guild Wars 2

Surprises:
Chris: End of Nations
Bill: Planetside 2
Harry: Wildstar, Core Blaze, everquest next

Fails:
Chris – Wrath of Heroes.
Bill: Tera online
Harry: Final Fantasy XIV, Eligium, Mists of Pandaria

What will eat up most of your time in 2012?
Chris: In order – Rift, TOR, LOTRO, GW/GW2.
Bill: TOR, LOTRO, GW2, … , WoW
Harry: TOR, LOTRO, GW2, EVE, Hello Kitty Online

What game won’t release in 2012?
Chris – GW2
Bill: Mechwarrior online
Harry: Warhammer 40k

Will Blizzard remain the 800lb gorilla in the room in 2012?
Chris – No, down to 6 million subs by the end of the year. TOR + GW2 will take up the slack, combining to take about Blizzard’s dominance. Biggest /= dominant.
Bill – Yes – 6 million will still make it the biggest subscription MMO in the world
Harry: The decline in WoW subs will motivate Blizzard to reveal Titan, and will offer some kind of bundled deal for WoW year-subs to include free or discounted access to Titan, re-establishing itself as the king of the hill.

Question Marks? What can’t you quite put your finger on:
Chris -Shadowrun Online – What’s the gameplay going to be like from an isometric perspective.
Bill: Neverwinter – shift in gameplay design, 2012 release (short dev time), Cryptic = good, Perfect World = ??
Harry: Secret World, world of darkness

What game could be announced that we haven’t heard about yet?
Chris – Palladium Books Rifts MMORPG – OMG “YES!”
Bill: Elder Scrolls MMO
Harry: New sandbox MMO from SOE, TOR expansion

Predictions for 2013

Big Winners:
Chris: Guild Wars 2, Firefall, Neverwinter, Planetside 2
Harry: Guild Wars 2, Hello Kitty Online

Big Fails:

Chris: The Secret World, TOR
Harry: Rift, FFXIV

What will eat up most of our time in 2013:

Chris: Guild Wars 2, Rift, Neverwinter,LOTRO
Harry: LOTRO, Guild Wars 2

What game(s) won’t be released in 2013?

Chris: Elder Scrolls Online, Shadowrun Online, World of Darkness
Harry: Titan. EQ Next

Expansion of the Year:

Chris: Storm Legion
Harry: Riders of Rohan

MMO Reporter Official Expansion of the Year for 2012: Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan

Will Free to Play be the dominant/default business model by the end of 2013?

Chris: Yes, but there will still be several games that stick to the purchase/sub model. When a game can get a certain number of subs, its a more stable income stream that leads to more stable content releases.
Harry:Yes, but more companies will adopt the Guild Wars model, rather than gimping their game. In fact, this will show the Asian model was correct all along, except for all the grinding.

Question Marks? What can’t you quite put your finger on:

Chris: Mechwarrior Online – Why are so many games calling themselves MMOs when they barely have any of the aspects of an MMO?
Harry: Why haven’t we seen any viable console MMO yet?

What game could be announced that we haven’t heard about yet?

Chris: Madden the MMO
Harry: EverQuest Next, Guild Wars 3: Guild Warsinganating Harder: Reloaded: The Sequel, part deux point 5, this time it’s personal. Now a Trillogy!, Fallout MMO

MMO of the Year:

Chris: Guild Wars 2
Harry: Guild Wars 2

MMO Reporter’s official MMO of the Year 2012: Guild Wars 2

fred212

hi,
so im new to this page and i like how you guys analyze games so im gonna stick. i have some stuff to say. First there are mmos decent one for console DCUO its got a lot of content its not bad and you dont have to grind except for gear.theres another mmo-like game its for ps3 free and all but its like for 7-10 year olds but that doesnt count . But there is another mmo-like game called Dust 514 its in open beta state i played the closed beta and it feels like planetside 2. There is a chat/voice system, the leveling stuff the grind your gear stuff the microtransactions and the big maps its supposed to be linked to eve online once it launches officialy. And i also want to say that mmos will come to consoles there is already a Moba for consoles (lotr Guardians of middle earth which is laggy as hell) so i think by E3 someone will announce an mmo they know call of duty games cant last forever(hopefully) an mmo attracts a good amount of people the problem is taking the risk of creating an mmo strictly for consoles first it has t be f2p because who who has ever played fps on consoles want to buy a game they arent sure of when they can buy bo2 or gow or halo besides theres little to no games f2p on consoles just saying ITS F2P will make people download it and try cause hey its free.its not the same with pc games theres so many f2p nowadays u need to play through all of themto know which is good and thats a royal pain in the ass.
i also wanted to say that mech warrrior or hawken or both or whatever are probably called mmo to attract people because thats what the pc consumer wants now mmo at least thats what i think.

MMO Reporter Predictions Show 2012

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2012 Predictions

Predictions for 2013

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