gec72

This may end up mirroring what happens with comic book titles. CoH is a title like Birds of Prey or Secret Six or Blue Beetle from a few years ago. It settles at its sales level (say, 10k), sometimes perks up a bit but is generally stable or is just on a really slow decline. But it basically has its hardcore fans that will buy no matter what. Rather than stick with the book, the publisher decides to kill it to bring in something new (that fans may or may not even want). Some fail right out of the gate. Others sell great at first - say, 50k - but quickly decline. Maybe it's down to 25k after a year, 15k after two. And then *it* gets the axe.

From a sales standpoint it looks like it makes sense - you sold between 20k and 50k rather than 10k! Eventually it erodes the customer base though, as people realize there is no point getting invested in a title if it's not going to stick around.

In comics of course, that's a problem because the industry doesn't seem to be getting enough new fans to replace the old ones. I don't know if MMOs are at that point yet.


edit: I should say that this is the case for large publishers. Smaller ones I'm sure would be more than happy with a stable 10k-selling title.

Have to admit I'd thought of that. Didn't have time last night to try to cook one up.

Hence why I'm annoyed by the announcement. Even with no more content, I could have played essentially forever.

This is what I'd assume. If they're talking about a deal at all, they're not going to say anything until all the terms and plans to move forward are settled.

Likewise, I'm actually happy that there hasn't been much word on refunds or transferals of points. I think if there was it would indicate that yes, they are still fully intending to shut the game down. What happens to points, paid game time, etc. would likely be details that would need to be addressed in any sale, and similarly wouldn't be divulged until completely nailed down (and even then, they might give the option of players transferring them to the new setup or applying them to other NCsoft games).

I actually have never tried CO (nothing against it, just that with CoH, I never felt I needed to), but this point is absolutely true of some players. I play on a machine that dates to maybe 2008 (or even 2007?), and is running an ATI 3400 series card. It can't really run Ultra Mode, and is lucky if it manages its way through First Ward/Night Ward. Despite that, I think CoH looks pretty spiffy. Maybe that's bc what I have now is a huge improvement over the previous rig that was running it, which probably dated to 2001-2002.

Regarding the art of CO, my impressions of it were that it reminded me a lot of Daniel Acuña's style, which really isn't my favorite (he's a good artist, just not for me).

I wonder if ABC News' "Made In America" segment would be at all interested in the story.


edit: well, why not. Submitted a news item suggestion via http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3...Diane%20Sawyer


edit x2: and of course I missed some legalese at the bottom of the page and got an e-mail back telling me to send a physical letter. Grr.

Yep. As I read this, I kept wondering - old story...or allegory?