MGM may pull the license from Firesky's troubled Stargate Worlds MMO

[A_PophisandhisFran]

Not great news. I've been looking forward to a Stargate game for a long time, and I hope one gets made before too long if this one doesn't pan out. In the meantime I've been able to keep myself semi-content with mods (there's a great Stargate mod of Star Wars: Empire at War and two or three of Half-life 2) and a few fan games.

I agree that making the game an MMO game may not have been the best move. I think a FPS or a RPG would work great for Stargate. Even an RTS game would work for Stargate, really.

[Leous]

As a game designer I am not going to say this surprises me at all, As sad as it a game takes teamwork and wise spending, and they seem to have neither. So it will end on the 1st and even if they push along a little more they still run out of money again. They only question is will be before or after it's release, Will we never see it or will we get a taste of it and then watch them run out of funds on an expansion pack. So that we are left wanting more until the severs break down and the game becomes a forgotten page in Stargate history like showtime's Stargate website or Infinity.

To tell you the truth my team could have done by the deadline that is whats so upsetting. I have toyed with the idea of making a game for a long time and now I am more sure then ever that I should if anything it would be freeware for all the fans but still a very amazing game.

[Chevron999]

If you immediatly know its a Stargate game, it got cancelled a long time ago...

[DigiFluid]

Out of the 24245435423 star wars games theres only been a couple that were good

Nah, there's been tons of great SW games.

I know what you mean though. It applies especially well to Trek (as you said).

I've been saying for a long time now that SGW is unlikely to ever appear. This just seems to confirm that. God I hate being right all the time

[McgillionFan]

aww not again

I really really hope the plug doesn't get pulled.It will be such a shame.I feel sorry for the people who are making the game same with Allience.They put or that hard effort and there time making the game and for it to be pulled is such a shame.

Come on MGM or who ever is in charge please please give us fans a Stargate Game please.

Let us hope that is doesn't get pulled.

[TheHomegaMan]

Good for MGM, I say. If Firesky can't deliver, why let them keep the license? Why reward failure with opportunity?

Give it to a company that can do it. People should be asking for a quality product that gets released, not giving unlimited chances to somebody who is unable to do anything with what should be a lucrative license.

[Overheal]

I happened to get into the Friends and Family Beta about a year ago. But frankly I didnt last long. For one thing, performance issues - my hardware was only about a year old, and still struggled to run the game at any decency (I could churn through Crysis easier, put it that way) - this was a pretty annoying barrier. On top of that, there were a lot of serverside issues: about 2/3 of all scheduled testing sessions started late or were entirely scrapped - this when Firesky only launched the servers for testing about once a week. It did nothing to hold my enthusiasm.

But aside from those technical drawbacks and the obvious glitches in alpha/beta testing a title, it just lacked any innovation as far as I could tell. Too many MMOs offer nothing new to the table - its just "Oh look an MMO - but with LASERS". No mate, it takes a fair bit more than that dont you think?

So on top of all that, an MMO takes tens, hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. Thats before you have any investment. And your business model relies on X amount of users subscribing for Y amount of months for Z amount of cost. For that kind of longevity (getting players to want to subscribe that long for that much money) you require vast initial investments. You dont break even unless you can keep that model floating for at least 2 years.

Finally, why launch a failed project? Would NASA launch a Shuttle if it wasn't ready? No. That would set space travel back 10 years. Similarly, I would rather see no Stargate title than see an awful one. It does far more harm than good.

Fear not. even the Spiderman movie was tried and failed several times beginning in the 80s before it ever saw the real light of day.

[Alan Wake]

I happened to get into the Friends and Family Beta about a year ago. But frankly I didnt last long. For one thing, performance issues - my hardware was only about a year old, and still struggled to run the game at any decency (I could churn through Crysis easier, put it that way) - this was a pretty annoying barrier. On top of that, there were a lot of serverside issues: about 2/3 of all scheduled testing sessions started late or were entirely scrapped - this when Firesky only launched the servers for testing about once a week. It did nothing to hold my enthusiasm.

But aside from those technical drawbacks and the obvious glitches in alpha/beta testing a title, it just lacked any innovation as far as I could tell. Too many MMOs offer nothing new to the table - its just "Oh look an MMO - but with LASERS". No mate, it takes a fair bit more than that dont you think?

So on top of all that, an MMO takes tens, hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. Thats before you have any investment. And your business model relies on X amount of users subscribing for Y amount of months for Z amount of cost. For that kind of longevity (getting players to want to subscribe that long for that much money) you require vast initial investments. You dont break even unless you can keep that model floating for at least 2 years.

Finally, why launch a failed project? Would NASA launch a Shuttle if it wasn't ready? No. That would set space travel back 10 years. Similarly, I would rather see no Stargate title than see an awful one. It does far more harm than good.

Fear not. even the Spiderman movie was tried and failed several times beginning in the 80s before it ever saw the real light of day.

I doubt it costs that much, WoW currentlly didn't get the budget to produce the game at that rate when it was first suggested.

I'll agree it takes money to start up, but not in the 10's of millions range.

[TheHomegaMan]

Finally, why launch a failed project? Would NASA launch a Shuttle if it wasn't ready? No. That would set space travel back 10 years. Similarly, I would rather see no Stargate title than see an awful one. It does far more harm than good.

This man gets it.

Folks, it isn't about getting Stargate products out there. It's about getting a quality product that carries the Stargate name onto the market.

[DigiFluid]

I doubt it costs that much, WoW currentlly didn't get the budget to produce the game at that rate when it was first suggested.

I'll agree it takes money to start up, but not in the 10's of millions range.

Actually, WoW had a development budget of approximately $60 million. And that was from Blizzard, an established company who understood their target demographic and how video games are made and marketed successfully. Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is a textbook example of everything Blizzard is not.

And I think that's exactly the problem with SG games, that they keep giving the licenses to startup development houses who have no experience and no idea how the industry really works. If it was tackled by an established developer, it'd almost certainly see the light of day and probably be half decent as well.

Take Raven Software and Voyager Elite Force for instance. The Trek franchise has a horrible history of producing lousy games. Then one day, Raven got the license to make a Trek shooter. Raven, by then (1999-2000), had been around since 1990; had produced 14 titles including every game in both the Heretic and Hexen franchises for id Software, as well as the first Soldier of Fortune game. And out of that, we got Elite Force--one of the best Trek games ever made, developed from a license for one of the worst incarnations of Star Trek.

Established developers are established for a reason.

[Bytor]

Finally, why launch a failed project? Would NASA launch a Shuttle if it wasn't ready? No.

massivly multiplayer role playing games are never completed. They just get released and paying customers become the beta testers as improvements are made. Ultimately, this isn't NASA, its a video game.

[prion]

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=19092

THE UNCERTAIN FATE OF STARGATE WORLDS

Conceptualized in early 2006 by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (in association with MGM), Stargate Worlds is a PC game under development that hopes to bring the Stargate franchise to life within the open-ended, playable worlds of an MMORPG. Mainly based around the military sci-fi atmosphere that SG-1 fans are familiar with, the MMO focuses on the Tau'ri-Goa'uld conflict and promises to immerse players in the same world as the TV show. Early SGW gameplay announcements and trailers inspired confidence among many Stargate fans, especially because of the game's unique first-person-shooter and combat mechanics

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