Mythic founder Mark Jacobs confirms being fired as BioWare takes charge.
Warhammer Online may have garnered a small following, but the game never managed the heights that EA expected during its development. Much has been said about just why it has only managed to garner a 300,000 user base, but the reality is that while it is a decent number, it’s not what a massive publisher like EA expects.
When EA acquired Warhammer’s developer, Mythic Studios, it inherited one of the more vocal ‘stars’ of the nascent massively multiplayer online game (MMO) world. Mark Jacobs was the driving force behind Mythic and the name associated with the success of Dark Ages of Camelot. In the lead-up to Warhammer’s launch, he was quoted widely – which has sometimes come back to haunt him. It’s safe to say that becoming the public face of a developer means taking responsibility not only for success, but for failure – something EA seems to agree with, as it has let Jacobs go from the company and absorbed Mythic as part of a new BioWare-run EA role-playing game (RPG) unit.
News of this departure broke last week as EA named BioWare’s Ray Muzyka as group general manager and Greg Zeschuk as chief creative director. These two BioWare founders are now in charge of EA’s entire RPG efforts, even though BioWare is still working on its first foray into the MMO sphere in the form of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
It has now been revealed by Jacobs on his blog that the decision was made months ago, and he has been on ‘hiatus’ ever since. While the posting is somewhat kind to EA, it seems apparent that the publisher wanted a fresh approach for its MMO thinking – something BioWare has been talking up in droves about The Old Republic.
Jacobs is just the latest in a list of MMO pioneers to get the shaft from a big publisher. When NCsoft decided to close down Tabula Rasa recently, it let Richard ‘Lord British’ Garriott go – much like SOE demoted EverQuest designer Brad McQuaid a few years ago when his MMO, Vanguard, failed to garner an audience.
With Jacobs and Mythic parting company, it really does seem like the end of an era. Between them, Ultima Online (Garriott’s original baby), EverQuest, and Dark Age of Camelot built the foundations upon which World of Warcraft capitalised. One wonders whether the separation from the big publishers and a knowledge that World of Warcraft is unassailable in the fantasy space will see the next big thing emerging from one of these names.
Supporting our habits:
mcgarnagle
2009.06.29 17:28
Maybe they just don't know how to make fun games? The continued existence of Garriott in particular is a fucking anachronism.
Anonymous Gibbon
2009.06.29 22:00
Game companies don't understand. I'm not interested in TEEN THEME PARKS. I'm interested in ADULT FREESTYLE/SANDBOX, with ADULT content
Anonymous Gibbon
2009.06.29 22:13
Yes, the theme park bullshit has got to go. If you want an engrossing game, take a look at Eve Online. That right there is the real future of MMOs– not this sanitized, formulaic, linear crap.
VannA
2009.07.01 13:55
.. What? Eve Online isn't a game, it's a freaking interactive spreadsheet.
But I think I know what you mean, and with a few tweaks to the basic fundamentals, EVE would be something I could enjoy.
Anywho -
McGarnagle? You don't like Garriott's games? I've liked all of his.. Even Tabula Rasa (Its flaws were more engine-based than anything else)
U9 was a shambles, but wasn't his. U6 was Pure. Fucking. Gold
mcgarnagle
2009.07.01 16:22
Yeah that wasn't really fair in retrospect. I've enjoyed his games from the classic era of the CRPG, I guess the thing that bothers me is just that he gets a lot of airtime for someone who had most of his success a long time ago. I guess I'm just less interested in what he's up to than what Rod Humble is doing when he's not running The Sims, for example.