Anyone who has been following the 38 Studios (formerly Green Monster Games) thread over at FoH may have noticed I’ve been posting in it a lot lately, possibly even coming across as a little fanboyish. I actually didn’t even realize it myself until I took a step back today and re-read some of my posts. Where was this excitement coming from? I’m usually extremely skeptic and pessimistic towards new MMOs. Furthermore, why get excited over something that has not even released the first teaser images? Despite the logic of these questions, I couldn’t deny it: I was excited.
Many people doubt 38 Studios’ ability to break into the Fantasy MMO market, some encouraging them to instead make a Sci-Fi or some other genre MMO. I’m glad to see that Curt and the team realize this is not the way to go. Fantasy absolutely has the highest fan base, and even if most of those people are currently playing WoW, it does not mean they can’t be enticed away – even by a company that has never shipped a title.
I was glad to see Curt respond with this post:
1) Entering a market with more potential customers than any genre out there.
2) Entering the market with the people actually MAKING the game having a huge list of titles shipped, from building teams to shipping products, the leadership group has done it all and the dev team is comprised of people that have worked on pretty much every MMO in existance.
3/4) (They are the much the same thing in our case) Entering the market with two men who have built entire companies and careers on creating their own original IP/Brand and have succeeded for almost 30 some years doing so.Are the hurdles high? No doubt. But like many others you make the mistake of assuming the way to ‘win’ is to throw ‘hundreds of milions of dollars NEEDED to go head to head with WoW.
That’s false, wrong and a losing approach. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to take time, but it’s also going to get done. Some how, some way, and we are getting clearer on the how’s and the way’s as we go, it’s going to work.
If it wasn’t I’d have walked away from this already.The proof will be in the pudding, and me pontificating on how great it’s going to be is useless here, or anywhere. I believe in the team and what they are doing and as it becomes a living tangible thing you can log into, and see, it only solidifies those beliefs. They’re working their magic and getting to see it from nothing more than a vision to something that lives and breathes now will be a very cool thing to share with people one day.
I’m glad we started shooting video from the first day of the companies existance and continue to do so.
You can tell Curt has complete faith in his team. With great talent like R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, and various team members with a rich history in the MMO community, I can see why. There is a massive amount of potential in 38 Studios, and I look forward to seeing glimpses of the game to come.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about 38 Studios, head over to 38Studios.com and especially be sure to check out the videos there, they really give you an idea of the drive, ambition, and confidence the company has in the product they are making.
