5. Wildstar

Wildstar is gone forever. This free to play (wasn’t when launched) MMORPG gave us the bright, colorful and unique world of Nexus that showed bags of promise. Two factions, the Exiles and the Dominion vying for survival and ownership of this foreign world was just the tip of the iceberg. The game’s combat was fresh, its dungeons and raids at end-game hard for those that dare to do it. Overall, Wildstar offered many high points, like its amazing housing system and movement mechanics amid a wave of carbon copy MMORPGs. Unfortunately, lack of content and players over four years since release mean NCSOFT, its publishers, ran out of patience. Wildstar was officially shut down in November 2018.

4. Cloud Pirates

Only a few months since its release, the plug was pulled on Cloud Pirates. The aerial PvP arena MMO did see some life during its run. The game utilized clever progression systems while keeping the focus on the fun team-based combat and air ship classes. Developers  My.com still have not come out with any explanation or reasoning for sunsetting the game. For us inquisitive folks, its easy to see why. The PvP ship battle game just isn’t popular enough to gain the traction and playerbase it needs. According to game data tracking site SteamSpy, the average peak concurrent players on Steam isn’t great. It averages 200 players online at any one time, which is not at all healthy for an MMO of any kind.

3. Bless Online

Neowiz announced in June 2019 that Bless Online will shut down in September. This brings to a close, one of the most notorious Korean MMORPG in recent history. What made Bless infamous you ask? Well, it failed in two of its native region launches for starters, then decided it was going to launch globally on Steam, it promised plenty of improvements both to quality of life and gameplay, and none of them were fulfilled at launch, and even the performance of the game was worst than ever before. They charged a buy to play fee at early access then made it go free to play, all the while, funding a new Bless game for the Xbox One called Bless: Unleashed, out later in 2019. The warning signs were there when players called them out, but the hype train was too strong, and the backlash came like a tsunami. Don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of Bless though, the IP is like a roach.

2. Paragon

We see a theme here. If you’re going to make a brand new MOBA game, it needs to be bloody brilliant or no one’s going to be playing it. In Paragon’s case, this isn’t why the game shut down for good this April. Paragon was a decent MOBA that had all the right ingredients, but lacked the manpower to maintain. Epic Games – you know them as the creators of Fortnite – was simply swamped with the game that is making them rich. That’s Fortnite if you haven’t already guessed. Therefore, they announced that Paragon was difficult to maintain, and would rather focus their energies on a game that actually brings in the money. Makes sense.

1. Marvel Heroes

At top spot is Marvel Heroes, yet another superhero MMORPG game that lost to the bad guys. The bad guys here are the developers themselves. Marvel Heroes started off very well. Its blend of ARPG gameplay meets Iron Man and co worked pretty well on the PC. It’s the game that Marvel fans flocked to, to play as all the newly released Heros that came out with each MCU release. Where it all went wrong however, was with a greedy, hastily designed console port. The Omega launch alienated a majority of the core player-base. In addition to that, bad mismanagement at the top of Gazillion Entertainment didn’t help the developers’ cause. This resulted in Disney pulling the license. Marvel Heroes officially went dark in November 2017. We’re still wondering if we’ll truly see a proper Marvel MMO.

The post 5 Most Popular MMORPGs 2019 That Is Now Dead appeared first on Mmos World.

5. Wildstar

It’s hard to believe that Wildstar is no longer with is. This free to play (wasn’t when launched) MMORPG gave us the bright, colorful and unique world of Nexus that showed bags of promise. Two factions, the Exiles and the Dominion vying for survival and ownership of this foreign world was just the tip of the iceberg. The game’s combat was fresh, its dungeons and raids at end-game hard for those that dare to do it. Overall, Wildstar offered many high points, like its amazing housing system and movement mechanics amid a wave of carbon copy MMORPGs. Unfortunately, lack of content and players over four years since release mean NCSOFT, its publishers, ran out of patience. Wildstar was officially shut down in November 2018.

4. Cloud Pirates

Only a few months since its release, the plug was pulled on Cloud Pirates. The aerial PvP arena MMO did see some life during its run. The game utilized clever progression systems while keeping the focus on the fun team-based combat and air ship classes. Developers  My.com still have not come out with any explanation or reasoning for sunsetting the game. For us inquisitive folks, its easy to see why. The PvP ship battle game just isn’t popular enough to gain the traction and playerbase it needs. According to game data tracking site SteamSpy, the average peak concurrent players on Steam isn’t great. It averages 200 players online at any one time, which is not at all healthy for an MMO of any kind.

3. MXM (Master X Master)

NCSOFT is no stranger to shutting down games, and MXM is one of its latest titles to be axed. Released out of open beta and into the wilderness almost a year ago, MXM was considered by many, us included, to be a fresh take on the MOBA genre. The game’s roster of heroes includes fan-favorite characters from NCSOFT’s other games. This includes the likes of Guild Wars 2, Blade and Soul and Wildstar. However, for a game that was made to attract MOBA players, it didn’t hit whatever internal goal the company had set. As a result, MXM shut down on January 31st 2018. The good news is, the game did inspire a host of other similar games, like Battlerite.

2. Paragon

We see a theme here. If you’re going to make a brand new MOBA game, it needs to be bloody brilliant or no one’s going to be playing it. In Paragon’s case, this isn’t why the game shut down for good this April. Paragon was a decent MOBA that had all the right ingredients, but lacked the manpower to maintain. Epic Games – you know them as the creators of Fortnite – was simply swamped with the game that is making them rich. That’s Fortnite if you haven’t already guessed. Therefore, they announced that Paragon was difficult to maintain, and would rather focus their energies on a game that actually brings in the money. Makes sense.

1. Marvel Heroes

At top spot is Marvel Heroes, yet another superhero MMO game that lost to the bad guys. The bad guys here are the developers themselves. Marvel Heroes started off very well. Its blend of ARPG gameplay meets Iron Man and co worked pretty well on the PC. It’s the game that Marvel fans flocked to, to play as all the newly released Heros that came out with each MCU release. Where it all went wrong however, was with a greedy, hastily designed console port. The Omega launch alienated a majority of the core player-base. In addition to that, bad mismanagement at the top of Gazillion Entertainment didn’t help the developers’ cause. This resulted in Disney pulling the license. Marvel Heroes officially went dark in November 2017. We’re still wondering if we’ll truly see a proper Marvel MMO.

The post Top 5 MMO Games That Have Been Shut Down Recently appeared first on Mmos World.

5. LawBreakers

It’s been almost a year since E3 2017, where the game announced it was launching out of early access on August 8th 2017. LawBreakers had great ideas with its class systems that for an FPS arena shooter, felt well paced and executed in design. Unfortunately, operating in the shadow of Overwatch and rising games like PUBG did it no favors. In the past year alone, FPS online games ran amok with so many coming out, especially free to play titles. With LawBreakers being a buy to play game, it had another disadvantage. The rise of other games from the Battle Royale genre like Fortnite also gave players a reason to check out free to play titles with equal amounts of fun. In the end, Boss Key Productions announced a week after itself was revealed to be shutting down, that the lights would go out on LawBreakers come September 2018.

4. Cloud Pirates

Only a few months since its release, the plug was pulled on Cloud Pirates. The aerial PvP arena MMO did see some life during its run. The game utilized clever progression systems while keeping the focus on the fun team-based combat and air ship classes. Developers  My.com still have not come out with any explanation or reasoning for sunsetting the game. For us inquisitive folks, its easy to see why. The PvP ship battle game just isn’t popular enough to gain the traction and playerbase it needs. According to game data tracking site SteamSpy, the average peak concurrent players on Steam isn’t great. It averages 200 players online at any one time, which is not at all healthy for an MMO of any kind.

3. MXM

NCSOFT is no stranger to shutting down games, and MXM is one of its latest titles to be axed. Released out of open beta and into the wilderness almost a year ago, MXM was considered by many, us included, to be a fresh take on the MOBA genre. The game’s roster of heroes includes fan-favorite characters from NCSOFT’s other games. This includes the likes of Guild Wars 2, Blade and Soul and Wildstar. However, for a game that was made to attract MOBA players, it didn’t hit whatever internal goal the company had set. As a result, MXM shut down on January 31st 2018. The good news is, the game did inspire a host of other similar games, like Battlerite.

2. Paragon

We see a theme here. If you’re going to make a brand new MOBA game, it needs to be bloody brilliant or no one’s going to be playing it. In Paragon’s case, this isn’t why the game shut down for good this April. Paragon was a decent MOBA that had all the right ingredients, but lacked the manpower to maintain. Epic Games – you know them as the creators of Fortnite – was simply swamped with the game that is making them rich. That’s Fortnite if you haven’t already guessed. Therefore, they announced that Paragon was difficult to maintain, and would rather focus their energies on a game that actually brings in the money. Makes sense.

1. Marvel Heroes

At top spot is Marvel Heroes, yet another superhero MMO game that lost to the bad guys. The bad guys here are the developers themselves. Marvel Heroes started off very well. Its blend of ARPG gameplay meets Iron Man and co worked pretty well on the PC. It’s the game that Marvel fans flocked to, to play as all the newly released Heros that came out with each MCU release. Where it all went wrong however, was with a greedy, hastily designed console port. The Omega launch alienated a majority of the core player-base. In addition to that, bad mismanagement at the top of Gazillion Entertainment didn’t help the developers’ cause. This resulted in Disney pulling the license. Marvel Heroes officially went dark in November last year. We’re still wondering if we’ll truly see a proper Marvel MMO.

The post 5 Recent MMOs That Shut Down Too Soon appeared first on Mmos World.

Update: Credible sources like Kotaku and Massively have reported that majority of the employees at Gazillion has been let go. Marvel Heroes Omega will shut down on Friday, 24th November and not 31st December as a result.

A week after the news that Marvel Heroes is shutting down, we now have an official date for the closure. In a Facebook post, developers Gazillion Entertainment states that the game will end official on December 31st 2017.

“We’re sad to inform our players and our entire Marvel Heroes family that Marvel Heroes Omega will be shutting down. The Marvel Heroes servers will stay on until Dec 31, 2017, and we’ll be removing real money purchases as soon as possible. Players will be able to play the game entirely for free once this sunset period commences. We will share the exact date things go completely free as soon as we can.

We’ve had the privilege of entertaining and collaborating with our players for over four years. We’re extremely humbled by that privilege and wanted to get this message out: Thank you. Thank you to our players, our tireless employees, and everyone involved in the life of Marvel Heroes, Marvel Heroes 2015, Marvel Heroes 2016, and Marvel Heroes Omega.”

Having only been recently out for consoles, there are many questions regarding refunds. Console players have made purchases over the past few months, and many are feeling ripped off. Whether or not refunds will become available remains to be seen.

For more information, check out the official post here.

The post Update: Gazillion Entertainment Fires Staff, Shutting Marvel Heroes Omega Down On Friday the 24th appeared first on Mmos World.

Take A Page Out of DC’s Book

From a neutral’s perspective, when you think of superhero games, DC’s range of titles are more prominent. The truth is, DC have been at this (gaming) far longer than Marvel, and it shows. The quality of some of its single player titles like Batman Arkham Asylum, Injustice and even DC Universe Online is noteworthy. Marvel on the other hand, have nothing to compete with, especially online now that Marvel Heroes is on life support until the end of the year.

So should they try again and compete in the online space? I think so, and Marvel fans globally would want to see that, so at least there is a guarantee of support which translates into revenue, should the game be worthwhile playing. Should it be an MMORPG in the mold of DC Universe Online? That’s the tricky question. Marvel will have to put out something truly special to stand out.

The Risk Another Of Marvel MMO

There are obvious benefits for going the MMO route. MoH may have failed, but that’s in no part down to Marvel. And let’s not forget, when Marvel Heroes first launched, it was actually fun at release. It felt great to hack and slash through clusters of enemies using Thor, or Iron Man and Cap. However, the risk can be overwhelming to overcome again, should Marvel either re-release Marvel Heroes under new developers or make an entirely new game.

It’s possible that there’s a burnout from anything superhero at the moment – from movies to video games. Even DC’s MMORPG is just getting by, it’s not right up there with the top MMORPGs of today’s world. Let’s not forget the tragedy that is City of Heroes either. That was a great game marred by NCsoft who cared nothing for its players and the IP. Marvel will have to navigate these issues, learn from other’s mistakes and create an online Marvel Universe that offers something truly unique. But what will that X factor be?

Marvel Needs An Interconnected Gaming Universe

That X factor in my opinion, is to do what Marvel does best. Telling huge interweaving narratives across time and space that makes audiences feel connected. If they can somehow introduce this with a new batch of games, across all platforms, then they may have their secret sauce to conquer the superhero genre in gaming. It won’t be easy – hell even suggesting it gives me the shudders. It’s not as easy as what Marvel does with the cinematic universe. Games are complex, hard and expensive development projects that must be competitive to even have a player base and a shelf life. Disney does have the budget though, so who knows. End of the day, I’d really love to see Marvel come back with an MMORPG that can stand toe to toe with the big boys.

The post With Marvel Heroes Shutting Down, Could This Be The Start For A Marvel Gaming Universe? appeared first on Mmos World.

In conjunction with the release of Marvel’s Inhumans TV show, Marvel Heroes are releasing a brand new hero. Black Bolt becomes the latest playable Marvel Hero, and is a part of the Inhumans universe.

Gazillion Entertainment has said that the playable version of Black Bolt will arrive to cause mayhem in Marvel Heroes Omega. While there isn’t a release date anywhere, we expect Black Bolt to arrive fairly soon for both the PC and PS4.

The post Black Bolt Is The Latest Inhuman Hero Coming To Marvel Heroes appeared first on Mmos World.

Marvel Heroes 2016 will be launching on the PlayStation 4 in the Spring. Developers Gazillion Entertainment also announced that the PS4 version will be called Omega.

The differences between the PC and PS4 versions are minimum. Omega will essentially be the same game set in the same Marvel universe. The characters, story and lore will also be consistent. In other words, this is a solid port that aims to bring the fun to console players. There have been no word on an Xbox One version as of yet.

In a blog post on the forums, the developers have also shared more details regarding Omega. At launch, the game will only have 38 playable Heroes as opposed to Marvel Heroes’s 62 currently. This is to be expected considering it’s a brand new title on PS4. Players will be able to use Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man and a few other fan favorites though, so cheer up!

With regard to the game’s PVE story mode, a large chunk of it will be playable at launch. Chapters 1-9 are included right from the beginning, on top of Legendary Missions. Marvel Heroes 2016 is also known for its Hero cosmetics, so PlayStation 4 players will be able to collect hundreds of costumes for their favorite superheroes.

It’s important to stress that there will be no cross platform play. You dedicated accounts and games on both the PC and PS4 will be separate. Overall this is still great news for console Marvel fans. Will you be playing at release? For more information, check out the Omega post.

The post Marvel Heroes Coming To PlayStation 4 As Omega This Spring appeared first on Mmos World.