Mythic's Mark Jacobs on Building a Successful MMO
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Mythic VP and lead (Warhammer Online) designer Mark Jacobs said it wouldn't take a billion dollars for a competing MMO to take on (World of Warcraft) maybe only $100 million.
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So why is $100 million the magic number?
(The reason [you need $100 million] is that no real first-timer has ever succeeded with these games,) he said. (And when I mean succeeded, no first-timer has gone in and said, '˜Okay, I can do this in two or three years and actually do it where it comes out on time and on budget. So it is really tough.)
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With EA and the resources backing (Warhammer Online,) I asked Jacobs how one would measure a successful MMO in the age of (WoW) with its 11 million worldwide subscribers. (I would say we don't have to get anywhere near that number to be considered successful,) he said. (Would I like us to be number one? Well, of course. Do we have to be number one to be successful? No. I want us to be no less than number two; that would make me very happy.) For the number two spot, Jacobs reasoned that (Warhammer) would need at least a half-million subscribers, which he guessed was close to what (Final Fantasy) and (EverQuest 2) have now. (Let's just say north of half a million would mean we're successful. Now how a far north? I wouldn't mind being a little bit cold.)
According to Jacobs, another way to measure success is to look at the number of servers a game has added in a six-month period. (The corollary to that is if you've seen a game consolidate servers, you know it's in deep, deep trouble that's not a healthy sign for an MMO,) he said, citing Sony's January-released (Pirates of the Burning Sea) as a recent example. (It will be the same for '˜Warhammer.' Look at us six months out. Look at us six weeks out. If we're not adding servers, we're not doing well.)
