Massively OP’s Best of 2015 Awards: Most Likely to Flop

December 13, 2015 12:00 PM

Massively OP’s end-of-the-year awards continue today with our most likely to flop in 2016 and beyond award.

Last year, Star Citizen took home this dishonor, leading to much discord in the comments. Star Citizen has yet to actually fully launch let alone flop, though, which is why we tack on the “and beyond.” We also note that “flop” can mean lots of things, from outright sunset to financial ruin to simply not living up to insane hype. And we don’t want anything to flop!

Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end.

The Massively OP staff pick for Most Likely to Flop in 2016 and Beyond is…

Blade & Soul

Brendan Drain (@nyphur): Oculus Rift/EVE: Valkyrie. Every time I’m at an event where EVE Valkyrie is being played, the reactions are always amazing. People clearly love the game and it gets better every time I play it, but its success hinges on sales of the Oculus Rift, and I don’t think that’s a big enough market. I’ve spoken to plenty of people who say they love EVE Online’s ships and art style and would absolutely kill for an EVE dogfighter like Valkyrie, but they aren’t going to buy an expensive headset to play it. Part of the failure of DUST 514 was attributed to it being locked to a single console and unable to reach the majority of its potential market, and I suspect the same may be true of Valkyrie unless a non-VR version is released.

Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I’m afraid Blade & Soul isn’t going to do nearly as well as it might have here a few years ago. I feel bad for saying it, but it just took way too long to port westward, and that, coupled with general western snobbery toward Asian imports, is going to make it a hard sell, particularly in a subgenre already dominated here by TERA.

Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): Star Citizen. Yeah, this one still gets my nod. It’s not something I’m exactly happy to be expecting, but at its heart the reason is the same this year as it was last year – too much expectation and hype for any game to live up to the price tag. It’s not going to be bad, mind you; it’s going to be decent. But it’s long since passed the point where “decent” could cut the mustard.

Jef Reahard (@jefreahard): It pains me to predict this because I was greatly looking forward to Black Desert at one point, but now I see it flopping pretty hard in the west. When you combine the action combat with the PvP focus, the removal of sandbox elements, and what is likely to be an ArcheAge-style buttfunk of the player economy courtesy of a cash shop, you’ve got a recipe for failure.

Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): The indie City of Heroes spin-offs. Hey guys, I know you miss City of Heroes deeply, but whatever “spiritual successor” you’re trying to make is almost certainly going to be a pale shadow of the real thing and destined to be forgotten quickly after launch — if indeed it makes it there. Sorry, but tough love and all that! Also Life is Feudal. You named your game “Life is Feudal.” That does not bode well for anything you do past that.

Larry Everett (@Shaddoe, blog): I hate to answer this question, but the biggest flop that I foresee in the future is going to be Blade and Soul, and it’s not going to flop because it’s a bad game. It will just not even come close to matching the anticipation nor the hype that NCsoft have for the game. It’s really pretty, but it’s it’s now heavily dated and will not reach the level of its Asian popularity.

Matt Daniel (@Matt_DanielMVOP): After my experience with it, I’m gonna hafta say WildStar. Sorry, but I really don’t think the F2P transition is gonna be enough to save it at this point. Back when it originally launched, I enjoyed it well enough but many of the game’s underlying systems needed either a bit of retooling or outright revamping, and it doesn’t seem that the devs have done much besides added a fresh layer of paint and some new bells and whistles to distract attention from the bigger, more deeply rooted issues.

MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog): Is Cabal 2 still a thing? That is literally the only game I couldn’t get enthused about something when playing. I didn’t even think such a thing was possible!

Tina Lauro (@purpletinabeans): I’ll say Blade and Soul, but only because I think you’ll see players drop away because of the unusual combat system and theme. I don’t know if every MMO player will really get it, and I don’t know whether it’ll have enough sticking power in the NA and EU market because it’s just so different.

Blade & Soul was our pick for Most Likely to Flop in 2016 and Beyond. What’s your pick?

What MMO is most likely to flop in 2016 and beyond?