Nexon’s let go yet another MMO from its publishing stable.
According to MMO Culture, Nexon has announced that it’s closing down its Japanese server for Tree of Savior and booting the game – and data – back to developer IMC Games to host. This won’t have any effect on the western version of Tree of Savior, mind you, as IMC Games publishes that on its own here. But in context, it’s one more signal that Nexon is flailing: In recent months, the company canceled Peria Chronicles, halted work on Project G, expelled Riders of Icarus, closed a pair of Western offices, pulled back on Gstar, and caused such concern among Korean employees that union workers have been protesting.
In other MMO business news…
Work on Funcom’s Dune MMO continues, as the studio this week announced the hire of a Senior Gameplay programmer on the game.
Last week we had a new person joining us at the Oslo office! Dima here is our new Senior Gameplay programmer on the Dune project.
He used to work at G5 Entertainment before moving to Norway from Ukraine and joining the Funcom family.
Welcome, Dima! We're happy to have you. pic.twitter.com/rnWFXvd07J
— Funcom (@funcom) September 25, 2019
Finally, Black Desert and EVE Online company Pearl Abyss will break ground on its new Korean headquarters this coming December. According to MMO Culture, it’ll be a 20-story tower in the popular-with-game-companies Gwacheon Knowledge Information Town, with all the accoutrements – sports arenas, massage rooms, cafeterias, etc. It’s expected to be finished in February of 2021.
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Sorry, Funcom doing a Dune MMO is just going to be bad. Look at their track record with MMO’s. They always end up losers because of the choices they make.
The Nexon situation is odd. The controlling family was going to sell it but then the backed off. And yet they are trimming operating expenses by relinquishing games to other interests which is usually a sure sign that the company is for sale or already sold.
A Dune MMO is very welcome. But it is a huge under taking IF they wan’t to do it right. I’m not a huge fan of Funcomm right now because of what they have done to a great IP, in its own right, The Secret World.
But, let’s see what they come up with. I would love a good Dune MMORPG!
I made a post not to long ago that detailed what was happening and why, so I will just copy and paste it here. Some of it is speculative, but to my knowledge it is all accurate. Since I posted the below, more and more events have happened that support the speculative bits:
A Dune MMO is welcome.
A Funcom MMO is not.
Dune MMO sounds incredible if done right.
The spice must flow!
Calling Funcom’s Dune IP game ‘Dune MMO’ is kind of tempting fate – ‘open world multiplayer’ as they call it could be MMO but I fear it will be much more reduced in both game and especially player numbers, Conan Exiles -style, and if it isn’t, if it is a real MMO, being in pre-production now… then it won’t be out before the middle of the next decade the earliest.
really glad that funcom seems to be doing well. really curious as to what a dune mmo will look like. star trek online was the same curiosity for me and idk that they really captured the essence of what star trek is. funcom has shown they have the dialog and story writing chops to handle the writing aspects of dune, but hopefully their animation work for combat and how combat feels has been improved, otherwise color me uninterested.
well if dune mmo is any good then I’m dropping star trek online.
Not abandon but my main mmo will be dune.