WildStar: Carbine’s ambitious, flashy, and flawed MMO that launched in June 2014. A little over a year later, it shifted to a hybrid free-to-play model in September 2015. Then, about four years after the MMO came arrived, NCsoft shuttered the game and development studio in November 2018.
We’re now seven years removed from an operational WildStar, and while devs and fans alike turn out every November to celebrate the memory of this sci-fi title, it does feel as though this has been more muted in recent times. The one-time hope that somehow, NCsoft would either relaunch WildStar, sell it to a third-party operator, or give it to the community to run in a similar fashion as City of Heroes has faded (but isn’t completely gone).
But what if it did come back — not in the far future, but this year? My mind’s been turning over the question of whether or not an official WildStar revival would succeed in 2025. Is there an audience for a game that was, to be honest, just four-and-a-half years old at the time of its death? How could it be positioned to perform better? Let’s dig into that.
The only reason that this is a topic of discussion today is that there is still a loyal contingent of fans (myself included) who genuinely and deeply loved WildStar, even while acknowledging its missteps. People remember fondly the fluid animations, the quirky characters, the colorful sci-fi settings, the astonishing soundtrack, and — of course — the incredible housing system. There’s been a lot of “what if?” reminiscing, wondering what could’ve set this MMO on a better path to longevity if only the studio had done some key things differently.
But how large is this crowd? While WildStar blazed greatly during its run, it didn’t have the sheer length of time that, say, City of Heroes and some other shuttered MMOs had to build up a much broader audience. It’s certainly big enough to have spawned multiple in-development rogue servers, but most fans have moved on to other games and interests. We’re well past the grieving stage and deep into acceptance. WildStar is gone and is probably not coming back officially – and unofficially, it may not be finished any time soon.
Maybe I’m underestimating the simmering interest in a revival, though. And that’s not even counting the people who are primed for such a full-featured MMO to come back when all we’ve gotten over the past few years are anemic launches. I mean, look at the crowd that came out for Defiance‘s relaunch this month, and I would never put that fanbase anywhere near the scope of WildStar’s following. Perhaps a relaunch would be a much greater event with an MMO community that’s already used to legacy and classic versions of MMOs coming back onto the scene?
Assuming the hypothetical that NCsoft made it possible to bring back WildStar, there would be a lot of organization required to make it work. Who would run it? Where would it be hosted? How much marketing effort, if any, would promote it? What would its business model be (if any)? How much of the game’s code and structure would need to be brought up to par to work with modern servers and computers?
But the pressing issue that’s on my mind doesn’t have to do with any of those topics. The pressing issue, as I see it, is time. Wait too long between an MMO’s shutdown and its revival, and interest is going to dwindle. What could have been a triumphant return a few years ago might be a low-key blip today.
It all comes down to this: Are enough former players still interested in WildStar, and is there enough of a potential audience of people who’ve never experienced it who would be on board with a revival? Because if nobody’s going to show up, you might as well not even make the (expensive) attempt.
Another thing to consider is that WildStar may not be filling as great of a void in the MMO space as it once did. Housing is becoming far more of an MMO staple, with Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft homing in on the space that WildStar once dominated. WoW itself looks far more like WildStar’s cartoon aesthetic today than it did back in 2014.
Any sort of revival is also going to require some serious development work, as the volunteer working on the rogue servers already know. While there would be a crowd who’d gladly show up for a maintenance mode version of WildStar, that wouldn’t lay any groundwork for a strong future. This MMO had some pretty glaring issues, such as endgame and dungeon difficulty and other antiquated MMO designs, and ideally the staff behind a hypothetical WildStar Returns! would have the ability and incentive to improve those flaws.
Listen, I love WildStar, and I can’t think of any other dead MMO that I’d elect to resurrect above this one. I’m just not as certain as I used to be that it would come back in a state that it would live for a good long while — unless it got proper development, including new content, once again. Longevity in engagement is the goal of any revival, not Week One headlines followed by Week Two “what was that game again?” forgetfulness.
I’ll turn the mic over to you. Do you think there’s still interest and potential in a WildStar relaunch in 2025, or has that window of opportunity well and truly passed us by?
Everyone has opinions, and The Soapbox is how we indulge ours. Join the Massively OP writers as we take turns atop our very own soapbox to deliver unfettered editorials a bit outside our normal purviews (and not necessarily shared across the staff). Think we’re spot on — or out of our minds? Let us know in the comments!
