Is Sony About To Blow Blizzard Out Of The Water?
Posted by Stropp on April 28, 2009The release of Sony Online Entertainments new game, Free Realms, is getting pretty close. SOE announced a couple of days ago that it will be out on Tuesday the 28th. Just a few hours now.
Just for the record, I haven’t played Free Realms at all yet, beta or otherwise. Time, unfortunately, has not been on my side. All the info I have seen has come from blogs and other websites.
Most of what I’ve read has been pretty positive. It sounds like Sony is going to release a very polished game.
And that leads to a question. Since Free Realms is, well, free, and since it’s targeted towards a fairly casual audience, and since it looks like it is going to be top quality out of the gate; is this the game that will overthrow the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft?
Whaddya reckon?
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First I think you need to define what you mean by “blow Blizzard out of the water.” Do you mean generate more revenue? Then no, I don’t think so. Do you mean have more people signed up? Maybe, since its free. More paying subscriptions? Nope, I doubt it.
I’m honestly a little surprised at how much fuss is being made over Free Realms. It’s a nice safe game for the kids to play, and I can see adults playing it for a while for a change of pace. But I don’t see it being a long-term game for many adults.
But I’ve been wrong before!
I have to say that I am one whom full agrees with Pete S here. I think you been drinking too much of the marketing cool-aid on this game.
Free Realms, while it is free (in a limited fashion), will still be a game of the same old same old – grind and loot you’ve come to either love or hate from SoE and the mass of the industry. There is nothing inovative here other than its a game you don’t have to pay a dime for if you don’t mind being limited in your choices. Time will tell if that limits you at the high end of the game too.
I am only seeing one major change from traditional SoE titles and that is the graphic style, they gone to more of a WoW style with their textures and polygon counts. Making the game more accessalble to more computers will help SoE get people playing the title and the free helps, but it will not won’t compete against WoW or the other giants (AAA Titles) in development.
No inovation on design, gameplay, or community building that I’ve seen in the limited time I got to beta test the game. Its gonna be like playing chess with a new board and style (graphics) of the pieces.
Well… I have to admit writing that one with a mischievious glint in my eye, and with more than a touch of hyperbole. No cool-aid for me. I’m diabetic.
But… at some point there will be a game released that does dethrone WoW, both in subscriber numbers and revenue collection. World of Warcraft itself came (essentially) out of nowhere to take the crown in a day when people didn’t expect a game to get more than a few hundred thousand subscribers. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to see the same thing happen again, and Free Realms (from the little I’ve seen) appears to have some of the same things going for it that WoW did.
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