IF EA's marketing bods were to do the job of marketing DAOC properly...

[Gandelf]

The other consideration, is that sometimes with company takeovers and mergers the under performing areas of a business are often reduced in size or even axed altogether. Whether this could happen with DAoC is hard to say, but it's certainly a possibility. But that's me looking on the pessimistic side of things.

[Cromcruaich]

The other consideration, is that sometimes with company takeovers and mergers the under performing areas of a business are often reduced in size or even axed altogether. Whether this could happen with DAoC is hard to say, but it's certainly a possibility. But that's me looking on the pessimistic side of things.

Yes, that is indeed true. However DAOC is Mythic, it's not an underperforming area, Mythics track record on delivering DAOC as a highly successful mmorpg is why EA have aquired Mythic, it also provides a level of security that lets them continue WAR development.

From Mythics side the aquisition has probably made instant millionaires of Mythic directors, but also it will be perceived as providing a safety net that will allow them to see WAR development through, along side handing over all marketing and promotion to EA allowing focus to be kept on development on the ramp up to release.

[Xest]

Yes, that is indeed true. However DAOC is Mythic, it's not an underperforming area, Mythics track record on delivering DAOC as a highly successful mmorpg is why EA have aquired Mythic, it also provides a level of security that lets them continue WAR development.

Not convinced tbh, the only upcoming MMOG with a decent enough IP and a good enough dev. team to unseat WoW is far more important than some MMOG which now has an extremely relatively low subscriber base compared to other MMOG on the market.

[Tasmin]

I think EA will stop development of DAOC, their track record on bug fixes that people are happy with is pretty poor, why introduce more work for themselves by releasing further expansions?

Only reasons to buy out a company I can think of...

1) Squash opposition.
2) Gain a high revenue earning product.
3) Gain a foot hold in a market you dont have any products in.
4) Gain development staff/future projects.

As Xest mentions the number of people playing DAOC is dwindling and quite small compared to many other MMORGs and I cant think of any EA MMORG products that DAOC could compete with. Therefore I discount option 1.

The cost to run DAOC must be quite high with the support staff, developers, servers, WAN links, etc when compared to a non MMORG game so I'd rule out option 2.

As mentioned above, I dont think EA have a MMORG product so option 3 could have some bearing. DAOC is established, the player base, although shrinking, is still pretty healthy, the support and development teams have an understanding of the product and its a pretty stable product.

However I think option 4 is their main objective, yes they want a MMORG product, but I expect its WAR they are after. If they'd wanted DAOC, they could have bought Mythic ages ago.

/sob

Tas

PS
At least I'd get my life back if they take away my toys and alternate reality.

[Cryn]

Everything gets old. DAoC has aged incredibly well but it still looks out of step with WoW. Then again, WoW will also get old and possibly we'll end up with other games benefiting when WoW players look for another online game to invest time into.

I doubt a marketing effort anytime soon would help much, but the other sorts of schemes like Xest and Ovi suggested could create a low resistance route into the game for footloose gamers. The numbers are not likely to ever go back up in DAoC but maybe they can remain high enough to keep the game alive in maintenance.

[Cromcruaich]

Not convinced tbh, the only upcoming MMOG with a decent enough IP and a good enough dev. team to unseat WoW is far more important than some MMOG which now has an extremely relatively low subscriber base compared to other MMOG on the market.

-Also in respose to another post.-

DAOC is clearly profitable and its success was clearly funding WAR development. This is what makes it a low risk aquisition for EA.

Also agree with the EA buying in MMORPG experienced staff.

Disagree with people talking about the high cost of running daoc and supporting its staff - if it has a high profit margin (which undoubtedly it has) then they will continue to run it.

As per a previous post of mine, agree that development and future expansions could be in danger - R&D is always the first to go.

Regards IP, Mythic havent got exclusive rights to use the Warhammer IP, so i'm not to sure that that is a factor. Perhaps it is simply EA executives have seen the success of WoW and fancy a bit of that - if that is the opinion then they will probably be sorely disappointed as it wont compete at the same level.

What WAR does have is an existing customer base in mythics DAOC players - i'm sure on the balance sheets and forecasts this is what appears for forecast profitability of WAR and the company. It has an almost guarenteed baseline, and proven success model (hence the use of GoA in europe again)

Anyway i'm confident that DAOC will be around for a good while, but less confident of continued new material, though I do expect there to be continued support, tweaks and fixes.