Catching Up – CCP, Gazillion, etc.

I mentioned that there was nothing to blog about. Then I started catching up on all the things I’ve missed in the MMO landscape over the last month or so.

CCP VR Layoffs. Apparently CCP decided they didn’t want to be a pioneer in VR after all. Presumably this means they’ll need to figure out how to increase revenue from EVE, a fourteen-year-old game that new players run screaming from. (Incidentally, I keep meaning to try out the free version.)

Voice Actor Strike Ends. I’m glad this is over. I don’t know all the details but I assume everybody is happy with the results. I love good voice acting, and voice actors deserve not to be treated like cattle by game companies.

Lord of the Rings coming to Amazon. Not quite game-related, but Christopher Tolkien retiring from his watch over the Tolkien estate might one day affect Lord of the Rings Online in ways we can’t predict. (Incidentally, I have no plans to watch Lord of the Rings on Amazon without a lot of convincing. You can’t just wave the words “Lord of the Rings” in front of my nose like candy before a toddler to get my attention.)

Marvel Heroes Shutdown. This was a huge surprise to me. After a month of silence, Disney and Marvel cut ties with developer Gazillion, and Marvel Heroes is shutting down on every platform. I’m pretty much over Diablo-style ARPGs, but I played this game a little bit in 2015 and I enjoyed it, and I thought it had been doing well all this time.

MXM Shutdown. And this just in.. NCSoft MOBA MXM is shutting down, too. After, like, a month? Or something? I don’t know anything about this game except that every time I heard about it, I thought, “Huh? Why?” Still, you hate to see anything tank in the games industry. It hurts everyone.