News: State of the MMO: Industry Luminaries On The Genre, Its Future @ WarCry

"It's pretty bleak right now!" explained Daron Stinnett, formerly Executive Producer of the ill-fated Star Trek Online. "If you take a look at the games in the shadow of WoW, you'll find a pack of MMOs that have managed to hold onto one or two hundred thousand subscribers."



It was a sentiment shared by most of those we spoke to. It's obvious that World of Warcraft has the market by the throat and have become perhaps the only truly global game in the MMO-space. That means some tough realities for the games in the next tier.



"[MMOs are in a] state of unrest, right now," said Matt Firor, General Manager of ZeniMax Online Studios, a sister company of Bethesda. "World of Warcraft is ruling the subscription game market, and no one wants to complete with them directly, so they go off for niche markets."



Chantel Zuurmond, Game Designer for CCP Game's EVE Online, agreed: "I think any game that wants to coexist with WoW and do well should try to cater to a niche."