Publisher Trion Worlds was working with Las Vegas-based Petroglyph on development of the upcoming MMORTS End of Nations. That's not the case anymore.
"As End of Nations was reaching the pre-launch phase in its lifecycle, we officially brought the game development in-house to Trion Worlds and will complete the development internally," said community manager Lance James on the game's official forums this week.
"We have been hard at work getting End of Nations to the quality level it needs to be at," James added.
Development of the game seems to have been fraught with difficulty -- End of Nations had been previously delayed, and most recently, Trion, also behind the MMO Rift, postponed End of Nations' open beta.
The move to take development in-house is likely related to a report earlier this week that said 30 Petroglyph staffers were let go from the studio, though James did not mention the layoffs in his statement.
Petroglyph was founded in 2003 by ex-Westwood Studios developers, veterans of the real-time strategy game genre. The studio has released games including Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War: Earth Assault.
I offered to assist with this product since I was a designer on its spiritual predecessor, Shattered Galaxy (Nexon, 2001). I got no response. Given our experience with SG, these types of games are much more complex than they appear. This is one of many reasons why the MMORTS genre is not drawing a lot of development. I don't know what the issue was with Petroglyph, though I am under NDA and would not be able to say anything if I knew the answer.
I hope things work out, because I think the genre is under appreciated. With the huge expansion in the number and types of gamers since 2001, I think the most important characteristics of these types of games are simplicity and intuitiveness of design. Fairness is also important, which means extended betas and complicates the use of traditional F2P monetization models (as this title is declared to use).
I hope things work out, because I think the genre is under appreciated. With the huge expansion in the number and types of gamers since 2001, I think the most important characteristics of these types of games are simplicity and intuitiveness of design. Fairness is also important, which means extended betas and complicates the use of traditional F2P monetization models (as this title is declared to use).