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Seven years later, Turbine resurrects Asheron's Call 2
Seven years later, Turbine resurrects Asheron's Call 2
December 14, 2012 | By Mike Rose
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    7 comments
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Newsbrief: More than seven years after it was closed down, fantasy MMORPG Asheron's Call 2 has been resurrected by developer Turbine Entertainment, and is now available to subscribers of the previous installments.

The game previously launched in 2002, but was taken offline in 2005 as it simply didn't have enough players. Now, Turbine producer Robert Ciccolini has heralded the re-launch of the game on the Turbine forums.

As of yet, only subscribers to the original Asheron's Call have access to the re-release, and are able to get the game for free.

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Comments

Alex Boccia
14 Dec 2012 at 8:23 am PST
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NO WAYY
Daniel Erickson
14 Dec 2012 at 9:47 am PST
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If they are going to finish it up and fill in the gaps I'd love to go see it. I may even still have my box copy...
Ron Dippold
15 Dec 2012 at 1:26 am PST
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The only thing I can think here is that they're looking to make this an F2P zombie. Microoooortraaaaaansaaaaaaacccctioonnnnnnns.
Maciej Bacal
15 Dec 2012 at 8:07 am PST
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You make it sound so negative. Turbine is an experienced developer, AC1 is still going strong after so many years. With AC2 at this point they're only concerned with the costs of running the game, they don't have to make up for the development. With the systems already implemented in AC2, and many to be implemented like AC1's housing system, this is a great opportunity to create a good F2P MMO, once the bugs are ironed out, old systems like Microsoft's GUN are replaced and the UI is updated.
Ron Dippold
15 Dec 2012 at 12:30 pm PST
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That was more amused than negative. Well, I guess 'zombie' is negative, but it has been dead for seven years. And microtransactions are just how Turbine rolls.
Henrik Strandberg
17 Dec 2012 at 7:32 am PST
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I'm guessing this is simply a freebe/perk to retain (and maybe even attract) AC1 subscribers, not an initiative intended to actually generate revenue per se. Converting a subscription based MMO to F2P/freemium is a pretty massive undertaking (it took Turbine over a year for DDO and LOTRO).
Craig Timpany
17 Dec 2012 at 11:39 am PST
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I guess subscriptions have stayed at the same price and running a virtualised server just keeps getting cheaper and cheaper, so at some point the economics start to work again.

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