Quote Originally Posted by zeusabe View Post
Exactly what I had in mind...that's the only logical explanation. This opinion will not be popular, in fact, expect to be flamed. But I agree with you on this one. Not even Blizzard was able to launch this many MMO games in such a short period of time...in fact, Blizzard only has one MMO game as of the moment...World of Warcraft. With Blizzard's success, they could easily launch multiple MMO's if they wanted to but I guess it's a matter of business call more than anything else. Like you, I also think they're trying to acquire funds as quickly as possible by launching multiple games, that may backfire in the long run if they don't get enough foundation of players in each of their game: PL,SL,DL and soon AL (because many players are just crossovers players: PL player visits SL, SL visits DL, etc.). What they need to accomplish is to make each of their game independent from one another, PL having different base players from DL, DL from AL, AL from SL, and so on and so forth, in order to maximize it because eventually these crossover players who are playing 2-3 STS games all at once and spending platinum on each will run out of interest to spend. I think SL is already in the decline because the PL population that crossed over to SL came back to PL eventually, SL did not establish foundation and relied on crossover players from PL...just like in my prediction in my previous post, I think there's only going to be one game standing...these games will cannibalize each other and players will rally to the best game of the bunch...even if STS hired the best developers in the world, they can't create perfect games under one genre (MMO)...only one MMO will come out on top and feed off the success of their other MMO games...that's just my opinion though, anyway, I agree with you. That's all I wanted to say LOL.
You can't even compare blizzard and STS they aren't in the same league. STS' budget for all 3 games isn't even a fraction of a percent of what blizzard is dealing with, so they have to keep the content fresh in order to keep customers interested. With a smaller budget comes less potential and less replay value because of a lack of content. PL is the flagship game, but it seems as if DL were meant to be the cash cow for the company - what will pay the bills.

Long story short: STS would have a much different model if they didn't have the 'small company' restraints. They can't afford to spend years on one complete game before they turn a profit so they must always have another project on the go to tide the fans over.

By the way blizzard created Warcraft, Starcraft and diablo. They've got a lot on their plate, with another MMO on the way. WoW is also a subscription service so multiple MMOs would more than likely spread their fan base out, and be a detriment to their flagship. Thankfully we don't have that issue as all of STS games are free to play.