EA Pulls Plug on Earth and Beyond!
by Alphaville Herald on 17/03/04 at 11:46 am
In a shocking announcement that does not bode well for other EA run MMORPGs, EA yesterday announced that it was going to pull the plug on its Earth and Beyond MMORPG. Additional information on the move can be found here. What makes the annoucement shocking is that EA essentially expressed the same committment to E&B as it did to TSO in its most recent financial reports (and in the same paragraph).
According to the announcement, E&B players will be offered copies of either UO or TSO. One might ask whether the E&B development team will be moved to either of these games. It seems not. According to the announcement, EA has made this move to focus on “future games” (i.e. not TSO), and the Dev team will principally be working on Ultima X: Odyssey.
Mac
Mar 17th, 2004
If eletronic arts thinks that the player base fom enb are going to move to tso or uo they are sadly mistaken. The general attitude now is to never support any ea endeavor
urizenus
Mar 17th, 2004
That would be a rational response, given that they just pulled the plug on another online game, Motor City, just what, 6 months ago?
Adding insult to injury to all of this, they aren’t going to release the source code to all this, so the dedicated players can’t set up their own servers.
And then there is this, which Ian just pointed out to me: people have been buying avatars for thousands of dollars on dBay. Check out this poor guy who just spent $3K on an EB avatar:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3085189233&category=41012
RB
Mar 17th, 2004
This is an ominous sign for TSO future. Trust me.
EA don’t pull there finger out, so they pull plugs instead.
- RB
Mac
Mar 18th, 2004
here is another way to look at it….a whole community has basicly been evicted. I read an interesting comment on the enb portal fourm made by a player named tarpia ……
“MMORPG players are not just customers at a place like McDonald’s. These are people who pay you money to LIVE in your environment. They deserve the highest levels of service and support. When they experience problems, some understanding of what they’re going through would be useful”
EA seems incapable of being a good landlord. You have made a study of all this. How do you feel? I see all the same indicators thar the sims online is gonna recieve the same shaft. What is it that the the powers that be owe its “tenants”
Mr-President
Mar 18th, 2004
Very good analogy.
Banshee
Mar 18th, 2004
I think that EA still hasn’t decided what to do with TSO. If they get significant subscibers in Asia, they may keep the game alive for a while. If they don’t, then my guess is that TSO gets shelved in the months following the release of TS2. I doubt that anything will be done before then, out of concerns for the negative impact that could have on “The Sims” brand name in the run-up to the launch of TS2. A couple of months after TS2 launches, either way, the negative impact of pulling TSO on the sales of TS2 will be minimal. And of course it goes without saying that priority one for The Sims brand team at EA right now is trying to ensure the greatest success possible for TS2.
My guess is that the EnB players will go to SWG.
B
Mac
Mar 18th, 2004
SWG suffers fron one problem still… No spaceflight Most enb players have or are in the process of downloading Eve online. You would think that with the sept close date must wouldnt abandon ship so quickly but last night the servers were only 10% cap….50 to75% less than normal
urizenus
Mar 18th, 2004
Wow! They bailed already! Can’t blame them I guess.
Any of them flocking to TSO? LOL.
Keep us advised on what’s going on over there Mac, thanks for the updates!
Mac
Mar 18th, 2004
ok then…you may find this even more interestng, Here is another post today from enb portal by a subscriber known as blinker
“Just to let you all know what was going on. EA was contacted Monday afternoon by My former employers lawyers to try and start a arbitration(sorry for spelling) for refunds of all players fees 26 total that my employer owned. They also requested that all fees for galaxy transfer and name change service for all player base be refunded also. For the full player base. With first contact being made ive also asked for a addtion for the arbitrtation for EA to sell its code and intelectual propertys for ea to a company of good standing. We have found out that EA has been offered for the past year a buy out plan but have refused on ground on competion seems ea after ultima has in the works another sci fi based online game. For all partys interested in info for this case please email me at zaivor@hotmail.com if arbitratration fails there will be a class action filed and you will all be invited to join. Though as with all lawyers im sure there will be a fee but im thinking small since there is a high player base unhappy with EA right now. Ill have more info on that at a later time. I am in the process of starting a website devoted to “calling out game and software makers” on false promises. anyone willing to help me with this also email me at said address. IM thinking its time to open the eyes of big companys and let them know that they cant force feed us crap for a fee with false statements of making it better crap. nuff said.
please all put in email subject EA – EB so i know its you guys and not spam
signed
Blinker
Feirson
Pokeybaby
Pokeywarrior
FeirPokey
All diffrent accounts ”
interesting isnt it
RB
Mar 19th, 2004
Hey anything i can help with just let me know. =D
*large middle finger to EA*
Im all for any action =D (no legal shit tho, just any help in spreading poo all over them. Getting the word out.)
- RB
urizenus
Mar 19th, 2004
Wow. just wow. That’s all I can say at this point. That and…
Go Blinker!
Go Blinker!
Go Blinker!
CherryBomb
Mar 19th, 2004
It’s impossible to guess if a game is going to be closed down from the company’s statements about its own game. Even if it is a total failure, they will keep re-assuring everyone up until the second they pull the plug. That is rough on the players, but it is just good business sense.
Actually, if EA were going to pull TSO, they would have done it las year, when things looked pretty grim to me. If usage is any clue, the trend seems to be steadily increasing subscriptions for the last four months or so. Also, the cap on simultaneous users seems to be rising.
urizenus
Mar 19th, 2004
CherryBomb, is there any way of knowing if the numbers reflect real subscriptions and not trial accts?
Mac
Mar 23rd, 2004
Update on the exodus from enb to eve
EVE Smashes Login Record: 8867!
Posted on Sunday, March 21 @ 05:32:29 GMT, Written by Tarpeia
Hellmar blogs that EVE is on track to break a major world record tomorrow evening — over 8,000 people from around the globe playing simultaneously in the same persistent 3D world.
He gives props to our friends from EnB, many of them trying EVE thanks to the special FilePlanet 10-day trial program for Earth & Beyond players.
Be sure to log in at 21:00 GMT tomorrow and be a part of gaming history!
Update: looks like the record was officially broken, with a whopping 8,867 people logged into the same persistent 3D world!
also from the official eve website
19.3.2004
Welcome Earth and Beyond players
In a response to the high number of inquires and downloads CCP has received the last few days from Earth and Beyond players, CCP is now offering Earth and Beyond users access to a special evaluation program
Stevo
Jul 14th, 2004
k…personally i think EA is dumb and they should give out…NOT SELL, source code to anyone, if they wanna sell then sell to a big company, that would be reliable….btw can someone email me the link for this site cuz im not at home and i dont feel like remmebering it…if i see anything interested ill keep u guys posted, whats swg???
_Stevo
Urizenus
Jul 14th, 2004
how can that possibly be a world record given the millions who play Lineage?
Tsathogguha
Jan 29th, 2009
For those who loved the game there is an emulator which allows you to play it again
http://www.enb-emulator.com