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Nowadays, one genre that doesn’t seem to be able to soar anymore is the MMO one, which I find a bit ironic in some ways. On the one hand, no other type of game comes close to what these massive games try to achieve. You have ever-growing worlds full of people interacting in real-time and banding together to tackle challenges or throw some social events in these virtual worlds. On the other hand, creating a proper MMO that stays around for more than a few years is rare. And now, with the cancelation of the Horizon MMO by NCSOFT, we can only guess that seeing another big MMO that isn’t FFXIV or WoW seems like a fever dream now more than ever.
NCSOFT Quietly Cancels Horizon MMO and Other Projects
First, let’s dive into the actual news. The original report comes from MTN, a Korean website, which someone then translated and posted on Resetera. According to this report, at least three projects were canceled by NCSOFT, including the previously announced Horizon MMO, as many inferred from the project’s name and some jobs being delisted by the aforementioned company.
It has been revealed that some of NCsoft’s new and live games have received notice of development or service suspension as a result of a feasibility review. It has been reported that games under CBO Lee Seong-gu, such as ‘Pantera’, ‘H’, and ‘J’, are included in the target.
Seo Jeong-geun via MTN/Resetera, translated with Google Translate.
It is actually worrying to see a promising MMO being canceled without even seeing the light of day. Many are wondering if this has anything to do with the recent live service projects canceled by Sony. However, NCSOFT has been struggling lately. During an interview earlier this year with the Korean website MK, NCSOFT Co-CEOs Taek-Jin Kim and Byung-Moo Park mentioned the following:
NC needs to re-arm itself with the venture spirit it first started with. Let’s make 2025 a year of bone-crushing efforts with the mindset that if we don’t turn around by 2025, NC will never have a future.
Taek-Jin Kim and Byung-Moo Park via MK translated with Google Translate.
With how thin the ice is for many live service games nowadays, canceling these projects seems like the safest bet. Still, with such a massive IP like Horizon at the hands of NCSOFT, it is sad that this MMO will never take off, and in turn, it seems the MMO market isn’t on solid ground either if we think about it.
What Does This Mean for the MMO Market?
In truth, it could mean anything. However, things don’t look so hot if we look at what’s been happening lately. As always, the two reigning MMOs will remain there, and I’m talking about FFXIV and WoW. The former had a rough 2024. The latest expansion has reached one of the lowest ratings in the history of the MMO, but people are still around supporting Final Fantasy 14. The latter got a lot of its playerbase back since Dragonflight, and The War Within was a success among fans. Still, these are the only two we can say have some form of future-proof stability. Others, while not bad, have experienced longer times without updates, community discontent, and abrupt changes in their MMO model.
For instance, Star Wars: The Old Republic has been one of the best narrative-focused MMOs ever. However, the time between expansions and major updates has been long. In addition, the recent graphical update backfired. RuneScape 3 and Old School RuneScape have been under fire with the recent survey drama, even though Jagex has already apologized about the matter. Elder Scrolls Online is shifting from an annual expansion release to seasonal content and has led many players to believe ESO is on its way to going into maintenance mode. In short, the landscape doesn’t look bright at all.
However, we can’t blame developers. Keeping an MMO alive takes time and, most of all, a lot of resources. Plus, with how competitive the live service market is, it is hard to keep players only on one game. No MMO can release content so fast. So, players will always move to the next trendy place or the game they call home. Still, it is discouraging to see these new MMOs getting their wings clipped before taking flight. At least, it would’ve been nice to see what NCSOFT was cooking with the Horizon MMO. But I guess that will be a closed-door secret now.
Are There Any New MMOs Worth Looking At?
And now, the yearly question, “Is there a new MMO that will revive the genre?” If you’re a fan of these games, you’ve probably heard this every year or month. Many titles out there promise to be the WoW-killer, as the community puts it. Yet, I think we should just call these games the “MMO-revival” ones because that’s something the genre needs. Even the ones at the top tend to get stale. Take FFXIV, for example. Its latest expansion proved that without a good story, which is the game’s main selling point, people start noticing the flaws, such as the endgame content having the same model for years, and people are growing tired. WoW is surprising us so far, but anything could happen in 11.1. For instance, no one’s happy with the raid sets, so that’s something that Blizzard needs to fix.
But what about new or upcoming MMOs? Well, we have the promised Ashes of Creation. This is the one everyone dubs as the next great MMO. The messiah of the genre. Yet, we’re still years away from experiencing it. The game opened its Alpha 2-Phase 2 test not long ago, and reviews have been mostly favorable. Still, the game is in its testing phases, so we can’t say much about it.
Another one that is technically an MMO is Star Citizen, but well, that’s another “stuck-in-development-limbo” story that I don’t want to touch. All I can say is that the latest major update broke the game as expected and will take a few patches to become at least a bit playable. But it is another case of a promising game not having a release date at all.
So, what’s left then? Other recently-released MMOs have not been able to keep their players around. Throne and Liberty seemed promising, but it’s been bleeding players left and right, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll improve. Brighter Shores looked interesting, especially since RuneScape‘s mastermind was behind it, but again, it didn’t manage to grab the attention of even hardcore OSRS players.
In a way, it makes sense that NCSOFT canceled the Horizon MMO. Looking at recent cases, new games of this type don’t last long. Or maybe they do, but the development costs are too high, and since there aren’t a lot of players around, they end up becoming barren virtual wastelands. As someone who loves the genre, I’d love to see a new MMO take the reins and give FFXIV and WoW a run for their money. But the reality is that it won’t happen, at least not this year.
