EVE Online developer acquires White Wolf Publishing

[J Arcane]

Flames Rising brings us news that CCP has acquired White Wolf Publishing: (http://www.flamesrising.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1581&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0)

The merged company will enable CCP to integrate White Wolf's leading expertise in offline gaming development to enhance and create physical products for its MMOG, EVE Online. Products to be introduced in 2007 will include strategy guides, enhanced collectable card games, role-playing systems, and novels all based on EVE Online. White Wolf will leverage CCP's industry-leading technologies to bring its offline role-playing titles online. Conceptualization and early development has begun to bring White Wolf's World of Darkness, one of the world's strongest gaming properties, into the online world.

...

The combined company will continue to operate under their respective names. White Wolf will be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CCP. Hilmar Petursson, Chief Executive Officer of CCP, will be CEO of the combined company. Mike Tinney, President of White Wolf, will continue as President of the independent subsidiary. Further, White Wolf will continue development and enhancement of their entire portfolio of gaming products.

This could be interesting indeed. EVE offline rules, and a World of Darkness MMO? I'm there.

[Tentaro]

But the real question is how will they recreate the massive forum posting that makes EVE so great?
Also, World of Darkness has quite a fanbase. With the LARPing and all they may be even more fanatical than EQ players with their fanfaires and stuff like that.

[niakori]

Tears, tears of happiness. Somewhere deep inside I know a WoD MMO will consume my very soul, but I'm a happy deviant.

[Echani]

I've been clamouring for a WOD MMO for quite a long time, this merger might bring that a little closer to reality - I've no doubt that they've already talked about it, but whether or not it'll see the light of day is another story. Not until the current big MMOGs start to wane a bit anyway.

Now, if someone would pick up the rights to a Necromunda MMO I'll be very, very happy.

[ElPresidente]

WTF?!

Wow. If there has been a piece of computer game related news this year that has completely come out of nowhere then it is this.

I can only see good things come of it so don't take my WTF as opposition. It is simply an expression of shock and surprise.

Still very cool. ;)

[Zeal]

I've always thought the WoD universe would be perfect for a MMO.

I even liked Bloodlines.

[WhiteCrow]

I'm a rep for White Wolf in the northeast, and I've heard rumors about this for a while. Hopefully it's for the best, because I would really hate to see White Wolf's existing product lines go downhill. They are a great bunch of guys.

[Sazime]

This is cool. Too bad White Wold fans tend to make their product line unappetizing to me because of their never ending weirdness. Those guys are freak'n nuts.

But yeah, good stuff. :)

[Heretic Machine]

WTF <.< I would of thought that White Wolf would of been a much larger company than CCP. Those fuckers must of been throwing all of their profits into a friggin piggy bank or something.

[Intruder]

I would be on a White Wolf MMO like something on something witty.

[torrefaction]

Oh dear god. I've ranted about wanting this for years. I'm afraid I'll never leave this. This is incredible. Something particularly interesting to me is that they'll be using this to design gameplay mechanics for EVE. I'd like to see what happens when you put the people responsible for this on to video games, and not just in the white wolf setting :D

[Slack3r78]

Wonder what they'll do with the Vampire franchise since Troika is bust now.

[Lodin]

They'll make it into yet another generic MMO. Huzzah!

:(

[Oblivion]

They'll make it into yet another generic MMO. Huzzah!

:(

I am pessimistic as well :\

[J Arcane]

They'll make it into yet another generic MMO. Huzzah!

:(
Clearly the words of someone who's never played EVE Online. EVE is anything but generic.

I would go so far as to say that CCP is one of only three developers I actually respect in the MMO field, and the uniqueness of EVE is part of why.

[ElPresidente]

I was just about to say.

CCP do not take the road most travelled.

It is for this reason EVE tends to garner an equal number of loyal fans as it does detractors.

Nonetheless a generic MMO is about as likely to come out of CCPs stables as the Phantom is to appear on retail store shelves.

[Loganrapp]

This may be the one thing that'll get me to add Windows to my Macbook. Though here's hoping they make it crossplatform - I'm not going to hold my breath on that, but you never know.

[The Continental]

This is fantastic news, I can only home this translates into an MMO that permits as much freedom as EVE does. Love it or hate it, EVE is the only MMO out there that has successfully deviated from the tried and true formula pioneered by Everquest.

[BigJonno]

This reminds me of Rebellion buying 2000AD. It's like a bunch of geeks suddenly found themselves with a big pile of money and decided to go and buy a company they loved.

Anyway, as someone who played on the World of Darkness online chat game for a long time, I know this can be done incredibly well. WoD has a huge fanbase and World of Warcraft has shown that the MMORPG market is big enough for plenty of companies to take a slice and make lots of money.

A WoD MMORPG would not work if it was anything like a 'traditional' MMORPG. The Matrix Online has shown how to completely fuck up a modern-day/near-future game by shoehorning it into an EQ-style mould. Concentrate on making it a political game with all the different groups engaged in lots of politics and backstabbing and it could be amazing. Forget the grinding and the phat lewt and make a goddamn roleplaying game. Restrict characters so you can have one supernatural creature on each server but as many normal humans as you like.

In the aforementioned WoD chat, I used to play a Brujah. I'd interact with other Cam Brujah and Anarchs and a few other Cam vampires on a regular basis. I'd go to Elysium a couple of times a week to contact other clans. I'd also get into fights with the Sabbat fairly frequently. I didn't have a clue what the other clans were up to, even less idea about the Sabbat and barely knew the other supernaturals existed. If a WoD MMORPG can pull this off, it'll own me for months, if not years.

It'll take balls to do it right, but EVE is pretty different from other MMORPGs, so if any dev can do it, it's this one.

[Heretic Machine]

Oh, ok... they didn't buy White Wolf. The two companies merged. That makes much more sense.

[BigJonno]

Oh, ok... they didn't buy White Wolf. The two companies merged. That makes much more sense.

Yeah, it's a merger, but with White Wolf as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CCP.

[J Arcane]

Oh, ok... they didn't buy White Wolf. The two companies merged. That makes much more sense.
Read the story again. WW is now a fully owned subsidiary of CCP.

It's just standard PR practice to call it a "merger" even when it's really not nearly so mutual as that term makes it sound.

[Plomid]

Go Aisurando!!!

[derjester]

Wow.
I'm speechless. I trust CCP to make something Decent if not great out of the WW IP.

[Savok]

In other news apples and oranges looked at each for the first time, really looked and after a night of highly enjoyable rough sex are engaged to marry.

[Gambit]

I would be on a White Wolf MMO like something on something witty.

My personal favorite is Hobo on a ham sandwhich

[Heretic Machine]

Read the story again. WW is now a fully owned subsidiary of CCP.

It's just standard PR practice to call it a "merger" even when it's really not nearly so mutual as that term makes it sound.

Well, I guess it doesn't make sense again... The makers of an MMO with a cult following vs one of the industry leaders in the role-playing industry. I mean, to me, this is like the makers of the Zodiac buying out Nintendo. It completly boggles my mind.

[Savok]

Last I heard, Iceland's economy was booming, one of the few countries in Europe not totally fucked. May have something to do with it.

[J Arcane]

Well, I guess it doesn't make sense again... The makers of an MMO with a cult following vs one of the industry leaders in the role-playing industry. I mean, to me, this is like the makers of the Zodiac buying out Nintendo. It completly boggles my mind.
Simple. TRPGs don't make hardly any money. The margins are terrible, and gamers are cheapskates. Most RPGs are lucky to sell out a 5 digit print run.

EVE Online may only have about 125,000 player, but that still means $1,875,000 gross income per month.

Most tabletop companies would kill to make that much in a year. This is a small hobby market we're talking about, not something as big as vidgaming. D&D may do pretty well for itself, but that's because it sells as much as all it's competitors put together. Everyone else is just takign up the scraps. WW may be the second place contender, but they're back there a ways.

[Zeal]

Whatever happened to that one MMO coming called Dark World Online. I was actually very interested in that and it just vanished from existence.

I heard WW was gonna sue them or something.

[Madhatter45]

I still to this day run a regular Hunter: The Reckoning campaign. Just the thought of a WoD MMO makes me giddy with amounts of joy that cannot be measured.

[KingGorilla]

Did they buy White Wolf, or did they just remain in instance for a long period of time and acquired them ex nihilo?

[Tenebrae]

Whatever happened to that one MMO coming called Dark World Online. I was actually very interested in that and it just vanished from existence.

I heard WW was gonna sue them or something.
That game was to be developed by Tulga Games, makers of Horizons MMO. However, Tulga's owner - Chris Baker - sold the company's assets last spring/summer to E I Interactive (hereafter, EII). That means the developers were not part of the deal. Since that, EII has proven itself eminently incapable of running the said MMO. Tulga, without its sources of revenue (their game) has been more or less buried. I'm unsure of its state - may have closed doors or still exist as some kind of shadow company with zero employees. This more or less means that their Dark World Online is buried as well, unless the ex-CEO suddenly manages to secure funding for it (and a dev team, naturally). As for WW lawsuit, I haven't heard anything like that having been happening, at least on Tulga's public channels.

As a funny little aside, I'll mention something I heard recently; Tulga approached CCP in regards to their DWO MMOG back when they were planning it. Either just a coincidence, or may have given the CCP folks an idea.

[Heretic Machine]

That game was to be developed by Tulga Games, makers of Horizons MMO. However, Tulga's owner - Chris Baker - sold the company's assets last spring/summer to E I Interactive (hereafter, EII). That means the developers were not part of the deal. Since that, EII has proven itself eminently incapable of running the said MMO. Tulga, without its sources of revenue (their game) has been more or less buried. I'm unsure of its state - may have closed doors or still exist as some kind of shadow company with zero employees. This more or less means that their Dark World Online is buried as well, unless the ex-CEO suddenly manages to secure funding for it (and a dev team, naturally). As for WW lawsuit, I haven't heard anything like that having been happening, at least on Tulga's public channels.

As a funny little aside, I'll mention something I heard recently; Tulga approached CCP in regards to their DWO MMOG back when they were planning it. Either just a coincidence, or may have given the CCP folks an idea.

Are you talking about Horizons: Empires of Istaria? Because I thought that was made by "Artifact Entertainment," or something like that.

[FreezaSama]

I want another Vampire: The Masquerade game, now.

[Zeal]

I'll be happy if the Dark World MMO is anything like Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. It's the only Vampire game I played and I thought it was incredibly well made and engrossing.

Too bad Gabriel Knight series still owns everyone.

[Stormwatcher]

wow, that's pretty weird alright.
I hope they don't go all "Battletech: Dark Ages" on the World of Darkness.
And I wanna play a Wraith! I love Wraith!

[Tenebrae]

Are you talking about Horizons: Empires of Istaria? Because I thought that was made by "Artifact Entertainment," or something like that.
That would be the same. Tulga Games is - well was - Artifact's successor, with about the same staff as under previous company name. Artifact managed to avoid bankruptcy through chapter 11 proceedings and reorganized as Tulga afterwards. To return to topic though, I guess this 'merger' gives a world of darkness MMO as realistic chances of coming about as possible. I'm not myself a big fan WoD so can't say I'm really looking forwards to it. Still, I wonder if they'd put everything WoD-related into one MMO or if they'd concentrate on one aspect only (like vampires) as the p&p games do.

[J Arcane]

wow, that's pretty weird alright.
I hope they don't go all "Battletech: Dark Ages" on the World of Darkness.
And I wanna play a Wraith! I love Wraith!
Sadly it seems WW doesn't love them anymore. :(

Instead for the reboot, they went and made up some new game about flesh golems, and are even talking about reviving the insipid nonsense that is Changeling.

[Stormwatcher]

Well, Wraith was nearly impossible to play, anyway. I liked it more for the backstory than for the gaming goodness. But, fleshgolems??? :(