ArchLord not dead, says Codies

By Robert Purchese Published 17 July, 2007

Future content planned.

Codemasters Online Gaming has responded to claims that MMO ArchLord is dying out by saying its population has grown since launch and "still increases week on week".

But when pushed to reveal numbers for the amount of people currently playing, it coyly replied that that wasn't the trend in the genre.

"Unfortunately we are not in a position to release current subscriber numbers," a spokesperson for Codemasters Online Gaming told Eurogamer. "As with any MMO, publishers never release that information. Unless, of course, you are Blizzard and have over 8 million subscribers." Or Ankama Games with Dofus.

Questions arose over ArchLord's future after the publisher announced that it would be offering 6000 free in-game credits with every copy sold. These can buy you levelling aids in the Chantra Shop, where you would otherwise use real money to purchase goods.

Previous efforts to drive attention to the game have seen a subscription system come and go, and the price of the game slashed to around a tenner depending on which part of the world you're in.

But far from pull support, Codemasters is insistent that future content is on the schedule - the first thing being upcoming free expansion Episode II. This will add castle sieges to the game as well as the chance to finally become the ArchLord - with a USD 10,000 custom set of real-life armour awaiting the first one officially crowned.

"We have no plans to close the service at present," the spokesperson continued. "ArchLord is still very much in Codemasters Online Gaming's future plans with new content (in the form of Episode II) currently in testing and further content beyond that in development."

Codemasters Online Gaming also handles one of this year's big success stories, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Unlike ArchLord this reviewed well and has seen a surge in active subscribers, although no figures have been released.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (7) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Freelancepolice #1 5 years ago

    http://ac cordionguy.blogware.com/Photos/...

  • aldo_14 #2 5 years ago

    'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This mmorp is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker!

    'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the server 'e'd be pushing up the daisies!

    'Is processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig!

    'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!

    THIS IS AN EX-MMORPG!!

  • Clive_Dunn #3 5 years ago

    I think the "game owners" list on this one is like some sort of Wall of Shame.

    Get hitting those blobs guys.

  • Freelancepolice #4 5 years ago

    douché codemasters, douché

  • gaijin #5 5 years ago

    "the "game owners" list on this one is like some sort of Wall of Shame"

    its also very short. And one of them has elected to remain anonymous...

  • 4thVariety #6 5 years ago

    We totally will have no need to tell you the number of subscribers, because we... ...eeerrr... ...have no subscription based MMO... ...any longer. If we were Blizzard, we would of course tell you, provided that WoW had any subscribers, if we were Blizzard. Nonetheless our crack commando of game designers are proud to announce a nondescript expansion to our unnumbered customer base, available for release at an unspecified point of time for a yet to be named price.

    Future customers can rest assured that no matter how hard reviews might trash us on Amazon: This MMO is not dead, it is only sleeping.

  • Orange #7 5 years ago

    Hang on, the biggest selling point of this game and which I saw frequently advertised is that you could become Archlord, and yet nearly a year after release they still haven't brought that in?? That's very poor even by the low standards of mmo content promises.