It would take a billion to tackle WOW

By Ellie Gibson Published 12 August, 2008

So says Football Superstars dev.

Monumental Games boss Rik Alexander has explained why is studio is producing an MMO based around football - rather than opting for a more traditional fantasy theme.

"Sports just makes the most sense," he told the audience at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, during an MMO roundtable. "Loads of people like football. At Monumental we want to take national pastimes and make them MMOs - things like fishing or trainspotting," Alexander said - though he was careful to note Monumental isn't currently working on any fishing or trainspotting-themed games.

"Fantasy is very well serviced. I'd need a billion quid to take on WOW," he added, to which Redbedlam boss Kerry Fraser-Robinson responded, "I could do it for a tenth of that."

Monumental's title, Football Superstars, isn't the only sports-themed MMO in development - but according to Alexander, it could be the best. "Other people are doing it wrong - sorry if that sounds a little bigheaded, but they're not thinking about it the right way or funding it the right way," he said.

"When we set up Monumental three years ago I didn't want to be a game developer. I didn't think it was a very good business model, for all the fundamental reasons - having to rely on publishers to give you money, 18 to 24 month development cycles...

"MMOs, you get one deal and it's there for 10 or 20 years, who knows. And that's really a good way to think about business." However, Alexander added, "The problem is obviously making a successful one in the first place."

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Rirekon #1 4 years ago

    I'm pretty sure you used almost the exact same headline about 6 months ago when someone else made that comment, it's also utter rubbish but hey.

  • rudedudejude #2 4 years ago

    I'd take the billion.

    And run off and hide under the stairs.

  • skillian #3 4 years ago

    Yes, didn't agree the last time that was a headline, still don't agree now.

    Although reading the article it sounds like it was just a throwaway line in conversation that Mr Alexander wouldn't actually agree with either.

  • mcmonkeyplc #4 4 years ago

    Star trek online baby! Gonna fuck you all up. AAAAAAAAAAWwwwwwwwww Yeah.

  • hiddenranbir #5 4 years ago

    Already signed his own death warrant. Shame, wanted a good football game.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #6 4 years ago

    Rule #1 of developing a MMO - Don't expect to be 'the next WoW' and design a game as such.

    It's only WAR, Spellborn, and the scifi and comic lot that have a slim chance NOT to fall over on their face as really those are the only devs not building a MMO 'to beat WoW' , they are just doing their own thing on hoping in the long run it pays off

  • asphaltcowboy #7 4 years ago

    Yeah, I think the billion thing might have just been some slight exaggeration... It's not fact!

  • penhalion #8 4 years ago

    Yep still nonsense. It would take a good game to beat Wow and that's it. As has been proven time and again, money has very little to do with the creation of a good game. Yes it helps to create great graphics but, does absolutely nothig to help create the great gameplay that needs to go along with it.

  • Goodfella #9 4 years ago

    WoW will only be beaten by WoW 2. :p

  • Zanuah #10 4 years ago

    A football MMO... really? Do they think there is a big enough of a market for that? As far as I know football games don't really sell to well outside of the US...

  • Tiberianus #11 4 years ago

    Redbedlam could do it for a tenth of that?

    Redbedlam could never do it. Roma who?

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #12 4 years ago

    @Zanuah - I think you mean American Football; this story is about the sport you possibly call soccer.

    SI are currently in BETA with their football/soccer MMO [link url=http://footballmanage rlive.com/
    ]http://footballmanage rlive.com/
    [/link]

  • NorfolkNClue #13 4 years ago

    @Zanuah - They're actually talking about what the rest of the world calls football, not american football. I doubt there's enough time in the world to play an American Football MMO, even if you speed game time up by 1000.

  • seasidebaz #14 4 years ago

    FFS, the quickest way to make it work is have MMO ON CONSOLE!! But none of this subscription model crap, have it as microtransactions for optional content

  • rudedudejude #15 4 years ago

    A Football MMO has the potential to be bloody massive, look at the amount of tards that spend hours playing championship manager .ahem... I mean the most overpriced Microsoft Access database.

  • actionfitz #16 4 years ago

    "Kremlik
    - Rule #1 of developing a MMO - Don't expect to be 'the next WoW' and design a game as such."

    True. about 10 million people are already playing wow, if your game is just another wow... why would they jump ship to your game?
    Wow is 'a bit good' you know ;) no point trying to re-invent the wheel... try giving us rollerblades or something intead :)

    /end metaphors

  • anomagnus #17 4 years ago

    bullshit

  • Zanuah #18 4 years ago

    @madgerald,Norfolk'n'Clue :: I see, my bad. :)

  • TheNinkyNonk #19 4 years ago

    How about spending a billion tackling cancer? Just a thought.

  • Emth #20 4 years ago

    @TheNinkyNonk

    Then they wouldn't be a game developer would they?

    If all the money in the world was spent on practical things, we would probably live very long, healthy and extremely boring lives.
    Edited by 2 at 12/08/08 @ 19:42

  • Curry_mad #21 4 years ago

    @ madgerald


    How is FML getting on?

    (I thought it *might* have been mentioned in the above News item, seeing though it's a similar idea. Then again, is this the same games-journo that was over critical on Family Ski?? :) )

    As for FML, I was beta testing last year and at first I thought it was great. But to be honest I kind of got a bit bored of it. Sometimes it felt like you had no real influence on how your team played, despite the tactics editor. And also the leagues seemed a bit dead, after some people would zip through all there games.

    Still, wouldn't mind knowing how they are getting on...

    Edited by 1 at 12/08/08 @ 20:18

  • Lamont #22 4 years ago

    It would take a trillion zillion billion...

    What a moron. All it going to take is a great new MMO ffs. WoW is ready to be toppled.

  • InfiniteFury #23 4 years ago

    "no point trying to re-invent the wheel... try giving us rollerblades or something intead :) "

    Hover-boards, really. To beat WoW at this point I think.

    Still WoW will have it's day there's no doubt about that. It will fade it will die, we'll all wonder what all the fuss was about then we'll log back into World of Starcraft.

  • Staggan #24 4 years ago

    We have a game, I wouldn't call it an MMO as such, although more MMO style elements will be added to the game over time, but even if we had unlimited finance, and added everything we wanted to our game and expanded it way beyond our wildest dreams, we would certainly not spend anywhere near $1Billion or close to even 10% of that.

    Yes our game still has a long way to go but we are doing it, like most independent developers, because we are passionate about our game and our ideas, and yes of course it would be nice to make some money along the way.

    Games are all about gameplay as far as we are concerned. Yes great graphics, great licenses and a great marketing machine can make a huge difference, but in the end if the game is FUN, easily accessible and rewarding to players word of mouth can make a game massively succesful.

    WoW is great at what it does, but comments like this can stifle creativity as everyone reads these articles and thinks they are fact. It stops developers and publishers trying and causes potential investors in those types of games to steer clear... maybe Blizzard started this rumour originally to stop the competition :)