Posted 15 November 2013 - 07:39 AM
I think that the issue here is licensing. (Please correct me if I am wrong). I believe that PGI/IGP has the rights to produce an on-line game but not a stand alone game. I think a stand-alone game based on the same technology used in MWO would sell (I'd certainly buy it). However, I think that PGI would need to be a much bigger studio to be able to take advantage of this sort of opportunity. They just don't have enough people to do all the cool things that they might be able to do ...
1) Finish the fundamental features of MWO ... lobbies, better matchmaking, UI2.0, Community Warfare, social interactions
2) Port MWO to the next gen consoles for enhanced market opportunities ... for free2play the key is having a large player base and the new consoles could allow for access to a much larger player population ... but this can't be at the expense of essential fundamental feature development.
3) Negotiate for the rights to a single player game and build it around the same engine.
-The problems here are the significant additional art assets for both clan and IS mechs. However, since this is already being worked on for MWO there should come a time when art assets are not the limiting factor for a single player version.
- after art assets - the major issue is how easily the NPC interaction and AI could be scripted into the game. However, there are other games based on Cryengine which already do this so it is possible ... just not clear how much development work is involved
4) Market the single player version to both PC and the new consoles in addition to the the free2play MWO. Perhaps include an MWO mech in the single player version.
PGI has experience producing both Windows and console games.
A single player game could generate some synergy and pull more folks into MWO. I suspect the majority of MWO players were introduced to the franchise through one of the previous single player PC games.
Anyway, these are long term ideas and PGI simply does not have the staffing at the moment, in my opinion, to expeditiously execute on any of these ... even completing the fundamental features of MWO. However, time will tell ...
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