Virtual Worlds #17: A Mythical Union

Yes, it's true. Mythic, one of the longest-established independent development studios in the MMO world, was bought this week by publishing mammoth Electronic Arts for an undisclosed sum. EA Mythic, as the new studio will be known, will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of EA, and be dedicated to the development of massively multiplayer games. Given EA's less than stellar reputation, both for handling MMOs and ethical buyouts, could this be bad news for fans of Mythic's most popular game, Dark Age of Camelot, and the many followers of its upcoming Warhammer Online?

Financial terms of the acquisition might not be public, but you can bet Mythic didn't come for free -- EA's investment in this nine-year-old studio has to be considerable. Which, considering what happened last time EA started throwing its cash around in an attempt to become a player in the online market, is more than a little surprising.

As followers of the genre will know, EA history in the MMO world is problematic. With the exception of the pioneering and hugely successful Ultima Online, the company's road into online worlds has been paved with disaster. Some of its attempts were well-founded but failed thanks to lack of advertising and support, while others, like Majestic, were just too unusual to gain traction.

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Even struggling (or downright defunct) MMOs are rarely closed, but EA has done so more than any other publisher. Earth and Beyond and Motor City Online both closed after disappointing sales and tiny subscriber counts. Ultima Online 2 and EA's unnamed Harry Potter MMO game were canned before seeing the light of day. The Sims Online remains open for business, but with subscriber figures last seen somewhere around 35,000 (even fewer than Sony's disastrous PS2 experiment Everquest Online Adventures), it could hardly be called a success.

With EA's painful -- and largely abortive -- attempt to enter the massively multiplayer market during the early years of this decade over, it's been a while since the software behemoth has turned out anything with an online play mode more developed than Madden's. It's into this somewhat uncertain atmosphere that Mythic has chosen to step.

The timing is also curious, coming at a point where the MMO market, dominated by World of Warcraft, seems to be favoring smaller, more specialized development companies. Companies like NCsoft, maker of City of Heroes, Lineage, and Guild Wars. Or even Blizzard, which might be ridiculously well-off and owned by Vivendi, but retains much of its own independence and identity. Sony Online Entertainment might be one arm of a huge conglomerate, but all it does is make online games, and, tellingly, attracted back Sigil after its publishing deal with Microsoft (for the eagerly-anticipated Vanguard) didn't work out.

EA's move back into the MMO sphere represents both an acceptance and a challenge to this doctrine -- smaller organizations are better suited to publishing MMOs, so what better solution could there be than to buy one of the best?