End of Nations, Syfy "when they're done"
Rift maker Trion will take its merry time.
End of Nations and Syfy - the two other MMOs being made by Trion Worlds - will launch "when they're done". Trion has learnt from Rift that good things come to those who wait.
"They're both in development," Trion executive producer Scot Hartsman told Eurogamer, during an interview published today. "End of Nations is so far along it was actually playable on the floor last PAX [Penny Arcade Expo].
"Syfy is earlier on in development than End of Nations. But there's a full dev team in San Diego working on the Syfy game.
"The launch schedules on these," he added, "I'm very happy to say will be to launch them when they're done.
"Especially after seeing the success of Rift, we understand the value of holding onto them until they're awesome; when they're awesome, they'll ship. Obviously we have our development targets, but those are internal targets for people to aim for."
End of Nations was revealed last year with a tentative release date of 2011. Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War: Earth Assault developer Petroglyph is at the helm. Hartsman wouldn't be pushed on the likelihood of a beta test this year.
An MMORTS, End of Nations allows thousands of commanders to pit their forces against a constant, 24/7 AI Order of Nations threat. Experience earned during battle can be spent afterwards on your commander, as well as on buying units, abilities and pimping out your HQ.
Syfy, a tentatively named project, is a Trion collaboration with telly network Syfy. The idea is to have a game world and telly show interconnect, with events in each affecting both forms of entertainment.
The development of all three games - Rift, End of Nations, Syfy - was kick-started by a $100m investment in Trion. Hartsman told Eurogamer that Rift took $50m of that.
"The total investment in Trion was split across Rift as well as the two other titles as well as the development and engineering platform itself," he elaborated. "Keeping in mind that just the act of getting games to market and operating games and servicing games is a pretty damn big investment in itself."
Rift was released at the start of March and scooped a prestigious 8/10 on Eurogamer.
"Trion has proved that it is possible to produce an exquisitely polished, content-rich MMO from the moment of launch, setting a dangerous precedent for upcoming releases in the process. Bad news for publishers, great news for the rest of us," wrote Eurogamer reviewer John Bedford.