One Game To Rule Them All: Mythic’s Mark Jacob Discusses Warhammer

With Mythic Software, already possibly the leading name in game development, the question became: Where do you go from up? The answer, as we all now know, was to go to a franchise that was in itself a leading name, in this case, Warhammer.

The WH story goes back to the early 1980’s book entitled World of Warhammer. The advantage – and the risk – for Mythic lay in the fact that WH had a vast, established fanbase. On one hand, there was a ready audience. On the other hand, such an audience would have expectations that might be challenging to meet.

Mythic boldly went forth, and fans were not disappointed. Warhammer: Age of Reckoning took MMORPG’s Best of Show at E3 2006. According to Mark Jacobs, CEO of Mythic, its not the first time his company has taken a gamble. Five years ago, when they launched Dark Age of Camelot, Jacobs sold part of the company so  his company could publish the title themselves – and we know the rest of the story…

Jacobs said that, all other considerations aside, “Users want a great game. Blizzard did a fantastic job,” he adds, referring to the foundation laid by that company. Asked if he was concerned about possible comparisons to World of Warcraft, he said “WoW is the more important MMO, not only of the decade but it is clearly the most important MMO of its age. Will users look at this game and go ‘itÂ’s Warcraft, so I wonÂ’t play it?Â’ God, I hope not. Will they look at it and say ‘it has orcs and elves and stuff so I want to play it?Â’ I hope so.” Acknowledging that many MMO games such as Everquest, Warcraft and Lord Of The Rings Online have many elements in common, but that “…the key is making a great game, in the end.”

Via PC Gamezone

With Mythic Software, already possibly the leading name in game development, the question became: Where do you go from up? The answer, as we all now know, was to go to a franchise that was in itself a leading name, in this case, Warhammer.

The WH story goes back to the early 1980’s book entitled World of Warhammer. The advantage – and the risk – for Mythic lay in the fact that WH had a vast, established fanbase. On one hand, there was a ready audience. On the other hand, such an audience would have expectations that might be challenging to meet.

Mythic boldly went forth, and fans were not disappointed. Warhammer: Age of Reckoning took MMORPG’s Best of Show at E3 2006. According to Mark Jacobs, CEO of Mythic, its not the first time his company has taken a gamble. Five years ago, when they launched Dark Age of Camelot, Jacobs sold part of the company so  his company could publish the title themselves – and we know the rest of the story…

Jacobs said that, all other considerations aside, “Users want a great game. Blizzard did a fantastic job,” he adds, referring to the foundation laid by that company. Asked if he was concerned about possible comparisons to World of Warcraft, he said “WoW is the more important MMO, not only of the decade but it is clearly the most important MMO of its age. Will users look at this game and go ‘itÂ’s Warcraft, so I wonÂ’t play it?Â’ God, I hope not. Will they look at it and say ‘it has orcs and elves and stuff so I want to play it?Â’ I hope so.” Acknowledging that many MMO games such as Everquest, Warcraft and Lord Of The Rings Online have many elements in common, but that “…the key is making a great game, in the end.”

Via PC Gamezone