3 Xbox 360 MMO’s That Never Were

The word is out that there is another Xbox 360 MMO in the works. On top of that, the word “zombie” is also in the mix and is beginning to spark the interest of the millions of Xbox 360 users.

These 360 fans though have been promised various MMOs, and no developer has delivered on that promise. This has created tons of skepticals in the community and even some gamers that just laugh to themselves and others when they hear a new one is on the way. These aren’t ridiculous thoughts though, developers have pulled on their heart strings a little too much and seem to hang the console gamers on a string just playing with them and egging them on just to end up never delivering. Here are three that are most notable in my eyes.

MARVEL UNIVERSE ONLINE aka CHAMPIONS ONLINE

This game was announced for the Xbox in 2007. It was introduced with a trailer showing off high end renders of our favorite super heroes like Wolverine and then putting up a huge title in the spotlight MARVEL UNIVERSE ONLINE! The game was in development by Cryptic Studios famous for their superhero MMOs.

Well the project was cancelled and turned into Champions Online. Champions Online an MMO similar to City of Heroes/Villains, but also claimed that they will be offering it on the Xbox 360 as well. The game released on September 1st of 2009 on the PC.

March 24th, 2010 comes around and Cryptic CCO Jack Emmert lays the blame on Microsoft being too slow. It later surfaced that they couldn’t agree on a pricing model for the Xbox 360. More than likely because Atari was losing tons of money, and when Microsoft wanted to tackle a different type of pricing model (seeing as they already charge for their own service) things got heated and messy.

Now Champions Online just recently went free-to-play like Lord of the Rings Online. I don’t think it will work that well for them compared to LOTRO and even then they still don’t allow you major features until you pay. For example LOTRO doesn’t allow you to create a wizard if you don’t pay. That is one of the main classes needed for a strong and diverse party right?

HUXLEY

Huxley is one of the most interesting and confusing timelines to follow. I followed Huxley personally seeing as Webzen was offering an MMOFPS on the Xbox 360 starting all the way back into 2006. They claimed large scale battles, character classes, and that it was coming to Xbox.

They stuck with this claim until 2009, where at E3 they said that although the title was supposed to initially release with cross-platform capabilities (PC+Xbox) they were cutting that from development and that the feature would be on hold.

The game finished closed beta last I heard and has no plan to coming to consoles unless the PC sales are strong. The trailer belows shows you why I was so excited about this game.  I was 16 and I was ready for some co-op action with friends and thats when Webzen ripped my heart straight from my chest and put out their cigarettes on it.

ALL POINTS BULLETIN

This is the most disappointing one to me. All Points Bulletin came out for PC momentarily until it closed down very briefly after release. Realtime Worlds, the creators of Crackdown decided to create a Cops and Robbers game on the Xbox 360/PC. Do you need to say more? Really? Cops and Robbers? Xbox Live? IM THERE!

The game didn’t turn out the way they anticipated though. I participated in the beta and enjoyed it with some friends. The customization was incredible and the gameplay was fun.I was alone in that thinking apparently, because former staff spoke to the press about the development process, including a lack of management focus and desire to ignore negative comments from beta-testers, and the substandard quality of gameplay including poor driving and shooting mechanics  It is making its way back up with beta sign-ups though and under a free-to-play company (GamersFirst) in control now.

That is not the story though. As I said it was set to come out for the Xbox 360, with its first trailer showing in 2007. As you can see above Webzen had their hands in that cookie jar too. Reports of the game still kept coming all the way into 2009. Until they finally said, “They plan on releasing it still.” Now I don’t understand what  that means exactly but in my mind I don’t see them putting a note on a cork-board like “Don’t forget, Xbox version!” and then coming back to it. I see them working hard on the game they are making and not even remembering that they said it will be coming to the Xbox.

I was unable to trace the bread crumbs any further but apparently it just was never talked about. After the storm that followed release I think it put the cherry on top and anyone wanted to discuss that situation either.

All three of the games could have been great on the 360 and I know I would have been part of their fanbase. Our only hope now is Undead Labs and Microsoft figuring out a solid pricing model for Xbox 360 gamers that works and that will also keep them running for more than a month. I am on my hands and knees saying, “Please Undead Labs, I have been hurt before, and I don’t know if I can take another heart break.”