Monday, May 23, 2011

Rift player-base declining?

Depending on how you read into it that is a distinct possibility. Despite strong sales numbers, reports say many servers are low population during prime time hours, and recently the developers have announced free character and guild(!) transfers in the next major patch.

Quoted from their Facebook account:

"Gather your friends in RIFT and play anywhere, any time....

When the next major RIFT™ update hits early this summer, subscribers will be treated to a surprise – free character transfers. Trion Worlds announced today that with RIFT 1.3, players will have the ability to move to select servers in their territory once each week, taking all items, achievements, and titles with them. Additionally, guild leaders will be able to move their guild’s level and experience.

“MMOs are all about playing with your friends no matter which server they’re on, and that’s why we’re offering this as a free service to our subscribers,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer. “RIFT is both a game and a service, and adding free server transfers is just one more way we can make this the best possible MMO experience available.”

Whether you want to play with friends, check out a new server, or avoid queue times on highly populated servers, you’ll be free to move about Telara. As a part of this grand experiment, there will initially be no limits on the number of times you can transfer your characters or guild.

Character transfers will remain a free service for the foreseeable future, and could become a permanent addition to the RIFT experience. Subscribers will be able to perform the transfers inside of the game itself once the patch is live."

One has to wonder how long it will take them to be down to a few servers in the US like the once hyped Warhammer Online.

8 comments:

  1. Too bad, hard for a new MMO to sustain a player base.

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  2. it's really hard for these games to maintain a supporter base with the juggernaught of WoW still going strong.

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  3. I was thinking about trying the free trial. So much to do, though! ^^

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  4. It's literally impossible to compete with WoW, and it probably will be for another year or two atleast.

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  5. Yeah, you can't compete with WoW.

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