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Why are investors pouring huge sums of money into new MMO developers? Who is making these investments and what is the rationale? This article explores the recent spate of MMO funding and analyzes the market opportunity for aspiring MMO developers and publishers.
EVE Online developer CCP Games raised eyebrows recently when it announced a $40 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Perhaps you, like many of us here at Naavik, had a familiar reaction: “Yet another MMO…?”
While gaming entrepreneurs have never been shy about tackling ambitious projects, it seems that more and more studios are entering the fray with aspirations of developing massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). Historically, MMOs have been among the most expensive and complex genres to tackle for even the most experienced development teams. That’s due to these games’ massive scale, scope of work, technical challenges, and live service content treadmill.
Yet MMOs also yield some of the largest financial rewards to developers and publishers that can effectively execute. A successful MMO can last for several years, giving developers true staying power and potentially bringing in billions of dollars. When done well, the success of a single MMO can support a games business for five to ten years, and in some cases even longer.
