New World proved that the hunger for a modern MMO is clearly there—but the only studios with enough cash to make them are too shareholder-brained to try

New World character kneeling.

There's a feeling I've been trying to shake off, as I write about MMOs for this very site—that MMOs are a relic of the past. Dying not just to our shared lack of time, but also to an era of player that has aged out of its prior old school tendencies, like the elves sadly getting on a boat for the west. And while part of that's true, the recent spate of MMO news has me wondering if it's entirely our fault no new MMOs are coming out.

Corporate wisdom (which is oftentimes an oxymoron) would have you believe that live services are the new moneymaker (sure, if you hit it big, if you don't, you die) and that MMOs are unsustainable. To be fair to that wisdom, there are nuggets of truth in it. I don't mean to say that MMOs are a sure bet, far from it. MMOs are expensive, require constant maintenance, and competition is fierce because we don't like trying new stuff.