(press release)
(Taipei, TAIWAN) - UserJoy Technologies, the Taipei, Taiwan-based game studio behind the successful Chinese MMORPG The Legend of Three Kingdoms Online, The Twin Heroes Online, the newly-released Angel Love Online, and the successful PC title Fantasia Sango today announced that they have selected the BigWorld Technology Suite as their development platform for future games.
Tse Wen, Chu, General Manager at UserJoy is excited about the agreement. ?It takes a lot of time, human resources, and risk to engage in developing a next-generation MMOG engine. After a detailed 3 month evaluation, we decided to use the most professional engine for online games; that is the BigWorld Technology Suite, which has been particularly developed for MMOG.? Chu continued ?It saves us plenty of time, manpower, and cost to use the BigWorld Technology Suite, allowing us more time and people to concentrate on the essence of the game and developing innovative gameplay. Meanwhile, the integral support and training session provided by BigWorld allows us to get into production and start the project right away.?
The BigWorld Technology Suite, which will be shown to the industry this week at the ChinaJoy expo in Shanghai, is an integrated set of tools, software and systems that provides all of the underlying technology and content development tools required to produce an MMOG. BigWorld has licensed their technology for use a number of highly anticipated games, making it the de facto standard MMOG development platform.
John DeMargheriti, CEO of BigWorld, was similarly excited. ?It is an honour to be selected by UserJoy Technologies as their MMOG platform. UserJoy have consistently created highly-rated MMORPGs and we look forward to working with their very talented staff and seeing the exciting new games that they will produce on the BigWorld platform.?
BigWorld Technology Suite provides operators and studios with a lower total cost of ownership through several innovations. The BigWorld Server architecture allows operators to run several games on a single server cluster, dramatically reducing the cost of running the game, while the enhanced Content Creation Pipeline reduces the cost of building and filling out the complex worlds required in next-generation games.
Michael Shih, President of UserJoy, also praised BigWorld?s strategy of constant technology development ?MMOG technology evolves very fast and selecting BigWorld Technology Suite allows us to stay at the forefront of this very competitive market.?
"BigWorld has licensed their technology for use a number of highly anticipated games, making it the de facto standard MMOG development platform.".. erg.. de facto.. standard? Thats some sort of typo right? No released games with it, but its a standard? Mah.. maybe I missed something.
I see what you mean Grover, but nonetheless congrats to them, its positive news, no need to make it negative :)
No - this is the usual Aus industry pump - a little over the top. Makes everything seem alot better than it really is. Id prefer a sprinkle of truth anyday than a smattering of BS... Why do this in any case? If it s a product that _does_ stand on its own merits, tell us why, not some horrible claims that make them seem very out of touch even? Im sure NCSoft would have a few things to say about their claim?
On this matter of self hype - its one of the reasons there are issues with this industry here. They should realistically place their system at the relevant level (with no titles published, they have simply no claims to fame as yet) , especially at the early stages of contracts, so that there arent overblown expectations to say exceed companies like NCSoft? Untried, and unproven, is part of risk management - should the titles involved do well, then there is every reason to celebrate, but they are expected to succeed, arent they, with the defacto standard engine? If they do ok, then they are seen as failing, and if they do horribly poor, what then? At least if they were more realistically inclined, the expectations would be relative to the results. Its simply bad business to promise the world.. even before there is any way to measure an outcome.
We see this in our media all the time about Aus game company efforts - and most of the time, the truth is substantially stretched in favour of glorifying the egos of the developer. Sadly.. this is actually a very un-Australian thing to do, and not good for our industry as a whole. Builds up resentment, distrust, lots of chest beating and "we are the best in Aus" type thing, as well as diluting our credibility overseas. Not something I like to see to be honest - but thats just mho.
Sometimes being realistic can appear negative. I think though.. a little realism is good for the soul.
A little realism helps keep you grounded, and helps you build more effective plans for the future.
Nice post Grover, it is a shame that more often that not, posting comments like that get you attacked by those that don't want to hear them, and prefer to live a fantasy instead.
The reality is its good news that they got a contract, and yes its the typical PR stuff, but every company the world over will tout their own whistle if they get the chance.
Yep AC - totally agree. Its a marketing blurb. But a blurb that everyone in the industry knows is a tad "way off". And thats the diff between what we write here in Aus vs what would be published in the US for instance. Theyd be taken to town in the US if they claimed this. Its because we are very insular here, and many Aus companies take advantage of that, and use it as a way to "chest beat" their products. But from the US looking in, it looks like a bunch of teenage kids bragging about how kool their scooters are - not a good way to garner support from big publsihers, by saying those sorts of outlandish things.
Grover do you know of any other MMOG development suites with a better list of licensees? Do you actually know what the BigWorld development suite has to offer for MMOG developers?
I don't on both counts, so I can't comment either way. MMO developers are choosing their tech after evaluating it though, so they must be doing something right.
The Chinese MMO market is huge, and offers a lucrative opportunity for a company like BigWorld. The fact that they've broken into that market is worth chest beating about IMO.