Thanks to Telefrog over on Quarter to Three for this tip. Apparently the space-based MMO Black Prophecy will be shutting down on September 26th, 2012, according to this post. I never got to play much of Black Prophecy my own self, so I have no personal comments on the game itself, but I just hope that everyone affected by this finds new jobs soon, and helps bring us more space gaming goodness.
That’s three spacey MMOs we’ve lost in the last year (this, Jumpgate and Star Wars Galaxies). It’s a shame that fantasy-based MMOs seem to thrive but space based, even sci-fi based games have trouble. They can’t all be EVE Online or try to copy its success, sure, but there has to be some way to launch a successful spacey MMO. Thankfully there is some hope on the horizon, especially in my opinion with BorderSpace. I just hope we see some more space-based MMOs in the future, as, to me, the fantasy schtick gets boring much more quickly than the space stuff (obviously, I’d think). Ah well, enough rambling, have a great day folks, and again good luck to all those affected by this closure.
Shame.
I don’t it was the gameplay itself as it was the cheap storyline, connectivity and performance issues, the instancing (it really didn’t feel like an MMO at all it was so instanced), there’s no sense of geography…
The ship controlling and shooty goodness are all fantastic, and that alone kept me playing for a long time. However, Freelancer was a successful game because it was not only easy to play, like BP, but also easy to navigate and easy to run.
Welcome to the blog Michael! And yeah, it apparently didn’t light anyone’s space game love on fire.
Wonder if it is worth signing up now, just to try it?
Welcome to the blog James, and I’ve honestly no idea. :/