We’ve seen one of the greatest years for MMO gaming in a longtime with 2012. We’ve seen industry acknowledgement for new tittles in the MOBA genre and things have never looked sweeter for fans of the zombie MMO, but what have we got to look forward to in 2013? Below I’ve highlighted some of the more anticipated titles scheduled to hit our screens next year.
You can’t discuss next years top MMO games without mentioning DayZ. The grand daddy of the online zombie genre has seen massive amounts of success as a mod for Arma II, bringing the game back to the top seller spot on Steam months after release. Rocket and co recently celebrated the 1 millionth user to try DayZ, building even more hype for the games standalone release early next year.
We don’t really know that much considering the release is so close. We have been told that a console version is a possibility and the game will be using a heavily modified version of the Arma II engine. The developers have also promised all of the juicy goodness from the original DayZ, without the confusingly clunky user-interface of Arma II.
For all the latest on the development cycle of DayZ you can check the official website or follow Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall on Twitter.
Arguably one of the most innovative MMO projects of our time. Dust 514 is the brain child of CCP Games, the same development team behind the hugely popular EVE Online. Dust 514 is one of the first games to offer players the ability from two different gaming platforms to communicate and even affect the universe in each game. EVE Online players will be able to patrol space surrounding the planets while dozens of individual fights on the surface change the outcome of the war.
There’s no doubt that Dust 514 is pushing the boundaries of both console and MMO play but the technical challenges behind the project are mind boggling, leaving some skeptics to believe the end product may lack in terms of technical stability. It all sounds so amazing right? Well sadly if you’re a PC fan you are going to miss out as Dust 514 has been announced as a PS3 exclusive, but it will be free-to-play.
For more information you can visit the official Dust 514 website.
The game that promised to deliver so much to the hardcore fans of the MMO world but may fall short as feedback from the beta hasn’t been the greatest. Wizardry Online was originally created for release in Japan on the Gamepot network but in June of this year Sony Online Entertainment announced that they’ll be pushing the title to Western shores.
It promises to bring a variety of unique features to the MMO space, such as the fabled perm-death mechanic, but many have said it’s going to slip up due to the quality of graphics and the lackluster combat system. Some good news though, the game is currently in open beta so if you’re interested you can jump straight in and try the latest MMO to join SOE’s constantly expanding arsenal.
You can sign up to the open beta here or you can get a sneak peak of the features in our Wizardry preview