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Do you think my.com can handle the publishing of Ashes of Creation?
ArchivedUser
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Like many of you, I was in shock when I found out that my.com was the publisher for ashes in the EU and after listing to steven yesterday in the discord I felt that a lot was said, but we did not get any hard answers. I know the EU comunity is not happy with this arrangement, but if this is what intrepid has decided, then I would like to have faith that they know what they are doing. I am keeping my personal feeling to a minimum in this post as I want to see what you, the comunity thinks about my.com. If steven is right and my.com has changed do you believe they have the resources and workforce to publish ashes in the EU?
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So ill wait and see but like I said i dont have high hopes
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HqGAB1Z5xG-aqJYY0j1R1oGMEcWeAYRSNXoixalPNgc/edit
There is however, a sort of bright side to this case which makes me think it wouldn't end as badly as My.com's previous MMO's. The contract, while the details given are minimal, seems to be fairly strict about several things. They won't have control over any content in the game or when/if patches are delivered in a timely manner. They apparently will also only be partially responsible for maintenance and customer service. This is all according to the discord Q&A yesterday. The less control My.com has, the less corners they can cut. But, this still leaves them with enough responsibility to cause a pretty terrible customer experience.
I don't think EU players have to worry about AoC becoming P2W or not being properly localized. But account security, data selling and server performance remain very concerning.
The truth is, I don't believe Steven is intentionally trying to throw EU players under the bus. I think he got bamboozled by some smooth talkers at My.com who recognized his situation and told him everything he wanted to hear. My.com smelled the money growing on trees and pounced on the opportunity, securing probably the best deal they're ever likely to get.
I think this partnership will be damaging to AoC (given My.com's reputation at the very least), but it won't kill it. I'm no lawyer, but if it gets really bad or My.com is unable to meet the terms of the contract then the partnership could very well end. It's too early to tell how it will play out in the long run, however, it is very concerning.
Edit: There's one more thing I forgot to include. The original plan was to self publish the game in every region I believe, but since then the EU passed the GDPR. Again, I'm no lawyer, but this apparently makes it much harder and more expensive to publish in the EU, so it was likely a large factor in the decision to go with an EU publisher.
I mean we have seen so many MMO's go down at release and none of them is going to get a second chance. They will struggle until they go maintenance mode and hopefully they got some money back from those mmo's, but mostly not. So there is no room for wait and see. It is this one time only release and that is it.
If you have a publisher who already shown how terrible they handle the games the publish, why would anyone want to pick them for the EU market. EU is huge and have tons of players, why does it feel like you just dumped us?
Based on these forums, My.com and mail.ru is russian and only cares about money. <i know that people think this is a negative but if money is in their best interest, then they may be willing to help the players just this once. One can only hope however...
I'd also like to know who else Steven was in talks with but i doubt he is allowed to release that information
Yeah, I doubt we'll get that info and tbh, I think there'd be unhappy folks whoever else got the publishing deal. My hope was that IS would self-publish but it's not going to happen. If region locking is confirmed as a no go on Friday then we get to try and see if my.com manages to surpass expectations at launch or bolt to the US if concerns materialise. Either way, I'm too invested in this game to walk away over this as some have hinted at. I really believe in what Steven and Intrepid are doing with Ashes.
It's been an exhausting two days with all the my.com drama but I'm hoping Alpha 1 will take everyone's minds of it, and help us refocus on the most important thing - the game.