Jumpgate Evolution Delayed

Perhaps emboldened by the similar setback to Champions Online, Jumpgate Evolution developer NetDevil has announced that the space MMO will not be released in June, as was originally planned. NetDevil's president, Scott Brown, said, "One of the things we've always promised is that we would not release an unfinished product, nor would we subject players to a sub-par experience. ... Jumpgate Evolution is nearly feature complete, but since entering the Friends & Family phase of testing we've been able to bring new eyes onto the game and get solid, crucial feedback from actual players and fans. Based on these results, it is clear that the product needs more time to meet its objectives. As an example, we have received and read lots of feedback regarding the instanced and public PvP systems. The feedback has been vital in helping us polish and improve this core feature of the game." A new release date has not yet been selected.

Netdevil may be on the cutting block

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Consider that everything about Gazillion Entertainment is geared towards making the most of the newly signed deal with Marvel, a delay in the schedule for Netdevil's latest project sounds more like a chance for employees to get their resumes in order than some commitment to quality. The longer the game development can be dragged along, the longer the engineers have to find new jobs. The manager is a good man, but may be sabotaging Gazillion's bottomline in the process.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. Treating employees like people is a much better strategy than treating them like expendable resources.

Too Bad

[Mutio]

Being a college student I was looking for a game to suck away my summertime (when im not working), so i was going to pick this up as soon as it released. I haven't actually been excited about a mmo since i used to play WoW. Being that this game will not be released during summer i will likely never pick it up, as i will be busy with school when this releases. I really hope that the late launch will not effect them, but assume they will be fine if they release around christmas.

Re:

[nschubach]

I know a lot of people who aren't in school who use MMOs to "get through" winter when they can't always go outside, go to bars, or hang out with friends... so there's always another side to it. Also, one of my friends hates gaming in the summer because it's always too hot with his video card and computer heating up his computer room. In the winter, he cracks the window.

In fact, I'd think there are a lot of people playing games to kill time in the winter. Right before spring/summer, the game market slumps

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[fucket]

I know a lot of people who aren't in school who use MMOs to "get through" winter when they can't always go outside, go to bars, or hang out with friends...

Why not just buy a coat?

Good for them.

[16Chapel]

Provided this isn't just spin, and "it is clear that the product needs more time to meet its objectives" doesn't mean We Just Realised That This Game Really Sucks.... fine.

Better to get it right before it's released, there's enough shoddy games out there already.

Still in "friends and family stage"???

[Digestromath]

Article says they are in their friends and family stage, which is essentially just end of alpha, pre beta stage. And they were going to release in June? I'm not sure who laid out milestones and delivery dates, but they seriously miscalculated the ammount of time necessary to bring a game from beta to polish. Good MMOs have taken at least 6 months to a year from a close beta to a successful launch. What the hell were they going to change in 2 months? What if one, or maybe two features needed redesigning? It's a good thing they are delaying it then.

Re:Still in "friends and family stage"???

[castironpigeon]

It's the new game development schedule. Everyone's doing it. You spend forever building hype about a game, have a lengthy family and friends alpha stage where seemingly nothing gets accomplished, do a one month public beta that's really just a demo for the fanbois since discs are already being burned and nobody is taking feedback seriously at this point, and finally distribute those discs madly before the hype wears off and anyone realizes how awful the game really is. If you're really good you'll have suckered a few of the fanbois into buying lifetime subscriptions. Tabula Rasa did it and so did Hellgate:London, so it must be a good thing! Oh.. wait...

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[cthulu_mt]

You forgot the massive release day patches that run to into the multiple gigs and crush their puny bandwidth.

Ahhh, Age of Conan...good times, good times.

Re:

[Digestromath]

A page from the Duke Nukem Forever School of Software Developement.

Not suprised...

[Peoii]

... but can't say I'm not disappointed either. Rather anxious for this release. All I can say for certain is that I'm really hoping that it's a polished release... last thing we need is another Warhammer release. Amirite?

Emboldened?

[TheLink]

> Perhaps emboldened by the similar setback

Embolden:
cheer: give encouragement to

To render (someone) more bold or courageous; To encourage, inspire, or motivate;

to make bold or bolder; hearten; encourage.

Re:

[16Chapel]

I thought it was a perfectly cromulent use of the word.

Re:Emboldened?

[immcintosh]

Your point? "To make bold or bolder; hearten; encourage." That is precisely what happened with respect to delaying their release date; an activity that is generally considered a "bold" move from the business standpoint. I'm not really sure what you're getting at. Makes perfect sense to me.

Hopefully JumpGate will remain JumpGate

[CubeRootOf]

From everything that I had seen on this game, it seemed like the developers were trying to change the formula of the original Jumpgate to something that more closely resembled some of the more successful MMO's on the market, like WoW, and Warhammer. They really lost sight of the fact that the people who played Jumpgate when it was first released in 01, are the same people who were not satisfied with those other styles of games then, and aren't now. Maybe the shock of having friends and family say 'Hey... this isn't jumpgate', will let them take another look at the game they are making a sequel to, and just keep what works, without trying to merge in what works in games made for a completely different audience. In other news - you can still play the original jumpgate free for two weeks. Graphics are dated, space is a little empty on the off hours, but the core of the game is still fun... if you like skill based games that encourage planning.

Re:

[nschubach]

some of the more successful MMO's on the market, like [...] Warhammer.

Warhammer was a success? 800K -> 300K subs... cutting back on their staff... It's following the wrong curve for success.

Deja Vu?

[Dan1701]

When I read the plot for Jumpgate Evolution, I get an incredible sense of deja vu. There's a very simple reason for this: their plot is pretty much identical to to that of the existing space-based MMO Vendetta Online, http://www.vendetta-online.com/ [vendetta-online.com]

Again, we have humans isolated in space away from Earth, with several different races and some credible aliens (run-away mining robots in VO, which have turned nasty). Again we have twitch-based player versus player combat, licences for ships, role-playing and so

Re:

[docbrody]

Valid points, but who cares about the backstory anyway. Games are about gameplay. That is the only difference that matters.

Re:

[FileNotFound]

VO is very much unpolished with absurdly difficult and twitchy controls.

There is very very little to do in VO and I'd hardly call it a complete and playable game.

Jumpgate will offer much more than VO, even if it ultimatley flops.

Not a bad thing

[mr_resident]

I was an early Beta tester for the first version of JumpGate and my experience with NetDevil was very positive. It was not unusual to get a response from the top guy, who was very technical and a total gaming god, to bug reports or feature suggestions. I loved the first JumpGate and was disappointed it didn't catch on.

Based on my experience with ND, if they say they need more time, it's because they want this game to be worth a gamers time and coin.

I played this game

[drinking12many]

its called EVE online and theyve been making it better for over 6 years. I just dont know how much room there is in the MMO world for additional ultra geek space games.

Re:I played this game

[nschubach]

I hated Eve because combat was slow and boring to me. I only hit the frigate classes, but it was enough for me. Jumpgate looked to be like Freespace or one of those more action oriented games. Eve was pretty much an online space-based spreadsheet with fancy graphics and tedious skill gains.

Lesson From Blizzard

[Ikonoclasm]

Anyone who's followed the MMO market for the past few years knows about Blizzard's "released when it's ready" policy, which guarantees the end product will be both fully featured and polished to a dazzling sheen. It's the reason Vivendi lets Blizzard do whatever they want with only minimal corporate guidance. The developers in Blizzard are the ones to set their schedule and if that means monstrously long development cycles, so be it. The end result is hundred million dollar franchises.

I've been looking forward to Jumpgate Evolution since I first learned about it. Having long been both an EVE and WoW player, my expectations are probably a bit on the high side. I've beta'd about two-thirds of all the MMOs that have come out and always observed a serious lack of polish crippling games with otherwise a lot of unrealized potential.

If ND is actually taking the time to polish the game and get it right like they claim they are, it's a smart move on their part. If they can assure a successful launch, they'll succeed where the vast majority of new entries to the MMO market have failed.

Re:

[ceswiedler]

Yes, a good dev team will "release when ready", but they'll also only schedule a release for a time when they're pretty sure it will be ready. A setback like this, so close to the scheduled release, points to a poor development process where a lot of issues weren't found until the (too-short) beta stage. It's a common situation for MMOs unfortunately.

The problem is usually that a lot of features aren't well-tested until beta, and so a lot of bugs crop up all at once. Notice how they say "almost feature com

Can anybody provide a summary of the game?

[dan_sdot]

Can someone describe the game? I looked on the website, and it looks like it is like Eve for the more casual player.

Re:

[FileNotFound]

It's EVE with guns...

Wait that didn't come out right. Ok. How about it's EVE but you actually fly your ship, aim and shoot instead of clicking "Warp to", "Target" and "Activate".

They will not have the same skill systems and pvp system.

EVE has a lot more tedium and prep downtime than any other MMO I have ever played. It's a lot more "work" than other MMOs. Please don't try to argue with me, I've played EVE since release till about a year ago. EVE is a great game in what it does, but if you ever sit back and