Success for a game on Twitch is a finicky thing, and for a while, the MMO genre has been on the ropes as far as relevance goes in the streaming marketplace.
Like many recently released titles, new MMOs tend to make a quick mark on Twitch and fade into irrelevance just as fast, and that is often even the case of World of Warcraft expansions.
While WoW’s Race to World First raiding marathon often provides a short boost to the game, it typically descends into irrelevance again in the grand scheme of the Twitch marketplace for games as soon as the race is over.
Watching some videos on his stream today detailing some of the lore and potential elements behind Riot Games’ upcoming MMO, Sodapoppin took some time to discuss the health of the genre that he believes isn’t making a comeback anytime soon.
“I don’t know if any new MMO will ever feel like ‘alright this is the game to play for the next couple of years and I’m just going to grind the fuck out of it for years,’” he said. “It might be like every WoW expansion where it’s really fun for a month, but as soon as it starts to die out it really dies out, and then it’s just dead.”
Soda is not only one of the OG’s of Twitch as a platform, but he also has a reputation for his skill and interest in MMO’s. He most notably over the years carved out a niche as being especially skillful as a Feral Druid in WoW, a class that is often picked on by the game’s community.
Walking through some of the recently released MMOs, and some of them to come, he talked about the lack of long term impact games like Lost Ark, New World, and Ashes of Creation either had or will have.
While he generally seemed to have a pessimistic view on the genre’s long-term streaming potential, Soda added that there is one scenario in which the genre could see some sort of turnaround.
“This Riot MMO, when it releases six years from now, that to me, if it doesn’t do well, I entirely give up on the MMO genre doing well ever again,” he said.
Riot’s MMO is certainly far from release, and could very well have the same sort of fate that other MMO’s before it experienced, but one of the biggest developers putting its hands in the space may serve as a final opportunity for the genre to get a much-needed revamp.
