Uru Live (2003)

From MYSTlore

Uru Live, in context of the years 2002-2004, was a cancelled massively multiplayer online game ^(Wikipedia) (MMOG) version of Uru, developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft.

After several periods and stages of testing, Rand Miller announced^[1] (on behalf of Cyan and Ubisoft) on February 4th, 2004 that the project was aborted, and that servers would cease to run on February 9, citing failure to generate enough potential subscribers. Among fans, this has been in heavy debate ever since, with many accusing Ubisoft of not having given the project its due chance.

For many fans, the product represented a very highly- and long-anticipated project of Cyan's, making its cancellation agonizing.

However, many details of what went right and wrong were never disclosed, and a fair analysis is therefore, for better or worse, not possible in public; rather, much of the discussion amounts to mere speculation and hypothetical "what if" scenarios, as opposed to actual information. At some points, the controversy also became so non-constructive and personal (accusing particular people) that it was better left alone.

[edit] Criticisms

[edit] Lack of actual release

While it went through various stages and forms of testing (dubbed Choru, Ubiru, the Prologue and the Rehearsal), Uru Live never actually had a "release"; it was constantly in beta. There were never paid subscriptions, and even the monthly fee was never disclosed, although a price point of $12-$15 was likely, based on what comparable MMO games cost.

This is a key point because Cyan apparently felt (and many testers would agree) that the product was nowhere near stable enough to be ready, and that more time in working out problems (such as bugs, crashes, and lag) was needed. That, in turn, means more importantly that many never joined or showed interest to begin with, turned off for lack of stability.

It is conceivable that many would have signed up after an announcement that testing was over, that a sufficient milestone of stability had been reached, and that details on how subscriptions will work and what they will cost have been worked out and are publicly available, but none of this ever happened.

On the other side, Ubisoft had invested a sizeable amount of money and other resources (such as servers, community contacts, a new forum software and several websites) to bring it even to the state of Prologue to begin with, and any further day of delays and of insufficient stability probably meant further costs.

[edit] Ubisoft's questioned multiplayer interest

Some argue that Ubisoft generally wasn't as enthusiastic about a multiplayer online concept to begin with. From very early on in their involvement with Uru, they apparently started deemphasizing the multiplayer aspect.

Based on Mudpie, Uru was at first apparently to become multiplayer-only: the working title Myst Online was jointly announced by Cyan and Ubisoft, and a now-defunct website created accordingly. In addition, when Uru was first stated as the final name for the product, some t-shirts were handed out to fans featuring the slogan "Online Ages Beyond Myst". Soon after, this was rather quietly changed to read just "Ages Beyond Myst", as can still be witnessed as the subtitle of the original box, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.

Focus began to shift further towards offline gameplay when the Ubiru testers were asked, surprisingly, to concentrate on finding problems in the single-player aspects of the game. This confused many, as the existence of an external beta test was unusual and primarily the case because Uru was to be online.

Also, round the same time as they pulled the plug on Uru Live, Ubisoft also backed out of several other MMO games, such as The Matrix Online, which was subsequently picked up by another publisher.

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Untìl Uru

Many fans argued that, as an alternative, they would like to be able to host their own Uru Live-like servers. After about half a year, in August 2004, Cyan Worlds announced Untìl Uru, which allowed this, albeit with a few limitations, and a one-time registration fee. This still has a central authentication server, run by Cyan, but the data servers, hosting configuration and handling clients, are run by fans.

[edit] D'mala

In early 2006, Cyan announced their own shard, D'mala, stating "cautious optimism" that this may be a sign of an Uru Live revival to come. They also changed Untìl Uru to be completely free, dropping the previous fee.

[edit] GameTap, Myst Online: Uru Live

In mid-2006, GameTap offered to give the concept another try, with only major changes. This new attempt is also known as Uru Live, or more officially as Myst Online: Uru Live.

[edit] References