I said WoW-Killer, not WAR-Killer!

Omali from MMO Fallout has an interesting thought about the future of Warhammer Online: Is it possible that being down to 1 server per continent means that the game is too far gone to be saved by a move to Free2Play? Will WAR be shut down after SWTOR has a hopefully successful launch and investors attention is distracted to that more successful venture? Wrath of Heroes might be all that remains of WAR.

There is a certain irony to the thought that with all the discussion about whether SWTOR is a "WoW-Killer", it could be that the MMORPGs actually killed by Star Wars: The Old Republic could be Warhammer Online and Star Wars Galaxies. You can't "kill" a *specific* other MMORPG by launching a more successful new one. Launching a successful new MMORPG will always draw some players from various other existing games, as well as hopefully draw in completely new players. That changes the market and the market shares, but not in a very directed manner. It is far easier to "kill" an already ailing game (even if it is from your own company) than the most successful product of the competition. I do think that SWTOR will have a significant effect on the MMORPG market, but not necessarily the one EA would most like.