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GameTap: Myst Pass-Back Benefits Fans
Posted by Leigh Alexander at 5:20 AM on July 2, 2008
As we reported earlier, the latest twist in the long and difficult life of Myst Online: Uru Live now sees the game handed back to its creators, Cyan Worlds, who said they'll relaunch the game later this year. The reason for GameTap surrendering the project? The company says it's just better for the fans.
"Cyan Worlds has been a great partner to GameTap", said content VP and creative director Rick Sanchez. "It's just the right thing to do, giving Cyan and the fans the opportunity to continue to enjoy this rich universe that has become a second home to many of its inhabitants."
The fan-favourite Uru Live getting shifted out of GameTap's portfolio for good comes just after Turner's content delivery network shuttered its editorial division and canceled its Galactic Command publishing deal with outspoken developer Derek Smart.
Amid all these issues, we asked Sanchez if there might be some difficulties at GameTap:
Sanchez reiterated that the editorial closing was so GameTap could focus more on other areas, which he detailed. "The reason we are moving away from editorial content is to focus our energies and resources on building our game library and new initiatives such as browser based games and expanded community features", he said.
"Our model hasn't changed, we will continue to offer our paid subscription service of more than 1000 games, ad-supported free play on GameTap.com, and titles for purchase via digital download in our online store."
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
DukeOfPwn
Posted 5:56 AM 2/7/08
Though I am a Myst fan, I hated URU Live. The group puzzles were really dumb (OK, everyone, stand at your post! I will click first, and the other 15 of you have to click after me, in order, and you each only have 1 second to do it! You won't be able to tell if the person in front of you has done it unless they type at an ungodly speed!), and the rest of the game was just looking at stuff and playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. It has died twice, and for good reasons; it would be foolish to try a third time.
DukeOfPwn
superbabyproject
Posted 5:54 AM 2/7/08
This reminds me actually, check out how awesome this teacher thinks he is : [www.timrylands.com]
superbabyproject
endaround
Posted 5:51 AM 2/7/08
Gametap always seems like it should be doing better than it is. And I wonder how many games they can keep getting facing ROMs on the PC and publishers being able to charge $10 on consoles. 1/2 of Gametap ads always seem to be from other TW properties, basically not worthless but in some sense just shifting money around.
endaround
supervillain
Posted 5:50 AM 2/7/08
Let myst online die.
supervillain
superbabyproject
Posted 5:49 AM 2/7/08
@Arsenicberyllium: Fallouts? For free?
superbabyproject
vid
Posted 5:43 AM 2/7/08
No matter what happens to the game world, things like this are further proof that the true concept of "uru" will always live on in some form.
I'll see you all on Day 1 with my Relto at my hip and my KI on my hand.
vid
Arsenicberyllium
Posted 5:35 AM 2/7/08
Oh well. As long as they keep bringing the Fallouts, they can drop as many worthless, boring games as they want.
Arsenicberyllium
Kato
Posted 6:35 AM 2/7/08
You all need to remember that the Cyan-sanctioned Guild of Writers ([guildofwriters.com]) (which I run) is probably going to be providing content for this potential new version, at least from what the announcement sounds like.
Kato
YourAnthony
Posted 6:34 AM 2/7/08
@DukeOfPwn:
I wanted to try it but it looked like a sleep fest so I held back.
YourAnthony
Manator Is Sorry
Posted 7:35 AM 2/7/08
Maybe if this game brought in free voice chat it might succeed. Everytime I have interest in this thing, it always gets shut down.
Manator Is Sorry
dawimp523
Posted 7:20 AM 2/7/08
I tried it on GameTap, but 1.) it was really slow on my XP desktop, and 2.) I couldn't get past the first part!
So, I never got to do the "group" activities. I don't care that they're trying to revive it again, but Myst fans might.
dawimp523
Kato
Posted 8:11 AM 2/7/08
URU does have free voice chat. It's configurable in the options.
I'd really appreciate it if you all who never have gave it a chance :)
Kato
skatterfelt
Posted 8:15 AM 2/7/08
@Manator Is Sorry:
This game has voice chat. Granted, it kinda sucks, and few people use it... but it's there.
skatterfelt
Iczer2
Posted 12:03 AM 3/7/08
Uru Live. Wow, I haven't been in it since I was tester before they decided to shelve the Live portion the first time around.
I thought it was a lot of fun, and the settings were gorgeous. But I can see where people might not like it, being you have to solve puzzles, and use your brain instead of having to kill random monsters over and over again or mine the asteroids for 5 hours for a couple of bucks to continue needlessly upgrading equipment.
Yeah, I can definitely see how Uru could be a snore fest.
Iczer2