OT: AirWarrior hurting by AH, FA II and future sims?

[Westy]

 I was emailed this news bit this am:
 http://airwarrior.gamestorm.com/page.cgi?include=/news/aw4&header=headers/news&menu=news/newsmenu
 
 On the surface it would appear that Aces High (espceially), Fighter Ace II, Simguild and in the future WWII Online  as well as WB3 may be more than a tired AW3 can expected to hold up against. It's already the oldest of all the sims and it's showing heavily I imagine..
 So has an alarm has been sounded off in the musty old halls of Kingodm Kesmai??
 Conjecture and speculation anyone?

    -Westy

[Mickey1992]

(Can't get link to work)  (

Is it just my browser, or is the text of the AW3 user agreement the same color of the background?  Making it invisible unless highlighted.

https://prism01.gamestorm.com/AW-signup/agreement.asp?strContPage=AddLogin.asp

I guess they don't want you to read the line about "Email from third parties".

Mickey

[This message has been edited by Mickey1992 (edited 05-12-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Mickey1992 (edited 05-12-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Mickey1992 (edited 05-12-2000).]

[Baddawg]

There comes a time when,  even  your favorite old car gives up the ghost and  its time ,to replace it with a newer model.

Rust has probably eaten through the old Air warrior engine.
                                             "Instead, we will apply all of its technical and design advancements to our "bread and butter" period, World War II."

Kinda a no brainer move IMO and I wonder why it wasnt  implemented sooner.

[Westy]

Ah ha. Here, try http://www.airwarrior.com  and click on the READ MORE link to the story. I was trying to just link to the actual story. IT must be thier web site that causes an error and forces you to go thru the main page.

- Westy

[OhNo]

I can speculate wildly with the best of em. Preface these remarks with the fact that I have no idea what I'm talking about. Frankly I hope I'm wrong.

I think the real story has to do with EA ownership. A small but significant indicator is that Legends of Kesmai closes at the end of the month.

LoK might have been making a little money, I have no idea, but EA are the same bunch who own Ultima Online with its +100,000 subscribers at $10 a month and servers on at least 4 continents with UO2 in the pipe to compete with Everquest, Acheron's Call, etc. These titles are earning *millions* for their owners. A _little_ money is not what EA have in mind.

From that standpoint AW and the market for multiplayer air combat games can only be a blip on the radar. EA probably bought Kesmai for their Gamestorm infrastructure and potential for future development rather than for the existing Kesmai lineup.

EA will continue to trim away at Kesmai, focusing efforts where they are most likely to bring the biggest return, but EA's gonna want the shop to be making some real money, and I don't think in the long term that's going to be an online air combat game.