Perpetual Entertainment came out with a startling announcement today regarding their MMORPG in development Gods and Heroes. The game has been put on indefinite hold while they instead focus their resources on pursuing the development of Star Trek Online! Apparently the mythological based MMORPG was not polished enough to even be a contender in todays World of Warcraft dominated marketplace. Instead of spending time fixing it's flaws and then having it probably fall flat on it's face upon release they decided instead to take a safe route and develop an intellectual property that already has a large fanbase. Trekkies won't care how the game plays or make comparisons to WoW because they will be too busy roleplaying as James T. Kirk and cybering every female alien they encounter.

The official company quote can be seen on the Gods and Heroes website and reads in part "The development team established some very lofty and ambitious goals when the initial work was started on Gods & Heroes. Recently, we took a step back to evaluate the competitive landscape, the game's current state, and the overall goals for our organization. And while we are truly proud of and pleased with what we have created in Gods & Heroes, we also realize that achieving the level of quality and polish that we are committed to will take a significant investment.

The Perpetual team is faced with a unique challenge of simultaneously developing both Gods & Heroes and Star Trek Online in addition to growing our Online Game Platform business. After assessing all of Perpetual's opportunities, we have made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold."

It's really sad that the current MMO development process has become so competitive and unforgiving having an established IP is practically required. Either you have to make a billion dollar game that is flawless and spectacular, or you have to have a previously established fanbase salivating in anticipation of the game prior to launch. This reminds me of when crappy movie sequels and games come out and are almost guaranteed to be garbage, but they keep making money. MMOs will keep coming out based on things like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek as long as they are profitable. It's not guaranteed that Star Trek Online will be bad, but I consider it highly likely.