It's something of an understatement to say that MMOGs are big business. You can find them most everywhere you look, anywhere from surfing the web to the shelves of your nearby store, and ones like World of Warcraft have become a household name. And today a new competitor has joined the line of MMO development firms. The name of the firm is called Colony Studios which is located in Reno, Nevada. These aren't just a group of newcomers to the MMO game market, though..the members of Colony Studios have worked on a number of big MMOs like World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, and the recently released Lord of the Rings Online. This level of experience is reinforced by the CEO of Colony Studios, Michael Wallis, who also has much experience in the development of MMOs himself.

Mr. Wallis offered the comment that ““Our collective contributions to a significant number of hit MMOs give us a strong advantage,” says Wallis. “Most dev teams – including Colony’s – have gone through the process of learning what doesn’t work in game development, but our team members have also been intimately involved with creating what does work in several successful MMOs and that combination will serve us well. Our challenge is, of course, to use our experience and talent correctly to create an MMO that players will enjoy.”

The game currently in development by Colony Studios will be designed to revitalize an industry that is becoming increasingly formulaic in it's gameplay style. Mr Wallis again commented that ““Our MMO, which will offer far more than a linear storyline, will provide a ton of history and backstory, but the players will consistently influence the content,” says Wallis. “The bottom line is we’ve launched MMOs before, and our experience lets us anticipate bumps in the road and steer clear of them. The fact that we’ve been through it before means things are much less likely to fall through the cracks.”

The game is to be released in 2009 and more information is available at www.colonystudios.com.

Nick McCavitt