Who Sunk Might and Magic? My analysis.

[Logscale]

3 main things that sunk the Might and Magic franchise from what I have read:
-Too many cheap spin-offs
-Fans rejecting the planned ending of MM7 and last expansion of HoMM3.
-Focus on improved graphics with the Lithtech engine instead of doing what they had always done best.

Note/Caveat: Everything in this post is derived from various old articles that I have read, but I forget the sources.
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MM6 and MM7 were legendary. MM8 brought some fresh new ideas, but it had the lamest storyline of any game in the series that Jon van Canegham (JVC) directed.

I have read one comment that for the Might and Magic franchise storyline, the dark-side ending of MM7 was considered to be the "real" ending. The last expansion in HoMM3 was originally planned to include a "Forge" castle type, focusing on undead and blasters/advanced technology. The fans revolted, and 3DO/NWC/JVC were forced to scrap the entire idea.

My guess is that MM8 and the last expansion HoMM3 were already being developed based off the dark-side ending of MM7, and this forced the team to scrap a lot of their existing work. As a result, MM8 was much smaller than MM6 and MM7 and the storyline was about as bland as it could get. MM8 had mediocre sales (unsurprisingly) and as a result, JVC was removed from the Might and Magic development team. MM9 was a disaster as JVC wasn't directing it and 3DO went bankrupt while it was being developed.

My guess is that 3DO's bankruptcy might have been avoided if the fans hadn't revolted. It likely caused JVC's team to lose perhaps $100,000's in wasted effort and resulted in MM8's crap storyline and HoMM3 getting a lame Conflux instead of the originally planned Forge.

Another thing: If the light-side ending was taken to be the "real" ending, it could have resulted in the end of the Might and Magic series storyline as the colonies that were previously cut off from their Ancient technology supply chains would eventually restock on technology, and Might and Magic would have to go full sci-fi and turn into another Halo clone or something.
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3D0 wasted a lot of time and money on "spin-offs", also known as "Might and Magic in Name Only".

Crusaders of Might and Magic was a mostly linear third person spin-off. It had little bearing or relation to the main series besides a brief reference to the war with the Kreegan near the end of it. Instead of building an adventuring party, the player controlled only one pre-built character. It's clear that this spin-off had little or nothing to do with the Might and Magic franchise and was instead built to compete with similar console-style action games.

Anyone heard of Legends of Might and Magic (LoMM)? That's a competitive team-based spinoff designed to compete with Counter-Strike. In practice it was more like some hybrid of Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike - it featured unlimited reloads instead of forcing players to find ammo from the map, and weapons had alt-fire modes which is more Unreal Tournament style than Counter-Strike.
it used GameSpy for server-finding - and GameSpy closed down a few years ago, which means that LoMM is effectively mothballed except if the community built an unofficial patch to use a fan-run server finder.
The big problem: LoMM had effectively no story, had no serious link to the Might and Magic franchise, wasn't widely known, and turned out to be little more than a tech demo for 3DO's Lithtech engine.
LoMM had so much wasted potential given that it hardly referenced its own franchise. If I had been in charge of its development, it would feature Ancients and their sentient machines on one side and Kreegan overlords on the other, each side having access to different weapons and technology. Battles would take place on any world in the Might and Magic series. I would also envision players being able to lead squads of NPCs - perhaps Ancients and their sentient machines would have squads of locals, such as knights, archers, and wizards, while Kreegan overlords would have squads of their spawn/underlings and their supporters from MM6.
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Remember that Lithtech engine used for LoMM? That same engine was used for MM9. Surprisingly, one of the biggest criticisms of MM8 was that its graphics were outdated (nevermind glaring game balance issues and a completely uninspired and lackluster storyline).

Might and Magic has never been about superior graphics. It's been about an original storyline that lets you make your own group of adventurers. But 3DO made the mistake of caving in to demands for improved graphics.

Throwing your original fanbase under the bus is always risky. If you alienate your fans, it means that you had better be able to get a new fanbase, or be ready to go bankrupt. 3DO went chasing after improved graphics instead of sticking to what it did best. It turned out to be too little, too late. 3DO went bankrupt while MM9 was in development, and MM9 was rushed into production in its alpha testing stages.

[koval321]

M&M 9 initial idea for game was correct. It was time when best RPG was Wizardry8 it created new standards. Obviously they couldn't continue M&M in previously style. Unless big mistake was to copy entire game with all its parts, anyway it wasn't level of quality as have W8. M&M9 actually look as bad modification to W8 its that similar in everything. So from one side it is progress but its not M&M anymore and that is big drawback. W8 was made in 2001 and MM9 in 2002 so reason was probably lack of time, most easier was made modification instead entire new game.

Am feel like exactly the same happen to M&MX which may be in fact some modification (as I don't see any connection to WoX style but it resemble popular recently Grimrock)

[Arret]

My guess is that 3DO's bankruptcy might have been avoided if the fans hadn't revolted. It likely caused JVC's team to lose perhaps $100,000's in wasted effort and resulted in MM8's crap storyline and HoMM3 getting a lame Conflux instead of the originally planned Forge.

No, the problem is that 3DO was terrible with money in the first place. Their other franchises were dragging the whole company down. They only stayed up as long as they did because NWC was doing so well. The Forge caused a lot of pushback, but that wasn't really a money issue, it just meant they didn't spend as much time developing a plotline and ended up re-using units (the elementals).

Even at MM7, reviewers were complaining about outdated graphics. When MM8 came out with the same engine the reviews were less than impressed, even beyond the other issues in the game. There was a reason for this, MM8 was never meant to be a stand alone game. It was supposed to be an expansion pack for MM7 but even at that point 3DO was hemorrhaging money and forced JVC to move it to a full game.

The graphics argument I will buy though. They figured they needed to spend a lot of money to get a better engine and did. The problem is due to the other series, 3DO basically spent everything they had left on it and didn't really have a proper budget for the actual game. This forced NWC to spit out an alpha product with a disjointed plot or shut down the entire company in a week.

[Xfing]

One thing I didn't quite get from the OP - so if the Gate from the Light ending of MM7 was used to bring more technology to Enroth, we'd be dealing with a Halo clone? Um... someone needs to play MM1-5, obviously.

[GreatEmerald]

Well, MM1-5 are post-Silence as well, no direct contact with the Ancients. Corak specifically made sure not to reveal his whole power to the natives when travelling among them. But then the Light ending from MM7:fBaH doesn't mean the adventurers would re-establish direct contact with the Ancients. They could very well end up on another VARN, for instance. Or worse, on a planet controlled by the Kreegan.

As for LoMM, there is indeed a community master server. Somehow. I was very surprised to see that LoMM is one of the supported games, but it is.

[urwaa]

The graphics argument I will buy though. They figured they needed to spend a lot of money to get a better engine and did. The problem is due to the other series, 3DO basically spent everything they had left on it and didn't really have a proper budget for the actual game. This forced NWC to spit out an alpha product with a disjointed plot or shut down the entire company in a week.

[Paviel]

Even though the Light-side ending of MM7 was canonical, it still didn't reconnect Enroth with the Ancients. As (the other) Corak said, "When the Kreegan infiltrated the Gate Web 900 years ago, the entire Spinward Rim was cut off from the rest of the system. That’s where we are right now..." and "(The gates connect to) other worlds seeded by the Ancients long ago. They all fell into barbarism during the war."

So even though the Gate led to other planets (and presumably that's how Gavin Magnus and the rest of the Bracadans got to Axeoth), none of those other planets were any more technologically advanced than Enroth.

[Talin_Trollbane]

The graphics argument I will buy though. They figured they needed to spend a lot of money to get a better engine and did. The problem is due to the other series, 3DO basically spent everything they had left on it and didn't really have a proper budget for the actual game. This forced NWC to spit out an alpha product with a disjointed plot or shut down the entire company in a week.

Uh, did you just copy the last part of Arret's post?

Also, Second Corak said to the ending party that one of the gateways MIGHT take them to the Ancients, amongst a thousand possibilites, so further MM games could take place on a new VARN each time with a hidden connection subplot hidden in the main plot of the game.

[Xfing]

Also, Second Corak said to the ending party that one of the gateways MIGHT take them to the Ancients, amongst a thousand possibilites, so further MM games could take place on a new VARN each time with a hidden connection subplot hidden in the main plot of the game.

"Which one leads to the Ancients?"
"None of them, I'm afraid. When the Kreegan attacked, the entire Spinward Rim was cut off from the rest of the galaxy".

Might not be word for word, but it went something like this.

[Paviel]

Indeed, Second Corak explicitly said that none of the gates in his station led to the Ancients. I've already provided the quotes, and I don't care to repeat myself.

[Bloax]

The graphics argument I will buy though. They figured they needed to spend a lot of money to get a better engine and did. The problem is due to the other series, 3DO basically spent everything they had left on it and didn't really have a proper budget for the actual game. This forced NWC to spit out an alpha product with a disjointed plot or shut down the entire company in a week.

Uh, did you just copy the last part of Arret's post?

Look at the signature - it's a spambot.