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Electronic Arts and Mythic's WAR is finally off to what could be its big break, and Mythic's co-founder and lead designer Mark Jacobs is still full of that confident holy spirit. While not even Jacobs will admit that WAR can immediately beat World of Warcraft, nevertheless he sees no reason to fear Blizzard's global MMO juggernaut at this point in the game. According to Jacobs, WAR's (North American) "hurricane-proof" launch was one of industry's smoothest yet, with minimal downtime because of one patch release last Friday. At the very least, it's already got fifty percent more players than Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot ever had during its lifetime.

"We're not saying we're going to beat [Blizzard], but we're not afraid of them. We have our own hook; that's [Realm vs. Realm], and we're pushing it and we're pushing it, just as we're pushing other innovations in the game. Blizzard is number one; we don't mind being number two, especially if it's a competitive number two. I can't worry about that.

"What's the point going into something as competitive as the fantasy genre with WoW in it unless you're prepared for a fight, unless you're prepared to take on number one at some level? You don't have to say you're better than it; you don't have to be better in everything. We just want to be competitive, do a great game, and leave it up to the player to see which they like more. Or both."

On the other hand, Jacobs believes the only reason Mythic has the cojones to say WAR will be the "number two" MMORPG is because it's now backed by none other than EA. If Mythic remained an independant publisher as it was only a few years ago, the company wouldn't be anywhere near as confident. Indeed, the market is now all about the resources you can throw into a product. Well, it's certainly helped both companies weather the multiple delays WAR faced, eh?

"The other things that really differentiates the time, is that back in 2001, you didn't have to spend anywhere near the amount of money you do on an MMO now. Look at what we spent on [Dark Age of Camelot]: $2.5 million developing it, $650,000 in marketing it. You couldn't spend that on a triple-A MMO now if your life depended on it! You just couldn't! It would get you nothing in terms of content."

Perhaps the forthcoming NPD PC games report (unfortunately separate from the far more prolific data for monthly console industry sales) will provide the confirmation everyone needs to determine just how strong WAR's mojo will be. Of course, momentum over the coming months is also key.