Super Monday Night Combat

While everyone knows what strategy games are, and role playing games, and massively multiplayer online games somehow the multiplayer online battle arena genre remains confusing and mysterious. Perhaps this is because, despite being a combination of strategy, RPG and MMO (aka SRPGMMO, but nobody liked that acronym) being something everyone can understand, it in no way adds up to MOBA. However, like every other genre, MOBA is branching out, growing and adding elements from other beloved genres, so before things get out of hand let us explain what MOBA is.

Okay, so what is it?

The Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre is a micro-MMORPG experience with strategical elements surrounding it, hence the combination of the three. MOBA combines some of the key features of each genre, and bakes a peculiarly delicious cake. First and foremost, however, MOBA games are team-oriented, with one team competing against one other team. Each team has a core (or something like one) which they must protect. If their core is destroyed, they lose. Read More

Monday Night Combat developer Uber Entertainment recently announced Super Monday Night Combat. The game is essentially the next evolution in their gameplay, sporting new classes, adjusted gameplay and new locales. But so far it’s only been announced for PC. Uber has declined to comment on other platforms which could possibly mean that it would come to Xbox Live Arcade as well. But what about XBLA players of MNC and their promised additional DLC? Uber stated that with MNC being their freshman effort on consoles they didn’t fully understand the process. The continued updates and content proved to be a daunting process, and one that they could not sustain themselves on. Sorry, XBLA players, you’re not getting your promised DLC–not even the PC-exclusive map Uncle Tully’s Funland. Executive Producer Chandana “Ekanaut” Ekanayake had this apologetic statement for fans:

We fully expected a sh*tstorm from our console players and rightfully so. We’re sorry you feel like we’re kicking you while you’re down but for us to continue as a developer we need to push for changes and be able to sustain ourselves as a development studio. I wish I could say more about ongoing developments, but like you’ve seen with our posts, changes happen fast sometimes and somethings take a lot longer then we think.

This is somewhat of a departure from what we gathered back in June. Ekanaut stated that “Everything we’ve posted over the years on this forum has been the truth at that time. We gain absolutely nothing by leading or lying to our fans.”  He further cited Valve’s Managing Director Gabe Newell’s desire to bring Steam service to the Xbox 360, noting that until this happens frequent, live updates are much more difficult.

Fan reaction was about as varied as you could get.

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