Archive for the ‘MMO’ Category:
The Matrix Online gets unplugged today
All players of The Matrix Online today will be taking the blue pill, as today marks the end of the online service of the game. Sony Online Entertainment will be terminating the service after four years of delays, ad controversy, and other drama. But, we will always remember the game for what it is; a fun way to relive the movie.
Subscribers the game were raised to the highest level, and given access to all of the stuff that they might not have been able to try before the game was ended. Additionally, the game was made available free of charge for anyone to try in its last days.
This isn’t the first time an MMO has died, just look at Hellgate: London, which only survived around two years of online service.
Rest in peace, The Matrix Online.
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited delayed
Turbine Inc., has announced today that Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited will be seeing a delay. The free-to-play game was originally slated for an August 6th release, but looks like it will be pushed back to September 9th. DDO VIPs will be given access to the game beginning September 1st, however.
The reason behind the delay was to “ensure that we can support the massive increase in players that we are expecting and deliver them a free to play experience like none other.”
DDO Unlimited lifts the level cap, introduces a new player class, and has includes more content.
Global Agenda closed beta underway
Looks like the sci-fi third-person-shooter MMO Global Agenda has finally reached its closed beta stage, having sent invites out for everyone whose registrations were accepted.
If you haven’t already registered and are interested, just head over to the official website and put in a few computer specs and contact information, and voila, you’re done. Mind you, the system requirements for the game are pretty hefty.
No release date is planned for the game, but the developers are hoping to launch it before the end of the year.
via BluesNews
Jumpgate beta has 250,000 registrations
Codemasters announced today that the beta for Jumpgate: Evolution has reached a 250,000 beta sign-up milestone. Registrations are from both Europe and North America, making this Codemasters’ largest MMO beta to date.
The registrations mean nothing right now though, seeing as the publishers have delayed numerous launches for the beta. Right now, the space MMO scheduled for a release “later this year”, but not a lot of people can take those kinds of estimates seriously.
Currently, the closed beta is open to only a few select “family and friends”, so Jumpgate has a pretty small user base. However, the open beta is when the quarter of a million people will finally get a chance to try the game out. If you want to sign up, you can over at the Jumpgate site.
Read (CodeMasters)
GDC Austin keynote to be on World of Warcraft
Looks like the keynote speakers for this year’s Game Developer’s Conference will be none other than Blizzard’s Frank Pearce, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President of Product Development, and J. Allen Brack, Production Director.
The keynote will focus on “The Universe of World of Warcraft.” A bit redundant, don’t you think? One can only assume that it will outline what it takes to maintain and develop for such a large MMORPG. Maybe even a few words on the upcoming expansion, or more improbably, a look at the Warcraft movie.
This year’s GDC will be held at Austin, Texas from September 15th through 18th.
Read (GDC Austin)
Warcraft movie director announced
The same guy behind the Spider-Man trilogy has been announced to be the director for the Warcraft movie. Sam Raimi is also responsible for such works as “The Evil Dead” and “Drag Me To Hell.”
Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures will be working together for the film. So, maybe it won’t be so bad if Blizzard has most of the creative control.
“Sam’s passion for ‘Warcraft’ is undeniable and we know that he will create an incredible film worthy of Blizzard’s phenomenal franchise,” said Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull.
“From our first conversation with Sam, we could tell he was the perfect choice,”” added Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “Sam knows how to simultaneously satisfy the enthusiasts and the mainstream audience that might be experiencing that content for the first time.”
There’s a lot of Warcraft lore out there, beginning from the debut of the scourge up to the return of the Lich King. And who can forget all of the novels that spawned along the way? Details are scarce right now, as the movie is still in production. Hopefully more information will pop up in this year’s Comic-Con.
Read (Toronto Sun)
Tags: alliance sucks, blizzard, director, Film, for the horde, legendary pictures, Movie, warcraft, wow
Sony Online Entertainment lays off 41 employees
The economic recession is really impacting the gaming industry, and it’s showing every day. The MMO division of Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, has confirmed that they have layed off 41 full-time employees, which is 5% of the workforce. The reason for this move is “In a move to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs…”
“SOE looks forward to continuing its leadership role in the online games industry as it celebrates the highly successful launch of Free Realms, the 10-year commemoration of its groundbreaking EverQuest franchise, and the continued performance of the company’s other games.”
Sony Online Entertainment refuses to comment any longer on the issue. It’s unknown if these were developer positions or what games these employees’ departure will be affected.
Read (IndustryGamers)
Realtime Worlds: APB subscription fees “won’t be normal”
Ever since Realtime Worlds announced All Points Bulletin it has been a highly sought after game with it’s GTA-like gameplay and MMO genre.
Well the developer has again stepped forward to speak of the game and this time about the subscription fees, a topic that has been under discussion for some time. David Jones of Realtime Worlds was quoted to have said the following:
“Basically, you have to buy the client. It’s a traditional game that you buy…We’re not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month’ route. What we haven’t said is which route we are going, and in some respects we’re still looking.”
Let’s hope that they really come up with something unique if you told World of Warcraft players they would have to pay an additional $15 a month to play APB, I don’t think they would be down.
via Kotaku
Rumor: New WoW expansion races leaked?
The latest Public Test Realm patch 3.2.0 in the World of Warcraft not only includes the upcoming Crusaders’ Coliseum, but also textures for upcoming Halloween events. Some of these textures were leaked by MMO-Champion, and reveal to be Goblin and Worgen masks. Now, note that these are the only two masks that were in the texture. Even if the patch itself is merely a PTR, it still holds some significance.
Goblins are a neutral race in the game, meaning they don’t hold allegiance to either the Horde or Alliance, so it’s possible that they can be the very first multi-faction race. As for Worgens, one can only assume that they will be Alliance exclusive, or also be another multi-faction race.
Remember though, it’s all speculation, so don’t get your Warcraft undies in a bunch. Hopefully more information will be revealed in this year’s BlizzCon.
Read (MMO-Champion)
Tags: world of warcraft
Rumble Fighter European open beta live
The European open beta for Rumble Fighter has gone live today, as hosted by OGPlanet. The game is described as a “casual fighting multiplayer online game“. By the way, it’s also free. Players who reach level 5 within the beta period will receive an exclusive in-game item – The Ultimate Beta-fro of Awesomness. Sounds enticing.
The game itself has very low system requirements and looks pretty fun, so there’s no real excuse not to try it out. Right now, the publisher is not offering any premium cash services, so if you want to take advantage of the game in its most balanced form, now is the time.
For American gamers, the game is already out of its beta stage and can be downloaded over at the North American Rumble Fighter site.
Blizzard launches WoW Armory iPhone App
Just in case you haven’t already spent enough time on World of Warcraft, Blizzard has recently launched the WoW Mobile Armory iPhone app effectively giving players their WoW fix on the go.
If you’re familiar with the World of Warcraft Armory currently available online, you’ll be familiar with this as it incorporates all of said online application’s features into a handheld package. This means you’ll be able to check up on character, guild and arena data along with check your guild’s calender.
Additionally you’ll be able to find out everything you need to know about items, zones and dungeons featured in the game. Best of all, it’s free!
via Kotaku
Battlefield Heroes launch trailer
EA has revealed a new trailer for the game, this time with a catchy song and full on robot dances. The trailer gives brief, humorous descriptions about the classes in the game and dazzles you with a bunch of bright colors. Anyways, the trailer is pretty entertaining so check it out.
Already with one million players, Battlefield Heroes is looking to be a very popular free-to-play game. Be sure to check out our review on Battlefield Heroes in case FPS veterans are iffy on the cartoony presentation of the game.
Miner Wars announced, 6DoF MMO shooter
Keen Software House announces today their new underground and space shooter Miner Wars. The game is a combination of a single player story and an MMO. One of the main features of the game is that it has a fully destructible environment and has six degrees of freedom.
The official website for the game has a bunch of multimedia in case you’re more curious about the game, so be sure to check that out.
Miner Wars will be released for the Xbox Live Arcade and PC this fall.
Read (Press Release)
Dragon Age To Be “Massively Single Player” Game
Go to the website for any video game and along the base of the screen you’ll see logos for anyone and everyone involved from the publisher to the system(s) it’s being released on. Trailers also feature these helpful little reminders at the end and apparently in a trailer for Bioware’s upcoming Dragon Age: Origins two of the logos featured were somewhat unusual for a game: Twitter and Facebook.
It seems that as with Spore the overall aim is to blur the line between single player and multiplayer. With Spore you created creatures who existed in a universe populated by the creations of others. The developers are looking for some method of connecting the community of Dragon Age players through a ‘network of manually and automatically shared content’.
Some of that will be more passive, similar to the stat-tracking features of games like Halo 3 where you can nip over to Bungie’s and check out lifetime game stats for yourself and others. Given that they’ll be including a suite of content creation tools though there could be some other aspects to it. In-game merchants selling weapons and armor others have created is a possibility, as well as other people’s characters being used for NPCs or hirelings.
Champions Online open beta coming August 17th
Despite getting delayed, Cryptic Studios has announced that their MMO Champions Online, which has been in closed beta for some time now, will be getting an open beta on August 17th.
This means that all who missed out on the closed beta will now be given a chance to get a taste of Champions Online.
Kotaku reports that those who were already in the closed beta will be given extended play time with the beta open for all from Friday morning, through the weekend, until Monday morning.