Author: Admin

[NM] Electronic Arts Gives Wrong Numbers On Battlefront II Sales, A Lot of Websites Haven’t Corrected It


Electronic Arts released their third quarter results for the 2018 fiscal year this week, noting increased revenues to $1.16 billion compared to $1.14 billion last year with higher operating expenses. Sales were driven primarily by live games including the various Ultimate Team systems and The Sims 4, with little doubt to the notion that last November’s Star Wars: Battlefront II under performed according to EA’s expectations.

What is in dispute, surprisingly, is how much the game under performed and just how many units the game sold, and the reason behind this confusion appears to be EA’s own error. According to Wall Street Journal’s tech reporter Sarah Needleman, EA confirmed in a statement under an embargo that Battlefront II had shipped over nine million units, about a million shorter than they had anticipated.

In actuality, and according to EA’s own released prepared remarks, the game was expected to sell about eight million and fell short of that by less than one million. So EA’s own reports were upwards of two million less than what they had incorrectly stated.

For Q3, we had expected to sell in about 8 million units, but we fell short of that by less than 1 million units. However, this shortfall was significantly offset by an excellent performance from our live services. The impact of FX was immaterial on the quarter.

Needleman has acknowledged on Twitter that the numbers she was given were incorrect with the earnings call not releasing until hours after the embargo lifted. Evidently nobody informed the rest of the reporters that this information was incorrect, since as of midnight on January 31, MMO Fallout had perused at least a dozen major gaming/tech websites that had covered the story, and not a single one had followed up with a correction.

Understandable, since virtually all of the articles seem to merely copy and paste either information from Polygon.com’s coverage or directly from Needleman’s initial tweet. In fact, the only major news website that reported on this and managed to get it right appears to be VG247 who actually read the prepared remarks and highlighted the discrepancy with the WSJ’s numbers. At least one of the outlets we read actually linked to the prepared statement and even claimed that the report stated the 9 million figure, which suggests the author did not even read the document that they quoted.

Calling malice seems to be a long shot, it looks like the Wall Street Journal was sent incorrect information and while the While Street Journal corrected their story, none of the outlets that sourced the Tweet did any fact checking of their own or took the time to read EA’s following prepared statement.

Gigantic To Shut Down Following Motiga Layoffs


Following their statement in November that Perfect World Entertainment had laid off a number of staff at Motiga, we have learned this week that MOBA title Gigantic will shut down. As of today, purchasing of rubies and hero packs have been disabled, and all heroes will be free until the servers shut down at the end of July.

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the January Update is the final content update for Gigantic, and the game servers will be discontinued on July 31, 2018. The journey over these last few years was met with outstanding support from our players and we are all very proud of the incredible experience Gigantic is today.

Motiga and Perfect World had been seeking ways to keep the game sustainable, unfortunately Gigantic did not resonate with a base large enough to keep the game going. Gigantic follows in the steps of Paragon which recently announced its own sunsetting for just the same reason.

(Source: Gigantic)

Epic Settles Lawsuit Against Minor Fortnite Cheater


Epic Games has agreed to voluntary dismissal and settlement in its lawsuit against a minor filed last year in the eastern district of North Carolina court. As part of the lawsuit and due to the defendant being a minor, certain documents have been sealed on order of the court and the defendant has since been simply named by his initials M.F. Epic had instigated the lawsuit after filing a DMCA takedown notice against the defendant’s video allegedly advertising cheats in their game Fortnite. When the defendant counter-claimed the video, Epic issued its complaint to the court.

Plaintiff Epic Games, Inc., by and through its attorneys, hereby gives notice of the settlement and dismissal of this action. Each party shall bear its or his own attorneys’ fees and costs.

The terms of the settlement are not being made public. Epic’s other lawsuit against another minor is still being pursued, with a recent court document submitted detailing issues that the prosecution had with finding and serving the defendants.

(Source: Court Dockets)

Early Access: Tower Of Time Hands On Impressions


Tower of Time is hoping to continue the legacy of games like Baldur’s Gate and so far my time with the early access version has proven it a worthy successor. It strikes me as exactly the kind of title that hardcore RPG enthusiasts would be happy to get their hands on, the combination of strategic gameplay, stat building, and a so far compelling story that’ll have you up until two in the morning trying to figure out the best builds for your characters.

In short, this game is pretty fun, and it’s also tough as hell.

Rather than trying to go over every aspect of the game in this preview, I want to discuss the meat and potatoes of Tower of Time, that being its combat encounters. I find myself rather impressed by the fact that a game where you’re not directly controlling your characters requires as much attention to be paid as this game does. While you don’t control your character’s standard attacks, you do direct them around the field of combat and activate their special abilities when necessary.

Combat in Tower of Time is very heavily reliant on line of sight mechanics, with battles easily won and lost based on how you position your characters and keep them working with each other. Kane is the party tank, able to raise walls and absorb damage while your other party members pepper the enemy with attacks. Maeve is a marksman, high on damage but low on defense abilities. Aeric is a druid, able to summon an ent and more adept at party healing than Kane.

There are also plenty of ways to customize your characters, and you’ll need to be paying attention to the deficits in your team in order to properly build in response to them. For instance, I upgraded Maeve’s arrows with the ability to inflict blindness, making Tower of Time one of the few games in which casting blindness on NPCs is useful. Blind is great in this game because combat encounters at least early on have a habit of throwing wraiths at you which cast an ongoing life drain as long as they have line of sight. Now Kane’s wall can break this line of sight, but it can easily just push some enemies into attacking the more vulnerable characters. By giving Maeve the ability to blind them, I could very quickly put a stop to multiple life drains.

In a sense, you can think of each match like its own tower defense mini-game, like a puzzle of sorts where you need to carefully move your pieces around the board to handle each threat as it appears. For me this has basically come down to getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter in some matches a couple of times before I figure out the best way to maneuver my characters around. Arrow Time, Tower of Time’s branded bullet time effect, is both helpful and necessary to keep the action from getting overwhelming, not to mention handy in keeping track of who is targeting who (seen above).

You’ll have the opportunity to bring on more companions, up to seven from the looks of the roster, but the few hours I’ve spent in the game so far have only given me access to three. Presumably if I play the game as intended and put more time into crafting/enchanting gear using the available facilities in town.

I look forward to diving further into Tower of Time.

Is Paragon Unsustainable? Yes, Also Shutting Down


It’s barely been ten days since we reported that Paragon was likely unsustainable and that Epic would be giving it another look in the coming weeks.

“Over the next few weeks, we’ll be figuring out if and how we can evolve Paragon to achieve growth and success, and trying some things internally. In the meantime, Paragon’s release cadence will be slower.”

Evidently the decision was much easier than originally thought, because a week after this announcement Epic has announced the imminent closure of Paragon. In a rare statement, Epic took full responsibility for Paragon’s inability to draw in players, and apologized for failing the community despite the team’s hard work.

We didn’t execute well enough to deliver on the promise of Paragon. We have failed you — despite the team’s incredibly hard work — and we’re sorry.

Servers will shut down on April 26, however Epic warns that the quality of matchmaking will degrade naturally as players leave. Epic is offering full refunds for every purchase on any platform.

Instructions for a refund are as follows:

  1. If you’re not playing on PC, link your Epic account (create one if necessary).
  2. If you play on PC, or have already linked your Epic account, you can request your refund here.

(Source: Epic)

Early Access Title Tower of Time To Launch This April


Fledgling developer Event Horizon is getting ready to release their CRPG Tower of Time early this year on PC, and players are meeting the title with open arms and positive reviews. Boasting 30 hours of story gameplay on launch, Tower of Time promises to harken back to the days of Baldur’s Gate and the Might and Magic series. Starting with two adventurers and adding on to the party as they progress, players will travel through the Tower of Time, collecting randomized loot, customizing your adventurers, and taking down the game’s more than 100 enemies.

Tower of Time’s focal feature is the Arrow-Time combat system, which players may recognize as similar to Bioware RPGs of old. Arrow-Time allows you to slow down or completely pause a battle, survey the field, and plan your strategy.

Currently in early access, Tower of Time is enjoying a very positive 96% overall rating.

(Source: Press Release)

Destiny 2 Is Not In A Good Place, Says Analyst, Following Microtransaction Controversies


It feels like we can’t go more than a week or so without Bungie being forced to apologize to its community for another dumpster fire of a PR decision, with the promise that they will listen closer moving forward. With each apology centered around either a hard-to-overlook bout of poor design or perceptibly underhanded attempt to cripple game progression to bring player attention to the real money Eververse, it may not be surprising that players starting to turn away from Destiny 2 and Bungie’s investors are taking notice.

In a note to investors titled “Destiny is Not in a Good Place,” Doug Creutz of analyst firm Cowen points to Destiny 2 appearing to have a problem keeping its players engaged, with issues surrounding microtransactions and Bungie’s poor communication and response to criticism being at the forefront of his concerns. Creutz also focuses on Destiny 2 Twitch viewership when discussing player engagement, stating that franchise view counts are at an all time low. Destiny 2 is apparently bringing in 4,000-7,000 views on a Friday afternoon compared to 14,000-17,000 from Destiny 1 a year ago.

Cruetz also believes that Destiny 2 may have a much harder time turning itself around than Destiny 1 did, owing to a more competitive market.

“We do think Bungie still has some opportunity to fix the game’s problems over the next year and recapture engagement, but we’re not sure they have the ability to pull it off at this point. We also note that Destiny currently has more serious competition in its genre from a refurbished Division (Ubisoft) and the indie title Warframe than it did three years ago, when D1 had its own share of player dissatisfaction.”

(Source: CNBC)

MMOments: RuneScape and Aura Quality of Life


My first reaction to this week’s RuneScape update was “this may be the thing that gets me playing regularly again.”

If you asked me what my biggest gripe with RuneScape has been over the past four years, it’s the aura system. Auras are RuneScape’s temporary boons, they give bonuses to various parts of gameplay, and by golly are they a pain in the rear to keep track of. There are several dozen of them, and when they’re all given crazy names like “jack of all trades” or “Supremic Runic Accuracy,” managing a bank full of them, figuring out which you need to upgrade using loyalty points, and the best points to take them out is a nightmare.

Cue this week’s update, removing all of the auras from the bank and placing them in an easy to use, simple to manage interface. This system is about as close to perfect as you’re going to get, especially considering it can be accessed during combat and the interface allows you to easily extend and renew auras with vis wax. Functionally it lets people like me remember which auras we have, and keeps us engaged via a daily regimen of in-game tasks.

MapleStory M Launches Globally This Year, Beta Available Now


MapleStory M is the mobile spinoff of the widely popular MMORPG MapleStory. The title has seen immense success since it launched in Korea back in 2016, the game quickly rose to the top of the charts with over two million downloads within the first two weeks. While the game doesn’t launch globally until later this year, players will be able to get their hands on the beta starting today.

Those who take part in the beta will have the opportunity to check out five original characters. The full launch will feature daily dungeons, private mini-dungeons, a challenge tower, raids, and more.

Based on the original side-scrolling MMORPG franchise, MapleStory M offers the same endless amount of customization, immersive storylines and epic boss raids that fans come to expect from the epic MapleStory franchise – now playable on the go.

The beta period for MapleStory M will be available for run until January 30 on Google Play. Beta access is available in all regions except for Korea, China, and Japan.

MapleStory M beta will be available to download until Jan. 30 through the Google Play Store in all regions excluding Korea, China and Japan. To download the game, please visit the storefront here. Interested gamers can follow MapleStory M on Facebook and Twitter.

(Source: Press Release)

Trion Worlds Announces Rift Prime: Subscription Server for Spring


As surprising as it may be, Trion Worlds was once very much against the idea of Rift going free to play. Yes, that Trion Worlds, the one with the $100 weapon pack in Defiance, the one that has more than once had to apologize for stepping over the line with its monetization strategy for Rift. In fact, it was Trion CEO Scott Hartsman who back in 2011 said that free to play would be a large net negative for Rift and its community.

“One of the assumptions people make is you can just take a game and throw a switch and change the model. For starters, you’d have to decide that that would be a good thing, and I do not think it would be – that would be a fairly large net negative for Rift and Rift community.”

Well all that is going to change, as Trion Worlds has announced the launch of Rift Prime, a subscription only server set to go public this spring. Rift Prime will, as stated, require a subscription and will remove loot boxes and drastically reduce the presence of the cash shop.

In the Spring of 2018, we will launch a new server, RIFT Prime. We’ve paid a lot of attention in discussions with all of you and within the broader gaming community regarding business models in the MMO and games industry as a whole.

We have the opportunity to experiment with this fresh RIFT server using an oft-requested subscription model and progressively unlocked content. Our goal for RIFT Prime is to provide the experience that many of you have requested: no lockboxes, a significantly reduced store with more of the current store-based items obtained through gameplay (or removed entirely) – plus the excitement of sequential progression through RIFT’s content with monthly milestones and achievements.

More details on the cash shop are on their way.

(Source: Rift)