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Dark Elves And Class Reveals For Everquest Next

Sony Online Entertainment has revealed new details on Everquest Next at SOE Live. Development on Everquest Next continues alongside Landmark, with feedback from the community in Landmark fueling development of the full MMO. The Dark Elves were the latest race to be revealed today, showing off gothic-themed architecture and dark landscapes. Alongside the new race, SOE also revealed three new classes: The cleric, the elementalist, and the tempest.

The cleric is a support class, capable of fighting and boosting his allies at the same time. The elementalist is a mage who, expectedly, uses elemental-based magic attacks with the added bonus of being able to damage the terrain easily. The tempest is a speed-based class that bases its attacks on lightning.

SOE has also given some detail on the Rallying Call, the overarching story. Each player will have a book called the Rohsong which tracks personal and server progression. Since the server bases story events off of the results of previous events and other algorithms, the stories of individual servers can go in completely different directions. One event detailed described players finding enough loot in an area to attract brigands in search of wealth. The players were then tasked with fighting back the brigands or risk them making off with the gold.

More SOE news is sure to come.

NCSoft Q2 2014 Finances

NCSoft has posted their second quarter finances for 2014 and the results are looking good across the board. Thanks to strong launches including Guild Wars 2 in China and Wildstar in the US and EU, NCSoft saw a 20% increase in sales, a 46% increase in profit, and a 45% increase in net income over the previous quarter. Lineage 1, meanwhile, increased in sales thanks to a solid base.

Wildstar debuted to $27 million in sales during its first posted quarter. Sales in Europe and North America have been consolidated into a single metric, not so surprising when you consider that Europe had dropped to just 3% of NCSoft’s sales with North America at 13%.

Defiance on PS3 Now Free

Trion Worlds has announced that Defiance has officially gone free to play on the Playstation 3. If you don’t already own Defiance, you can find the game in the Playstation Store by searching “Defiance” and downloading the free client. Players who also happen to own Playstation Plus can also download a free pack which includes extra perks. You can also link your account to redeem items from Defiance’s weekly EGO codes.

There is no word currently on when Defiance will go free to play on Xbox 360.

(Source: Defiance)

Virtual Stable Sells For $5600

Entropia Universe is well known here at MMO Fallout for its ridiculous sales of virtual estate for real money. Entropia Universe AB announced today that the MMORCE (Massively Multiplayer Online Real Cash Economy) game has successfully completed its first stable auction, and the results might just astound you. Over $58 thousand real dollars were spent by players to get their hands on thirteen virtual stables. The most expensive stable sold for $5600.

What’s so great about these stables that someone would pay nearly six grand for it? Stables are able to accumulate wealth by renting out stalls and offering specialized training to other players in return for PED, which can be cashed out for real money. Theoretically, given an upcoming update that will place more importance on stables, each of the buyers are likely to come out with a profit. A real profit, of real money.

The sales are as follows:

Stables Estates on Planet Calypso
                  Cape Corinth Stable – Eugenio Anhithe Wilde – $5000
                  Emerald Lakes Stable – Gunnar MRmP Pettersen – $4280
                  Fort Ithaca Stable – Kassandra Blackwidow Draconis – $4300
                  Nate Valley Stable – Gandalf GandalfSzary Szary – $4800
                  Port Atlantis Stable – Jenna Star Mercury (for investors) – $6100
                  Twin Peaks Stable – Matek Matek Barbods – $6200

Stables Estates on ROCKtropia
                  City of Dreams Stable – Narfi Hungry Willam (for investors) – $2200
                  Tangerine Stable – Programer Doc Grey (for investors) – $2300

Stables Estates on Planet Arkadia
                  Celeste Outpost Stable – Maxihundred Max Power – $5600
                  Redoubtable Firebase Stable – Eugenio Anhithe Wilde – $5070
                  Resolute Firebase Stable – Lady Nadie Hawke – $5070

Stable Estate on Planet Cyrene
                  Suppy Depot Stable – Harmony bella Simpson (for investors) – $5200

Stable Estate on Planet Toulan
                  Guardian Village Stable – Wangxiang WangXiang Tuxing – $2200

(Source: Entropia Universe Press Release)

SMITE Announced For Xbox One

Hi-Rez Studios came out at Gamescom to announce that the popular PC moba title will be making its way console-side. The ID@Xbox program allows developers of all sizes to bring their games to the Xbox platform, and is the platform through which SMITE will make its way to the console.

“As a third-person action game, SMITE is perfectly suited for the Xbox One controller”, said Chris Charla, Director of ID@Xbox for Microsoft. “We’re excited to feature a MOBA that fits our console audience in gameplay and look forward to Xbox gamers around the globe battling for dominance.”

There are no further details other than a tentative 2015 launch date at this time.

(Source: Hi-Rez Studios Press Release)

Darkfall Quests Coming In Autumn

Aventurine has announced today that quests are coming to Darkfall Unholy Wars this Autumn. The first batch of quests will cater to new and old players, with availability varying from right in your face to obscure and more difficult to find. Quests are designed to be open-ended journeys that integrate players with recent and ancient history of the world of Agon. Quests suggested by players will also be introduced in this and future batches.

One quest example that Aventurine sent over is the Suspicious Altar, where players will stumble upon ancient altars and devices connected to some nefarious plot that must be unraveled. We will have more information on Darkfall’s quest system as it becomes available.

(Source: Aventurine Press Release)

RuneScape Releases First Expansion

Jaex has released the first part of the first expansion for RuneScape. Lost City of the Elves is set to release in three content chunks, the first being the quest Plague’s End, the largest quest to be added into the game and the conclusion of a quest series that began in 2002. The second and third chunks of the expansion will be released in September and October respectively, with each part introducing a new section of the Elven city of Iowerth. The expansion promises “hundreds of hours of new content,” introducing new mini-games, dozens of new training methods, new equipment, new items, and and more.

“This has been a year of resurgence for RuneScape, from the introduction of the Legacy combat mode and Twitch integration to the launch of our debut expansion pack, voted for by players as part of our Player Power initiative,” said Phil Mansell, vice president of RuneScape. “In addition to the remarkable environments, challenges, and gameplay that the Lost City of the Elves brings, it also underlines the collaborative efforts between the RuneScape development team and our passionately loyal players as we work to bring the game they want to experience to life.”

When the original quest released in 2002, RuneScape looked like this.

(Source: Jagex Press Release)

This Week In Review: Pledge This

I hate clip shows, so much that I’ve never given much bother to a weekly wrapup here at MMO Fallout. So instead of devoting the week in review to reestablishing topics we’ve already talked about, I want to give some time to pieces that I did not cover. So let’s check out the news, shall we?

Sony is being sued over Killzone on PS4 not delivering native 1080p in multiplayer. What the game does is it scales up what is technically not really 1080p to deliver a final output that is technically 1080p. If you’re going to sue a game developer, there are many other instances that would have been a better case to make. Game developers have been lying about graphics and performance since the days when they’d stick arcade screenshots on the case of NES ports. This is in no way a defense of Sony, but I have a feeling that they will win this lawsuit because the question of “native” comes down to multiple definitions that exist in the industry.

Meawhile, Activision has hired a level 80 necromancer to revive the years-dead Sierra. Sierra is the developer responsible for the Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Space/King/Police Quests, Homeworld, and Timeshift. They shut down in 2008 when Activision merged with Vivendi, but it appears that Activision is now interested in bringing them back. Boy are the guys at Sierra going to be disappointed when they see what Spyro has become.

Wing Commander 3 is available for free via Origin “On The House.” If you’ve never played this game, and our younger viewers won’t have, Wing Commander 3 is a dogfighting game released in 1994 and stars not Han Solo and not Chewbacca. Grab the game for free and keep it in your account forever, or until EA goes under in 2025.

And speaking of misleading advertising, Codemasters is offering refunds on Colin McRae Racing after gamers purchased what they thought was an HD remake on Steam only to find that what Codemasters was offering was in fact a port of a mobile game. Refunds will be available until August 19th, after which you’re on your own.

And finally Dead or Alive released a DLC pack which introduces “bed and bath” outfits to the players. The outfits are just as creepy and voyeuristic as you’d expect from Dead or Alive.

Tune in next week as we discuss why your favorite childhood icons weren’t as great as you remember.

Zynga Reports Massive Losses YoY

Zynga has posted their second quarter figures for 2014 and the results are less than stellar, depressing even. The creator of Farmville posted a 34 percent drop in revenue compared to last year, with net income dropping down to $2.8 million from $6.1 million. The company continued its ongoing losses with a dramatic rise from $15.8 million last year to $62.5 million.

Last year was not good for Zynga, as the developer/publisher faced a revolving door of top executives resigning as well as the continued diminishing popularity of their games. Last year at this time, Zynga boasted 39 million daily active users, 187 million monthly active users, and 123 million monthly unique users. Those numbers plummeted to 29 million, 130 million, and 89 million respectively. Farmville 2 and Zynga Poker make up the bulk of Zynga’s revenue, 32% and 24% respectively.

Despite these losses, Zynga is looking to expand into two new mobile categories: Sports and endless runners. Zynga has formed a multi-year partnership with the NFL to create games for mobile devices. The company is projecting lower losses next quarter and increased revenue.

(Source: CNN Money)

Ironman Mode Considered For RuneScape

The RPG community is one that is constantly challenging itself to complete games in new and unconventional ways. We’ve talked about this before on Dungeons & Dragons Online, where some communities institute perma-death, deleting their characters if they die. As unofficial challenges, of course, participation is completely based on the honor code. There is no way to know for sure if a player has kept up their end of the deal, which can often lead to distrust and fighting within said communities.

Jagex has noticed the popularity of an Ironman Mode, a game type where players level up completely self-sufficiently. The company is planning on implementing an official version of this mode, where players will be completely restricted from interacting with others. While the fine details are still being worked out, players will be unable to trade with others in any way, either by direct trade, picking up drops, picking up other players’ loot, using the auction house, buy items sold by other players to shops, or accepting aid. Players will also not be allowed to group up, join multiplayer minigames, receive buffs, use housing services by other players, or group up in Dungeoneering.

There is also a hardcore version being thought of which will delete the player’s character when they die, leaving only their highscore behind. The mode has support in both versions of RuneScape.

(Source: RuneScape)

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