Ragnarok Online 2 is shutting down in Korea. As reported by MMO Culture, Gravity has announced that the Korean servers will come down on December 23rd, and that services in North America and Europe will not be affected by the change. The shutdown notice points to a lack of players as the reason for the service being sunsetted, although it does include the possibility that the game may be revived in the future.
(Source: MMO Culture)
Star Vault has released their third quarter finances, and odds are if you are taking the time to read this, you already have an idea of what is coming next. The good news is that, according to Henrik Nyström, third quarter subscription numbers saw a rise compared to the previous quarter, although net sales dropped slightly and net profit dropped approximately thirty percent. The number of registered users on the forum has also increased over last quarter, the financial report shows.
The other good news is that Mortal Online may be set for an infusion of new players. In September, Mortal Online was officially greenlit for release on the Steam platform. In response to this news, the board conducted a private placement of 2.6 million shares to several private investors to increase development toward a Steam release.
Our hearts also go out to the family and friends of Ulf Nyström, father of Henrik Nyström, who recently passed away due to illness. The board has decided not to fill his position immediately, but to wait until the 2014 Annual General Meeting.
Fun fact: Today’s MMOrning Shot could not be uploaded in its original .png format because it somehow ended up being nearly sixty megabytes. Figure that one out.
Who wants an extra helping of disappointment today? Two MMOs are progressing into new territories, but judging by MMO Fallout’s metrics, they still aren’t coming to your territories. Mail.ru has announced that the closed beta for ArcheAge is set to start in December. Some of you may recall that mail.ru caught some heat over their planned payment system. Players were able to successfully petition the company to change their plans and adopt the Korean model.
Meanwhile, Blade & Soul’s open beta is set to begin next week in China. The open beta client is already available for download and the servers reportedly will not have an IP block, allowing anyone in who feels like joining up.
(Source: Massively.com)
Gamigo has announced that their air combat MMO Heroes in the Sky will be shut down on December 3rd. Gamigo customers should have received a notice from the publisher with details on how they can transfer their accounts to the new host, GameUs.
We regret having to inform you that the service of Heroes in the Sky on the gamigo website will shut down on December 3rd, 2013. The Cash Shop will already be shut down on November 29th, 2013. From that date on, it will be impossible for players to make new purchases.
(Source: Gamigo Email)
Funcom has released their third quarter results for 2013, and as usual the results are a mix of the good and the bad. Revenues in the third quarter amounted to $5.3 million, a decrease over the same time last year when The Secret World initially launched. A significant operating cost decrease combined with tax credits allowed for a $2.2 million cash flow compared to a slight loss in the previous quarter.
The main source of revenue for this past quarter came from The Secret World and Age of Conan, consistent with last quarter but lower than last year. Revenue in all games went down due to high profile game releases including Grand Theft Auto V. Work continues on the engine upgrade for Anarchy Online, and further initiatives are being pursued across all titles despite a relatively stable quarter for The Secret World and Age of Conan.
Funcom’s upcoming title, Lego Minifigures, is maintaining its development schedule, and was met with a positive response at its public showing in Cologne, Germany. The company expects lower revenue in the next quarter.
Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from City of Steam, more specifically the upcoming relaunch titled Arkadia. With the R2Games servers shutting down tomorrow, now is as good a time as any to get excited about the reboot. Check out our coverage when City of Steam 2.0 goes live.
Pirates of the Burning Sea is being rebuilt! At least that’s what the lizard people ushering in the new world order want you to think. Way back when, Flying Lab Software announced that they were parting ways with Sony Online Entertainment and moving their game over to Portalus Games. Since then, everything has been rather quiet on the western front. It appears that while existing players were able to transfer over to Portalus’ services, registration for new users has been down for some time.
While the official website still shows an under construction notice, it directs players to the Portalus website where they can register an account, make payments, and download the game client. If you’ve been waiting to get in since the SOE servers shut down, now is your chance.
(Source: Portalus)
The fact that Lineage II launched ten years ago is hardly a deterrent for NCSoft, who continue adding in new content of rather substantial value on a decent basis, and it isn’t all just new areas and bigger toys to thwack creatures over the heads with. Last year, Lineage II players had the pleasure of witnessing a true rarity from the massive publisher: Rather than shut the game down and execute the studio, NCSoft admitted that a few years of poor decisions had left the game in a bit of a messed up state, and then did what few other MMO developers would do, they asked for feedback on how to go about fixing those problems.
The Ertheia is the newest race to come to Lineage II and is preparing to hit North American servers sometime next year to coincide with Lineage II’s ten year anniversary events. Check out the teaser trailer at the link below.
(Source: Lineage II)
The fact that Lineage II launched ten years ago is hardly a deterrent for NCSoft, who continue adding in new content of rather substantial value on a decent basis, and it isn’t all just new areas and bigger toys to thwack creatures over the heads with. Last year, Lineage II players had the pleasure of witnessing a true rarity from the massive publisher: Rather than shut the game down and execute the studio, NCSoft admitted that a few years of poor decisions had left the game in a bit of a messed up state, and then did what few other MMO developers would do, they asked for feedback on how to go about fixing those problems.
The Ertheia is the newest race to come to Lineage II and is preparing to hit North American servers sometime next year to coincide with Lineage II’s ten year anniversary events. Check out the teaser trailer at the link below.
(Source: Lineage II)
MMO Fallout 