Author: Admin

RealU Lays Off Most Staff, Gamigo Seeks New Developer


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Otherland is an upcoming MMO based on the book series of the same name, written by Tad Williams. The game is being developed by RealU, and published by Gamigo. At least it was, recent rumors that RealU has laid off most of its staff were confirmed by a Community Manager over at the Otherland official forums:

Unfortunately we have to confirm that the rumors are true and RealU, the developer of Otherland, has laid off most of its staff. RealU is a subsidiary of German publisher dtp, which by itself is currently in insolvency, and gamigo had and has very limited influence on this decision. We are disappointed by this development and very sorry for the development team.

As for Otherland itself, Gamigo hasn’t given up the ghost yet.

As for the Otherland game: we are still holding the exclusive publishing rights for Europe and North America and we are currently looking into opportunities to finish the title at another location. Please understand that for legal reasons we are unable to comment further on this matter.

Gamigo will keep us updated if they do manage to find a new location.

(Source: Otherland)

Permanent Death For Everquest Next? John Smedley Likes It


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[Update] That was fast. Permanent death is not coming to Everquest Next, circa Dave Georgeson.

[Original Story] We already know that Sony wants Everquest Next to be the largest sandbox MMO in history, but how do they feel about permanent death? Positively, if a Tweet today by John Smedley is anything to consider.

We like permadeath for EQN

Hopefully there will be more details to come.

(Source: Twitter)

$10,000 SMITE Tournament At PAX East


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As a MOBA, SMITE is somewhat reliant on attracting the competitive eSports gamers, and that can only mean one thing: Tournaments. In a press release circulated today, Hi-Rez Studios has announced an upcoming 5v5 tournament at Penny Arcade Expo East from March 22nd through 24th. Eight teams will compete to dip their collective hands into the ten grand prize pool. Seven of the eight teams have already been selected with the eighth to be decided at a Wildcard event on March 10th.

“PAX is always a great time because we get to meet and talk directly with the fans of our games,” says Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios Chief Operating Officer. “We’ve been attending PAX events consistently since 2009 and this year we’re excited to return and show off SMITE competitive play.”

You can find the rules of the event, and wildcard tournament, at the link below.

(Source: Hi-Rez Studios)

Darkfall Unveils Salvaging and Prowess Points


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Darkfall’s remake Unholy Wars still has a way to go before launching, but Aventurine continues to update the game regularly with new bug fixes and features. In a post on the Unholy Wars forums today, Tasos Flambouras discusses two systems new to Darkfall in Unholy Wars: Prowesss Points and salvaging. The first, Prowess Points, is the new way in which players will progress in the game. As players take part in activities, such as fighting mobs, other players, gathering materials, or crafting items, they will obtain prowess points. Prowess points are then used to raise attributes and skills. According to the forum post, crafting skills will still be leveled up in the old-fashioned manner, through crafting items.

Salvaging on the other hand is a new skill that most MMO gamers should be familiar with. Essentially the opposite of crafting, salvaging allows you to take finished items and revert them back into their base crafting materials. All equippable crafted items can be salvaged, as well as new “broken” versions of equippable items that are dropped from mobs, and exist solely for salvaging. You can read the other details about salvaging at the link below.

Darkfall: Unholy Wars is slated for release.

(Source: Salvaging)
(Source: Prowess Points)

Pre-Purchase Defiance On Steam, Get More Rewards


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Recently, Valve has been partnering up with publishers to add extra incentives to pre-purchasing through Steam. The idea is pretty simple: The more people pre-purchase, the better rewards everyone will receive. For instance, if enough people order Bioshock Infinite before it launches, everyone will receive a free copy of XCOM, Bioshock, as well as a few Team Fortress 2 items. With its launch on the horizon, April 2nd to be exact, Trion Worlds has partnered with Valve to offer just such a promotion.

Unfortunately there is no indication as to exactly how many people need to order a copy per tier. The base purchase of $59.99 will net you a beta invite, xp boost, an outlander outfit, a Steam-exclusive sniper, and an exclusive title. At tier 1 players will receive another exclusive title (Steam Powered), +5 inventory slots, and an exclusive ATV mount. At tier 2 players will receive a free copy of Rift. At tier 3, players will receive a lock box, +5 inventory slots, a 7 day xp boost, a discount on the season pass, and an exclusive vehicle.

Higher tiers include the lower tier rewards. The Defiance season pass includes five packs of DLC that Trion will roll out in the year or so following Defiance’s launch.

(Source: Steam)

Checking Up: Whatever Happened To Huxley?


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Every once in a while I come across an MMO here at MMO Fallout and think to myself, “oh yea, whatever happened to that game? It never launched, or if it did I certainly haven’t heard anything about it.” Huxley is just that MMO. In fact, the last time we discussed Huxley here at MMO Fallout was over the fact that it did not make its intended release for 2009. So what in god’s name happened?

For the uninformed, Huxley is an Unreal 3 Engine first person shooter announced way back in 200x with the intention of release on PC and Xbox360, the latter of which was indefinitely put on hold. Originally designed to be an MMOFPS with over a hundred players per battle, budget restraints forced Webzen to reduce their capacities down to simple 32 v 32 matches, essentially making the game Unreal Tournament but only on those servers with the RPG mod enabled. On the PvE side, Huxley might have resembled Hellgate Global somewhat, with players grouping up to tackle instanced dungeons filled with monsters.

In June 2009, Huxley had its first closed beta test, followed by another in July. Following, Huxley went into open beta  on May 3rd, 2010. On December 30th, 2010, Huxley’s Korean services shut down completely. Following the closure of the Korean service, work on the international version has apparently come to a complete stop, with Webzen not even acknowledging the game’s existence on their website anymore. Curiously however, the page for Huxley still exists, although it hasn’t been updated since the game’s original anticipated launch date of 2007, and if you can find Webzen game cards in your local stores, odds are they still have the Huxley name on them.

So it looks like Huxley is dead in the water. Not such great news for those who participated in the beta and found the game immensely enjoyable, but closure to those of us who may have lost touch with the game’s progress over the past couple of years.

Lord British Presents…On March 8th


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Good news, internet. Richard Garriot has set up the website “Lord British Presents.” What exactly is Lord British presenting? That’s for him to know and you to find out, in less than a week. The website is laden with a timer and a form to be emailed when the announcement is made. What could it be? Another social game? A trip into space? Perhaps Lord British is about to announce that thing with the place that certainly no one has told me about. We will have to wait until Friday, March 8th to find out.

(Source: Lord British Presents)

OldScape Poll Ends, Jagex Alters Conditions


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Here at MMO Fallout, I’ve often said that Jagex’s polls are really little more than exaggerated PR stunts. Players are given the option of voting yes, or not voting at all, and the tally ultimately follows the rules of Who’s Line is it Anyway, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. Following the tiered system Jagex laid out, and subsequently altered to allow more benefits with less votes, Old School RuneScape will now be available for an additional $5 membership fee with a small team dedicated to continued maintenance, and “possible” anti-bot updates.

In a news article posted today, CEO Mark Gerhard has detailed what players should expect with the full release of Old School RuneScape. Players will be able to vote on future changes, and will be happy to see the implementation of Botwatch to keep nasty cheaters and gold farmers away. In addition, the membership fee on top of the standard member cost has been waived, at least for now.

As a gesture of our own goodwill and an aspiration for this newly established community to flourish and hopefully grow I’ve decided that we will NOT be charging the additional $5 membership fee for at least the next 6 months!

The news article notes that the member fee will continue to be waived so long as population levels are healthy. So even without five hundred thousand votes, Old School players will still enjoy most of the benefits of the tier. The Old School RuneScape server is currently available in the form of early access to members who voted in the poll, and is still considered a work in progress as several features have not yet been fully implemented.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Opens (Limited) Members Skills To Free Players


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In 2012, Jagex opened up a 14-day free trial for free to play players. The account is limited in regards to trading and acquiring items, and once the 14-day free trial ends, any items that are members only are unable to be used until that player purchases a subscription. With today’s release of the March developer blog, Jagex has announced some upcoming changes to the way free players are able to experience membership without the need to actually pay. Instead of a 14-day trial, free players will have access to a limited amount of the members world, as well as very limited access to members skills.

Talking of free players, we’re changing the trial system so that new players once again start off as a free player. To do this, we’re making Burthorpe and Taverley part of the free game, as well as the associated quests and training areas within it. We are also allowing free players to train members’ skills up to a maximum of level 5, giving them a taster of the kind of content there is on offer for players who subscribe.

The blog post also details Jagex’s continued fight against player-run gambling outfits.

Other alterations we intend to make this month are changes centred around the flower games and associated ‘risk’ gameplay that currently dominates the Grand Exchange. Exactly what these changes are and what form they take is going to be up to you – we’ve built a variety of solutions from rules changes, content changes and even our own versions of the games – and we’re planning on chatting to you to work out what solution works best for the community. Keep an eye on the news for details.

You can find the full list of scheduled updates for March at the link below.

(Source: RuneScape)