Author: Admin

Square Enix Lays Off At Los Angeles Studio


ffxiv3

Square Enix has confirmed to Massively.com that the company’s Los Angeles studios has been hit with a number of layoffs. According to Square, however, none of the company’s existing MMOs have been impacted at all.

In order to ensure it is operating effectively, the Square Enix Los Angeles office has reduced its workforce. This was a difficult decision and we wish the best for those affected by these changes. The decision will not have any impact on the operations of MMO titles. Customers can expect those services to continue, including the upcoming launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

We wish the best for those affected by the layoffs, and hope that they find quick employment.

(Source: Massively)

What Is The Phoenix Project? And Heroes & Villains?


coh

Normally this is where I’d post a picture of Bender with the caption “Fine, I’ll just make my own City of Heroes. With Blackjack, and hookers.” As it turns out, someone’s already beaten me to the punch, minus the blackjack and hookers of course. I know what you’re thinking: “Omali, are you seriously going to tell me that the City of Heroes community is joining together to build a community-driven MMO with an unprecedented level of communication between players and developers?” Absolutely, in fact your assessment is so accurate that I can only assume you already knew about it.

No, not content with the demise of their favorite MMO, certain members of the community have begun work on not just one, but two spiritual sequels to Paragon Studios’ work. The current project names are Heroes & Villains and the Phoenix Project.

Heroes & Villains, as described on the Titan Network:

We’re aiming to create a genuinely community-focused and driven game, with an unprecedented level of communication between its developers and players. Plan Z is just a collection of very passionate and very talented fans of comic books and games, so the line between developers and players is going to be very blurred, especially with the amount of consultation and feedback we’re going to be engaging in with other comic and gaming fans during the design process.

Heroes & Villains appears to be running off of the appropriately named Hero Engine, and work is already well under way. Heroes & Villains is to be set in Titan City, and by the looks of the current lore pages, will be filled with (soon to be) original heroes and villains.

Secondly, we have The Phoenix Project which is pretty similar in scope and focus.

Keep in mind that this is a spiritual successor. As such, we are not trying to completely replicate COH. This is creating a new game with the best parts of COH, and taking lessons from other games on how to improve the COH experience. This will not be identical to COH. That’s not possible without infringing, and I’d prefer to avoid any possible threats of lawsuit down the road. Right now, this is ALL conceptual building processes. But if worst comes to worst, we have to be able to produce a game concept that will sell to investors on December 1st. That is the immediate goal. Long-term goals need to be kept in mind too, and we need to remain flexible.

It is hard to deny the ambitious nature of these projects, but who knows? We may one day be playing a proper community-developed MMO.

(Heroes and Villains Website)

(Phoenix Project Website)

Jagex's Problem With "Not RuneScape" Continues On


By the time you read this, Transformers Online will have already been delisted from MMO Fallout. To find out why, continue reading. Back in July, Mark Gerhard wrote about how Jagex is done messing around with pet projects (read: massive financial disasters) like 8Realms and FunOrb, and that the company would only focus on serious developments from there on out.

“I think to other projects, like 8Realms and things like that, I think that was one of the last hobby projects that we carried through, and obviously that was evident. Now it’s just working on the projects that matter.”

In order to continue on to Transformers Universe, we must first take a stroll down Jagex memory lane. RuneScape launched in 2001 and is a massive success and continues to bring in mucho dinero. FunOrb launched and was subsequently abandoned without even as much as a goodbye to the community. The FunOrb team was whisked away to 8Realms, which was also an unmitigated disaster of marketing and was canned mid-beta. Meanwhile on the serious MMO side of things, Jagex’s first true MMO after RuneScape was shuttered, twice, because a few years and countless millions are what it took before someone said “this isn’t fun.” First as MechScape and then as Stellar Dawn. As for Transformers Online, I noted:

“Jagex’s previous projects are a fine example that, left to their own accord, the company will screw around for a few years, waste countless millions and the good faith of their community, and eventually scrap the game entirely because it didn’t turn out fun. Nobody wins, not the developers who are laid off, not the community, and not the investors who expect their money to be spent wisely.”

So why isn’t Transformers Universe listed on MMO Fallout anymore? Simple: It is no longer an MMORPG. Jagex has announced that the game will be re-envisioned as a MOBA more along the lines of League of Legends or World of Tanks than the traditional MMORPG that Jagex has been leading us along with over the past year or so. Who do you have to thank for this? One Alex Horton.

“Transformers are about war; they’re about action. They don’t carry gold, bake bread, catch fish, cut down trees. But for all they take away, they throw open so many more opportunities. Maybe there’s more in a selection of characters and abilities, and the strategy in that, than there is leveling a character endlessly and going through fuck loads of boss battles.”

Rather than creating a character through the robust creation system Jagex had been showing off at conventions, players will collect Jagex-created robots and battle them out in a story-driven arena.

What has Jagex learned after all of this time? Judging by the sudden change of pace, nothing. According to the article, work only began in “in earnest” on Transformers Universe in early 2011, meaning Jagex was selling yet another MMO in which very little content was likely actually completed despite a very ambitious and unrealistically set launch date. Now, as with MechScape, we find out at the last minute that the game “just wasn’t working out,” and would be recreated in another form.

Like I’ve been saying the whole time, Transformers Online has a far higher chance of seeing release than Jagex’s in-house properties, and for another simple reason: Hasbro. Contracts and deadlines, both of which I can assume exist for Transformers Universe. Hasbro is risking its own money and reputation on the launch of Transformers Universe, and you can bet that we will see one of two outcomes: Transformers Universe launches, or Hasbro pulls the IP.

Of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

(Source: Polygon)

Jagex’s Problem With “Not RuneScape” Continues On


By the time you read this, Transformers Online will have already been delisted from MMO Fallout. To find out why, continue reading. Back in July, Mark Gerhard wrote about how Jagex is done messing around with pet projects (read: massive financial disasters) like 8Realms and FunOrb, and that the company would only focus on serious developments from there on out.

“I think to other projects, like 8Realms and things like that, I think that was one of the last hobby projects that we carried through, and obviously that was evident. Now it’s just working on the projects that matter.”

In order to continue on to Transformers Universe, we must first take a stroll down Jagex memory lane. RuneScape launched in 2001 and is a massive success and continues to bring in mucho dinero. FunOrb launched and was subsequently abandoned without even as much as a goodbye to the community. The FunOrb team was whisked away to 8Realms, which was also an unmitigated disaster of marketing and was canned mid-beta. Meanwhile on the serious MMO side of things, Jagex’s first true MMO after RuneScape was shuttered, twice, because a few years and countless millions are what it took before someone said “this isn’t fun.” First as MechScape and then as Stellar Dawn. As for Transformers Online, I noted:

“Jagex’s previous projects are a fine example that, left to their own accord, the company will screw around for a few years, waste countless millions and the good faith of their community, and eventually scrap the game entirely because it didn’t turn out fun. Nobody wins, not the developers who are laid off, not the community, and not the investors who expect their money to be spent wisely.”

So why isn’t Transformers Universe listed on MMO Fallout anymore? Simple: It is no longer an MMORPG. Jagex has announced that the game will be re-envisioned as a MOBA more along the lines of League of Legends or World of Tanks than the traditional MMORPG that Jagex has been leading us along with over the past year or so. Who do you have to thank for this? One Alex Horton.

“Transformers are about war; they’re about action. They don’t carry gold, bake bread, catch fish, cut down trees. But for all they take away, they throw open so many more opportunities. Maybe there’s more in a selection of characters and abilities, and the strategy in that, than there is leveling a character endlessly and going through fuck loads of boss battles.”

Rather than creating a character through the robust creation system Jagex had been showing off at conventions, players will collect Jagex-created robots and battle them out in a story-driven arena.

What has Jagex learned after all of this time? Judging by the sudden change of pace, nothing. According to the article, work only began in “in earnest” on Transformers Universe in early 2011, meaning Jagex was selling yet another MMO in which very little content was likely actually completed despite a very ambitious and unrealistically set launch date. Now, as with MechScape, we find out at the last minute that the game “just wasn’t working out,” and would be recreated in another form.

Like I’ve been saying the whole time, Transformers Online has a far higher chance of seeing release than Jagex’s in-house properties, and for another simple reason: Hasbro. Contracts and deadlines, both of which I can assume exist for Transformers Universe. Hasbro is risking its own money and reputation on the launch of Transformers Universe, and you can bet that we will see one of two outcomes: Transformers Universe launches, or Hasbro pulls the IP.

Of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

(Source: Polygon)

Reviewing 2011's Predictions: 2012 Edition


Omali's_House_2012_12_09-22_48_34

Every year I run predictions for the following year, and at the end of that year I review them to see just how correct I was. Often times, not so much. Regardless, I am a man of my word, and let’s go down the list of predictions I made at the end of 2011 for 2012.

  1. Free to play: Who couldn’t see this coming? More titles went free to play in 2012.
  2. WAR Will Die Like Galaxies: Hasn’t happened in 2012, technically still possible.
  3. Mists of Pandaria Sells Millions, Still Trashed: Correct on this one.
  4. Neverwinter Will Sell A Lot of Lifetime Subscriptions: This is when we still assumed Neverwinter would release this year. Save this one for next year.
  5. I’m Going To Get Sued: I called it, and once again I wish I hadn’t.
  6. The Number of MMOs Shutting Down Will Spike: I wouldn’t really call it a spike, although perhaps a spike in terms of notoriety of said MMOs.
  7. TERA Will Have A Similar Launch In The West: Lacking end-game content, filled with bots and abusive players, poor customer service, and merging servers within a year. Check.
  8. Guild Wars 2 Will Not Be The Messiah: See #1.
  9. Planetside 2 Will Not Spur Competition: I guess this is too recent to tell.
  10. Action MMOs Will Be Slammed As Clickfests: I claim correct on this one, given the feedback I’ve seen on TERA and RaiderZ as “true action combat” games.

Reviewing 2011’s Predictions: 2012 Edition


Omali's_House_2012_12_09-22_48_34

Every year I run predictions for the following year, and at the end of that year I review them to see just how correct I was. Often times, not so much. Regardless, I am a man of my word, and let’s go down the list of predictions I made at the end of 2011 for 2012.

  1. Free to play: Who couldn’t see this coming? More titles went free to play in 2012.
  2. WAR Will Die Like Galaxies: Hasn’t happened in 2012, technically still possible.
  3. Mists of Pandaria Sells Millions, Still Trashed: Correct on this one.
  4. Neverwinter Will Sell A Lot of Lifetime Subscriptions: This is when we still assumed Neverwinter would release this year. Save this one for next year.
  5. I’m Going To Get Sued: I called it, and once again I wish I hadn’t.
  6. The Number of MMOs Shutting Down Will Spike: I wouldn’t really call it a spike, although perhaps a spike in terms of notoriety of said MMOs.
  7. TERA Will Have A Similar Launch In The West: Lacking end-game content, filled with bots and abusive players, poor customer service, and merging servers within a year. Check.
  8. Guild Wars 2 Will Not Be The Messiah: See #1.
  9. Planetside 2 Will Not Spur Competition: I guess this is too recent to tell.
  10. Action MMOs Will Be Slammed As Clickfests: I claim correct on this one, given the feedback I’ve seen on TERA and RaiderZ as “true action combat” games.

Age of Conan: Double The Free, Double The Play


RGA_conanbarbarian460

Were you excited when Age of Conan went free to play, and then dismayed when you found out the restrictions on classes and dungeons? Boy do I have good news for you. Apparently Funcom has rehired into the “give everything for free” department, as following the announcement of The Secret World becoming buy to play, Age of Conan has been updated to remove some of the restrictions from free players. Players will find that all classes have been unlocked, regardless of subscription status, and that free players can now accumulate up to ten gold. Additionally, all classic dungeons up to level 80 have been unlocked for free players.

(Source: Age of Conan)

Surprise! Asheron's Call 2 Is Back Online


Asherons-Call-2-Legions-6-AEX3Y6EMW2-800x600

Here is one headline that I never thought I would see. Asheron’s Call 2 is back from the dead. In a post on the Asheron’s Call forums, Turbine has announced that the game is freely accessible (in beta) to current subscribers of Asheron’s Call.

Asheron’s Call 2 has returned! We have opened up a new server for anyone who has an active Asheron’s Call subscription to play Asheron’s Call 2 for free! Although we would have loved to revisit some of our old characters with you, we were not able to bring over any of your old characters. We do, however, present this new Asheron’s Call 2 server, Dawnsong, to all active Asheron’s Call players with a paid subscription or who purchase an ACTD retail key and subscribe.

Asheron’s Call 2 released in 2002 and was met with a lack of interest by the fan base and outside customers. As a result, Asheron’s Call 2 became something of the sequel that never happened, and shut down in 2005 despite Asheron’s Call still running (and doing so quite healthy) to this day. The resurrection is likely to gauge possible interest in bringing the game back entirely.

(Source: Asheron’s Call Forums)

Surprise! Asheron’s Call 2 Is Back Online


Asherons-Call-2-Legions-6-AEX3Y6EMW2-800x600

Here is one headline that I never thought I would see. Asheron’s Call 2 is back from the dead. In a post on the Asheron’s Call forums, Turbine has announced that the game is freely accessible (in beta) to current subscribers of Asheron’s Call.

Asheron’s Call 2 has returned! We have opened up a new server for anyone who has an active Asheron’s Call subscription to play Asheron’s Call 2 for free! Although we would have loved to revisit some of our old characters with you, we were not able to bring over any of your old characters. We do, however, present this new Asheron’s Call 2 server, Dawnsong, to all active Asheron’s Call players with a paid subscription or who purchase an ACTD retail key and subscribe.

Asheron’s Call 2 released in 2002 and was met with a lack of interest by the fan base and outside customers. As a result, Asheron’s Call 2 became something of the sequel that never happened, and shut down in 2005 despite Asheron’s Call still running (and doing so quite healthy) to this day. The resurrection is likely to gauge possible interest in bringing the game back entirely.

(Source: Asheron’s Call Forums)

NCSoft Selling Off NC Interactive


ncsoft

Things are afoot over at NCSoft. According to Reuters today, the Korean publisher has announced that it will be selling off NC Interactive Inc, its online gaming branch. Is NCSoft going away in the west? Absolutely not. A follow up article on Reuters states that NCSoft has announced a wholly owned subsidiary that will handle business in the United States and Europe. The transaction will be taken care of on December 24th, to the cost of $50 million KRW. It appears that this is a simple business move by NCSoft to avoid paying some taxes in the US and Europe. Note I said avoid, not evade. One is legal, the other is not.

Otherwise, nothing major is set to come out of this, apart from a little rebranding. It occurs often in business, and as I pointed out, it is a tax trick.