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Tribes-2-Map-Hades-Map-Pack_1 — Tribes 2: The Not MMO

Back in my “autopsy” of The Matrix Online, I mentioned that the game’s poor reception had a lot to do with timing: the game being released in a time where the third movie had come out and did its part trashing public interest in the franchise. Adding to that, the game was never advertised on a major scale, and many of you may have never heard of it. Of course, the Matrix Online was online for four years which many would bill as a pretty successful run.

“If you’ve never heard of the Matrix Online, that wouldn’t be surprising. The game had very little advertising going for it, leading to the low sales that eventually brought the game down to cancellation four years later. The poor reception of the following two Matrix movies did little to ignite enthusiasm for the game, and eventually the number of players leaving outweighed the number of players entering.”

I’ve seen a few MMOs announced this year that have me worried about timing and its effect on the longevity of these titles. Earlier this year, The Mummy Online was announced by Bigpoint for release this winter, and I noted that the game’s possible only saving grace was that it will be free to play with a cash shop, as well as powered by the UNITY engine, making it browser based. There isn’t much research into the Mummy video game franchise, although the movies have done pretty well (not by critic’s standards, but the latest iteration sold over two million dvds).

Hi-Rez Studios, makers of Global Agenda, announced that they not only own the rights to the Tribes series, but they have an MMO in the works for the jetpack-induced shooter, and the only thought running through my mind at the time was: disgruntled fans. If there is any fan-rage to match that of Star Wars versus the New Game Enhancements on Galaxies, it is Tribes vs Tribes: Vengeance. In fact, asking a Tribes fan what they thought of Vengeance is likely to put you at just as much danger as asking a Star Wars nerd his favorite line from Jar Jar Binks.

The Mummy Online will only be a two year dead franchise by the time The Mummy Online launches this winter, assuming it hits its release date. Tribes won’t be going into alpha until 2011, likely for a release in 2012, by which time the IP will be eight years dead (Tribes: Vengeance was 2004). Couple the last title’s performance with a franchise thought dead, and you have a recipe for a blasé launch.

Then again, hopefully I’m wrong. The quality of the game isn’t what I’m worried about, the naturally warm embrace of the MMO community *ahem* is what scares me, especially with what I said a few weeks ago about how one project tanking can financially destabilize the entire company. How about a new non-MMO Tribes game to test the waters? The initial cost is much lower, and it’ll be a nice gauge of the market.

Buyer Found For APB: I Hope It Is Epic

If you’re like me, you still have All Points Bulletin installed on your computer, and occasionally start up the client. For those of you who don’t, you can still read the news ticker here: The ticker is occasionally updated with news on APB and Realtime Worlds, the latter still going through the negotiation process to find a buyer for the former.

A couple days ago, the following appeared on the blog:

=== 22/10/2010 ===
It’s looking like there might be light at the end of the tunnel for APB. The end of the administration process is apparently close and there appears to be a buyer for the game.

You can find more information at the above website, or by launching your APB client. We may see APB come back by the end of the year (or early next year). Perhaps Webzen will take it on, they have something of a history picking up dead MMOs. I think this is the longest an MMO has gone postmortem still being covered here on MMO Fallout.

Updated The MMO Fallout Banner

I like to update the MMO Fallout official banner every now and then, despite having no artistic or creative talent, so the previous banner (above) is now retired in favor of the new MMO Fallout banner, as seen below.

News On Fallout Online? Hurray!

Fun Fact: The last Project V13 article was almost five months ago (June 27th).

When I read the latest description of Fallout Online, it reminded me of Xsyon in nature. Being an MMO, the game can’t give you a simple task like finding a chip to fix the water recycling, or escaping the vault to find your father because the overseer wants to kill you. In Fallout Online, the only conceivable goals would be surviving the post-apocalyptic world and helping to rebuild it. Interplay is going for both.

I think [Bethesda] miss a lot of the humour. Our Fallout MMOG will be extremely funny. At the same time, an MMOG must be a lot deeper than a standalone game… you can shoot, but it’s a very small portion of the game. The game itself is about reconstructing the world.

Interplay is looking to follow their own brand of Fallout, rather than the latest iteration set forth by Fallout 3 and New Vegas (the latter of which attempts to reach back to Fallout 1 and 2). Eric Caen was kind about Bethesda’s shaping of Fallout 3’s world, but had his criticism:

“We appreciate some portions of [Bethesda’s work], and we’re not necessarily fans of everything. I think they miss a lot of the humour, and the fans seem to agree with that. Fallout 3 was a little bit too serious – that’s definitely not where we’re going. OurFallout MMOG will be extremely funny.”

According to Caen, president of Interplay, the Fallout Online team is 90 men strong, and the game is still on track for a 2012 beta and release (hopefully giving players enough time to gain survival tips for the real end of the world later that year).

You can check out the partial interview on Edge’s website, with the full interview appearing in the magazine.

Read more information on Fallout Online here. Want new MMO Fallout breaking stories sent directly to you? Subscribe in the top right hand corner, or follow us on Twitter @mmofallout. Leave a comment, no email address required.

Bloodline Champions Beta Key Giveaway

newscreen10 — Giving away keys since some time ago.

Bloodline Champions is an upcoming game being published by Funcom that takes arena based PvP and sticks in several game modes including arena (fight to the death), capture the artifact (capture the flag), and conquest (conquest). The game is viewed from a top-down angled perspective, as you can see above, and controls with the WASD keys.

I have two beta keys to give away, because much like the rest of this website I am extremely cheap and under-performing. All you have to do is post a comment on this page, fill in the email spot with your real email address (I will be able to see it, but no one else will) and write whatever you want in the comment box. At the end of next week (the 29th) I will choose two winners by way of random number generator and send them the invitations.

Get crackin, and don’t fret if your comment isn’t approved immediately, it just means you don’t have any other approved comments and I do check every couple hours.

The Contest is now over. The winners have been selected by process of random number generator, and the invitations have been sent out. Better luck next time to those who didn’t get a key.

Direct2Drive Says They Are Sales, Not Permanent

I’ve gotten a bit of feedback on the fact that many of the sales listed on the sales page, those listed through Direct2Drive, have been there since June, putting them at four months on sale at least. A few asked me why I don’t remove them and just consider them permanent price cuts. Back in July I emailed Direct2Drive over whether or not the price cuts were permanent or temporary, and received this answer:

Hi Connor,

Prices can fluctuate depending on pricing offered by the developers and publishers. Some MMO’s are currently on sale and that would be a temporary discount. You can see those games at http://www.direct2drive.com/buy-mmo-pc-games-download The sale items are listed with the original price and the discount price in yellow.

Kind regards,
Rich Metcalfe
Lead Technical Specialist
Digital Distribution

So this is why I still have the games listed. Until Direct2Drive lists them as such, they are a temporary price cut. Hopefully this calms some questions.

Preview LOTRO Europe, Finally! Next Week!

Starting next Monday, the 25th, Codemasters will open up the test realms for Lord of the Rings Online’s transition to free to play, which you can sign up for here. Codemasters is saying that the more people who sign up, the faster the testing can take place (meaning the testing is likely for stability and population capacity under high stress) and the faster that the service can transition on the live servers.

It’s almost Friday, which means we’re about a day early on the weekly Lord of the Rings Online: Europegate update, but who cares about keeping up to nonexistent traditions? We have good news finally! Starting next Monday, the 25th, Codemasters will open up the test realms for Lord of the Rings Online’s transition to free to play, which you can sign up for here. Codemasters is saying that the more people who sign up, the faster the testing can take place (meaning the testing is likely for stability and population capacity under high stress) and the faster that the service can transition on the live servers.

Is anyone still reading this? Good. Those of you who sign up and participate in the trial will receive 500 Turbine points (or would they be Codemaster Points?) towards the store once the game goes live. The only information we have on timing is “shortly thereafter,” which can mean anything coming from the company that told us over a month ago that the European service would go free to play in “just a couple weeks,” granted their issues were contractual and thus irrelevant to this new update.

Will this be enough to bring back European players who are on the North American servers, likely some of whom have invested both cash and time into their new characters? Only time will tell.

Guild Wars: This is How You Charity 10K Edition

“Pink Day in LA” was a Guild Wars event held this past weekend, encouraging players to dye their armor pink for breast cancer awareness. Malibu Barbie teamed up with Gaming World Entertainment Network and Gamers Giving Back to bring cancer awareness to Guild Wars. Players purchased almost three hundred thousand bottles of pink dye, donating almost eleven thousand dollars in the process.

“I was totally amazed when we hit our original goal of $1,337 early,” Malibu Barbie said.

The Technical Issues Are A Lie: Codemasters Reveals

I’ve been speculating for a while now that there is more to this delay of Lord of the Rings Online in Europe than Codemasters has been explaining. On my earlier articles, I noted my thoughts that Turbine had something to do with the delays, although my assumption that Turbine was attempting to take back LOTRO in Europe was obviously incorrect. Codemasters’ General Manager David Solari put out a notice today that the issues were not, in fact, technical, and that Codemasters was having contractual issues that were delaying the launch of LOTRO F2P EU.

“This is the reason why we have been unable to provide you with any substantial information as to when we will go Free-to-Play, despite the desire to share this with you.
Unfortunately a contract was required in order to go Free-to-Play and this has taken much longer to conclude than expected.”

My money says this can be traced back to money, namely how much Turbine wanted in royalties and how much Codemasters wanted to pay under the new contract. Either way, the contract has been concluded, and Codemasters is on their way to a full free to play launch.

We can confirm the launch is imminent and we should be able to announce the dates later this week/early next week.

You can read the rest of Solari’s comments at the above link. More on Lord of the Rings Online as it appears.

By The Way: Everquest II Server Mergers Abound

A great man once told me, “mark my words, Everquest II will have a big server merge less than six months after it goes free to play.” I can’t recall who said this, and thanks to the wonders of corrupt hard drives and lack of backup copies I no longer have his name on file, so I will let him take credit wherever he is. Those of you playing Everquest II, be it the free or paid version, are likely well aware of today’s announcement that Sony will be shuttering a number of Everquest II live servers. Sixteen servers, overall, are merging into eight, with the remaining eleven being unaffected.

Players with legacy titles will have their titles changed to “of <server name>.” The server mergers themselves are nothing surprising, however, as Sony put it:

We’ve been planning to merge the EQII Live servers for a long while now, and most of you have been asking for it to happen for just as long. As part of our ongoing effort to utilize community feedback and deliver the best gameplay experience possible, I am happy to announce that we will begin merging several servers this fall. Bigger population density on a server is just simply more fun for everyone involved, so it’s time to get it done.

Everquest had a server merger just a couple months ago. It happens when your MMO is not named World of Warcraft.

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