Users will be happy to find out that Champions Online and Aion, two upcoming MMORPGs have gone gold and will be shipping on-time as expected. Champions Online, just recently hitting open beta, will launch as expected on September 1st, with Aion hitting shelves in North America and Europe come late September.
Eve Online developer CCP has finally unveiled DUST, an upcoming MMOFPS set in the world of Eve Online. DUST takes place on the planets in the EVE universe, and is a blend of FPS and RTS action. The game will allow players to interact with EVE Online and is part of CCP’s Ambulation Project update, giving Eve Online players avatars to scour the surfaces with. DUST is expect to launch on the 360 and Playstation 3.
Finally, news on Guild Wars 2 is expected this week. What exactly that news is is yet to be seen, but expect an update when it comes forward.
Update: I had previously said that DUST will launch on the PC. That was inaccurate, it will only be launching on the 360 and PS3. I apologize for the issue.
CCP’s contempt for Real Money Traders may seem slightly overblown in this title, but in his latest dev blog, GM Grimmi wants us completely sure that the Eve Online developer feels exactly that sentiment when the subject comes to RMT and players who buy and sell illegal isk (ingame currency). Eve Online has taken a two tier strategy to fighting Real Money Traders in the past, one of those being the ability to sell membership for isk, and the other being the support staff that are on hand to remove farmers as they pop up.
Eve Online has been trying to find the perfect formula for fighting gold farmers for years, and we’ve seen many mass bans on their part. Operation Unholy Rage, which went live on June 22nd, resulted in the banning of over six thousand paying accounts. Gm Grimmi is nice enough to provide us with a few charts, one of which I’ll refer to here.
Makes you wonder what the ratio of players to bots is.
Thanks to Operation Unholy Rage, the servers are back to their spacious…space, and resources are no longer being tied by up botters and macros. GM Grimmi also noted the instant impact on items, namely memory augmentation implants, noting that the immediate effect was a sharp increase in price and a pitfall in quantity supplied.
With all of these changes, however, the market has reportedly been overall unaffected by the string of mass bans. Players of games such as Runescape are well in tune with the effect massive amounts of real world trading and botting once had on the economy, and it’s fresh to see that the macroing didn’t manage to break the kneecaps of the economy on its way out.
If you’re an Eve Online player; Keep fighting the good fight. A large market of real world trading is conducted through hacked accounts, so keeping your password secure and difficult to guess is an absolute must. I normally don’t do your regular MMO news, but issues such as Real World Trading have a big effect on a game’s population. People who see the developers as not stopping real world trading will leave an MMO in droves. What CCP has shown for over four years straight is their dedication to keeping their game clean and enjoyable without hurting the legit players, and that is something to be truly commended.
“So you can see there’s a lot to wrestle with as we begin laying the foundation for EverQuest ‘Next.’ As I write this, we have concept artists and game designers working hard in our studio-taking the lessons of the past, the best parts of the present and the most promising ideas for the future-to bring the world of Norrath to a new generation of players, as well as the dedicated legions of fans who made the EverQuest franchise timeless. I hope we’ll see you there.“
Everquest once again proves itself to be the Granddaddy who not only refuses to stop dancing, but continues to go hiking, bungee jumping, and is always ready to throw down in the wrestling ring. Fresh off of its 10th year anniversary, Everquest continues to remind us that the franchise will not be going anywhere, with the announcement of Everquest Next. The announcement is from the Everquest 10th anniversary book.
Considering the massive changes between Everquest and Everquest 2, the third go at the series can bring nothing less than innovation, a strong player base, an excellent development team, and fifty expansion packs. So cheers to Everquest Next.
Earlier this year, Spellborn developer Spellborn NV, went bankrupt. There wasn’t much information as to what would happen with the game, but a month later it was announced that Acclam will be taking over the reigns. Next year, 2010, Spellborn will be reborn under a new system of free to play with microtransactions.
Until then, Spellborn is offered completely free of charge. There are no longer any upgrades or patches, but the game is being redeveloped for a full re-release next year. Acclaim promises to have player events in the meantime, and support player run events.
Crimecraft isn’t an MMO in the sense that Tabula Rasa was an open world, but more along the lines of Guild Wars: Public lobbies, while the action takes place in instanced matches. Crimecraft is a third person shooter, one of the first MMO’s to be built off of the Unreal 3 engine, next to TERA Online, Huxley, Global Agenda, Mortal Online, and more. You have a choice of PvP and PvE.
Please remember: Crimecraft is in open beta. It is not a finished product.
Crimecraft isn’t an MMO in the sense that Tabula Rasa was an open world, but more along the lines of Guild Wars: Public lobbies, while the action takes place in instanced matches. Crimecraft is a third person shooter, one of the first MMO’s to be built off of the Unreal 3 engine, next to TERA Online, Huxley, Global Agenda, Mortal Online, and more. You have a choice of PvP and PvE.
Please remember: Crimecraft is in open beta. It is not a finished product.
Being my usual late self, this will no doubt be information to none but the three of you who don’t already read WoW news feeds religiously. World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion has been leaked, along with several details of the title. Titled Cataclysm, very little is known about the upcoming expansion, although much is being speculated. Going off of the title’s name, all of the speculation reaches one point: There is going to be massive change to the world of Azeroth, possibly having to do with the previous expansion; Wrath of the Lich King.
The expansion will also open up two new races to players. Joining the horde are the Goblins, while the Alliance will be receiving the Wolf-like Worgen species.
I don’t think I need to reiterate just how successful WoW has been in terms of sales of not only the game, but the expansion. Since its release last year, Wrath of the Lich King hasn’t as much as shuddered from the top of the PC sales charts, and the announcement of another expansion will only boost sales more and reinvigorate interest in players who had long since left. At this point, an expansion to WoW is like a billionare deciding to buy yet another country whose GDP barely stands up to his monthly profits.
Sony Online Entertainment did their Fan Faire Press release this year, and seeing as how they have the largest collection of MMO’s in the list, I just had to have a look at what is on the horizon for their titles, and for the company itself.
I’d like to note on Sony themselves. Despite what I may think about the rest of Sony, I give SOE a lot of credit for the dedication they have to their games. Unlike NCSoft that more closely resembles the guy sitting on his porch with a shotgun waiting for someone to slip up, SOE has a strong dedication to their products, and does everything in their power to make sure that the remaining population, as small as they may be, continue to enjoy what they enjoy, and supports their products long after any other company might consider them to be “dead”.
So I have a lot of respect for Sony Online Entertainment, even though at the same time I have a lot of contempt for the boneheaded mistakes they’ve made in the past, namely the NGE updates for Star Wars Galaxies, and implementing legal real world trading in the Everquest titles. They didn’t talk about many of their existing games at this conference, mainly Everquests and Free Realms, with some Star Wars Galaxies thrown in. So without further ado, here is Sony.
When Champions Online launches this September, it will be the first in a line of superhero MMO’s looking to dethrone the current, and only, contender for the genre; City of Heroes/City of Villains. As there is no timeline for the Marvel MMO, and DC Universe Online isn’t giving us anything more specific than late 2009, early 2010, Champions Online will no doubt enjoy the leg up on the competition…As it tries to get a leg up on the current competition.
MMO Fallout 