Steam’s Summer Sale has yet to begin, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get on with some DLC price drops early.
Update: Corrected the Dungeons and Dragons pack. It ends July 9th, not July 7th.
This week has certainly been interesting for Funcom. The Secret World launched earlier this week to be met with mostly positive reviews by critics. On the eve of the game’s launch, however, Funcom’s CEO Trond Arne Aas resigned his role while staying on as a strategic adviser.
“The company’s financial position is strong and the foundation of the company’s long-term product and technology strategy is in place. It feels like a very natural point in time for me to make the transition to a new and freer role in the company, but I will remain committed to the Company both as a major shareholder and as an employee.”
In the past week, Funcom’s stock has dropped nearly 40%. Shares started the week out at $2.85 and since dropped to $1.73.
(Source: Gamespot)
This week has certainly been interesting for Funcom. The Secret World launched earlier this week to be met with mostly positive reviews by critics. On the eve of the game’s launch, however, Funcom’s CEO Trond Arne Aas resigned his role while staying on as a strategic adviser.
“The company’s financial position is strong and the foundation of the company’s long-term product and technology strategy is in place. It feels like a very natural point in time for me to make the transition to a new and freer role in the company, but I will remain committed to the Company both as a major shareholder and as an employee.”
In the past week, Funcom’s stock has dropped nearly 40%. Shares started the week out at $2.85 and since dropped to $1.73.
(Source: Gamespot)
Gamersfirst has quite a record of their library being filled with one of the two: dying MMORPGs and Korean MMORPGs, or any combination of the two. In May, Gamersfirst announced that the company was restructuring to focus more on in-house developed games rather than the usual library of Korean cookie-cutter titles. As a result, War Rock and Knight Online were spun off to new publishers, and Fallen Earth was brought in to be developed by G1 rather than outside contractors.
Reloaded Games, best known for reviving the All Points Bulletin MMO shooter, has merged with Gamersfirst as a subsidiary of K2 Networks. It will continue to be known as Reloaded Games.
(Source: Games Industry)
Since the days when people began storing things in secret locations, there have been others waiting to pick the lock, steal the combination, and steal whatever was being hidden. In the age of the internet, keeping your personal data hidden becomes more difficult as the days go on, and developers have been on the assault against account thieves.
Cryptic is beefing up their security with Account Guard. When the user attempts to log in from an unidentified computer, the system will send a key to the email address associated with the account. The key must be entered, otherwise the user will be unable to log in. If there is a failed attempt at logging in, the user will be notified by email.
The system can be opted out of if the user prefers not to enroll.
(Source: FAQ)
After a long hiatus of development, Sony Online Entertainment’s MMO Vanguard finally goes live this year. So what can free players expect to find when they log in? Today, SOE released the usual Free to Play Matrix, detailing exactly what will be available when the game makes its transition. Players can expect limited access to races, classes, character slots, and more. Additionally, free players do not have access to the housing system and limited access to the broker.
Unlike SOE’s other titles, Vanguard does not offer the “premium” or middle-ground level of membership obtained for a single transaction. Generally other Sony MMOs offer a less restricted membership for returning subscribers or for a one time fee in the cash shop.
Vanguard Free to Play comes this summer.
(Source: Vanguard)
Gaikai is a revolutionary streaming service that allows players to demo popular games over their browser, without the wait or bandwidth of downloading the increasingly growing games. Currently demos are very limited both in time and size, with most games only offering a few levels and up to an hour of gameplay.
Games Industry is reporting that Sony has acquired Gaikai to the tune of $380 million. Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House had the following to say:
“By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences,”
There are numerous competing developers currently using Gaikai’s services to stream their games. What does this mean for competing products on Gaikai? Only time will tell.
(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)
Not that it matters anymore as Dark Millennium Online is no longer being made as an MMO, but back in February I published a poll asking who should publish the Warhammer 40k MMO as developer THQ was having difficulty finding one. The results were close, but more than a quarter of users chose Activision as the publisher. In a close second, Trion, followed by EA and NCSoft, then Sony Online Entertainment and Perfect World.
In other news, if you are one of the 53% who said that they saw TERA releasing in North America in “never,” you are wrong. The 27% who predicted 2012 can pat themselves on the back. In further MMO Fallout poll news, Guild Wars 2 was voted the most anticipated game of 2012 (no surprises there).
*Note: Since I’ve received numerous comments in regard to this and the other Raptr articles, I would like to point out that this is not a sponsored article. MMO Fallout does not accept offers for sponsored articles.*
We here at MMO Fallout love Raptr. If you haven’t heard of it, Raptr is a service similar to Xfire which tracks your games, achievements, time played, and more. As you play games and earn achievements, you rank up in comparison to your fellow gamers, and this is where Raptr leads the pack: Every so often, Raptr offers some great rewards for the simple act of ranking up. These range from in-game items to full games, and coupons to buy games. On the downside, the promotions are quantity and time limited, so you’ll need to be fast to earn them.
The latest deal to hit Raptr soon is a promotion for World of Warcraft. Starting later this week, players who are ranked “Experienced” (top 60%) or above in World of Warcraft will be able to claim a Mists of Pandaria beta key. There are only five thousand keys to be claimed, and they are guaranteed to be gone within just a few hours of the promotion starting.
On another fine note, this giveaway is available in all regions except for China and Korea. Sorry! Beta keys are redeemed through Battle.net.
MMO Fallout will be showcasing more Raptr rewards as they appear.
(Source: Raptr.com)
Developing an MMO for kids is a tough endeavor. On one hand, there are commercial failures like Lego Universe and Cartoon Network’s Fusion Fall who were unable to bring in enough paying customers and either shut down or went completely free to play respectively. On the other hand, you have major successes like Wizard 101, Roblox, Clone Wars Adventures, and Free Realms that manage to bring in a great deal of cash each month, one or two of them on forced subscriptions.
Funcom announced in a press email today that the developer is moving full steam ahead with their next MMO, based on the minifigures of Lego. Where Lego Universe was a traditional MMO with building aspects, Funcom’s Lego MMO prides itself on accessibility, and bringing a “broad and enhanced experience.”
Almost nothing is known about Funcom’s Lego MMO. MMO Falloug will continue reporting any new information we find.
(Source: Press email)
MMO Fallout 