Category: News

Frostkeep To Sunset Rend This Month


Rend is dead, as Frostkeep announced today. A post on the official website confirms that the servers for the survival game will go offline permanently as of January 31.

“We’re sad to announce that on 1/31/2020 we will sunset Rend. This was a difficult decision for our team and was not something we approached lightly or without serious thought and consideration. As a small indie studio, we set out with determination and a bold vision to create a competitive survival game that would challenge the traditional mold and introduce new experiences and ways for players and friends to participate within the game regardless of play style. But ultimately, the game’s population levels have decreased and reached a level where the original experience we hoped for and envisioned for Rend is no longer a possibility. We will formally shut down all public servers on Friday 1/31. While today’s news is a disappointment, we’re sincerely grateful to our players, partners and the community for your commitment and support. Thank you for joining us on the battlefield.”

Frostkeep Studios suffered layoffs earlier this month that seem at least somewhat related to the shut down. Also likely related is the dismal performance of the title, as traffic for Rend on Steam had dropped into the single digits of average players since October 2019. Frostkeep has promised not to interfere with private servers.

Source: MassivelyOP

Streaming Buddies: Activision Blizzard Partners With Google Cloud


Google and Activision Blizzard today announced that the two companies will be joining forces to power new player experiences. Activision Blizzard will use Google Cloud services to power their game hosting infrastructures while Youtube will play exclusive host to live broadcasts of eSports and other events (excluding China). In other words, Youtube will be hosting Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, Hearthstone, and others.

Call of Duty’s inaugural league kicks off today (January 24) at 2p.m. PST where twelve teams will face off in Minnesota with Overwatch League following on February 8.

“We’ve worked closely with Activision Blizzard for the past few years across mobile titles to boost its analytics capabilities and overall player experience,” said Sunil Rayan, Head of Gaming, Google Cloud. “We are excited to now expand our relationship and help power one of the largest and most renowned game developers in the world.”

Activision boasts that the cloud will allow gamers to play their favorite titles with low latency and packet loss.

“This is an exciting year for Activision Blizzard Esports as we head into the inaugural season of Call of Duty League and our first ever season of homestands for Overwatch League all around the world,” said Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports. “It’s our mission to deliver high-quality competitive entertainment that our fans can follow globally, live or on-demand, and to celebrate our players as the superstars that they are. This partnership will help us deliver on that promise at new levels, by combining our passionate communities of fans and players with YouTube’s powerful content platform and exciting history of supporting next-generation entertainment.”

Source: Press Release

Mad World MMO Isn’t Dead, Actually


All around me are familiar faces…

Mad World is still alive and kicking, and this week the developers over at Jandi Soft broke a small stretch of silence to announce that release is still on schedule for 2020. The full post goes into all sorts of details on coming features including the renovation of chapter one, your companion character Dawn, pets, travel, facial expressions, and more!

“Lunar New Year-year of the rat-has come and we want to take this opportunity to shed some light on our current progress, giving you a sneak-peek of what we’ve been working on. We plan to post this sort of dev letter more often so stay around!”

More information as well as new years messages from the team can be found at the link below.

Source: Mad World

Mobility: Overhit Launches Two New Heroes


This week brings a brand new update to Overhit introducing two new heroes and a swath of content. The two heroes are;

  • Crow arrives as a Dark type Dealer and Assault hero who wields his terrifying power and unrelenting cruel temperament to eradicate foes
  • Dark-Type Sophia, the Successor of the Sun and Dark type Healer recently returned to Overhit with awakened power and special armor to protect the world with Ash, Colette and Malpion

The update also introduces Gabriel, a powerful new raid boss who drops new chaos gear. Dark-Type Xanthippe has been rebalanced to be stronger. All players can participate in events starting this week including an attendance event, hero growth for dark heroes, and more. For more details on the events, check out the Facebook page.

Dirty Dev Beawesome Games Abusing Copyright To Silence Critics


(Update: The Tweet originally sourced in this article was removed by Twitter. We have inserted SidAlpha’s video response as a replacement.)

Today’s story covers Jonathan Slabaugh, aka Jao, head of Beawesome Games and developer of the bestselling mediocre asset flip also known as Day of Dragons. We’ve spoken briefly about Day of Dragons in the past, from the company’s unethical behavior in hardcoding bans of Youtube critics causing their games to crash upon startup. Conversation surrounding Day of Dragons has prompted an almost fanatical response from some of Beawesome’s community base with critics being harassed off of social media and one Youtuber receiving death threats for no longer supporting the game.

But it looks like Jonathan has finally struck a fatal cord in his attempt to silence critics, as Youtuber SidAlpha posted to Twitter that he will be contacting an attorney in response to a failed attempt to copyright strike a video by Beawesome Games. The Tweet contains a snapshot of an email from Youtube confirming that a video posted by Sid had received a copyright infringement notice, but that Youtube would not be taking any action under the belief that the video content constitutes fair use. The copyright notice attempts to claim that a video showing the software interface constitutes copyright infringement.

MMO Fallout has had our own encounters with the sycophantic subset of Day of Dragons fans.

Mobility: Com2uS Announces Summoners War: Chronicles


Summoners War is getting a prequel!

Summoners War: Chronicles was announced this week by Com2uS. Chronicles is set 70 years before the original Summoners War, a real time battle game that has gained a fair amount of attention thanks to the strong IP it is based on. Players choose up to three characters to take into battle from a growing roster of characters.

“Summoners War: Chronicles will bring a different gameplay experience and fun to many global users who enjoy MMORPGs,” said Jack Lee, the head of division at Com2uS. “We are working hard to provide high game quality and meet the expectations of many game fans around the world.”

Com2uS aims to launch Summoners War: Chronicles in the second half of 2020. Stay tuned for more information.

APB: Reloaded Details Roadmap For 2020


Much like this eight year old header image of All Points Bulletin, APB: Reloaded is working toward a better future.

The APB: Reloaded team put out its 2020 roadmap this week detailing the kind of updates players can expect in the coming eleven months. Chief among the updates is the upgrade to Unreal Engine 3.5 which has been in the works for quite some time. CEO Matt Scott has been maintaining a thread on the official forums logging where the team currently is at with the update, as well as what still needs to be fixed before the upgrade can go live.

Further updates include quality of life improvements and balancing the shotgun. For more details, check out the official website below.

Source: APB Reloaded

Tencent Wants To Buy Funcom


Tencent wants to buy Funcom. Thank you everyone, good night.

Okay there is more information. Funcom this week publicly revealed that Tencent, currently shareholder of 29% of the developer, intends to buy the other 71% from other shareholders. Funcom is claiming that there are no plans to change management, staffing, or structure following the acquisition, nor will Funcom deviate from supporting its current library of titles.

“We have had a great relationship with Tencent as our largest shareholder so far and we are excited about this opportunity,” says Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “We will continue to develop great games that people all over the world will play, and we believe that the support of Tencent will take Funcom to the next level. Tencent will provide Funcom with operational leverage and insights from its vast knowledge as the leading company in the game space.”

Thankfully players can look forward to nothing changing, since businesses are well known to keep their promise of not making gigantic cuts following acquisitions.

Source: Funcom

Daybreak Game Company Announces Franchise First, Studio Spinoffs


Remember last year when we talked about how Daybreak would likely be splitting off its properties into separate studios? They’ve done that. Daybreak today announced its “Franchise First” initiative, establishing three new studios; Dimensional Ink Games, Darkpaw Games and Rogue Planet Games. Dimensional Ink will be captained by Jack Emmert and continue work on DC Universe Online, Darkpaw Games of course will handle the Everquest titles and be helmed by MMO Fallout patron saint Holly Longdale, and finally Rogue Planet Games will have control over Planetside 2 under Andy Sites.

“By allowing the identities of each of these studios to thrive under their individual studios, each team will have the flexibility to continue their work developing current and upcoming games, recruiting new talent and building upon the legacy of their respective franchises.”

The news gives a little tease into what Daybreak has been working on, as Dimensional Ink Games is working on a high profile action MMO starting this year, Darkpaw has something in the works, and Rogue Planet is working on a “genre-defining” game for fans of shooters. Marvel MMO, Everquest 3, and Planetside 3 when? Only time will tell.

Notably absent from this announcement is H1Z1 or Z1 Battle Royale.

Jagex Continues Hiring Spree In 2020, Brings On Big Names


2020 is continuing the trend of gaming industry names being absorbed into the Jagex collective. Will MMO Fallout be absorbed next? Only time will tell.

Jagex’s latest hiring spree has brought on board a number of notable names to notch their…I’m out of words for this alliteration. The role of head of product marketing for RuneScape has been filled by David Bamberger who was part of the product launches for Final Fantasy VII, Twisted Metal, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and more. David is joined by Ouni Kwon as head of marketing for Old School RuneScape coming off of his nine year stint at Wargaming working on World of Tanks.

Creative services director is now Joeyray Hall who had spent more than two decades at Blizzard Entertainment working as 3D artist and taking on senior management roles including cinematics senior project manager. Mike Donatelli is joining on as product director of Old School RuneScape, having worked on the late Mythic Entertainment’s MMO library of Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online, and Wildstar.

Stewart Stanbury has joined as director of business development and brings his experience of working with clients including Adobe, Ubisoft, Rockstar, and more to provide insight, research, marketing, and player retention support. Stewart will be Jagex’s outreach to external studios for investment, retail and licensing opportunities for Jagex’s corporate portfolio. Official Planet Funorb merch? We can only dream.

And last but not least we have Anna Mostyn-Williams as director of publishing partners. After a career of helming brands from Xbox, Quantic Dreams, and Discovery Communications, Anna will be working on Jagex’s outreach and relationship with distribution and marketing partners.

Jagex CEO Phil Mansell weighed in:

“With the significant talent we’re able to continuously attract to Jagex, it’s very clear that big things lie ahead for the studio as we approach our 20th Anniversary of RuneScape. We recognise the importance of investing in exceptional talent, with 100 new hires welcomed to Jagex in 2019 alone, we have witnessed a record-breaking year whilst hitting exciting milestones, and we plan to continue to build our talent pool through 2020 and beyond.”

Source: Press Release