Category: News

The Outer Worlds Announced For October 25


Private Division and Obsidian Entertainment have announced that The Outer Worlds will be coming to PC and consoles on October 25. The RPG emphasizes player choice, companion stories, and endgame scenarios wrapped in a neat package of science fiction, aliens, laser weapons, and big monsters.

“When I found myself contractually obligated to work with Leonard, we decided to make the game we always wanted,” said Tim Cain, Co-Game Director at Obsidian. “A game where player agency matters, and allows you to approach any situation however you’d like. Because it’s your story. And, because we haven’t figured out how to contractually oblige you to play how we want you to. Yet.”

The Outer Worlds will be available on Windows Game Store and the Epic Game Store for one year, after which it will be made available on other digital platforms.

“All kidding aside,” said Leonard Boyarsky, Co-Game Director at Obsidian, “Tim is truly honored to be working with me again on a game that focuses not only on a player-driven story, but also on establishing a new universe that is fun for players to explore with depth, humor, and corporate approved action.”

More information, as well as where to pre-order, can be found at the official website.

Ubisoft Announces UPlay Subscription Service: $14.99/mo


What more could we ask for from E3 2019? If your answer is Ubisoft launching its own version of EA Access, your oddly-specific wish has been granted.

Ubisoft today announced Uplay+, a subscription service coming to PC in September and for the absolutely monetary cost of $14.99 per month, you can get access to over 100 PC games including all of Ubisoft’s new launches. Yes, that means getting access to the upcoming Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and Watch Dogs: Legion the day they hit store shelves. Where Uplay+ sets itself apart from EA Access for instance is that the service promises to offer the most premium version of each game, meaning you won’t need to pay for DLC or expansions.

If you are still on the bench, people who register now will be able to get a free month once the service goes live on September 3. No purchase necessary.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Heads Westward on Xbox and PC


Phantasy Star Online 2. Most of you have probably given up hope of this 2012 title ever coming to the west, but those who kept up their hopes have been handsomely rewarded. Today’s E3 conference brought the announcement that Sega will finally be bringing the MMORPG to the west.

Players of PSO2 become a member of a research expedition called “Arks,” which belong to a fleet of interplanetary cruising ships, setting out to a research a variety of different planets. Visiting places for the mission (quest) always evolves into a fresh and surprising adventure, including auto-generated maps, sudden events, and a Multiplayer Party Area, where up to 12 players can play together simultaneously.

PC and Xbox gamers will finally be able to get their hands on the free to play title in 2020 with crossplay between the two platforms.

Microsoft Releases Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Details Ahead of Conference


Xbox Game Pass is coming to PC systems, according to Microsoft and you don’t even have to wait for today’s conference to get more details. While there is sure to be more on display later this afternoon, Microsoft has already started rolling out its Ultimate Game Pass and you can actually get your hands on it now.

The Ultimate Game Pass costs $14.99 per month, but you can grab the first month for $1, and it combines Xbox Live and Game Pass in one handsome bundle. Alternately, if you just want the PC Game Pass you’ll be glad to hear it comes at a discount. $5 compared to the Xbox Game Pass being $10. This is also available for a $1 introductory price.

But Connor, I hear you asking, what if I’m a jerk like you and literally just renewed my Xbox Live for six months two days ago? Do I need to wait until December to make this worth it? The good news is that no, you don’t have to do much. Just spend the $1 for the ultimate game pass and your existing membership in both Live and the Game Pass will be converted to the Ultimate Game Pass time. So in my case, I spent $1 for the upgrade and now my membership doesn’t renew until January as the six months I had on Live and whatever days I had in the game pass were automatically converted in.

Beta information for the PC game pass will no doubt be in today’s conference as well as information on games coming to it.

Bless Online Goes Offline September 9


Among the splendor of the E3 game reveals, Neowiz has announced that Bless Online will be shutting down in the west as of September 9. The title launched into early access on Steam one year ago in June 2018 to a respectable peak of 28,000 players but players very quickly jumped ship due to a number of issues ranging from prevalent botting to balance problems and performance on even the best of gaming PCs. By the following month, the peak count had dropped by 80% and it never quite recovered.

To send the game off, Neowiz is launching a bonus experience event starting June 10th and running until sunset time for those of you who want to grind out some Steam achievements before the servers go offline forever.

Starting after server maintenance on June 10th, 2019 and until September 8th, 2019 23:59 Dungeons wants to be removed, and the Dungeon drop rates will be increased. Players want to see a 100% increase in Gathering / Mining EXP, Guild EXP, Dungeon Points, and Combat Points. Gathering, Mining, and Crafting speeds will be increased by 50%. 

Despite Bless failing in virtually every territory it has launched in, Neowiz plans on releasing a version on the Xbox One under the name Bless Unleashed.

Source: Steam

Black Desert Hits Xbox Game Pass This Month


April showers bring May video games, and May is looking to haul in quite the bag of goodies.

Microsoft has announced the games coming to Xbox Game Pass in May, and Black Desert is among the list. Black Desert joins Wolfenstein II, Wargroove, Lego Batman 3, The Surge, Tacoma, For the King, and Surviving Mars. The title will be available on May 9 and presumably offers what is available in the standard edition. Game pass users will be able to upgrade for a 20% discount on the standard, deluxe, or ultimate edition bundles as well as 10% on all consumables.

Source: Xbox

Marvel Future Fight Celebrates 4 Years, 100 Million Downloads


Today’s infographic comes to us from Marvel Future Fight, currently celebrating 100 million downloads worldwide. Future Fight is celebrating its fourth anniversary with a slew of events including an 8 week login event, comics cards, character voting events, and other miscellaneous activities. Check out the infographic below and check out Marvel’s Future Fight on iOS and Android.

Lods of Emone: Jagex Posts Record Financial Success


RuneScape is doing just fine, thank you.

This week Jagex released their 2018 financials and boasted a 9.3% increase in revenue to £92.8 million. 2018 saw RuneScape reaching its highest membership total ever with Old School RuneScape launching on mobile and seeing over five million downloads.

CEO Phil Mansell noted:

“This lets us accelerate Jagex’s transformation; we have strengthened our leadership team and will continue to build on the company’s talent base, we are funding new game development, building out our third-party live game publishing, investing in massive publishing platform upgrades, whilst continuing to expand our live RuneScape games.”

The last year has seen Jagex increase its team by more than 100 people with investments in research and development boosted by 69%. 2018 also marked the launch of the Jagex Partners Initiative which aims to deliver operational services tailored toward third party studios.

Source: Jagex Press Release

In Plain English: Epic Takes On Counterfeiters


Here’s a quick tip on counterfeiting merchandise from one of the most litigious companies in the gaming industry: Don’t.

Epic Games is back in court, because the company refuses to let its lawyers have an easy week. This time around, the company isn’t going after Fortnite cheat distributors. On April 25, 2019, Epic filed suit in the Northern District of Illinois for the sale of products in connection with the registered trademark of Fortnite. The lawsuit contends that the defendants are going to great lengths to hide the extent of their operations and are selling inferior quality products designed to look like authorized merchandise.

Who are the defendants? Good question. Epic lists them as individuals and businesses residing in China and other foreign jurisdictions.

Epic seeks relief on charges of counterfeiting and trademark infringement, false designation of origin, violation of the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and has demanded an enjoinment from using the Fortnite brand, passing off counterfeit products as genuine, that all profits gained through the counterfeiting operation be handed to Epic or that statutory damages of $2 million USD for each use of the Fortnite trademark be awarded. They also seek reasonable attorney fees and any further damages the court might award.

Epic’s attorneys are meeting with the court today (April 30) to discuss a motion for temporary transfer of defendant’s domain names, temporary asset restraint (freezing assets), expedited discovery, service of process by email, among other motions.

MMO Fallout could not ascertain the identities of the defendants, as those documents have been sealed by the court, possibly to prevent potential defendants from transferring assets in anticipation of a restraint. Similarly, there are no exhibits of such merchandise available at this time for potentially the same reason.

As always, the court dockets have been provided at our expense to you, the reader, at the Google Drive linked below.

Source: Google Drive

IPE Update: Epic Games v. Sperry Ends


Another Epic Games lawsuit has come to a close.

Plaintiff Epic Games and defendant Joseph Sperry, a.k.a “Spoezy” in a lawsuit related to the creation and distribution of cheat software for the video game Fortnite. According to the lawsuit filed by Epic, Sperry promoted, marketed, and sold the cheats to third parties for financial gain, and engaged in acts of contributory copyright infringement as well as contributing substantially to infringement by others through the sale of his software.

Sperry was hit with a DMCA violation, and has been permanently enjoined and restrained from infringement of any Epic product, current or future, as well as having any relation to infringing software of any of Epic’s copyrights, cheating at any Epic’s games, interfering with their contracts or contractual relations, unfairly competing with Epic, or assisting in any way another party in infringing on Epic’s copyrights.

Both parties have accepted the terms of the judgment and neither party may appeal this ruling. If Sperry violates the terms of the ruling, the court holds the right to award Epic liquidated damages of five thousand dollars without regard to proof of actual damages, as well as possibly other relief including attorneys’ fees, costs, as determined by the court.

Epic filed suit in the North Carolina Eastern District Court, Western Division. Epic Games has filed ten lawsuits since October 10, 2017 against cheat creators/distributors for Fortnite with most of the cases ending in simple court-ordered injunctions. All but one of those lawsuits has since been closed.

As always, MMO Fallout has provided the documents on our Google Drive. The file is listed as “Sperry-Judgment”.

Source: Google Drive