Category: News

Bless Online To Offer Big Update On America Day (July 4)


Neowiz has announced the next big content patch for Bless Online hitting Steam digital shelves on July 4. The update introduces new royalty quests, daily missions available at level 45 that offer better rewards than standard quests and can be completed up to 15 per day in return for rare pets and mounts, among other things. In addition, Basel George is a new area that can be tackled at level 45 with a group.

Finally the update will make market changes and improvements to the market UI.

(Source: Producer’s letter)

H1Z1 Surpasses 10 Million Players On PS4


Daybreak Game Company this week is celebrating a new milestone as H1Z1 surpasses 10 million players on Playstation 4. In the game’s first month of open beta, over 102 million hours have been played with 167 million kills racked up.

Accompanying this news is another update to the title, introducing revive mechanics in group play, aim acceleration adjustments, as well as the new self-explanatory airstrike signal weapon. People who have already downloaded H1Z1 prior to Wednesday will receive a Darkfire Pickup Truck and Sunrise Parachute skin override that will be sent out this weekend.

(Source: Daybreak Press Release)

PUBG Corp Drops Lawsuit Against Epic Games


PUBG Corp believes that Epic Games illegally plagiarized the Battle Royale mode, and has even gone as far as to comment its concerns that Epic Games might steal internal modifications to the Unreal engine and use it in their own game Fortnite. In any case, PUBG Corp found the concept actionable enough that just a couple of months ago they took Epic Games to court, filing an injunction in South Korean court against Fortnite and alleging that Epic Games stole their idea.

Except the lawsuit is over before it truly began, with PUBG Corp pulling out and sending a notice of withdrawal to Epic Games attorneys, according to GI Biz. As of now, neither company is willing to comment on the matter.

(Source: Games Industry)

Guild Wars 2: Season 4, Episode 3 Hits Today


Arenanet today released the latest episode in the Guild Wars 2 living story. Dubbed Long Live the Lich, this episode pits players against current running villain, Palawa Joko, as he continues his efforts to take over the world with the help of a deadly scarab plague. Episode three introduces a new mount, the Roller Beetle, the warhorn legendary weapon, Domain of Kourna map, and a new fractal dungeon.

Long Live the Lich is available for free for Guild Wars 2 players. In addition, the game and expansions are 50% off until June 27.

 

Daybreak Game Company Mourns Passing of Lead Animator David Carter


Daybreak Game Company had the unfortunate role of announcing to their community the passing of David Carter, lead animator on H1Z1. Carter’s presence in the industry spans over a quarter of a century, going all the way back to the original Unreal. The list of titles for which his contributions can be seen includes Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Borderlands, and more.

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Former Daybreak President John Smedley stated “David was amazing to work with. Always an optimist and a true pleasure to work with. He will be missed!”

(Source: Twitter)

Trion Worlds Acquires Gazillion Assets


In an astounding twist of events, Venture Beat is reporting this week that Trion Worlds has acquired the assets from defunct studio Gazillion Entertainment. As part of its acquisition, Trion will get its hands on all of Gazillion’s licenses, trademarks, patents, and domains. In addition to utilizing the new licenses for its own purposes, Trion Worlds is also apparently using Gazillion’s assets to create a platform for third party developers to distribute their titles as well as an engine that reports to speed up the development cycle of isometric games, presumably one that was used on Marvel Heroes and Marvel Heroes Omega.

Our technology is platform agnostic,” CEO Scott Hartsman said. “We put an outside game on our platform and it just works. We spun up Trove in the Japanese market recently, and it just took a week.”

Gazillion Entertainment shut down last year after losing its license to the Marvel property. Following its shuttering, Marvel Heroes was the subject of a suspicious crowdfunding campaign created by an individual with questionable ties to a diploma mill, which has since gone dark. Gazillion Entertainment filed for bankruptcy with the case ultimately being dismissed in May due to failure to comply with court orders to file information.

Stay tuned as more details emerge.

(Source: Venture Beat)

PSA: Shadowrun Returns Free Until Saturday


The Steam Summer Sale might be bumping, but right now you can get your hands on the isometric game Shadowrun Returns for the virtually free price of $0. Available via the Humble Store and delivered as a Steam key, the Shadowrun Returns Deluxe Edition still retails for $25 and includes the base game as well as the Anthology DLC and soundtrack.

But like any great deal, this one is time limited and will end mid-day Saturday. Our time wizards peg this promotion as ending at 1p.m. EST on June 23.

The Crew 2 Hits Open Beta, Mostly Negative Reviews


The Crew 2 open beta has officially begun for this weekend, and it looks like gamers aren’t quite happy about what developer Ivory Tower is offering.

If you head over to the Steam page, where The Crew 2 currently stands at 37% positive, a large portion of the negative reviews seem to focus on poor handling of the game’s various vehicle types. The Crew 2 lets you race using cars, boats, and planes, all of which control rather rigidly according to early Steam players. While many of the reviews acknowledged that the graphics and performance are a positive, although frame rates are apparently locked to 60, some reviews pointed to the game’s “cringey millennial dialogue” as a point of contention.

Thankfully with the open beta running until June 24, you can try it out for yourself with the only cost being bandwidth and time.

[Video] Guild Wars 2: Living World Season 4, Episode 3


The next episode in the Guild Wars 2 living world story hits June 26, with Arenanet releasing a trailer (above) showing off some of the new content that will be available.

As the next step in the ongoing story, “Long Live the Lich” players will continue their war against Palawa Joko, the undead lich who we impersonated over the course of the Path of Fire expansion in order to gain control of his army and defeat Balthazar. Joko has begun an all out invasion on Central Tyria and, in the previous episode, we learned that his goal was to find and unleash a plague on the world’s population.

In addition to new story content, Long Live the Lich will also introduce a new mount, new fractal, and more. Long Live the Lich will be free to Guild Wars 2 owners when it launches.

Steam: Devs Cannot Discount Within 30 Days Of Price Increase


With the Steam summer sale upon us, it might be useful to look back at a not-so-new but not-so-well-known policy laid out by Valve in terms of how and when developers can put their games on sale. According to the terms of service as laid out by Valve, vendors are not allowed to discount their games within 30 days of a price increase, cannot change prices while a promotion is live, and cannot run another discount for two months following a launch discount.

These rules were likely put into place to prevent a repeat of previous years where some developers would increase their costs right before a big Steam sale and then discount it to make it look like the game is at a big markdown, such as a $20 game boosting its price to $50, then offering 50% off and selling at $25 so people think they’re getting a great deal when really they’re paying even more than the regular cost.

The full rules breakdown as follows:

  • You can run a launch discount, but once your launch discount ends, you cannot run any other discounts for 2 months.
  • It is not possible to discount your product for 30 days following a price increase.
  • Discounts cannot be run within 2 months of your prior discount, with the exception of Steam-wide seasonal events or other specific Valve-organized sale events.
  • Discounts for seasonal sale events cannot be run within 30 days of releasing your title or 30 days from when your launch discount ends.
  • You may not change your price while a promotion is live.
  • It is not possible to discount a product 100%.
  • Custom discounts cannot last longer than two weeks, or run for shorter than 1 day.