Category: News

Star Trek Online Wholly Ditches The Subscription


Star Trek Online is about to go free-er to play, with the announcement that subscriptions are going away and being replaced with a starter pack. While existing subscribers will be able to continue as usual, new players will not be able to sign up for a monthly subscription and will instead be directed to park their wallets in the Elite Starter Pack. The pack contains:

  • One new Character Slot
  • 20 Shared Bank Slots
  • 5 Captain Retrain Tokens
  • An Increase on your Energy Credit Cap to 2 billion Energy Credits

The starter pack essentially includes what a subscription would have normally unlocked, at the cost of one month’s subscription, leading some to speculate that Perfect World is just canonizing what many players have already been doing but in a more convenient package.

(Source: Star Trek Online)

FTC Warns Console Manufacturers: Your Warranties Are Illegal, Change Them


The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning to console manufacturers: Your warranties are illegal and must be altered within 30 days. The letters were sent to all three console manufacturers: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo along with Hyundai, HTC, and Asus according to a Freedom of Information request sent by Vice.

The FTC warning is in relation to provisions in each company’s terms of service that claims to void your warranty if it is repaired by a third party, as well as those fancy “warranty void if broken” stickers that we have all seen on our consoles at some point. This language is illegal, according to the FTC, who also note in their letter that the 30 day provision does not prevent them from taking legal action on any past or future violations.

“Provisions that tie warranty coverage to the use of particular products or services harm both consumers who pay more for them as well as the small businesses who offer competing products and services,” said Thomas B. Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

All six companies have 30 days to change their policy or face legal action.

(Source: FTC, Vice)

[Not Massive] Gamestop Hyperkin Controllers Get Stuck In Customs


Hyperkin’s Duke Xbox controller is fat and sassy. How fat is it, you ask? It’s so fat that it tried to slide through customs and got stuck. Tip your waiter, I’ll be here all week.

This week was supposed to mark the launch of the Hyperkin Duke Xbox Controller, a recreation of the original Xbox controller for people with Shaq-sized hands. If you pre-ordered your controller through Microsoft, you’re doing fine. If you got your order through Gamestop, however, you might have been surprised to show up on Monday only for the store to tell you that not only was the controller not in yet, it wasn’t even in transit to the store.

Well it turns out that Gamestop’s shipment got held up by Customs. Hyperkin’s Twitter account set a new date of May 15 for delivery.

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H1Z1 Hits PS4 Open Beta On May 22


H1Z1 is coming to Playstation 4, and you’ll get the opportunity to shoot some guns and fight to the last man standing starting next month. Daybreak Game Company announced this week that H1Z1 is being built from the ground up for the Playstation system with a simplified loot and inventory system to keep the game flowing. In addition to fluidity changes, other alterations are coming to the console version including the removal of crafting as well as changes to the gas system, among others.

“H1Z1 on PS4 is true battle royale mayhem. We have reimagined the game for PlayStation 4 and have designed it to accentuate the essentials of battle royale that make the genre so exciting to watch and play,” said H1Z1 Producer Terrence Yee. “We have added key gameplay differentiators to keep the game frantic and fun — an action shooter’s dream of fast-paced battle royale.”

Daybreak’s plan is to have the game running at 60fps on the Playstation 4 Pro. Open beta for H1Z1 starts May 22.

(Source: Press Release)

Belgium Criminalizes Certain Lootboxes, Sends Threat To Developers


The first answer to any question of “is this legal” is “where?” Belgium has joined the growing list of countries to declare that lootboxes, in some fashion, constitute an illegal form of gambling. The Belgium Gaming Commission determined this week that FIFA 18, Overwatch, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive violate its gambling laws and has demanded that developers remove them with the threat of large fines and remarkably even prison sentences if their demands are not met.

Belgium’s Gaming Commission in its notice specifically directed at the following types of monetization. Please note that the below has been translated into English.

  • Emotional profit forecast: uncertainty loot box is linked to profit forecast;
  • A player may think that the purchase of a loot box gives an advantage, which is not always the case
  • Confusion of fiction and reality: well-known real people promote the most expensive loot boxes;
  • Use your own coin system: for a real amount, players can buy in-game coins;
  • Apparently infinite methods to deposit money on player accounts;
  • Hide from the random generator or at least its opacity.

It does not appear that any explicit timetable has been set for removal of said loot boxes.

(Source: Belgium Gaming Commission)

Daybreak Clarifies Ownership…Three Years Later


Pop quiz: Who owns Daybreak Game Company? If you answered Columbus Nova, you are as wrong as every news outlet that reported on this three years ago, including MMO Fallout. You would be forgiven for this misunderstanding considering that the news was announced from Daybreak’s PR with the headline “Columbus Nova Acquires Sony Online Entertainment,” with the first sentence straight up saying that Columbus Nova had acquired the company.

Columbus Nova, an investment management firm based in New York, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games and emergent gameplay.

And then there is John Smedley’s note in the announcement that they would be joining Columbus Nova’s roster of companies.

“We are excited to join Columbus Nova’s impressive roster of companies.”

Turns out that SOE was acquired not by Columbus Nova itself but by an executive at Columbus Nova, Jason Epstein, and the company had just never corrected the record.

“It was current executive chairman Jason Epstein, former senior managing partner of Columbus Nova that acquired Daybreak, not Columbus Nova itself. That distinction was never corrected in the past, so we are correcting that now.”

The reason this is relevant today of all days is because Columbus Nova has become embroiled in US sanctions on Russian oligarchs, specifically its owner Viktor Vekselberg. The distancing between the two companies has been raising a lot of eyebrows since both Daybreak and Jason Epstein himself have said on more than one occasion, and very explicitly, that Columbus Nova as an entity has purchased SOE.

(Source: MassivelyOP)

Online Text RPG Torn Coming To Android In May


You just don’t hear about large-scale text based games these days, but Torn has been rather quietly seeing massive success on desktop PCs. Launched 14 years ago, Torn bills itself as the game that Mafia Wars was built on. It lets players build a life in the city as a business owner, mob boss, or somewhere in between. You can take part in robberies, invest in the stock market, race cars, manage properties, the sky is the limit.

Continuing its success on PC, which has seen more than 2 million players worldwide and 20 thousand daily active users, Torn will be coming to Android devices on May 8. Alternately you can play right now by visiting the link down below.

MMO Fallout should be running some preview coverage of the mobile version at some point in the future.

(Source: Torn)

Rift Prime First Month A “Rousing Success”


One month has passed since Trion Worlds first launched Rift Prime, a progression server that attracted enough players to be called a “rousing success.” In a post on the official website, Trion Worlds noted that in the past month, players have completed more than five million quests and tens of thousands of dungeons. The server population has remained high since then, and players are gearing up for the launch of the first raid.

“We couldn’t be happier with how RIFT Prime is performing, and we’re definitely not resting on our laurels,” said Fry. “We’ve got a ton of content that will be releasing regularly for RIFT Prime players, so if you haven’t taken the plunge yet, now is the perfect time!”

Rift Prime is a progression server launched last month that will start with launch-day content and then slowly unlock expansion content as it progresses. For more information, check out the link below.

(Source: Trion Worlds)

RuneScape Finally Gets Around To Cleaning Up Edgeville


If you follow RuneScape like I do, then you know that things take a lot of time to progress in the world of Gielinor, with Jagex just recently finishing up quest lines that have been in progress for over a decade with others that still haven’t seen a conclusion. In the case of Edgeville, parts of the town were blown up at the conclusion of the quest Ritual of the Mahjarrat, where the Dragonkin go on a rampage, burn a couple buildings down, and kill a few people.

Ritual of the Mahjarrat released over six and a half years ago, back in September 2011, and the town has remained smoldering ever since. Now you finally have a chance to get in and scrub up, repair the buildings burnt down, and clean up the skeleton of the poor guy who got roasted seven years ago and nobody bothered cleaning up. As a reward, you can look forward to a heaping helping of experience in various skills.

(Source: RuneScape)

PSA: Crusader Kings II Free On Steam


Crusader Kings II is free on Steam, and if you pick it up right now you’ll be able to keep it forever. Just head over to the Steam store page and activate the game to your account. You don’t need to download it right away to keep it. Crusader Kings II was released in 2012 by Paradox Interactive and currently holds a 77% “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam. As of this posting, there are nearly 30,00 people playing concurrently.

Granted, you’ll still need to throw down a pretty penny to get every one of the game’s DLC packs, which are currently on sale at 50% off.

(Source: Steam)