Jagex has released the RuneScape 15 Years of Adventure documentary, showing how far the game has come since it was developed by Andrew Gower in his parent’s kitchen. The entire documentary is nearly an hour and a half and includes a wealth of information and interviews. Check it out above.
Category: News
Gearbox Follows Through: Cancels Deal With G2A
Following yesterday’s delcaration of demands against G2A, Gearbox Software have announced that they are cancelling their partnership with the key reseller. The two parties were partnered for the launch of Bulletstorm: Full Clip edition on Steam, going as far as having a G2A exclusive collector’s edition. After being presented with evidence that G2A was profiting off of resold games purchased with stolen credit cards, Gearbox unveiled a list of demands for G2A to prove that they were committed to combating the use of its service for fraudulent purposes, and since then it appears that the company has not responded.
Gearbox’s own Steve Gibson, head of publishing, gave the following statement:
“As there has been no public movement from G2A by the time Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition launched now on PC, Gearbox Publishing will be doing their part to not directly support a marketplace that did not make the new public commitment to protecting customers and developers requested by Gearbox Publishing.”
The last couple of days have seen people asking the same question, how did Gearbox get into a deal with a company that they clearly knew little about? According to Randy Pitchford, the deal with G2A had begun with People Can Fly. Pitchford himself had only become aware of the deal yesterday (April 6).
(Source: Vice)
Steam Cleanlight: Valve Terminates More Developers Over Review Manipulation
Valve has claimed three more souls as Steam parts ways with developers over review manipulation. The games in question include Techwars Online 2, Concerning Evergrow, and Trigger Happy Shooting. As posted by a Valve Steamworks moderator, the developers were using fake reviews to make their games appear to be more popular and well received than they actually were, leading to their ability to sell on the Steam platform to be revoked.
None of the games will appear on Steam and their developers will be unable to publish other games going forward.
We (Valve) have identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the developer of this game. The developer appears to have used multiple Steam accounts to post positive reviews for their own game. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously.
For these reasons, we are ending our business relationship with Mikhail Pasik and removing this game from sale. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library.
(Source: Reddit)
Gearbox Issues List of Demands To G2A
Gearbox Software has issued an ultimatum to G2A.com, an online key reseller and distributor with whom the game developer had partnered with for the upcoming launch of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition. G2A, where people can sell keys, has come under fire in recent years for its inability to police its market for users selling game codes purchased with stolen credit cards and then offloaded onto the store at cheap prices. The store sells buyer protection for an additional fee, which has in turn been criticized as profiting off of said fraud.
Popular online personality John Bain, known more so as Totalbiscuit, threatened to boycott all coverage of Gearbox’s games as a result of the partnership. After a long discussion between the two parties, Gearbox has put forward an ultimatum to G2A, threatening to end their partnership if the demands are not met. For the sake of clarity, we’ve included the entire list of demands, which involve making protection free and creating a web API where developers can report and flag fraudulent keys, at no cost to the developer, as well as throttling for non-developer accounts.
· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 30 days, G2A Shield (aka, customer fraud protection) is made free instead of a separate paid subscription service within terms offered by other major marketplaces. All customers who spend money deserve fraud protection from a storefront. To that end, all existing G2A Shield customers are notified by April 14th that fraud protection services are now free and they will no longer be charged for this.
· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 90 days, G2A will open up a web service or API to certified developers and publishers to search for and flag for immediate removal, keys that are fraudulent. This access will be free of charge and will not require payment by the content holders.
· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 60 days implement throttling for non-certified developers and publishers at the title, userid, and account payable levels for a fraud flagging process. This is to protect content providers from having large quantities of stolen goods flipped on G2A before they can be flagged.
· Before Bulletstorm Steam launch, G2A makes a public commitment to this: Within 30 days, G2A restructures its payment system so that customers who wish to buy and sell legitimate keys are given a clear, simple fee-structure that is easy to understand and contains no hidden or obfuscated charges. Join the ranks of other major marketplaces.
Whether or not G2A will capitulate will have to be seen. Gearbox’s statement has been met with mixed response, with some applauding the announcement and others brushing it off as empty threats with long timelines for a partnership that won’t even be relevant two to three months down the line when the deadlines come due.
“Gearbox Publishing won’t support a marketplace that is unwilling to make these commitments and execute on them.”
(Source: Kotaku)
Surprise: Marvel Heroes Announced for PS4, Xbox One
Marvel Heroes is coming to Xbox and Playstation, an announcement that should only surprise someone who hasn’t played or kept up to date on the game’s updates over the past year. Currently announced for Playstation 4 and coming to Xbox One at an unknown date, Marvel Heroes will launch a closed beta that will gradually become turn into early access before finally launching to all. The Playstation 4 launch will be sometime later this Spring while the Xbox One launch will be at a later date.
PlayStation Plus members can also look forward to a variety of perks during the closed beta, including a free “Man Without Fear” costume for Daredevil, discounts on in-game currency purchases, and other limited-time exclusive access to select Heroes. We will have more news regarding Xbox Live members in the near future.
When Marvel Heroes launches, it will not have all of the content of its PC older brother. According to the FAQ on the website, only 38 heroes will be available initially. There are no plans to allow players to transfer their accounts, nor will PC and console players be able to play on the same servers.
(Source: Marvel Heroes)
Phantasy Start Online 2 Is Sunsetting In Southeast Asia
We have to assume that there is someone still left that is waiting for Phantasy Star Online 2 to come westward, that hasn’t already set up an account and started playing with an English patch on the Japanese servers, but that person may find their hopes dashed. Phantasy Star Online 2, now a five year old title, has seen its first sunset announcement. Revealed on the official website, the Southeast Asia servers will be coming down on May 26.
The announcement is below:
The Phantasy Star Online 2 team would like to express our thanks for the steadfast support of the whole ARKS Fleet. In the past two years, together, we formed a PSO2 community built on friendships that can withstand the test of time. That is why it saddens us greatly our contract in servicing SEA countries for Phantasy Star Online 2 will not be continued. As our friends and partners, we would like you to have only the finest experience with us.
Keeping your best interest in mind, the Phantasy Star Online 2 team and SEGA would like to announce that Phantasy Star Online 2 will end its service on 26 May 2017 11:00 PM (GMT+8).
As compensation, all accounts will be given 60 days of premium time and free AC/gold scratch every week until the servers shut down. Also worth noting is that players will no longer be able to submit customer support tickets after the server shutdown, so get your bug reports in now.
(Source: PSO2)
Jagex Reports Double Digit Growth In 2016
Things are looking up for Jagex, as the UK developer announced that revenues hit double digit growth for the second year. In a press release sent out today, Jagex unveiled their 2016 annual revenues, announcing a 28% increase to £74.4 million. Growth was driven due to the release of NXT, a new game client for RuneScape 3, while Old School RuneScape similarly saw major growth partially due to the eSports aspect of the annual Deadman tournament.
Acting CEO Phil Mansell had the following to say:
“2016 saw RuneScape celebrate its 15th anniversary and we placed a razor focus on evolving and growing both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. Through investment in big ticket content, technology, marketing and strengthening the relationship we enjoy with millions of players that form our deeply-engaged community, the team delivered landmark performance by growing active users, conversion rates and subscribers.”
(Source: Jagex press release)
Blizzard’s Court Victory: Bossland Hit With $8.6 Million In Damages
Blizzard has emerged victorious in its lawsuit against Bossland, a cheat maker based in Germany. The court ruled that Bossland is to pay $8.6 million in damages, with the potential for more to cover Blizzard’s legal costs, and set forward an injunction preventing the company from selling their products in the United States. Bossland has already been prevented from selling their cheats in the UK.
“The Bossland hacks destroy the integrity of the Blizzard games, thereby alienating and frustrating legitimate players and diverting revenue from Blizzard to defendants,”
During the court case, Blizzard successfully argued that Bossland bypassed Blizzard’s anti-cheat tech, thus violating DMCA rules against circumvention and reverse engineering. Blizzard’s case, while requesting a large sum, was likely an easy win as while Bossland did attempt to have the case dismissed, they didn’t actually show up in court to defend themselves.
(Source: BBC)
Akaneiro Developer Shows Up: Fixes Game
Akaneiro is alive, and appears to have someone back at the helm. Way back in September, I wrote about how Spicy Horse Games had shut down, that its customer support had closed, and that American McGee had left his game to rot. The servers had slowly become unstable to the point where they were no longer functioning, with no response from the person/people allegedly in charge of keeping the service running.
Well it looks like the server is not just back up and running, there is still someone left at Spicy Horse. Literally the last employee left at Spicy Horse has begun posting on the forums, noting that the servers were reverted back to their previous state and that more bug fixes are coming.
I’ve been able to restore server to it’s original state (before migration to new hosting). Everything related to steam is up and running. I also have full sources for game client so eventually I’ll release update to fix some annoying client bugs.
The employee is inviting players to report bugs and any questions at the link below.
(Source: Steam)
Neverwinter: 20% Off Item Sale
Neverwinter has declared that it’s about time to take 20% off there, Squirrly Dan. Beginning today and running through Monday, April 3, Neverwinter players will be able to get their hands on a number of items for 20% off. The sale, already in motion, ends at 7:30am PST or after maintenance on PC and at 10am on consoles. For the list of items on sale, read below:
- Master’s Trowel
- Black Ice Shaping Booster Pack
- Greater Stone of Health
- Hammerstone Runeforge Kit
- Professions Asset Pack
- Professions Booster Pack
- Scrolls of Life
- Scrolls of Mass Life
- Stone of Health
(Source: Neverwinter)
MMO Fallout 