Category: News

Greed Monger Officially Dead…Again


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Greed Monger has once again been cancelled, leaving everyone who pledged the over ninety grand out of luck, again. The MMO was Kickstarted to the tune of ninety grand, only to face development issues and eventual cancellation under Jason Appleton and Electric Crow Games. Appleton handed over the title to ex-employee Jason Proctor who has, in turn, announced that the game has been cancelled.

After careful consideration giving GM’s track record and the number of people we still have in the community we have decided it’s best to put Greed Monger to rest for good. There is no way that Greed Monger could support it’s self with as small of a user base as we would have.

We’ll have to see if this is the last time that Greed Monger is momentarily resuscitated. For now, it appears that the game is back where it was always headed, the defunct category.

(Source: Greed Monger)

Planetside 2 Shutting Down In China


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Planetside 2 China joins the growing list of Daybreak Game Company products that have shut down or will be shutting down shortly. As reported by MMO Culture, Planetside 2’s Chinese publisher The9 announced that it would not be renewing its contract with Daybreak to publish the massively multiplayer shooter and will be taking the servers down at the end of May. According to reports, despite the notable amount of money spent promoting the title, Planetside 2’s venture in the east never wound up receiving many updates.

The9 will instead be focusing on the upcoming launch of Firefall.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Luna Online Beta Giveaway


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MMO Fallout has partnered with Suba Games to give away beta keys to the upcoming relaunch of Luna Online. Dubbed Luna Online: Reborn, the revival includes numerous improvements and additions over the original launch in order to attract a more nostalgic crowd of gamers. Suba Games is relaunching the title in response to overwhelming demands by its community after the servers were shut down by gPotato.

New to Luna Online: Reborn is a revamped progression system, the removal of race restrictions on classes, new housing options and guild halls, and more.

  1. Obtain a BETA KEY.
  2. Visit Suba Games and submit your BETA KEY
  3. Download and install the game client. Closed beta starts on March 30th, 2016 (7pm EDT)

[keys id=16844]

In addition, Luna Online: Reborn is currently running a Kickstarter campaign in order to assist in advertising the relaunch.

About Luna Online: Reborn

Luna Online: Reborn is an anime themed MMORPG set in the cute fantasy world of Blueland. The game is a remake of the popular Luna Online, now published by Suba Games. It provides adjustments to original content that remove any negative experience gamers reported about Luna Plus.

Furthermore, we’ve added in new Realm vs Realm & Real Time Ranking Systems that are certain to provide a new meaning to gaining dominance over Luna castle.

Features:

  • The beautiful and vibrant world of Blueland is yours to explore!
  • Experience over 500 skills and 116 classes as well as 50 000 items.
  • Start your own family.
  • Own your own house & farm.
  • Customize your gameplay with over 100 pets.

Jagex Acquired By Chinese Mining Operation


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Never let anyone tell you that 99 mining won’t get you everywhere in life. Jagex, makers of the MMO RuneScape and its many spinoffs, has announced that it is in the negotiation phase for a potential acquisition by a Chinese company by the name of Shandong Honda. You may be thinking that Shandong Honda is one of China’s many game publishers, but you would be wrong. The company is actually an iron ore mining operation.

“Jagex has entered into a non-exclusive, non-binding arrangement for a potential acquisition. The negotiations surrounding the acquisition are ongoing and it remains very much business as usual for the Company.”

Jagex’s head of community, also known as Mod Balance, posted a response that the news coverage today noting that the deal may still not materialize into anything.

Jagex is in early stage discussions with the firm in question, but we must stress that they may – or may not – materialise into anything. However, should they come to fruition, it would potentially allow us access to the Asian marketplace to a high level.

Players have been promised that their questions are being collected and answers will be given in due time.

(Source: Deal Street Asia)

Divergence Online Slips Back Into Obscurity


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Divergence Online is an on-again, off-again MMO looking to replace the defunct MMO Star Wars Galaxies. But while Star Wars Galaxies still has thousands of people playing it, albeit on private servers, the first couple of months in early access seem to have left Divergence Online in the dust. This weekend brought in a peak of 5 concurrent players while the last month or so has seen server populations as high as twelve. There are presently two people online at 9:00pm EST on Sunday evening.

Granted, for all the grandstanding about internet celebrities demanding free copies of the game, it appears that gamers haven’t exactly been rushing for the chance to fund a trip down nostalgia lane. Divergence Online peaked at 63 concurrent players during its initial launch phase on Steam and sharply declined over the following weeks. Steam Spy estimates upward of 2,400 people own the game. Given a genre that relies on an active userbase, Divergence Online may have trouble bringing in new customers to fund its early access development.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to play a functioning version of Star Wars Galaxies with an active community, it exists.

(Source: Steam Charts)

Only A Couple of Months Left Before Wildstar Sunsets, According To Insider


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The wounds haven’t even begun healing from the announcement earlier today that Carbine Studios would be cutting as much as 40% of its work force, and according to insider reports the layoffs are not complete. In fact, if this source is to be believed, NCSoft has already made the decision to pull the plug. According to an article on Polygon, employees were notified following today’s layoffs that more are to be expected in the run up to the game’s closure later this year.

NCSoft later responded to the article, confirming not only the layoffs but that the plans to launch Wildstar in China have been scrapped. Despite this, the publisher is still standing by its claim that it remains committed to continued operations in North America and Europe.

Earlier this morning, Carbine Studios completed a reorganization of its operating structure. Moving forward, the studio will focus on operating and updatingWildStar as a live game in the US and Europe. As part of this change, the studio has canceled its plans to bring WildStar to China.

It’s interesting to note that it was just a few days ago in 2008 that producer Starr Long posted a statement to assure players that NCSoft was still committed to Tabula Rasa before announcing it shuttering later that year. See if you can find the similarities between Long’s statements regarding layoffs in 2008:

“Once all is said and done, we will still have a substantial live team for industry standards… NCsoft has committed a lot of money and resources into continuing post-launch development of Tabula Rasa.”

And NCSoft’s statement to Polygon today.

“As for WildStar, we remain committed to the game. Over the next few weeks and months we will deliver a significant update to the game, kick off a variety of community events, and continue our work on new content that we will talk more about in the near future.”

In my previous coverage of Wildstar, I noted that the game’s future rests heavily on a successful Chinese launch. With those dreams shattered, perhaps the Wildstar community should begin shopping around for a new home.

At this point in the timeline, it looks like the upcoming China launch may be Wildstars best, and only, bet at salvation. Assuming NCSoft is willing to shoulder the title to that milestone, we’ll likely be hearing in 2017 about whether or not this title goes on the chopping block.

(Source: Polygon)

Everquest Next Wasn’t Fun, Development Ceases


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Development on Everquest Next has ceased, leaving gamers wondering about the health of Daybreak Game Company and the future of Landmark. Daybreak President Russ Shanks took to the official website to announce the unfortunate reality that during development the team came to the harsh conclusion that the game just wasn’t coming together. As a result, the blip that was Everquest Next will fade into the what could have been pile in the ever growing timeline of MMO development.

Russ Shanks was also interviewed today by MMORPG.com, which you can read here.

For those familiar with the internals of game development, you know that cancellations are a reality we must face from time to time. Inherent to the creative process are dreaming big, pushing hard and being brutally honest with where you land. In the case of EverQuest Next, we accomplished incredible feats that astonished industry insiders. Unfortunately, as we put together the pieces, we found that it wasn’t fun.

The announcement comes with the vague promise that the world of Everquest has not yet stopped growing. The announcement of Everquest Next’s cancellation may not come as such a surprise to gamers who have been waiting a long time since any newsworthy information was released. The layoffs and financial issues over at Daybreak since the company spun off of Sony haven’t helped matters either.

(Source: Daybreak)

Nab TERA Elite, Lock In Your Subscription Price


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If you were gearing up to subscribe to TERA, now may just be the best time to do so. En Masse Entertainment has announced that subscription prices for the action MMO will be coming down to a mere $10.99 for the next twelve days. To sweeten the deal, anyone who signs on while the sale is active will be locked in at that price so long as they remain an active subscriber, including anyone who is currently already paying full price.

To better incentivize players to dole out, En Masse is offering two 30-day items to boost your character’s power.

All Elite players will receive one of each of these items the first time they log into TERA between Thursday, March 10 and Tuesday, March 22. The items will be delivered via item claim.

Existing subscribers just need to log into the account management page and lock in their new rate. The sale runs until the 22nd.

(Source: TERA)

Xsyon Announces Month of Events


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This Sunday, March 12th, marks the start of the 2016 Xsyon event season. Players of the sandbox MMO will be able to take part in a series of 16 events run by Xsyon staff and other members of the community, from fishing competitions to capture the flag and Hunger Games battles, among others. Most of the events appear to be on Fridays at 2pm EST and can be found on the Xsyon event calendar.

This year boasts Xsyon’s most unique and rewarding event season to date with many never held before events! Several events will be run by player tribes and hosted at player built arenas, dungeons and staging areas. We are also rewarding players this year with Event Tokens for winning, placing in and participation in events. These Tokens can be collected and traded. Starting mid-season, players will be able to exchange their hoarded Tokens for rare and valuable in game prizes!

Xsyon is available for a one time fee on the official website and via Steam.

(Source: Notorious Games Press Release)