News – Page 392 – MMO Fallout

Funcom Now A Preferred Partner Of Conan

Funcom has announced today that the game developer has entered a partnership with Conan Properties. As a preferred partner, Funcom will be the go-to developer for all video games on PC and console that feature the Conan brand or take place in Hyboria. The first game to be developed under this new relationship will not be announced until January, and marks one of three games set to launch in 2016.

“We are tremendously excited to be strengthening our relationship with Conan Properties,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “‘Conan the Barbarian‘ is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest and most recognizable fantasy heroes, and as game developers, working with such a character and being able to draw from the fantastically detailed world of Hyboria is nothing short of a dream come true.”

(Source: Funcom press release)

League of Legends Team Owner Arrested On Fraud Charges

Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO and League of Legends team owner Martin Shkreli was arrested today on charges of securities fraud and corruption. According to Bloomberg, Shkreli is accused of using money illegally from his company Retrophin in order to pay off debts incurred by a separate company. Shkreli made a name for himself as the poster boy of capitalism run amok when he bought up a drug used for treating immune-related illnesses including, among other things, HIV and subsequently raised the price by more than 5000% from $13.70 a pill to $750. Shkreli later reneged on promises that the company had learned the error of its ways and would bring the price back down.

Shkreli has been accused of running his companies like a ponzi scheme, using the assets to pay off investors from previous failed ventures. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders rejected a campaign donation from Shkreli, with Donald Trump referring to him as a spoiled brat. If convicted, Shkreli could be banned from running a public company.

(Source: Bloomberg)

RuneScape Is 15, Brings Back Andrew Gower For New Quest

It’s hard to believe that, as of next year, RuneScape will be older than some of its players. Launched in 2001 as a project by Andrew Gower, RuneScape exploded in popularity to become one of the most played games on the internet. In its fifteen years, the browser MMO has spawned two major upgrades as well as several spinoff versions including the upcoming card game Chronicles. To celebrate the anniversary, Jagex is planning on making 2016 a big year for content.

“To reach this incredible 15-year anniversary milestone is astonishing for everybody working on RuneScape, especially as it continues to experience a fantastic resurgence of players. It is testament to our loyal, passionate, and growing community, that the development teams at Jagex can continue to tell new stories within the world of Gielinor,” said Phil Mansell, vice president, RuneScape.

Founders Andrew and Paul Gower are set to return as guest designers on their own quest, Gower Quest, due to release in Spring 2016. January brings with it the invention skill, the first in a line of ‘elite skills’ introducing new ways to level up your character. Using invention, players will be able to dismantle equipment in order to use the components to upgrade their other gear. Further into the year marks the launch of RuneScape’s newest client, bringing better performance and higher graphical fidelity.

(Source: Jagex press release)

Tribes: Ascend Update Undoes All Purchases

Hi-Rez Studios recently surprised its community with the announcement that Tribes Ascend would be once again receiving the love and, more importantly, updates that had been denied to it ever since support for the title was dropped back in 2013. The Out of the Blue update, or ‘It’s About F*cking Time,” as it has also been called, is a massive list of fixes, tweaks, and new content. Chief among the changes is that the prior nine classes are being melted down into three: light, medium, and heavy. As a result, all purchases have been reverted.

Due to the dramatic changes to the underlying game, all in-game purchases have been reverted and all Tribes Gold and XP refunded to your account. If you have previously purchased the Ultimate Weapon Pack or Game of the Year it will be re-added to your account. If there is any Tribes Gold on your account you will be automatically gifted the Ultimate Weapon Pack.

New maps, new weapons, and an encyclopedia worth of balances make up the majority of this massive update. The entirety of the patch notes are at the link below.

(Source: Tribes)

Get Your Lineage II Transfers In Before December 16th

NCSoft has posted a notice on the Lineage II website that anyone wishing to transfer their character this month should do so before December 16th, otherwise they will have to wait until next year.

With the upcoming holiday, the last server transfers of 2015 will be processed during the December 16th maintenance. Purchasing and queuing for server transfers will not be available after this date and any server transfers that fail during the next maintenance will be processed next year.

Missing the deadline will mean having to wait until transfers begin again on January 6th.

(Source: Lineage II)

Jagex Announces Seasonal Deadman, $10,000 Tournaments

With Deadman now six weeks out of launch, Jagex has revealed their plans for the game in the upcoming year. As previously discussed in our interview with Mat K, part of the idea for next year is to have seasonal deadman, a separate set of servers that run on independent rules and are wiped once the season is over. Seasons could, for instance, have higher experience rates, or equipment unavailable in the standard game.

Prior to each season we will allow players to decide if they want additional rules for that season. For example, you may want a season with Dragon Claws, PvP armour or other things. Please do let us know what ideas you have for the Deadman Mode Seasonal servers.

The top five thousand players from each season will be able to participate in a special tournament, with the last man standing receiving $10,000 as a prize.

(Source: Deadman)

Play Elder Scrolls Online For Free, Unless You Can’t

Elder Scrolls Online is free this weekend for anyone who has yet to make the purchase. Well, not everyone. Xbox One players should have no problem just getting in and starting once the weekend goes live, but everyone else is going to have some issues. First, Playstation 4 players can’t get in on the weekend at all. PC players are going to have to procure a key that will be available from various partner websites.

The free weekend runs from the 10th until the 14th this month. The lack of Playstation 4 access has been blamed on “technical issues” and the company hopes to have a free weekend for the platform when those issues are resolved. For others, the game is currently 60% off with discounts on cash shop currency.

(Source: Zenimax Release)

Steam Leak Reveals New Games, DLC

Gaikai

A recent leak from the Steam Helpdesk has resulted in the outing of games and DLC packages coming to Steam. The list is massive and includes numerous test apps not meant to be viewed by the public. It makes references to games that we know are coming out (Rise of the Tomb Raider, Dark Souls III, etc) with some surprises (Final Fantasy X/X2, Danganronpa), VR games, and movies (Sin City, Clerks, etc).

The leak supposedly originates from Steam’s recent move to allow games to be permanently removed from accounts. A hole in the process has allowed all previously unknown sub names becoming publicly available.

How reliable this list is in unknown, as it not only includes a new DLC pack for Alganon but also shows The Missing Ink, an MMO that went down nearly two years ago for “upgrades” and hasn’t been heard from since. We do know that the list was hit with a DMCA takedown notice shortly after appearing online, hence the mirror link to Pastebin. Also be aware that listings for games like Half Life 3 could very well be third party developers having a joke.

(Source: Pastebin)

341830 = Aika Online
350681 = Alganon – DLC2
344020 = Block N Load: Developer DLC
345450 = Star Sonata 2 – 1 Month Subscription
345451 = Star Sonata 2 – 3 Month Subscription
345452 = Star Sonata 2 – 6 Month Subscription
345453 = Star Sonata 2 – Annual Subscription
345454 = Star Sonata 2 – SPEX
345455 = Star Sonata 2 – 20 Space Points
345456 = Star Sonata 2 – 40 Space Points
345457 = Star Sonata 2 – 60 Space Points
345510 = Vindictus: Free Steam Package
353150 = The Missing Ink
353880 = Vendetta Online

You Can Now Disown Games On Steam

Have you ever looked at your Steam library and thought “this game was so bad, I don’t even want it in my collection?” If you said yes, your day has come. In an unannounced update to their customer support section, Valve has made it possible to completely disown games on Steam. It sounds like a really bad phishing attempt, but it’s true. All you have to do is go to help.steampowered.com, log in, and find the game you want to get rid of. Click on “I want to permanently remove this game from my account,” and confirm, and blamo: It’s gone.

Finally something to help with those long-forgotten defunct MMOs. It is important to note that this is different than Steam’s refund policy. This will simply delete the game from your account, and you will not be able to reinstall it without purchasing it again.

AD2460 Going Free To Play December 7th

Norwegian developer Fifth Season AS has announced that their browser MMO AD2460 will be heading free to play this month. Until the update goes into effect on December 7th, new players are encouraged to take advantage of the game’s 15 day free trial to get started. The business model change will go up alongside the deployment of Patch 7.

In place of a subscription, Fifth Season has promised that the game will not see the introduction of ‘pay to win’ features.

Fifth Season has always been very clear in their stance against “pay-to-win” so even though the game now goes “free-to-play” it will have no elements of “pay-to-win”. The elements one can spend money on will all be based around added fun and customization. Such features include facial and graphical commander elements, placing bounties on your opponents and “War-Games” where you can challenge opponents for practice or fun without risking losing your fleets. It is anticipated that all of these features will be expanded upon throughout future patches as well.

(Source: Fifth Season press release)

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