Electronic Arts has announced that a handful of titles from their free to play library will be shutting down this year. The list includes Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Play4Free, Fifa World and Need 4 Speed World. Servers are set to shut down in about 90 days.
Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to enjoy an “enthusiastic and growing community,” according to EA executive vice president Patrick Soderlund.
(Source: EA Games)
EB Games and JB Hi-Fi have been ordered to recall all copies of Wildstar from shelves in Australia, increasing the likelihood that the game is in the process of either changing its subscription model or shutting down entirely. As of this publishing. Wildstar is still available for purchase from the official website, as well as at game stores internationally.
While this is speculation at best until NCSoft/Carbine Studios make an official announcement, there is precedent. Copies of The Elder Scrolls Online were recalled shortly before the game’s transition to buy to play was announced, as well as retiring its six month subscription package.
(Source: Games.on.net)
Defiance’s latest update Alcatraz is now available. The update introduces a higher level cap, a new zone, new equipment type, and expeditions.
The new zone, Alcatraz, acts as the stage through which players take on expeditions, cooperative maps that task ark hunters with taking on increasingly difficult challenges. Cyber rigs are new equipment that can be customized to improve performance with weapons, shields, and more. There are multiple rigs and chips for customization that can drop during expeditions, or broken down into cyber shards to spend on the Alcatraz vendor.
Also part of the update, Trion Worlds has promised a smoother leveling curve to 6000 EGO score.
(Source: Defiance)
H1Z1’s next update is scheduled for April 16th, adding improved grouping/friend systems, ironing out more bugs, and introducing throwable weapons. Players will be happy to know that it also introduces a test server so updates can be previewed and (hopefully) tested before they go live.
Bringing up a test server that launches from steam for players to see the latest patch before it comes out
Also going live with Thursday’s update is an improved version of H1Z1’s anti-cheat technology, as well as improvements to the automatic ban system to deal with cheaters in a more efficient manner.
Next week’s update on the 23rd introduces the Steam marketplace where players will be able to trade and sell items for real money, screen effects, zombie virus, and more.
(Source: H1Z1)
Gazillion Entertainment is kicking off April with two events. First, Odin’s Bounty returns with bonus loot for killing bosses.
Bosses will drop Chests of Odin’s Bounty. These chests are loot boxes that you can collect and then open later for an epic lootsplosion! Chests of Odin’s Bounty have a high chance to contain Runes and Odin Marks, as well as a chance to drop the Mysterious Crimson Box, which contains rare boss-specific artifacts. Odin’s Bounty Boosts are back as well and include a jackpot chance!
Second, a list of heroes and costumes from the Marvel Knights collection will be on sale for 50% off. In addition, to celebrate the debut of the Netflix Daredevil series, Daredevil will enjoy bonuses for the next week.
(Source: Odin’s Bounty, Sale)
Zynga’s stock continued shedding value today, just a day after the developer revealed that CEO Don Mattrick would step down and be replaced by founder and ex-CEO Mark Pincus. Zynga’s stock ended the day at $2.90, at which they lost about 10% in after-hours trading. Starting the day at $2.6, the stock fell another twenty two cents to end the day at $2.38, an 18% overall drop over the past day.
Mattrick’s departure comes after Zynga posted a $226 million loss for 2014, coinciding with the company closing shop in China. Despite the previous year’s performance, investors are not excited to see Pincus return to power. 2012 under Pincus proved to be disastrous as the company closed offices, laid off employees, shut down over a dozen games, posted a $200 million loss, lost much of its stock value, and saw blowback from its decision to purchase OMGPop to the tune of $180 million before shutting the studio down one year later.
Zynga’s value has so far not moved in after-hours trading.
NCSoft today confirmed to Polygon that it is moving its customer support operations to a third party, during which approximately 16 jobs will be made redundant. The layoffs affect internal customer support staff at the NCWest offices in Austin, Texas, and are the final phase of restructuring that began last October.
According to Polygon’s source, the layoffs “amounted to the office’s entire customer support team.” NCSoft has denied that the changes will have any impact on former, current, or future customers.
(Source: Polygon)
Allowing people to continue playing games that they legally own, but cannot access due to shuttered services, will destroy the videogame industry and undermine the copyright law. At least this is how the Entertainment Software Association, a trade association representing some of the largest game producers, would like you to think. The ESA, along with the RIAA and MPAA, have written to the Copyright Office in opposition to proposed exemptions to section 1201 of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
The exemption, being pushed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, would offer legal protection for the purposes of preserving abandoned games. With many games relying on servers being maintained for DRM or online-only games, gamers are increasingly finding themselves being unable to return to old titles.
(Source: EFF.org)
In a letter posted to employees earlier today, Zynga founder and chairman of the board of directors Mark Pincus announced that CEO Don Mattrick would be stepping down from his post, with Pincus taking his place effective immediately. Mattrick steps down after less than two years as CEO, during which he managed to grow Zynga’s mobile revenue from 27% to 60% of Zynga’s bookings.
I am returning to the company that I love in order to accelerate innovation in the most popular categories like Action Strategy and strengthen our focus on our core areas like Invest and Express. I look forward to partnering with our leaders to intensify our focus on social experiences for the millions of consumers who play our games.
Mattrick’s firing has been written on the wall ever since he referred to 2014 as a “year of progress.” 2014 saw Zynga post a $226 million loss compared to a $37 million loss in 2013. Due to underperforming titles in the country, Zynga also made the decision to close operations in China.
Investors have not responded well to the announcement of Mark Pincus returning to the reigns, however, as Zynga’s stock has dropped more than 10% in after hours trading. Zynga hopes to turn its problems around in 2015 with the launch of several new products.
(Source: Zynga)
The MMO Hall of Fame has announced the inductees for the 2015 ceremony. Out of a grand total of 173 candidates, two titles managed to sneak past the 60% requirement to make it into the hall of fame, and those games are Lineage II and Anarchy Online.
Doug Kale, curator of the hall of fame, noted the growing competition as new games are added each year.
“There was an enormous amount of competition, but after tallying all the numbers only two games reached the required 60% of the votes to enter the Hall of Fame,”
MMO Hall of Fame inductees are chosen based on contributions to the genre as well as their dedicated fans, with a voting committee made up of members of the MMO industry and gaming press.
Some of the highest voted games include Second Life, Maple Story, Toontown, and Pirates of the Burning Sea.
(Source: MMO Hall of Fame)
MMO Fallout 