News – Page 413 – MMO Fallout

Perfect World Suffers More Layoffs

Perfect World Entertainment is undergoing another round of layoffs, this time from the European division. According to an insider source over at Massively OP, the layoffs included five or six of the Russian staff, as well two community managers and an assistant product manager. Earlier this year, Perfect World laid off 18 employees from Cryptic Studios.

How PWE fared in the last quarter of 2014 is yet to be seen, as the company is nearly a month behind its usual quarterly filings and has yet to announce a date. The NASDAQ stock exchange has posted an expected date of April 6th for Perfect World’s final report.

(Source: Massively OP)

Defiance Armistice Begins Tomorrow

To celebrate Defiance’s two year anniversary, Trion Worlds is running a month long Armistice event. The events, which begin tomorrow and run through April 20th, will revisit the past two years worth of holidays and special events, with players given the opportunity to scoop up some gear they might have missed the first time around.

Throughout the festival you can scoop up past holiday loot and rewards plus new Mark II Crimefighter, Bloodhound, and Gangbuster weapons from Defiant Few faction contracts. (The original Defiant Few weapons are still available via their vendor’s Defiant Few Legacy Supply Crate, too!)

Defiance launched in 2013 alongside the television show, and has since seen countless updates, five DLC packs, and twenty five episodes. The next big update, Alcatraz, is currently on the public test server. Season 3 of Defiance begins this year.

(Source: Defiance)

Neverwinter Details Elemental Evil Changes

With the Elemental Evil module just weeks away, Perfect World Entertainment is busy getting players prepared for upcoming changes. With the new level cap comes better gear, more powerful artifacts, and higher quality refinement items.

Elemental Evil will also usher in the change from Gear Score to Item Level. Item Level will be the new system on which all gear is rated. Entrance to dungeons will also be determined by the combined item level of their gear. Item Level’s main function is to give players an idea of how strong a particular item is at a glance.

You can find out more details at the link below. Profession packs for Neverwinter are on sale until March 30th.

(Source: Neverwinter)

[Update] Skyforge Dev Threatens Game Bans Over Pay To Win Talk

Allods Team doesn’t like the term free-to-play, so much so that community manager Maeron has warned that discussion on the matter could result in your game access being revoked. In his response, Maeron points to a trend in players pasting the p2w label on pretty much everything that costs money, a label that he believes causes undue damage to a game. The discussion occurred in a thread inquiring about whether the US/EU cash shops would be the same as the Russian shop.

Those familiar with Allods Team’s previous game, Allods Online, likely feel that their concerns over pay to win are more than justified. Allods Online, despite all the praise it received for quality and polish, was heavily criticized for its cash shop, from a 1,000% increase in price over the Russian version to the widely unpopular Fear of Death debuff (and its cash-shop cure) that was replaced with an equally unpopular mechanic that would curse items on death and invert their stats, also curable with a cash shop item.

Whatever the case, with this reaction it is certain that Skyforge’s cash shop will be placed under heavy scrutiny by its community.

Update: The thread has been reopened and Maeron’s comments retracted. A followup has been posted on the thread.

Answers will be coming as we agreed already. I’m really sorry I caused all that stir… My intent was mostly to urge players not to use harsh wording so no fences will raise and harm our exchanges… But I must have been carried away… I apologize.

(Source: Skyforge)

Celebrate 25 Years Of Cable For $2.50

Gazillion Entertainment is celebrating Cable’s 25th birthday (the hero, not the character) with a sale on all things tied to the hero. From today until the end of the month, everything Cable related is marked down to $2.50 including the hero himself. That’s one hero, six costumes, and one stash tab.

That’s $2.50 each.

(Source: Marvel Heroes)

APB Servers To Begin Merger

APB: Reloaded will be merging its five servers into three over the next month or so in order to bring players closer together. On April 22nd, the two EU servers will be merged into one with the US servers merging into their own on May 6th. The third server Han, which runs for the Asian region, won’t see any change.

Character name priority will be given based on account age, playtime, and last login. The console (PS4/XOne) servers will run from the same locations as the PC servers.

(Source: APB Reloaded)

Mini-Documentary Shows Handless Gamer’s Skills

Massimiliano Sechi is known around League of Legends as the Handless Gamer, or MacsHG. Sechi, a Sardinian native born with no hands, has managed to not just reach the Diamond rank in League of Legends, he’s managed to outclass countless other League of Legends players by playing with his feet.

The mini-documentary above, created by Razer, showcases how Sechi uses Razer technology to play his favorite games from League to World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. If you have ten minutes to spare, it is definitely worth a look. Echi’s motto of “no excuses” rings especially loud as he passes his driving test.

Funcom Extends Issue Pack To Current Players

If the last month has taught us anything, it’s that current players don’t take kindly to being cut out of lucrative deals. Funcom’s announced sale of the base game plus four additional issues for $20 ruffled more than a few feathers when it was revealed that the sale was for new accounts only.

Thankfully the outrage has been heard and Funcom has extended the sale to everyone. Up until March 31st, you’ll be able to get your hands on Issues 5-8 for $20. This sale is completed through the Funcom account management page and not through the in-game store.

(Source: The Secret World)

RuneScape Launches 200th Quest

This week marks a milestone in RuneScape history, with the launch of the game’s 200th quest: Dimension of Disaster. As voted on by the community, the latest quest asks a very simple question, what would life be like in Gielinor if the hero didn’t exist? Players step into an alternate timeline where necromancer Zemouregal has taken over Varrock, zombified its citizens, and now rules with an iron fist.

The player must go back and complete previous quests, albeit with a sinister twist, to free the alternate world.

“The parallel universe storyline of Dimension of Disaster is an opportunity for the RuneScape team to celebrate the extraordinary affect that the player’s hero has had on the world of Gielinor and its inhabitants. We’re thrilled to finally share this 200^th quest and hope the fans has as much fun with this as they have had with the previous 199!”
-Phil Mansell, Vice President of RuneScape.

You’ll need a RuneScape membership to take part in the Dimension of Disaster quest.

(Source: Jagex press release)

Crowfall’s Backer Stretch Goals Thus Far

With about 70 hours left to go in the Crowfall Kickstarter, more than fourteen thousand have pledged their support. The latest stretch goal is the Guinea Beast pack animal. The next stretch goal, at 14.5 thousand backers, will offer bonus tax-free land parcels to backers at varying tiers.

Female Centaur characters and enhanced particle effects.
All-father statue for all backers.
1 free month VIP for everyone.
Character mounts and caravans plus bonuses for higher tier backers.
Guinea Beast pack animal for everyone.

(Source: Kickstarter)

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