Neverwinter Expansion Delayed To April


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Perfect World Entertainment has announced that Neverwinter’s latest expansion, Elemental Evil, will be delayed by a few weeks for further testing.

Our Neverwinter team wants to ensure that we deliver our promise of a high quality expansion, and in order to do so, we need a few more weeks to fine tune the Neverwinter: Elemental Evil experience. Consequently, we have made the decision to delay the launch of Neverwinter: Elemental Evil to April 7.

Elemental Evil will launch on April 7th and introduces the Paladin class as well as a new level cap of 70.

(Source: Press Release)

Sony Caps Fraud Refund At $150, Threatens To Ban Victim


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Sony is coming under some heavy fire after an account was stolen and used to rack up substantial charges, only to offer to reimburse a small portion of those funds. User Kadjar on Reddit noticed that his account was compromised when multiple purchase confirmations began popping up in his email. Acting quickly to remove on-file credit cards and change passwords, Kadjar contacted Sony support only to be told that his refund would be capped. Out of the $600 in fraudulent charges, they only offered $150 and as PSN currency.

If you read the transcript, ‘Malcom’ seems to indicate that the full amount could be refunded upon completion of the investigation. I called to confirm this, and the supervisor I spoke to informed me that there was a maximum of $150 even after investigation.

Further, the customer service rep Malcolm warns Kadjar that going through the bank to reverse the charges will result in his account being banned irrevocably, with no way to recover any licenses lost. Sony also refused to reactivate his Playstation onto the account until six months, which had been deactivated by the account thief and replaced with another system.

Sony does not currently offer two-factor authentication for its Playstation Network.

(Source: Reddit)

Xsyon Announces New Architecture Update


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Notorious Games has unveiled the first big update to Xsyon in 2015, focusing on architecture. The update adds a number of conveniences to building, including the ability to build bridges over water without terraforming as well as other new features.

Xsyon’s improved architectural system boasts versatility and ease of use. Players are now empowered to fully visualize and realize their construction projects much faster and with more flexibility than ever before!

The patch is available now. You can read the full notes at the following link.

(Source: Notorious Games press release)

NCSoft Employees Caught Embezzling Development Funds


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MMO Culture is reporting that three staff members have been fired after it was discovered that they were embezzling funds from Project HON, with the possibility that the police may become involved. It was apparently discovered that a third party company had been hired to handle graphics development with ties to the three employees.

This is not the first time NCSoft employees have been accused of criminal actions. Back in 2012, a Korean court convicted three employees of Bluehole Studios for leaking trade secrets about Lineage III, ordering the trio to pay a fine of two billion won.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Elder Scrolls Online: Be Careful Who You Buff


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Criminal accomplices beware, for your misdeeds may set you on the wrong side of the law. Players in Elder Scrolls Online are reporting that, following the justice update, it is possible to rack up a substantial bounty simply through healing an outlaw via area of effect spells. This remains the case even if the healing player is not flagged to kill innocent NPCs.

The player in question managed to rack up a 27,000 gold bounty, of which he was only able to pay 17,000, putting him 10,000 gold in debt.

(Source: Elder Scrolls Online)

Crowfall Details Training/Skills


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Artcraft Entertainment has posted a new update to its Kickstarter backers detailing the game’s skill/training mechanics. While active training will be available to gain proficiency, passive training will be the primary way of advancing your character’s skills.

Similar to Eve Online, passive training means your character is advancing whether or not you are logged in. Three skills can be leveled at different rates at any given time, with an estimated one month for the quickest skill to reach maximum.

VIP members will be able to train three characters simultaneously, and additional skills can be queued in case one hits the maximum level but the player is unable to get online for some reason.

(Source: Kickstarter email)

Trion Worlds Offers Refunds To Bug Abusers


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Trion Worlds is offering loyalty token refunds for players who purchased the Mirage Donkey mount with the purpose of exploiting a bug, after said bug was fixed. The exploit allowed the donkey to run faster while strafing or going backward than it did moving forward.

Community manager Scapes posted the following on the Trion Worlds forum:

We are offering Loyalty Token refunds for Mirage Donkeys due to the upcoming Secrets of Ayanad update fixing a bug that grants the mount unintended speed bonuses. If you want to trade in your Mirage Donkey for its purchase price of 300 Loyalty Tokens, contact our Support Team with the subject “Mirage Donkey Refund”. Please make sure to remove all equipment prior to submitting your ticket. No Companion Crusts used on existing Mirage Donkeys will be refunded.

Players have until Tuesday March 17th to get their refund request in.

(Source: Trion Worlds)

Grab Guild Wars 2 On Sale This Weekend


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If you still haven’t gotten around to picking up Guild Wars 2, now is the time to do so. The game is on sale for 75% off beginning today, March 6th, until the sale ends on March 8th. The sale applies only to the Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition.

In other Guild Wars 2 news, a closed beta for Heart of Thorns will be up after PAX East. You can sign up for the beta on the Guild Wars 2 website.

(Source: Guild Wars 2)

Funcom Q4 2014 Finances Released


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Funcom last week released their fourth quarter finances and the results are mixed. Revenue for the quarter amounted to $2.94 million, an increase of $288 thousand over the previous quarter thanks to strong results from The Secret World, Age of Conan, and Anarchy Online. As part of Funcom’s ongoing restructuring, the company’s work-for-hire business is being sold off with the results not materializing until the second quarter of 2015.

Promotions lead to strong sales in Age of Conan over the fourth quarter, although sales fell year over year, while The Secret World released Issue #10 and two holiday events. LEGO Minifigures saw an increase of players, however is still lagging behind internal targets for sales. The iOS beta for LEGO Minifgures will become more widely available.

(Source: Funcom)

Crowfall Upgrades To UNITY 5


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ArtCraft Entertainment has announced that Crowfall has been upgraded to run on the latest version of UNITY. The engine upgrade brings in new physics integration as well as the .NET platform along with a whole host of middleware.

UNITY 5 was released this week as a fully featured free engine.

(Source: Backer email)