Category: News

Old School RuneScape Polls New Continent, Achievements


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It’s hard not to see Old School RuneScape as something of a gamer’s pipe dream. Every single update, barring bug fixes, has to be vetted through the player base and cannot be added unless 75% of the voters say yes. Over the past year, the polls have managed to shift Old School on a content path that is wholly independent of the main RuneScape game, to a level where quite a bit of content now exists in Old School that RuneScape 3 players do not have access to.

In the latest poll, Jagex has placed a hefty bit of content up for vote. Today through November 12th, players will be able to vote on a brand new continent full of activities, each activity which will be individually polled should the continent itself pass muster. Players are also able to vote on the introduction of new achievement diaries, elite achievements, repeatable tasks, and more.

Also up for vote is a change in the voting mechanic. Players can vote on lowering the approval level to 70% from 75%, the option to abstain, the option to change your vote, and changing the minimum requirement to vote.

With twelve thousand votes so far, the new continent has 90% approval, and the achievement diaries and elite tasks have 88% and 81% respectively. The minimum requirement to vote is just toeing the line. Everything else is falling quite short of reaching the 75% requirement.

(Source: RuneScape)

EA Filing Blames The Old Republic For Revenue Losses


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While Bioware has wasted no time discussing how popular The Old Republic is, revealing at Gamescom that over one million players log in monthly, with Super Data Research placing the MMO as among the top ten revenue generators in 2014. In fact it looks like the only people that The Old Republic is currently letting down are the executives at Electronic Arts. In its latest quarterly report, EA Games noted $454 million in revenue over the past three months, primarily driven by FIFA, Titanfall, and Battlefield 4 Premium Edition.

Not all of EA’s properties were up to projections, however, as the company blamed several of its products for a $400 million decrease in revenue.

This increase was partially offset by a $413 million decrease in revenue primarily from the SimCity, Crysis, Dead Space, and The Sims franchises, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

SimCity and The Old Republic are both responsible for a combined $63 million decrease in revenue, according to another section of the report. It is important to note that both monetary figures are decreases based on internal projections for the quarter, and do not conclude that any of the related studios are running at a loss.

(Source: EA Games Filing)

Final Fantasy XIV Steam Trial And Free Weekend


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Square Enix has announced that hopeful gamers can now try out Final Fantasy XIV through Steam. Head on over to the Steam website, or through your Steam client, go to the Final Fantasy XIV store page, and click on the “try demo” button located on the side-bar. The trial is good for 14 days and includes certain restrictions on player activity. Further, the game has been discounted 50% on Steam down to $12 until November 12th.

Secondly, Square Enix has invited previous players back into the world of Eorzea to check out update 2.4. Users who have previously purchased the game client, or who were grandfathered in from FFXIV 1.0, will be able to log in starting November 7th and running through November 10th. Download the client and patch up today.

(Source: Final Fantasy XIV)

RuneScape Double Exp Weekend Statistics


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RuneScape just recently went through a double experience weekend, and if you are anything like me you took really poor advantage of the boosted leveling. To show just how much productivity increased over the weekend, Jagex has released a comparable chart showing this weekend’s gains versus earlier in October. Summoning was the most popular skill across the board with prayer the least popular in experience gained and 99’s achieved.

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One Hour Of Civilization Footage


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Civilization Online is an upcoming MMO by XL Games and currently enjoying a closed beta in South Korea. While the title isn’t currently dated for a western launch, you can take a peek at the Korean beta by watching the video embedded below. The footage was recorded by Youtuber Surreal MMO.

Month in Review: October Edition


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October was a month of expansions, layoffs, and delays. We saw a developer get their game pulled off of Steam after one of the staffers tweeted expletives and a death threat at Valve’s Gabe Newell. Arenanet caused a furor in the community by updating the gem trading tool to be less user friendly, and then responded to player complaints by going on the offensive and calling the posters unconstructive ranters. Gaming for Good raised $20 million for charity, and Playstation Plus increased its prices in several territories.

There is plenty more than happened this month, but this is just a rundown of some highlights from MMO Fallout.

Coming in November:

Gaming News:

Still in Development:

Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade Introduces Cheap Founder Pack


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Want to get into the next Warhammer MMO but don’t want to shell out $40+ dollars for a founder pack? Now you can buy the $15 Pioneer’s Founder Pack. The package includes 15,000 RTP to spend at the rogue trader, a character slot (ork only), a special helmet, a close quarters weapon, first blood badge, pioneer badge, backpack cage, founder’s lodge forum, name reservation, and the ability to buy the early access game module in 2015. The package does NOT include a full game key, which must be purchased separately, nor does it offer access to all items at the rogue trader.

(Source: Eternal Crusade)

RuneScape Unveils November Updates


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In the latest Behind The Scenes post, Jagex has unveiled a list of updates set for release in November. The first, which will go live later today, is a double experience weekend lasting from midday October 31st to Monday, November 3rd. Members will receive double experience (3x experience for skills that have bonus experience) and 1.2x experience for free players. The first full content update of the month is the second part of the Elf City update introducing more of the city of Prifddinas. The city update includes training areas for agility, prayer, divination, slayer, the ability to craft crystal vials which hold two separate potions, and more.

Later in the month, treasure trails is set to receive an update adding in new rewards and updating clues with new puzzles and items needed to solve said puzzles. Players will also be able to reroll rewards for a chance at better loot. The first quest in the elder-god series is also set for release this month, tasking players with hunting down criminals with the use of a golem.

Throughout November, Jagex will also be opening the Well of Goodwill. Players are encouraged to donate gold, items, and bonds to charity, with Jagex donating $1 per five million gold donated as well as the full value of bonds. You’ll be able to choose which of the three charities your donation goes toward.

(Source: RuneScape)

Not Massive: Prey 2 Cancelled


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Bethesda has announced that the on-again off-again first person shooter Prey 2 has been officially cancelled. The original Prey, released in 2006, put players in the role of Tommy, a Cherokee who finds himself in the middle of an alien invasion. The game ended with the phrase “Prey will continue…” Since its release, the status of Prey 2 has been in constant limbo, with confirmations every year or so that the game was in development, on hold, back in development, back on hold, etc.

At PAX Australia, Bethesda confirmed that the game has been cancelled with Pete Hines stating:

It wasn’t up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it. It’s no longer in development. That wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one that won’t surprise many folks given that we hadn’t been talking about it. Human Head Studios is no longer working on it. It’s a franchise we still believe we can do something with — we just need to see what that something is.

The sequel was to be set years after the original Prey, and follow a human bounty hunter on an alien world.

(Source: PCGamesN)

Pathfinder Online Holds Early Enrollment Back


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If you’ve been waiting patiently for the Pathfinder Online Early Enrollment period to begin, well you’re going to be waiting a bit longer. In a post on the Goblin Works developer blog, Ryan Dancey announced that early enrollment will be put on hold until the developer can deal with issues relating to stress tests and server capacity.

We have set an internal objective of being able to handle 2,000 simultaneous connections, and 100 characters active in a single Hex as our minimum threshold for server performance. This reflects our expected peak concurrent activity for the first 10,000 players in game – roughly what we anticipate during the first 90 days of Early Enrollment activity. Currently the server does not reliably meet that benchmark.

The blog post does not mention a timeframe for when early enrollment will launch. Stay tuned.

(Source: Pathfinder)