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.
Category: News
Month in Review: October Edition
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:
- Neverwinter’s latest module, Rise of Tiamat, on November 18th.
- RuneScape Spanish language servers are shutting down November 3rd.
Gaming News:
- TERA announces first expansion, Fate of Arun.
- Final Fantasy XIV announces first expansion, Heavensward.
- NCSoft layoffs affect all western operations, sans Guild Wars 2.
- City of Steam merging US servers into one.
- Turbine laid off employees, with development allegedly unaffected.
- RuneScape ditched its HTML5 client, opting instead for a different hi-res client.
- World of Warcraft continued its downward spiral of subscribers by announcing a bump in subscribers.
Still in Development:
- Goblin Works announced that Pathfinder Online’s early enrollment will not begin in October as scheduled.
Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade Introduces Cheap Founder Pack
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
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
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
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)
Pay For Path of Exile With Karma Koins
Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games has announced that the MMOARPG will now accept payment in the form of Karma Koins. Interested customers can find Karma Koin cards in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. The cards are available in denominations of $10, $25, and $50.
For now, your first redemption in Path of Exile will net you a free Voidgate Portal Effect.
(Source: Path of Exile)
Neverwinter: Rise of Tiamat Coming November 18th
Adventurers will have the opportunity to continue the fight against the dragons in Neverwinter next month, with the launch of the latest module Rise of Tiamat. The new module follows the ongoing story played out in Tyranny of the Dragons and the Siege of Neverwinter event, bringing players together to fight back the cult of the dragon and prevent them from summoning draconic goddess Tiamat. Can players stop Tiamat from returning? Spoiler: No, but you will have the opportunity to slay the five headed dragon, one decapitation at a time, and send her back to the hell she climbed out of.
Rise of Tiamat goes live November 18th.
(Source: Neverwinter)
SMITE Launches Oceanic Servers
Hi-Rez Studios has announced new SMITE servers for the Oceanic region. Players who opt into the new servers will be able to keep all of their progress, and can even still play with North American and European players if they so wish.
“As SMITE grows, we continue to expand servers into key regions so that we can provide the best service and performance for our international players” said Todd Harris, Chief Operating Officer of Hi-Rez Studios. “The Australian community has always been very vocal and supportive, and we are excited to improve the game experience for the community in this region.”
SMITE will be on display at PAX Australia, where attendees will receive a free Sydney Shredder skin for He Bo.
(Source: Hi-Rez Press Release)
Aventurine Lays Out Seven Layers Of Improvement
Well, they did seven days ago, but cut me some slack. Aventurine has laid out a seven-step plan for improving Darkfall: Unholy Wars. The entire post can be found on the forum (link below) and covers seven topics based on communication with the community, on how to improve the game of Darkfall.
The post goes into a number of ideas, including an enchanting system, alignment systems for criminals, expanded PvE experience, and more. Aventurine’s ideas range in their completion stage from early concept to ready for launch within the next few patch cycles. If you have a few minutes to spare, take a look at the ideas presented in the link below.
(Source: Darkfall)








