Category: News

Korea Halts Facebook Microtransactions


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Way back in 2011, I talked about the Games Rating Board in South Korea, and how the government organization was investigating certain video games to determine whether or not the virtual lotteries were in violation of the country’s strict anti-gambling laws. Fast forward to 2014, and South Korean gamers woke up to find that many of their Facebook games are currently unplayable. The Games Rating and Administration Committee has placed a blanket ban on all Facebook game payments, pending individual approvals by the board. Developers will have to submit their games and pay a fee to have them approved by a panel. Games found in violation of South Korea’s anti-gambling laws will presumably be rejected and banned in the country.

(Source: Latis Global)

Project Gorgon Makes Another Kickstarter Run


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Project Gorgon is a fantasy MMO set to launch on PC, Mac, and eventually Linux. You may remember the game from its previous attempt at Kickstarter, at which developer Eric Heimburg (who worked on both Asheron’s Calls and the never-surfaced Star Trek Online by Perpetual Entertainment) missed a goal of $55 thousand. Heimburg’s wife, Sandra Powers, may be a little more identifiable as the producer of Everquest II and Asheron’s Call.

Project Gorgon is available to download a very early access version. The goal is to charge a $5 subscription, however free to play is not off the table.

(Source: Project Gorgon)

CCP's Latest Financial Report Shows Troubled Times


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CCP Games has released their latest financial statement, and the results are a showcase on the company’s latest round of problems. Due to decreased revenue, CCP announced that they have shut down their San Francisco offices and laid off two key US executives: CFO Joe Gallo and CMO David Reid. The cancellation of World of Darkness, which we learned about earlier this year, reportedly brought about a substantial cost including the cost of terminating employees and writing off assets.

Revenue for the first half of 2014 amounted to $36.5 million, down slightly from $36.7 million last year, however EBITD (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, and Depreciation) was down to $4.5 million from $8.3 million last year.

(Source: Gamasutra)

RuneScape Companion App Available


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Jagex has announced that the RuneScape companion app is now available on iOS and Android devices. Having the companion app gives mobile access to the game’s grand exchange auction house, notifies players when purchases/sales are complete, track in-game activity timers, and chat with their clan. Even if you don’t have a smartphone or tablet, you can still get on board with the web version of the app that has already been available for some time.

The RuneScape companion app requires a device with iOS 7 or newer, Android 4.0 or newer, and is guaranteed to run on devices as far back as iPhone 4, Galaxy S3, Nexus 4, iPad 3rd gen, and iPad mini. The web app runs on a wider range of devices, not to mention personal computers.

(Source: RuneScape)

Trion Worlds Denies Security Breach


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If you’ve been following ArcheAge discussion, you’re likely aware of a surge in player claims that their accounts were being subjected to unauthorized attempts to purchase the ArcheAge founders pack. Community Manager Scapes has responded to the allegations by stating that Trion Worlds has not been breached and the purchase attempts are a symptom of the same old account theft that goes on every day.

What happened in the last few hours is sadly nothing new: Every day, bots obtain user credentials from various unprotected sites around the Internet, build lists of login and passwords, and try them on Trion’s servers (along with many other sites). If players consistently use simple or repeated passwords across different online services, these bots may get access to their accounts. Because of the current momentum around ArcheAge, hundreds of millions of such attempts were made from well over a million different IP addresses in the last few weeks, only a fraction of which ended up being successful today.

All players affected by fraudulent charges will be refunded by Trion Worlds, and the Glyph client is being boosted with additional security features.

(Source: ArcheAge forums)

Destiny Won't Allow Trading


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During their latest Q&A session, Bungie answered one player’s question on whether or not trading would be allowed in Destiny. Short answer? No. Bungie wants you to earn your weapons.

As for swapping irons in the Tower? Nope. We want you to earn ‘em. You should be able to tell a badass story for every sweet jewel in your arsenal. Once you earn them, the various Guardians under your account will be able to trade them, but weapons belong to the players who acquire them through action and bravery.

As an MMO and a loot-driven game, the ability to trade items to other players is a feature that many players are likely to expect Destiny to include. Still, Destiny hasn’t launched yet and this decision may not be permanent.

(Source: VG247)

Wildstar To Address Server Population


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Carbine Studios has revealed over Twitter that an update is coming to address population issues on servers. No more details are available at this time.

(Source: Twitter)

Lifeless Now Available On Early Access


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Zombie sandbox games are the latest fad that simply won’t die, not unlike the zombies that inhabit their worlds. Rigid-Soft, an indie developer based in Sweden, is the latest to jump on board with their own take on the genre. Lifeless promises a world in which players can stake their claim in a war between three factions, use resources and loot to arm yourself with powerful weapons, and even kill zombies if you’re into that sort of thing.

The basic package runs for $25 with a $40 option that includes 1000 lifeless points, 2-exclusive masks, and access to future maps before they are released.

(Source: Rigid-Soft press release)

Star Vault Profits Continue To Drop In Q2


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Star Vault has posted their second quarter finances for 2014 and the results are not pretty. Net sales amounted to approximately seventy thousand dollars, down over 30% under the one hundred five thousand in the first quarter. Net profit, meanwhile, took a nearly 80% dive down to one hundred fifty two thousand in the red compared to eighty six thousand in the red for the first quarter.

The report notes that the number of subscriptions dropped in the second quarter. Player activity has dropped over the summer which Star Vault believes may be related to waiting for the territory control patch to be released. During the same quarter, Star Vault has also been at work to make Mortal Online compatible with the Oculus Rift.

Henrik Nystrom’s quarterly statement:

In April, we announced an updated development plan to allow time for testing and bug fixing prior to the launch on Steam, as the content and quality are prioritized over making a quick launch. During the first half of 2014 has been fully focused on getting the TC patch (Territory Control) with brand new unique features, completed and we went into the testing phase at the end of June.

As expected, the number of players has decreased over the summer, which may be partly due to the players wait for the TC patch will soon be released. At the end of the period, the reduction of the number of players stalled.

In parallel with the TC construction, we have worked with the new continent as planned, where most is via outsourcing. With the new continent will face in Mortal Online will be doubled and the new Territory control, we will be able to offer unique features.

During the quarter, we have also developed a full support for virtual reality headset Oculus Rift that lets you see the game world in a completely different way; when you turn your head the same thing happens in the game and you look around. It also sees the depth and 3D by Oculus, which may provide some benefits in Mortal Online because you always play the game in first person view.

We plan to further develop support for Oculus Rift hardware (now owned by Facebook) so that this is clear until the release date of Oculus Rift published. There is a huge interest in this among the players and we believe that the combination of Mortal Online and Rift Oculus will provide a gaming experience beyond the ordinary.

Henrik Nystrom
CEO, Star Vault AB

In the long term, Star Vault plans to develop new titles however no other information has been given.

Editor’s note: Quarterly reports are provided by Star Vault and publicly available via the Aktietorget stock exchange. All monetary values are presented in Swedish Kroner and are converted to US Dollars for your convenience using rates provided by Citibank NA and reflect trading values on the day of reporting. Henrik Nystrom’s statements are automatically translated by Google and some context/grammar may be lost in the translation.

See Lifeless Stream This Weekend


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(Editor’s note: This article would be a whole lot more helpful with a link to the Livestream. Here it is.)

The zombie sandbox craze continues to live on, just like the zombies that inhabit the worlds. Rigid Studios is a Sweden-based independent developer looking to jump on board with their own spin on the genre, under the title of Lifeless. To show Lifeless to the masses, Rigid Studios has planned a series of Livestream events where you can watch the developers play the game and show what to expect.

Check out a pre-alpha video of the game below.

(Source: Rigid Studios Press Release)