Eldevin Launching First Expansion


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Hunted Cow Studios has announced the first expansion for Eldevin, titled A Tale of Sands and Shards, is set for release on April 3rd. Sands and Shards increases the level cap and skill cap to 45, bringing with it new recipes, abilities, and more. The expansion will also see the launch of five new zones and forty five dungeons featuring seven new challenging bosses. Players will also be able to enjoy brand new class-specific weapon sets.

A Tale of Sands and Shards launches April 3rd and will be available for free.

(Source: Hunted Cow)

Neverwinter Infographic


Perfect World Entertainment has sent us over an infographic on Neverwinter since the launch of Shadowmantle. Over 2.2 million characters have been created and 3.5 million have died in PvP battles. Check out the entire infographic below.

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Neverwinter Plays Dungeons and Dragons


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Perfect World Entertainment has announced that Dungeons & Dragons is coming to Neverwinter. To be more specific, April 1st will see the adventurers answering the call of Respen Durothil, transformed into a miniature figurine and used in a rousing tabletop game of Dungeons & Dragons. Those who complete this adventure will have an opportunity for new rewards, including a green slime companion.

Respen’s Marvelous Game launches on April 1st. For those keeping track, that is the first of April.

(Source: Neverwinter)

Arktech Revolution DLC Announced


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Trion Worlds has announced the fifth DLC pack for Defiance, Arktech Revolution, which seems to be aimed at improving quality of life features in the MMO shooter. Set for release this April, Arktech Revolution will see an increase to both the EGO rank cap and point cap, as well as the introduction of new perks to invest those extra points in. In addition to the increased level cap, players will also find that higher EGO rating makes a big difference on your abilities including damage, health, and shield functionality. To keep the game balanced, the population of NPCs are similarly seeing an overhaul with new abilities and designs. Events will scale dynamically based on the number of players present, with the promise that new players will not be left out.

Finally, some long awaited improvements to damage output and grenades. With DLC #5, weapon types will become more pronounced in their abilities, such as incendiary weapons being more effective against flesh or radiation being able to penetrate armor. There is also a new damage-mitigating buff called armor which does not recharge passively and must be recharged at an extraction point. And finally grenades, stims, and spikes will be receiving an overhaul to hopefully be less tedious to obtain. Enemies will now drop universal “charges” that refill specified items.

You can check out the entire announcement at the link below.

(Source: Defiance)

Darkfall Welcomes Players Back For March Update


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Aventurine recently launched its March update, bringing with it weather effects, masks, clan markets, and more. To give players more of an incentive to join back up, Aventurine has invited beta players for two weeks of free game time. Eligible gamers should have already received an email by the time this article is published, so make sure you check your inbox/spam folder. To take part in the beta, simply send an email or support ticket with your username and “Returning Beta Player” in the subject line. We managed to have our account enabled around fifteen minutes after sending in the ticket.

The two week offer expires April 4th. Current subscribers can sign up for a six month package at 45% off.

Webzen/gPotato Unifies Services


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Webzen has announced the unification of its three game portals, bringing together its own games under a single portal with gPotato and gPotato EU. Players will have easy access to all of Webzen and gPotato’s library of games, including the upcoming launch of Archlord II.

“A total of over 40 million players, from 150 countries, will be able to play and enjoy their favourite games together. This is what online games are all about – fostering online friendship.”

Webzen acquired gPotato as well as its parent company, Gala-Net, for a small sum last month.

(Source: Webzen Press Release)

Naoki Yoshida Not Against Free To Play


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One of the memes floating around the internet in regards to Final Fantasy XIV is that the company would rather shut the game down before ever considering a switch to free to play. As Naoki Yoshida confirmed in a recent interview with Dengeki Online, this isn’t so much the case:

As far as the monthly billing goes, people are becoming more pragmatic and they’re only willing to pay for the things that they want to use. What that means to monthly billing is that there are players who would rather pay based on the amount of time they play in a particular month, after they’ve played. There used to be no debate about this, since monthly billing was the only standard for MMORPGs, but now F2P is a consideration. We see this desire for players who would rather buy items especially in North America.

Yoshida goes on to say that free to play isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and can be a beneficial move when done so based on the needs of the users rather than trying to turn around an unprofitable game. Check out the entire interview below, it dives into free to play, upcoming updates, expansion into new regions, and more. Is Final Fantasy XIV going free to play? Not with six figures of active players it isn’t.

(Source: Translated Interview)

Xsyon Expands With Launch of PvE Server


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The post-apocalyptic world of Xsyon has become a lot more friendly recently as Notorious Games has announced that the game will be split between War and Peace, a PvP and PvE server respectively. Players will be able to maintain characters on both servers, and data will be copied on to both worlds from the original main world.

As of today, the apocalyptic fantasy sandbox MMORPG, Xsyon is available on two servers: War and Peace! (PvP and PvE) With this highly requested and anticipated move, Xsyon reaches out to wider audience catering to players who enjoy fantasy sandbox games both with and without player conflict.

Xsyon launched in 2011 under Notorious Games.

(Source: Notorious Games Press Release)

Ghost Recon Online Renamed Phantoms


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Ghost Recon Online is still making its way toward launch, and Ubisoft announced today that the shooter isn’t just getting a new face, but a new name. Going forward, Ghost Recon Online is being renamed Ghost Recon Phantoms, bringing with it a new art direction, new characters, and reworking of lighting and level design.

Ghost Recon Phantoms brings a narrative layer to the game based around The Phantoms, ex- Ghosts and current adversaries who left The Ghosts to pursue personal agendas. We’ve also added new gameplay elements to expand the depth of the game. Of course, no accounts will be wiped, and our current players will not have to start over.

The new look and name are coming on April 10th.

(Source: Ghost Recon Phantoms)