News – Page 466 – MMO Fallout

Trion Neglected Rift China, Says CEO

Rift is shutting down in China, and the CEO of Shanda Games (Xiangdong Zhang) has revealed to the Chinese press that the problem lied with a lack of response from Trion Worlds leading to a poor experience for Chinese gamers. According to Zhang, Trion Worlds did not respond to requests for localized content, and eventually the call was made to shut the servers down just six months after launch. According to MMO Culture, Shanda Games has much more faith in Final Fantasy XIV, noting a larger effort toward international release by Square Enix.

Earlier this year, Rift shut down in Korea following a poor reception.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Not That Massive: Neo Geo X Terminated

The prospects of success for the Neo Geo X, SNK’s revival of the classic system, have always been rather questionable. After all, this was the gaming system that many of us wanted yet none of us could have. Unless you were an adult with a fair amount of expendable cash, or a kid born into a family of doctors and lawyers, SNK’s asking price of $649 with quite a few games asking for more than $200. The system became known as the Rolls Royce of gaming consoles, or in my hometown the Willy Wonka golden ticket to being the most popular kid in school. Forget the asking price, this behemoth was an arcade in your house!

Anyway, the Neo Geo X was supposed to be SNK’s revival of the classic system, a handheld system that came bundled with an arcade joystick and a docking station to connect the handheld up to your television, and twenty games pre-loaded. The “gold package” cost $199 with five bundles of three games being sold for $30 each. Apparently the system didn’t do so well, as SNK put out a notice that they have terminated the US license for the Neo Geo X, aggressively, and with threats of legal action.

In addition, SNK has demanded TOMMO immediately cease all sales of the “SNK NEOGEO X Arcade Stick” product being sold separately from the NEOGEO X GOLD Plug and Play Console, and remove the “SNK NEOGEO X Arcade Stick” product from store shelves and online retailers. In order to protect our intellectual property rights such as “NEOGEO” and “SNK”, decisive measures will be taken against all unapproved NEOGEO X products not subject to the License Agreement.

Whether or not the product will still be sold in Europe is to be seen.

(Source: Eurogamer)

State of Decay Sells 1 Million Copies

Undead Labs is reporting that State of Decay, available for Xbox Live Arcade and Steam Early Access, has sold over one million copies. Undead Labs is planning on developing an MMO set in the same universe, tentatively titled Class4. State of Decay was formerly known as Class3.

“Your encouragement drives us to keep working and keep improving. You got us here with your energy, your feedback, and your telling your friends about us. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and brains.”

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Path of Exile Exits Beta Mode October 23rd

Path of Exile is finally ready to shed off its skin of being in fake-beta mode (no wipes, open cash shop) with an official launch on October 23rd. Alongside its official release, Path of Exile will also be coming to everyone’s favorite digital download location: uPlay. Actually it will be launching on Steam, but uPlay is your favorite store, right? The launch of Path of Exile will also bring with it the release of the Scion, the seventh class to be made available. Unlike her fellow exiled souls, the Scion isn’t just a character you can jump in and play with. In fact, you can’t even choose her as a class until you find her out in the world. The Scion is the first in a line of prestige classes and will be more difficult to play than the others.

Players will also enjoy an addition to the game’s main story, as well as new zones and expansion on PvP and guild functionality. You can read more at Massively’s lengthy preview.

(Source: Massively.com)

City of Titans Kickstarter Hits 50% At Day One

It is nearly 1:30am EST at the time of this writing. After just a day on Kickstarter, Missing Worlds Media’s funding drive for City of Titans has raked in over $150,000 with the money just pouring in. With success seemingly in the bag, Missing Worlds Media has 31 of its 32 days left to make up the remaining 50% of the goal. The team posted an update on the Kickstarter page noting their surprise at the reaction. So far 1,134 backers have pledged to the campaign.

We’ve been working on that teaser video pretty hard. But we’ve been working on all the individual parts in parallel. We’ve got some scenes we didn’t use, and I think you’ll like them. We’ll have another video or two for you, and maybe more and newer things to show you, in a week or two.

You can check out the City of Titans Kickstarter at the link below or follow the campaign on our sidebar all month.

(Source: Kickstarter)

Turbine's Billing Server Explodes, Issuing Refunds

Turbine is in the process of issuing refunds after a major glitch caused a number of players to be charged multiple times for their subscriptions. The number of charges varies widely from player to player and bank to bank, with some reporting as little as a couple of extra charges and others reporting into the hundreds. The unfortunate collateral damage is that the multiple charges also seem to be setting off fraud alerts, resulting in the banks automatically freezing said accounts, while many customers whose banks did allow the charges were forced to watch their funds drop to zero or below. To make matters worse, this issue occurred on a Friday, meaning anyone whose bank account was drained/frozen will not have access to their money over the weekend and into midway through next week.

Turbine has posted a notice with a phone number, asking anyone who is hit by penalties or fees due to the charges to call them. The developer is in the middle of processing refunds for the erroneous charges.

If you do not see the refund on your statement after a few days, if you incurred any penalties due to the charges, or if you need further assistance with your account or billing, our Customer Service Agents will be happy to take care of you. You can get in touch with Account Support by going to support.turbine.com, then clicking on “Support Center” and “Submit a Ticket.” Players can also contact Account Support toll-free at 1-855-WBGAMES (Account Support Hours: 10am – 7pm Eastern Time 7 days a week (GMT -5).)

MMO Fallout recommends that any players who were affected immediately contact their banks, as well as any companies who will be expecting a payment from you over the next week to explain the situation and hopefully come to an agreement. Be proactive, it isn’t a guarantee but you’ll come out a lot better than if you just wait for them to contact you. Customers who feel that they have been severely damaged (and I emphasize severely) by this billing error, whether it be damage to your credit score, heavy late fees or interest rate hikes due to late payments, etc, should take a look at the following guides on filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve, the IC3, and check the following list on how to contact your state’s Attorney General.

(Source: Turbine)

Did Anyone Notice That FusionFall Shut Down?

That is a rhetorical question. Cartoon Network’s FusionFall originally launched in 2009 with an awesome premise: An MMO set in the Cartoon Network multiverse with well known characters, a rather simple combat and quest system, and the ability to summon nano versions of said cartoon characters. FusionFall originally launched with a subscription, but eventually converted into a free to play game the following April 2010.

In those three years, FusionFall has faded into relative obscurity outside of the Cartoon Network community. Earlier this year, Cartoon Network ceased all development on the title and moved on to FusionFall Heroes, a game set in the same story line but with players taking control of the characters rather than creating their own avatar. To put the icing on the cake, finally, FusionFall shut down on August 29th with all the attention that you would expect from a small flash game, ie: none at all.

And that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Disney Shutting Down Its Less Popular MMOs

Disney appears to be cleaning house with some of their less popular MMOs. The company announced today that both Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean Online will be shutting down on September 19th, just a month away. Both games have already stopped accepting payments and have opened their doors to be played for free until the servers shut down. There wasn’t much of a reason given other than the usual shifting development focus, although the obvious answer is that few people still play Toontown or Pirates Online.

“The Walt Disney Company is committed to offering high-quality, entertaining play experiences in both online virtual worlds and mobile apps. At this time, we are shifting our development focus towards other online and mobile play experiences, such as Club Penguin and a growing selection of Disney mobile apps.”

(Source: Toontown, Pirates)

Have You Seen Arctic Combat's Reimbursement Plan?

Okay, I will admit. I came into the announced shuttering of Arctic Combat with my usual schtick: Another low quality renaming of another failed game imported from Asia shuts down in the west, blah blah blah you already know how I feel about those games and the whales that keep them healthy just long enough to call it a launch and get away with the profits without having to put in any long term support. Or did I just say that again? Anywho…

Arctic Combat is Webzen’s first person shooter, better known as the previously shut down Battery Online. Arctic Battery Combat Online is a lobby based first person shooter that is free to play with a cash shop, it is shutting down in September likely because the popularity and revenue weren’t meeting expectations. What caught my eye was the compensation. I assumed that a game like Arctic Battery Combat, at best players could expect a stipend of cash and some items for other games.

Webzen is refunding W Coins/gPotato currency spent based on tiers, starting at $50 and moving up to $100, $300, and $500. Your reimbursement is the lowest end of your tier, so if you spent $75 your reimbursement is $50. If you spend $450 you will receive $300. It might be fake currency, but Webzen is dropping some serious cash to keep their players in good graces. It isn’t as good as a real-money refund, but it is a welcome change when you consider the number of recent games to shut down without giving their players much more than a goodbye and a suggestion to buy their next product.

On the other hand, one guy on the comments section mentioned that Arctic Combat is being shut down because it is too successful and Webzen apparently can’t handle all of the money. Either way, you don’t see the possibility of 1:1 compensation all that much, so kudos to Webzen.

(Source: Webzen)

Listen To Eve's Most Expensive Ship Blow Up

One time I accidentally broke a piece of equipment at my old job that was worth $200. I got yelled at by my boss. Factor that damage up to eight thousand dollars, and make the item rare to boot, and you’re going to have a very angry person on the other end. In the case of Eve Online, the object in question is a Revenant Supercarrier, a ship worth over $8,000 USD and so rare that only three are believed to exist in the game world. The ship was destroyed when the corporation Habitual Euthanasia took it out to respond to a distress call.

I may be oversimplifying the story, to which I will respond by simplifying it further: Big rare ship went boom. This isn’t the first time an event of this sort has happened in Eve Online and it certainly won’t be the worst, but have you ever sat back and wondered what was going on in the corporation’s chat in the aftermath?

Pretty much what you’d expect. A lot of blame to go around, a lot of strong language, and a lot of finger pointing. Check it out at the Soundcloud file above, if you think you can handle the raw anger. Then head down to the link below and read comments where people debate putting a real money value to ISK.

(Source: Gamebreaker.tv)

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