Just Defunct: Daybreak To Shut Down Early Access Just Survive


Daybreak Game Company has announced that Just Survive, formerly known as H1Z1, is to sunset on October 24 after three years of early access. In the announcement, Daybreak noted “we are no longer in a position to fulfill its greatness and the current population of the game makes it untenable to maintain.”

Just Survive was part of our first Early Access project, and we learned a great deal during its development. As with any open world game, the greatest stories came from our passionate players. From the incredibly skilled base builders to the free-ranging gangs, and all of the players named variations of “ImFriendly” and “PleaseDontShootMe”, we hope everyone had amazing adventures across Pleasant Valley and Badwater Canyon.

Originally launched into early access in January 2015, Just Survive released as H1Z1 before being split off into two products and renamed H1Z1: Just Survive and ultimately dropping the H1Z1 moniker altogether. All in-game purchases for Just Survive have been disabled.

In May, Daybreak thanked players for their continued support while laying out plans for the future of the title.

(Source: Daybreak)

H1Z1 Invites PS4 Players To Play A Game of Snipey Shotty


H1Z1 rolls out its latest update this week introducing players to the Arcade mode, limited time events that throw a wrench into the proverbial hornets nest and change the way you play. This week and next week sees the introduction of Shotties and Snipers which is exactly what it sounds like: The only weapons available are shotguns and snipers.

The future of H1Z1 includes new leaderboards for season 2, new weapons for all ranges, and new daily challenges.

(Source: Daybreak press release)

Star Vault Latest To Jump On Battle Royale Bandwagon: Mortal Royale


Mortal Online is the latest to join the Battle Royale bandwagon, with Star Vault announcing the “coming soon” release of Mortal Royale.

That said, if Star Vault is going to achieve its dream of a game where 1,000 players are duking it out on the battlefield, they’re going to need a leg up in terms of visibility and engagement. One thousand players in a single game would require at least ten times the active average player count than Mortal Online has seen over the past six months. The trailer (linked above) currently has about 1,500 views.

According to Star Vault on Facebook, Mortal Royale is being worked on by a different team than Mortal Online, however the developer did not comment on whether or not this team is composed of new people or simply people pulled from Mortal Online, when inquired.

Good Old Games Launches FCK DRM Initiative


Good Old Games, the online game store infamous for its anti-DRM policies, has launched a new initiative to let the world know just how it feels about anti-consumer copyright protection schemes. The movement, cleverly dubbed FCK DRM, is in partnership with Defective By Design and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and aims to feature services whose products are not tied to systems that they can turn off at any given time.

Why should you care about DRM?
Because there is a killswitch built into your games. Sure, DRM might not affect you right now, but corporations hold the key and they’ll only let you in as long as you can repeatedly prove ownership. As long as you’re connected to the internet. As long as their DRM works without fault. As long they’re still around.

You can head over to GOG’s website and find a growing list of services for music, movies, books, and more. Good Old Games has opened its website list to any service who offers a DRM-free service.

(Source: FCK DRM)

[Giveaway] Dream of Mirror Online Late Summer DLC


This week MMO Fallout has partnered up with Dream of Mirror Online to bring you Steam codes for the Summer DLC launching this week. We have plenty of keys to give out, so if the group below is redeemed by the time you see this, a second batch will be coming out the same day.

Summer may be coming to a close, but come celebrate one last hurrah of the Summer season in Dream of Mirror Online! Deck yourself out in style with some new summery threads, surfboards, super soakers and other fun summer themed items!

There are no region locks or expiry dates to the DLC code. Please read the instructions below carefully before redeeming your key.

  •    Obtain a beta key.
  •     In the Steam app, from the “Games” menu pick “Activate a Product on Steam…”
  •     Follow the steps and enter your key when prompted. The DLC content will be installed to your Steam Profile
  •     Once the DLC has been released, log into DOMO and the DLC pack will be sent upon logging in
  •     The DLC is sent to the first character on your account. The DLC packages won’t open unless if there is space in your character’s inventory.

[keys id=21030]

Female Costumes
Hawaiian Swimsuit(F) – 14 days
Seaside Swimsuit(F) – 14 days
Male Costumes
Hawaiian Swimsuit(M) – 14 days
Seaside Swimsuit(M) – 14 days
Unisex Items
Ice Cream – 7 days
Sunscreen – 7 days
Supersoaker – 7 days
Snorkel – 14 days
Sharkbite Surfboard – 7 days
Radical Surfboard – 7 days
Retro Surfboard – 7 days
Magma Surfboard – 7 days
Hawaiian Surfboard – 7 days
Jungle Surfboard – 7 days
Beach Ball – 7 days
Beach Umbrella – 7 days

MMO Rant: Blade of Queen Is A Lie Built On Fraud


I have to assume that there is a template for Facebook games on the same level as those stock Unity games that get released on Steam by the dozens. These games populate Facebook, they advertise using fraudulent means, and they disappear as fast as they showed up. Their developers/publishers are all based in Hong Kong, most of them have no physical address, and I can only assume that they’re being pumped out with something resembling sweatshop labor given their speed, frequency, and obviously mass-produced quality.

Blade of Queen, one of two “games” spawned by budding shovelware developer/publisher CarolGames is an embarrassment, its publisher is so embarrassed by what it has to convince people to play that instead of using Queen of Blade screenshots in its Facebook advertising, they went ahead and used a snapshot from Suikoden 2.

Blade of Queen is a game in the sense that there are graphics and animations of figures fighting on screen. It’s not a game in the sense that you have no control over your characters and the only influence you have is spending silver to boost your stats so that they can automatically fight and win their match by simple virtue that your combat rating is higher than their combat rating. The combat is punctuated by poorly translated Engrish dialogue, about some nonsense that most people won’t care about enough to try and read.

I can’t remember the last time I lost a battle in the story mode, nor can I remember the last match that did not end with a SSS rating. Giving ratings at the end of each combat match is pointless because the player didn’t do anything. There is no strategy, nothing to congratulate. There’s a game that Nexon published whose name escapes me, but it supplements the fact that the combat plays out automatically by giving the player varying types of troops, forcing you to plan out a strategy with your characters.

As if to further the idea that this game is a hastily compiled mess, combat sounds work about 5% of the time.

I’m rank 69 and I haven’t even fought a battle. Nobody is playing this. What am I doing with my life? You know, that rank 1 player looks oddly familiar. Where have I seen that name before?

I’ve found the game’s major financier, folks.

Here’s the thing about these games: They’re cobbled together in Hong Kong sweatshops for sweatshop budgets, get translated to English for about a dollar, and ultimately nobody ends up playing them because they see the game in the Facebook ad and have either been conditioned to immediately recognize the scam, or they click on the link and immediately see that the game looks nothing like what was advertised.

Sure, you’ll get maybe a half dozen, dozen players who spend more than the game deserves, but ultimately it’ll be shut down within a few months and nobody will notice because by that point it will have been replaced by several dozen more clones, all of which will similarly shut down several months later.

On the other hand, the game has boobs and booty for miles, it doesn’t take a genius to know that someone said “let’s throw some jigglin tiddies in here, that’ll make people overlook the rest of the game being worthless.”

Other than that, I have no opinion on the matter.

Old School RuneScape Introduces Taxes On Duel Arena


If Jagex isn’t careful, they’re going to have players throwing tea into Port Sarim.

The only guarantees of life in RuneScape are death and, apparently now taxes. This week’s update to Old School sees the implementation of several changes to combat real money trading, and the main headliner is the inclusion of taxes on duels. Winners will be charged a percentage depending on the size of the stake, ranging from .25% to 1% (see illustration above), and cash bets will need to be within ten thousand gold in value.

In addition, it will no longer be possible to stake items. Unlike most of Old School RuneScape’s changes, this update was not polled to players for approval.

(Source: RuneScape)

Forbes Accidentally Leaks Diablo III On Switch


Whoops!

Blizzard was hoping to WoW the world tomorrow with the announcement that Diablo III would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, a reveal that may go down as one of 2018’s worst kept secrets thanks to a long series of rumors and possible teasers that the game would indeed be coming to the platform. Unfortunately Forbes blew the news a bit too quickly, with coverage of the embargoed news briefly going online before quickly being pulled off.

As they say, the internet never forgets, and intrepid young sleuths were able to get their hands on the announcement and its details. It looks like the game will be sold as the Eternal Collection, including Reaper of Souls and the Rise of the Necromancer expansion, and will also include a number of Nintendo exclusive cosmetics. Cosmetics include the Ganondorf cosmetic armor set (naturally), tri-force portrait frame, and chicken pet and Echoes of the Mask wings.

Diablo III on Switch will also allow up to 4 players on a single system, four players on separate systems wirelessly, and online on Nintendo Switch (launching in September) and will cost $59.99. Forbes’ details were confirmed by Kotaku who also had access to the embargoed news. As Nathan Grayson points out, this is also the first Blizzard game on a Nintendo system in 15 years.

Blizzard is reported to have several Diablo projects in the works, with this presumably being one of them. Most assuredly there are more announcements in the works, however your guess is as good as ours on when Blizzard is ready to have them leaked announced.

IPE Update: Court Issues Ruling On Star Citizen Motion To Dismiss


Here at MMO Fallout we try to avoid saturating our coverage of lawsuits for two reasons: The first being that unless the court is making a judgement or one of the parties introduces some profound claim or evidence, the court filings in between are about as interesting and productive as this. Thankfully we’re finally getting somewhere in the case of Crytek v. Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games.

For those of you who need it, a quick summary: In the far flung past of December 2017, Crytek officially launched a lawsuit against CIG and RSI containing accusations of breach of contract over Star Citizen and Squadron 42. The major points of contention in the lawsuit come down to RSI/CIG no longer using the engine, and whether that constituted a breach with regards to royalties, obligations to collaborate, use trademarks in advertising, paid royalties, etc. In my previous coverage, I noted that CIG’s successful dismissal of the case was highly unlikely due to the nature of the allegations.

1. Terms of Contract, or, The Prevailing Document

In its motion to dismiss, Roberts Space Industries motioned to dismiss its part in the lawsuit, claiming that it did not sign the GLA and thus is not a party to the GLA. In its decision, the court noted that the ToC and GLA contain conflicting information, as both attempt to define the term “licensee” with the GLA only involving Cloud Imperium Games and the ToC including both parties. Since the terms of the contract state that any case of conflicts between the documents would lead to the ToC being the prevailing document, the court ruled that Roberts Space Industries is a signatory to the contract.

Motion to dismiss has been denied with the court refusing to consider plaintiff’s other arguments.

On a side note: We actually discussed something similar to this just recently. In regards to prevailing documents, you may recall that this same ruling was handed down against Trion Worlds, as conflicting documents between their End User License Agreement and Terms of Service in regards to where legal disputes could be held led the company to losing its attempt to pull the lawsuit into arbitration, as well as its appeal on the same matter.

2. The Defendant’s Conduct, or, Breach of Contract

The second issue that the courts ruled on this week is the question of the definition of exclusive. I gave a lot of attention to this in my prior coverage because this is an important distinction with the potential to go very, very wrong depending on the understanding of the judge.

In its lawsuit, Crytek made the claim that when it gave CIG/RSI exclusive rights to use the CryEngine on Star Citizen, this meant that both parties were obligated to use the engine and nothing else for Star Citizen. In plain English, this isn’t how the term “exclusive” is used when it comes to contracts like this, and a license is a grant of permission, generally not something used to restrict the licensee. The court agreed with RSI/CIG that the terms of the contract did not legally bind the defendants into using the CryEngine in their product, and as such the motion to dismiss on this count was approved.

The court was less forgiving on the second part of this claim, however. The second part of this claim has to do with the defendants removing Crytek’s logos from their website in breach of contract. As part of their contractual obligations, CIG was required to display Crytek logos on their website and in game. Crytek’s complaint alleges that the defendants had begun removing their logos as of September 2016 when CIG claims that they had moved away from the CryEngine by December 2016.

Due to uncertainty and an obligation by the court to favor the plaintiff’s first amended complaint, this motion was denied.

The third part of this section has to do with whether or not Squadron 42 being spun off into its own property is considered a breach of contract. In the initial lawsuit coverage, we noted that the terms of contract explicitly allowed CIG to use the CryEngine in one game and one game only, that being Star Citizen. However, we also noted that there was some wiggle room for the defendants to fight this claim, as the contract also defines “the game” as including Star Citizen and Squadron 42. HOWEVER, in defining Squadron 42 as part of “the game,” it was merely a feature of Star Citizen and was not being sold as a standalone product.

RSI/CIG may have breached contract by announcing in late 2015 that Squadron 42 would be sold as a standalone title, as it wasn’t until December 2016 that the public was informed of Squadron 42 switching to the Lumberyard engine. As a result, the court has denied the motion to dismiss on this claim.

3. Claim for Damages, or, Torts for Two

This is an interesting one. In their motion to dismiss, CIG pointed to section 6.1.4 of the contract, noting that its language precludes both parties from recovering damages for intentional or grossly negligent conduct. The defendant attempted to cite the clause, claiming that it would only allow for exceptions in claims of tort (common law) over contract (terms between the parties). The court disagreed, threw out the cases that CIG used to support its claim, and summarily denied their motion to dismiss.

4. Copyright Infringement, or, Squadron 42

Squadron 42 has been a big source of contention between Crytek and CIG and could make or break certain parts of this lawsuit. Just to go over the facts again, Crytek’s contract for the CryEngine allowed CIG/RSI to create one game, Star Citizen, with Squadron 42 being just a feature of the main game. The contract expressly does not allow CIG to use the CryEngine to separately market or sell a second game, which they proceeded to do by marketing Squadron 42 as a standalone title.

In their defense, CIG noted that Squadron 42 is being developed with the Amazon Lumberyard engine and thus did not breach the terms of the license. In their lawsuit, Crytek states that the announcement that CIG would be using the Lumberyard engine came in December 2016, while the announcement that Squadron 42 would be its own standalone game came a year prior. Presumably this would imply that Squadron 42 was in development, with the plans to sell it as a standalone product, using CryEngine at some point, thus being a breach of contract.

This allegation will need to be settled in court with discovery to figure out when Squadron 42 was split off into a standalone game and when CIG stopped development on said title using the CryEngine, so the court has denied this motion to dismiss.

5. Prayer for Relief, or, Show Me the Money

This may be a short section.

We already discussed in this piece that CIG’s use of section 6.1.4 to preclude recovery has been denied. In addition, the court ruled that Crytek had sufficiently plead facts that support entitlement to injunctive relief, alleging that defendants released videos containing confidential CryEngine information as well as entering into a partnership with a third party studio and giving them access to confidential Crytek technology in violation of their license. As a result, the court has denied CIG’s motion to dismiss Crytek’s claim for injunctive relief.

In regards to statutory damages and attorney’s fees, defendants argued that the Copyright Act does not allow recover of damages and attorney’s fees because Crytek registered its copyrights after the infringements took place. The court agreed with this interpretation, however the game license states that the prevailing party will be entitled to recover attorney’s fees in the case of litigation. The court notes that Crytek is unlikely to recover any statutory damages, that they are not willing to make a decision at the pleading stage of the lawsuit and has thus denied this motion.

As to Crytek’s demands for punitive damages, the court ruled that California law does not permit punitive damages in cases of a breach of contract, nor does the Copyright Act. As such, the motion to dismiss Crytek’s claim for punitive damages has been granted.

And finally, the court ruled on Crytek’s claims regarding potential conflicts of interest regarding the parties involved in the contract negotiations. While the defendants argued that the claims were not necessary or important to Crytek’s lawsuit, the court disagreed, concluding that the relationship between the parties and their executives may prove relevant, and that the allegations were not derogatory in nature. As such, this motion to dismiss was denied.

6. Conclusion, or, Fire Up That Injunction

Of the six motions to dismiss, the court has granted one in full and one in part. Crytek has been granted a leave to file an amended complaint addressing some of the deficiencies within 21 days, to which the defendants will have 21 days to file a response. After that, we’re going to trial.

(Source: Court Docket)

Jagex Hires Industry Talents In Executive Positions


Jagex today announced the hiring of two industry names into executive positions, bringing on board Nick Beliaeff and Rob Cordero as Senior Vice President of Game Development and Vice President of Technology respectively.

“Jagex continues to introduce senior talent to support our growth plans and our vision to become the home of living games. Both Nick and Rob were attracted to Jagex by that vision and the scale of our ambition. Nick is recognised as a veteran games development leader and brings expertise in MMO games and PC, console and mobile production. Rob is a passionate technical leader, with a great track record in building and delivering vast online technical infrastructures and platforms in online gaming. Together, their experience reflects a similar scope to Jagex’s ambitions of a broader portfolio of living games.”

Beliaeff has 30 years of experience in the industry and has previously worked at Trion Worlds and Sony Online Entertainment, while Cordero has previously worked at companies such as ZeniMax and NCSoft.

(Source: Jagex Press Release)