With The Maze Engine on the horizon, Perfect World Entertainment will be holding an Ask Me Anything event on Reddit. Users are already asking questions and the answering session is supposed to begin at approximately 7:30pm Pacific, or about 45 minutes after this post gets published. You can join in and ask your own questions, all you need is a Reddit account and an inquisitive mind.
MMO Fallout will be publishing the more interesting questions tomorrow.
(Source: Reddit)
Perfect World Entertainment has announced The Maze Engine, the next big update for Neverwinter, will be hitting home computers this Spring with Xbox to follow. The Maze Engine is set to introduce a number of much anticipated updates, including the long awaited return of dungeons. Four fan favorites are set to return with new graphics, a new design, with Castle Never returning as a high level dungeon.
Also available for level 60 players is a new single player campaign set after the events of Underdark.
Neverwinter: The Maze Engine continues the story of demons escaping from the Abyss that was started in Neverwinter: Underdark. I don’t want to give anything away just yet, so be sure to look for an upcoming blog where we’ll go over the story-thus-far, and give you a peak into what you can look forward to as overwhelming madness permeates the… /sigh right… no spoiling. I’ll just say for now that a lot of your favorite characters are making return appearances and ready for adventure!
The announcement details upcoming blogs covering a new mount system, queue improvements, famous faces, and more.
(Source: Neverwinter)
Funcom’s final quarterly report of 2015 has released, and the results are not so pretty. Revenues dropped to $2.5 million from $2.9 million over the same period last year, due to Funcom’s major sources of revenue (their MMOs) declining with age. In addition to a loss in equity and earnings, the total cash position of Funcom dropped from $1.1 million in the third quarter to 616 thousand in the fourth. The company’s cash flow for 2016 and beyond is set to be secured via sale of stocks as well as a convertible bond.
On the games front, Funcom’s primary revenue drivers continue to be Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and The Secret World. The Park met all non-revenue related goals while selling in line with internal expectations. For those who have forgotten, in a previous financial report Funcom did not expect The Park to generate any significant source of revenue. For the first quarter, Funcom expects to launch The Park on Xbox One and Playstation 4, increasing revenues as well as expanding the company into the console market.
And while Funcom’s revenue did increase over the third quarter, this kind of result is to be expected. I’ve brought this up in previous articles but fourth quarter earnings being higher than third quarter are normal, due to the holidays and in this case a new game release. The fourth quarter is normally followed by a drop in sales in the first, which means that any growth is out of the ordinary and therefore better than expected.
As mentioned in previous releases, Funcom’s strategy going forward is to work on small budget, experimental projects working existing IPs into new technologies and platforms. The fruits of this labor will hopefully bear, at minimum, one small game per year and one larger title in development at all times. The Park is the first small game to be released under this plan with Conan: Exiles the first large title.
(Source: Funcom)
Wildstar’s next content release has been confirmed as Destination Arcterra. In this release, players will be tasked with heading off to one of planet Nexus’ more mysterious locations. The zone offers dynamic content, such as powerful bosses that only appear once their lesser counterparts are defeated. Both factions will also fight it out for exclusive access to a secret dungeon. For the story mode adventurers, Vault of the Archon continues the Nexus Saga, playable solo or as a group.
Keep your eyes open for further updates on even more exciting things happening during Destination Arcterra and beyond—including information about everyone’s favorite Lopp fortune teller, tidbits about undead zombie pirates, and protips about how to make your most awesome gear even awesomer. Stay tuned!
You can check out the full release announcement, as well as check out more screenshots, at the link below.
(Source: Wildstar)
Backers of the Ant Simulator crowdfunding campaign have every right to be furious today, as we learned that the game has been cancelled due to a lack of funds. While it isn’t uncommon for such games to run out of funding during development, the outward explanation and reason for why the developer has no money is probably the first of its kind, and you might want to take down the names just in case they pop up in future business ventures.
The explanation comes from founder Eric Tereshinski, who resigned from the company over the alleged antics of his coworkers. Tereshinski alleges in his video that his ex-business partners secretly stole funds from the company and used that money on booze, restaurants, and strippers. The names of the two gentlemen are Tyler Monce and Devon Staley. Tereshinski has resigned from the company and will no longer be working on Ant Simulator, due to contractual restrictions preventing him from working on the game or anything like it outside of the company. According to Tereshinski, his business partners have threatened to sue him if he works on Ant Simulator elsewhere.
While Tereshinski cannot sue due to contract agreements, there is a possibility of charges being brought by the Federal Trade Commission, should backers submit complaints. The FTC as well as state Attorney Generals have begun prosecuting crowdfunding campaigns over misappropriated funds.
(Source: Softpedia)
In the Behind the Scenes for February, Jagex officially unveiled a new stat tracking service coming to RuneScape this month. Named RuneMetrics, the service is advertised to log a wide variety of player actions, giving in-depth details on how efficiently the player is training, what they are collection, and how much damage they are dealing out. While many of the tracking features will be free, some parts of RuneMetrics will be held behind a paywall, at the cost of a bond per month. Premiere Club members receive a 50% discount.
There’s advanced XP tracking including an ETA to your next level up. There is also an amazing drop log that tracks everything you’ve gained through combat, as well as damage calculators giving you your total damage EVER and your average damage per minute, and plenty more on top!
Also set to release this month is a new quest, a mini-game involving Sliske, a double experience weekend, further additions to Invention, and a seasonal event for the Chinese new year.
(Source: RuneScape)
Marvel Heroes 2016 is here, and the long awaited controller support has come along with it. The 2016 update brings with it the secret invasion story line, with ten new regions, twelve new bosses, and a new patrol zone. The update also introduces Black Cat as the latest playable character, an Agent Venom team-up, and a revamped Deadpool. Captain America, Black Widow, and Jean Grey round out the first group of older heroes who will be receiving a facelift in order to bring them in line with the graphical fidelity of more recent heroes.
Check out Marvel Heroes on Steam, with its new achievements.
(Source: Marvel Heroes)
Trion Worlds has announced that upcoming updates to Trove will increase focus on the cash shop and reduce the ability to obtain certain things through gameplay. The announcement focuses on three aspects of Trove life: Cubits, classes, and patron. For starters, users will obtain cubits at a slower initial pace, with prices on the store going up and repeatable items heading into the store at some point. In addition, it will no longer be possible to buy classes with cubits.
Patron is Trove’s subscription program. To better advertise the feature going forward, players will begin seeing more promotions on the HUD and in the store,
We want to align the business of Trove with the game of Trove as much as possible. Some of you guys here on the forums even called us out this month on how our focus seemed to be trending towards the Chaos Chest rewards and not gameplay focused rewards. That’s a case where the balance has been getting away from us, and we want to make sure we are doing the most we can to both support Trove as a game and a business in a way that is aligned, not at odds.
The post also mentions requiring patron in order to access certain features. What those features are is unknown, Trion does not go into further detail. Later on in the same thread, it is revealed that those details have not been finalized.
Right now we’re looking for the right balance, once we have a final plan for exactly what Patron will unlock I’ll be sure to post it. While we work on that I wanted to get you guys advanced word that it was something we are planning.
(Source: Trove)
Divergence Online is no longer available for purchase from Steam, with developer Ethan Casner pointing to harassment from Steam users as well as displeasure with how Valve is handling said reviews/comments. Casner points specifically to user reviews using offensive slurs, as well as attempts to dox the developer through the review/comment system. While the comments had been reported to Valve for further evaluation, only for the user to be banned and then reinstated with Casner put on the defensive over allegations of stolen assets.
The post on Facebook reveals that the game is not in any jeopardy and will simply be off of Steam for the time being.
So i’m sorry, truly I am, but the $100/week we make on steam just isn’t worth the constant abuse that we feel we’re almost single-handedly responsible for dealing with. We make ten times that on our old paypal store and don’t have to suffer constant abuse to get it, so if it isn’t to make the game distribution process more simple and less of a headache, I’m really not sure what we’re even paying Steam for.
Divergence Online has been the target of heavy criticism, including allegations that assets in the game are stolen from Star Wars Galaxies.
(Source: Facebook)
Valve has issued a warning to server owners in Counter Strike: Global Offensive that modifications that falsify player inventories are not allowed and must be removed before “further action is taken.” Since Valve’s games are heavily modifiable, players in the community quickly figured out methods to alter servers in order to provide players with weapon skins, items, and other goodies normally only accessible through random drops, lockboxes, and through the paid campaign modes.
The blog post warns that further action will be taken to servers that do not comply with these rules.
We will continue to monitor the players experience on community servers, and may reevaluate if further actions need to be taken to ensure that server operators comply with the request above.
A few servers are already reporting bans via their Game Server Login Token with lengths of two decades. For the unaware, Counter Strike requires game servers to register a GSLT via a persistent account in order to accept players that aren’t on the same network. A new Steam account with a new qualifying phone number is required to open a new GSLT account.
(Source: Counter Strike: GO)
MMO Fallout 
