Derek Smart: There Will Be A Lawsuit


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If Cloud Imperium Games thought that booting Derek Smart out as a customer would be the end of the story, they were sorely mistaken. Smart has been heading a crusade against Star Citizen over claims that the game, as it is currently being promised, can never be made. The two parties have been going back and forth since then, but in a recent post on his website, Derek Smart stated that there will be a lawsuit, regardless of who initiates it.

Until a lawsuit (class action or otherwise) is filed, there is currently no lawsuit. That’s a fact. It has nothing to do with whether or not there will be one. I can tell you flat out, that there will be, regardless of who (us, Feds, State) initiates it.

In regards to CIG locking down the forums to backers only, Smart denies that the move has anything to do with him and voices his support for the decision, citing the need to remove trolls and prevent unwanted users from simply creating new accounts to stir up trouble.

(Source: Derek Smart)

ArcheAge 2.0 Rolled Back After Major Server Issues


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If you’ve been out of the loop as I have for the past couple of days, you may have missed the launch of ArcheAge 2.0. Thankfully, you didn’t miss much, as an issue with the Glyph authentication system resulted in over 90% of players being denied access to the game.

As many of you are aware, earlier today we attempted to launch Update 2.0, Heroes Awaken, to ArcheAge. While the lands of Erenor were ready for you, our Glyph authentication systems unfortunately encountered an error that did not allow a large number of people to connect and join the launch. After reviewing our logs, only 10% of players who attempted to log in made it into the game. Over 90% of you were unable to join the launch of Update 2.0.

Trion Worlds assures players that the issue is unrelated to the 2.0 update and server merger. To give the technicians more time to analyze and come up with a fix for the issue, the servers were rolled back to their prior state before the update, with any marketplace purchases and APEX purchases being refunded. Update 2.0 is scheduled to launch today, Sunday, in waves beginning with the European players.

Additionally, we will be splitting the launch of Heroes Awaken by region and by server type. We are targeting to open our European servers 1:00 PM GMT (3:00 PM CEST) on September 13, followed by our North American servers opening at 1:00 PM PDT (4 PM EDT) on September 13. Our Legacy servers will be opened first, our Evolution servers will open second, and our Fresh Start servers will open last. There will be a half-hour delay between each server type opening.

(Source: ArcheAge)

APB Reloaded Compensating For Downtime


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If you hadn’t noticed, DDOS attacks have become common enough that nowadays they’re just a regular thing that happens every so often. Pick any major game service, be it Xbox Live, PSN, RuneScape, World of Warcraft, etc, and odds are it has experienced service disruption in recent months due to these attacks.

In the case of APB Reloaded, Reloaded Productions has thanked its community for bearing with them over the course of recent attacks. As compensation, any player who has logged in between June 26th and today (September 10th) will receive two free inventory expansion selectors.

Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen DDOS attacks on the rise again for APB as well as other games.  While we’re working with our Mitigation provider to combat these new types of attacks, we know that it’s an unpleasant experience for our players.  As a small token of appreciation, we’ve delivered 2 codes for Inventory Expansion Selectors, this is for all players that have logged into a district from June 26th to today, and is good until September 22, 2015.

(Source: APB Reloaded)

Asheron’s Call Still Offline, No Remedy In Sight


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Asheron’s Call went offline two weeks ago for extended maintenance, and it still hasn’t woken up. In a post on the official forums, Turbine staff have been giving daily updates on how things are progressing, but so far the company has no idea how much longer the maintenance will take.

We’ve identified additional engineering work that will be required in order for us to reopen the worlds to you, and are currently working through the best way to get that work done. At this time we do not have an ETA on when the worlds will reopen, but we expect to have more information for you within the next couple of days. We apologize for the delay, and know that we are working to get the worlds reopened to you as soon as possible.

(Source: Asheron’s Call)

RuneScape Shop Now Accepting Bonds


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Jagex Ltd, makers of the MMO RuneScape have announced a brand new way to use bonds, tokens that can be purchased and traded on the in-game market. Starting today, it is now possible to purchase goods in the Jagex merchandise store with bonds, for a limited time. In a press release sent out today, players can redeem six RuneScape bonds (approximate value $30) for a voucher that is good for any t-shirt from the merchandise store.

The codes are only available for a limited time and in limited quantities, so all interested parties are encouraged to step up now. RuneScape bonds can be purchased for $6 and traded on the in-game market or redeemed for treasure hunter keys, membership, and Rune Coins. Its purpose is to simultaneously allow players to buy gold with real money without the risks of third party black market sellers, and to allow players to effectively pay their way through RuneScape without actually paying real money.

(Source: RuneScape press release)

Perfect World Drops Neverwinter Expansions Onto Xbox One


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Xbox One players have officially closed the gap in content with the latest addition to Neverwinter on the new generation console. Today marks the launch of four expansions, including the latest module Elemental Evil, bringing the total number of expansions to six. Players will enjoy an increased level cap, the Oathbound Paladin class, new adventure zones, as well as four end-game campaigns, and more.

Executive producer Rob Overmeyer praised the update for the amount of free content added to the game.

“With six expansions’ worth of free content released since launch, our team continues to support Neverwinter and its players with all new locations along and outside of the Sword Coast filled with challenging dungeons to crawl and wicked monsters to battle. We’re excited to continue our support with the Strongholds expansion in 2015.”

(Source: Perfect World press release)

Wildstar Free To Play Won’t Be Reflected In Next Report


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The latest news to come out of Carbine Studios is that Wildstar will officially launch as free to play on September 29th. With the third quarter financial reports expected to release at some point in mid-November, now is a good time to point out that Wildstar will very likely show a continued dip in sales. The reason for this is that, while quarterly finance reports aren’t released until November, the period that the third quarter covers falls between July and September.

What does this mean for you? Not a whole lot. For NCSoft and Wildstar, it means that any revenue increases that come after the free to play transition won’t be reflected until the fourth quarter finances are released in February 2016. A small but important distinction to make when NCSoft releases their report later this year.

More coverage to come as events transpire.

Pathfinder Online Has Three Employees Left


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Pathfinder Online, currently in early enrollment, has three employees left. In an announcement on the official website yesterday, Acting CEO Lisa Stevens revealed that the majority of the Goblinworks team has been laid off due to a lack of funds. The company is currently seeking outside investments in order to ensure that the game can make it to open enrollment, however right now the three employees and servers are being supported by the community.

Due to the commitment that you have made to the game, your current subscriptions are able to keep the core team employed and the servers live.  We will continue to move the game forward with that team and keep the servers live as long as the continued financial support from the community is there.

The bad news accompanies even further bad news, that CEO Ryan Dancey has resigned his position due to personal reasons. Given Dancey voicing his disapproval of the community’s outreach efforts earlier this year, the news that Pathfinder is facing financial difficulty may not be all too surprising.

According to the news post, Pathfinder presently has enough funding to keep the servers up through September. Anything after that is wholly dependent on subscribers.

(Source: Pathfinder Online)

Hi-Rez Announces Support Returning For Tribes


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It’s been more than two years since Hi-Rez Studios announced that development would cease on Tribes Ascend, owing to the fact that the game just about broke even in terms of revenue versus cost to develop. While much of the community has long since given up hope of Hi-Rez ever returning to the game, given the ongoing success of Smite, the recently announced Paladins shooter, CEO Erez Goren announced via Twitter that the company now has the resources to go back to their old games.

With the success of Smite and Paladins, we have more resources than ever in the Studio. We can now afford to go back and improve older game.

Right now we only have confirmation of a new map and small updates, but a further Tweet also indicates “continuing support.”

Tribes will be getting a new map and some other small changes as well as continuing support. PTS in about two weeks if all goes well.

Tribes players will no doubt be happy to hear of the game’s revival.

(Source: Twitter)

Guild Wars 2 Is Now Free To Play


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With Heart of Thorns right around the corner, Arenanet has announced a major change in the Guild Wars 2 business model. Starting yesterday (the 29th), anyone can now access the core game for no down payment. In the announcement, Arenanet discusses the move being partially in response to other games where the heavy list of expansions made getting into the game as a new player confusing.

We’ve seen examples in the industry where that kind of thing has gotten out of control. It doesn’t seem right, and we want to do better. As we get ready to ship our first expansion forGuild Wars 2, we want to ensure that we keep the business model friendly and simple. So let’s be clear that when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.

What does “access the core game” mean? Well in this context, free players are limited in character and bag slots, cannot use map chat, and can only buy/sell common goods on the market. They also cannot mail items/gold, trade gold for gems, or access guild vaults. Free accounts are also limited from leaving the starting zone until level 10, from using the LFG tool until 30, and to level 60 until they can compete in world v world, to prevent players from disrupting the game.

Arenanet also promises that this change will not usher in heavy microtransaction marketing.

(Source: Guild Wars 2)