Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Marvel Heroes and is one cool looking poster. Marvel Heroes 2015 is meant to showcase how far the game has come in the last year.
Do justice for MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Perfect World Entertainment Posts Strong Growth
Perfect World Entertainment has posted their most recent quarterly income, showing a strong growth in the first quarter of 2014 despite lowered promotional activity. Revenue for the international publisher amounted to $124 million, down 2.5% from the previous quarter but going along overall with a 44% annual growth. The mobile sector of Perfect World Entertainment grew from 10% of overall revenue to 15% last quarter, thanks in part to the 3D mobile RPG Fantasy of the Immortals.
The publisher is set to increase revenues thanks to their deal to publish Dota 2 and Neverwinter in China, both of which are expected to launch this year. Neverwinter is also expanding several titles in its library to more territories, including the Portuguese version of Neverwinter which launched in Brazil earlier this year. Revenue for the second quarter is expected to rise around five percent, thanks to upcoming launches in China.
(Source: PWE income report)
Perpetuum Online Sees Growth
With Perpetuum Online now operating as a buy to play title, and the folks at Avatar Creations have posted a status report detailing just how things are getting along. Thanks to an upswing in users, five times the average player count, Perpetuum is receiving the capital investment that it so deserves. For starters, the server cluster is being upgraded and moved to a more suitable location: Amsterdam (your drug jokes here). Gamma islands are still closed down in preparation for a relaunch, along with multiple quality of life changes to the game’s UI and features.
I don’t have the freedom to tell you actual financial data, but it should be enough to say that after months (years?) of worrying about what to put on your plate tomorrow, it’s a liberating feeling to have that off of the list of things to worry about, and being able to just focus on making the game better.
Also in the works is the ability to buy and sell ingame items for Steam wallet funds. There is also a major rewrite of the engine in the works which should allow for higher resolution textures and a brand new interface. Check out the entire announcement below.
(Source: Perpetuum Online)
Wildstar Early Access Hammered By DDOS
With players piling into Wildstar’s servers for early access, what more could a developer possibly ask for? A denial of service attack, apparently. Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney posted on the game’s Reddit to confirm that the servers were under attack and that it was being handled. Since then the servers have come back to normal.
I’ve heard from a few folks it’s a confirmed DDOS attack (real time updates, may change, fog of war, etc.). Partially handled. Servers taking in some players now, player counts rising. Ninjitsu continue.
Never underestimate the potential of anonymous basement dwellers with botnets.
(Source: Reddit)
Marvel Heroes 2015 Coming June 4th
Gazillion Entertainment has announced Marvel Heroes 2015, a culmination of a year’s worth of updates to the superhero MMO, set for launch on June 4th. Intended to highlight on how far the title has come since its launch, June’s updates also include new end-game raid content as well as alternate advancement, and a final showoff against the fire demon Surtur.
“We’ve come a very long way since our original launch a year ago, and the now imminent release of Marvel Heroes 2015 alongside our massive anniversary celebrations marks the beginning of something even better.”
-David Brevik
For more details, check out the trailer below.
(Source: Gazillion Entertainment press release)
Classic Servers: Another Developer “Gets It.”
Private servers are a very stingy subject in the gaming press. Many developers don’t like to acknowledge them and, honestly, there is at least one of my contacts who will never return my emails after this article just for the act of referencing their existence. MMO Fallout does not condone private servers, nor do we allow them to be advertised in our comments section. I like to think that private servers can be an important tool for developers to gauge their audience’s expectations, however. Private servers that exist simply to cheat, to bypass a subscription, or gain accelerated experience/items will always exist, and those don’t offer much of a lesson outside of that some gamers are unwilling to invest the time or money.
As more developers are realizing, however, there is a great opportunity in classic servers. Jagex has not only maintained the original RuneScape Classic, but launched a version of 2007 RuneScape that remains updated thanks solely to the majority vote of its community. Sony Online Entertainment has, for a long time now, dabbled in classic and progression servers for Everquest. Ragnarok Online launched a classic server back in 2012, and NCSoft recently announced a classic server for Lineage II, at least the Korean version.
There are a million legitimate reasons why a developer wouldn’t want to create their own classic servers. A classic server would need some form of monetization, where a cash shop would risk driving away the target audience and a subscription would put the server in competition with those same private servers that operate for free. The developer could, however, capitalize on this very issue. A dedicated developer could offer stability and quality where many classic servers are at risk of shutting down at moment’s notice, operate on inferior server infrastructure, and are partially hand-built by the operator due to the inaccessible nature of certain MMO mechanics (server side operations).
Other developers refuse to create a classic server on the grounds that doing so would compromise their “artistic vision,” a belief that MMOs change with time and that introducing a classic server would be counter to that vision, or an admission that they made the wrong choice somewhere down the line. Further developers cite an unwillingness to risk splitting the community in half.
Happily, it appears that more developers are recognizing the potential for classic servers or those with alternate rulesets.
Classic Servers: Another Developer "Gets It."
Private servers are a very stingy subject in the gaming press. Many developers don’t like to acknowledge them and, honestly, there is at least one of my contacts who will never return my emails after this article just for the act of referencing their existence. MMO Fallout does not condone private servers, nor do we allow them to be advertised in our comments section. I like to think that private servers can be an important tool for developers to gauge their audience’s expectations, however. Private servers that exist simply to cheat, to bypass a subscription, or gain accelerated experience/items will always exist, and those don’t offer much of a lesson outside of that some gamers are unwilling to invest the time or money.
As more developers are realizing, however, there is a great opportunity in classic servers. Jagex has not only maintained the original RuneScape Classic, but launched a version of 2007 RuneScape that remains updated thanks solely to the majority vote of its community. Sony Online Entertainment has, for a long time now, dabbled in classic and progression servers for Everquest. Ragnarok Online launched a classic server back in 2012, and NCSoft recently announced a classic server for Lineage II, at least the Korean version.
There are a million legitimate reasons why a developer wouldn’t want to create their own classic servers. A classic server would need some form of monetization, where a cash shop would risk driving away the target audience and a subscription would put the server in competition with those same private servers that operate for free. The developer could, however, capitalize on this very issue. A dedicated developer could offer stability and quality where many classic servers are at risk of shutting down at moment’s notice, operate on inferior server infrastructure, and are partially hand-built by the operator due to the inaccessible nature of certain MMO mechanics (server side operations).
Other developers refuse to create a classic server on the grounds that doing so would compromise their “artistic vision,” a belief that MMOs change with time and that introducing a classic server would be counter to that vision, or an admission that they made the wrong choice somewhere down the line. Further developers cite an unwillingness to risk splitting the community in half.
Happily, it appears that more developers are recognizing the potential for classic servers or those with alternate rulesets.
Mythic Entertainment Closes Its Doors
Electronic Arts has announced that Dark Age of Camelot developer Mythic Entertainment has been closed down. Mythic Entertainment are the creators behind Dark Age of Camelot and were acquired by EA Games back in 2006. Mythic Entertainment’s luck ran out when Warhammer Online launched to overwhelmingly negative reception. While Warhammer Online would not shut down until 2013, Mythic made an attempt at a MOBA game based on the Warhammer fantasy lore. The Warhammer MOBA was cancelled mid-beta due to similarly poor reception.
Mythic also released Ultima Forever and Dungeon Keeper, mobile free to play titles based off of classic properties. Ultima Forever has fallen off of the rankings and Dungeon Keeper is ranked 260 in strategy games on the iPhone. Development of Dungeon Keeper will transition to a new team.
“We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair.”
Broadsword Online has been in charge of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot for the past few months already, and service will be uninterrupted.
(Source: Gamasutra)
Lineage II Classic Server Coming
NCSoft is set to launch a classic server for Lineage II in Korea. The version includes legacy systems including the old inventory, pre-revamp locales, old crafting recipes, clan system, party system, xp loss, and more. All in all, it looks like the classic server will be somewhere in between the first versions of Lineage II. The beta servers are officially live on the Korean service, however NCSoft has not announced anything about the service coming to North America or Europe.
(Source: MMOcast)
Jagex Steps Back On Multi-Logging Rule
Jagex has altered their rules on multi-logging, or multiboxing as it is often known in other MMOs. Previously players have been restricted from logging into more than one account at the same time, as well as from transferring money or items between accounts. In a new announcement, Jagex has revealed that players are now allowed to log into multiple accounts over all versions of RuneScape, as well as trade wealth between them, providing that the items were not acquired via rule-breaking methods.
You are free to create as many accounts as you like and you are welcome to trade between your accounts just as you would with any other legitimate player. However, if any of your accounts obtained wealth by rule breaking activity for example macro use (botting) or real world trading (buying gold or items from 3rd parties) then all your accounts will be banned. Similarly, multi-logged accounts must not interact with each other to exploit gameplay mechanics, such as attempting to rig the result of a minigame.
Selling or sharing accounts is still against the rules.
(Source: RuneScape)
