Today’s MMOrning Shot comes from Trove and shows off just the kind of crazy things that players will build given the tools. Let’s ride a bicycle made of dreams into friendship.
Check out MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Final Fantasy XIV 16-Bit Boss Battle
What would Final Fantasy XIV look like if Square Enix never left 16-bit? Square Enix knows, and wants to show us in the following video which shows a team of warriors battling Titan, one of the bosses in FFXIV. Can the internet bring us a 16 bit demake of Final Fantasy XIV? I can always hope so.
Mail.ru Punishes 57,955 Accounts
Mail.ru has announced that nearly fifty eight thousand accounts have been punished for destructive behavior on ArcheAge Russia, for activity including spamming and using bot programs. In addition, the publisher noted that two thousand accounts had been banned for taking advantage of exploits, with the players in the first category receiving chat blocks.
Among the list of exploits that were patched and banned include “counterfeiting of information transmitted from the client to the server,” packet spoofing to obtain items that players should not have access to, exploiting a bug to increase the maximum amount of potions one can carry, killing bosses via packet spoofing, and more. Mail.ru asks players to submit any bugs or exploits that they find.
(Source: ArcheAge)
Darkfall Welcomes Players Back For March Update
Aventurine recently launched its March update, bringing with it weather effects, masks, clan markets, and more. To give players more of an incentive to join back up, Aventurine has invited beta players for two weeks of free game time. Eligible gamers should have already received an email by the time this article is published, so make sure you check your inbox/spam folder. To take part in the beta, simply send an email or support ticket with your username and “Returning Beta Player” in the subject line. We managed to have our account enabled around fifteen minutes after sending in the ticket.
The two week offer expires April 4th. Current subscribers can sign up for a six month package at 45% off.
MMOrning Shots: Nothing But Net
Today’s MMOrning Shot comes from DC Universe Online’s tenth DLC package. Amazon Fury part 1 involves stories revolving around everyone’s favorite female characters of the DC Universe, including Wonder Woman and the Amazons. Two day shipping not included.
Check out MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
City of Titans Moves to Unreal 4 Engine
Missing Worlds Media has announced via Kickstarter update that City of Titans is in the process of being transitioned to the Unreal 4 engine. What does this mean? Well development has been put back a little bit, but according to the announcement it will be worth it for an even better game.
The new engine will give us advanced rendering features, physics and visual effects. Physically-based shading will give us more control over the look and feel of characters and objects in your new world. We’ll be able to create wide ranges of surfaces, layer materials, and fine-tune values to make Titan City look more incredible and realistic than we originally planned. An added bonus is our NPCs will be smarter and look better than ever!
Unreal 4 was released at this year’s Game Developer Conference where Epic founder Tim Sweeney revealed that developers could get their hands on the source code for a simple $20 monthly subscription plus 5% of revenue on commercial games.
(Source: Kickstarter)
Webzen/gPotato Unifies Services
Webzen has announced the unification of its three game portals, bringing together its own games under a single portal with gPotato and gPotato EU. Players will have easy access to all of Webzen and gPotato’s library of games, including the upcoming launch of Archlord II.
“A total of over 40 million players, from 150 countries, will be able to play and enjoy their favourite games together. This is what online games are all about – fostering online friendship.”
Webzen acquired gPotato as well as its parent company, Gala-Net, for a small sum last month.
(Source: Webzen Press Release)
Naoki Yoshida Not Against Free To Play
One of the memes floating around the internet in regards to Final Fantasy XIV is that the company would rather shut the game down before ever considering a switch to free to play. As Naoki Yoshida confirmed in a recent interview with Dengeki Online, this isn’t so much the case:
As far as the monthly billing goes, people are becoming more pragmatic and they’re only willing to pay for the things that they want to use. What that means to monthly billing is that there are players who would rather pay based on the amount of time they play in a particular month, after they’ve played. There used to be no debate about this, since monthly billing was the only standard for MMORPGs, but now F2P is a consideration. We see this desire for players who would rather buy items especially in North America.
Yoshida goes on to say that free to play isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and can be a beneficial move when done so based on the needs of the users rather than trying to turn around an unprofitable game. Check out the entire interview below, it dives into free to play, upcoming updates, expansion into new regions, and more. Is Final Fantasy XIV going free to play? Not with six figures of active players it isn’t.
(Source: Translated Interview)
CCP Posts 2013 Financial Results
CCP has posted their 2013 financial results and the results are interesting, if not confusing. While the company posted an annual revenue of $76.7 million USD, net loss amounted to $21.3 million during the same period. 2013 saw multiple milestones reached, including the launch of PS3 shooter DUST 514 as well as Eve Online’s 10th anniversary and surpassing five hundred thousand subscribers. DUST 514 brought in a fair amount of revenue, although nowhere near Eve Online’s sales.
As for the net loss, our friend The Ancient Gaming Noob took some time to explain how it is due to assets being derecognized as a part of 2013’s restructuring.
Basically, the wrote some software that they felt added value to the company and called it an asset at some point, adding to the total value of the company. Now they have decided that the software in question does not have value, so they have to take it off the books. To the shareholders, the company effectively “lost” that much in its overall valuation, but no actual cash money disappeared or changed hands.
As for what those assets were, CCP isn’t saying. CCP also announced a partnership with Sony to bring their dogfighting game Valkyrie to the Playstation 4. You can check out the entire financial report at the link below.
(Source: CCP finances)
MMOrning Shots: Show Me The Corridor
Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from 3000AD and their upcoming MMOFPS, Line of Defense. To the best of my knowledge, Line of Defense is still on target for launch later this year. Until then, why not enjoy the crisp taste of Mountain Dew Baja Blast? Coming soon to a store near you.
Check out a new MMOrning Shot every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Mostly.
MMO Fallout 