MMO Fallout

Jagged Alliance Online Coming To Steam

Cliffhanger Productions has some good news. The latest update from the Shadowrun Online Kickstarter deals with introducing armor and what effect it will have on players in the upcoming MMO when it comes out (hopefully) later this year. On the other hand, the folks had some good news about Jagged Alliance Online, which not so long ago launched its 2.0 version: It is coming to Steam.

We are bringing our current released game Jagged Alliance Online to Steam and we have been getting in more artists and QA to help us work on SRO.

Jagged Alliance Online can currently be played via web browser through Gamigo’s game services.

(Source: Kickstarter)

MMOrning Shots: Dragon’s Prophet

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes from Sony Online Entertainment and Runewaker, for the upcoming MMO Dragon’s Prophet. Players can capture, train, and ride their own dragons, and if this screenshot has anything to say, there are also towns and large pointless steering wheels? Imagine if that thing broke and fell off, you’d have a few dozen people dead! Dragon’s Prophet needs and equivalent of OSHA.

MMOrning Shots is a (somewhat) daily line of screenshots from various MMOs. Most are taken in-house or come to us in press releases, but if you would like your screenshot featured, send it over to contact[at]mmofallout[dot]com with the subject “MMorning Shots.”

MMOrning Shots: Dragon's Prophet

Greed Monger Is Back On UNITY

Greed Monger is the upcoming sandbox MMO being created by Electric Crow Games and the subject of a very successful Kickstarter project just a few months ago. Originally set on the UNITY engine, at some point the folks at Electric Crow Games decided to switch over to the HERO engine, which many of you will recognize as the same engine used in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Well that didn’t last long, as the Easter announcement confirms that Greed Monger has indeed changed back to UNITY.

We had some issues that caused us to step away from Unity and head into the world of the Hero Engine. It was a major decision considering all that we had done already and without being 100% certain how much of our already existing assets could be migrated into Hero. Well, the truth is, we switched back to Unity not long after we switched to Hero. Aside from the issues of the revenue model, no cross-platform support and other things the player base has been expecting, the engine just wasn’t a fit for us.

You can follow the link below to see the full explanation as to why Greed Monger was moved to HERO and subsequently moved back.

(Source: Greed Monger)

Darkfall Unholy Wars Launches April 16th

Darkfall is launching April 16th. Is the game ready for launch after five months of delays? That is not for me to say at the moment, considering the game is still under a nondisclosure agreement. Aventurine has announced today that they are going ahead and gearing up for launch in mid-April, bringing the relaunch of Darkfall to gamers homes all over the world. Unholy Wars brings with it major changes to the Darkfall we all knew and loved, including a brand new method of leveling, a new UI and improved graphics, as well as changing the way players choose their combat roles.

The Darkfall community who participated in the beta provided the development team with invaluable feedback a lot of which led to additions and changes to the game, and will lead to many more in the near future. We believe the game has benefited greatly through the Beta process, and we are excited about what lies ahead. We know we have a lot of work to do and we will never be satisfied as we strive to make Darkfall Unholy Wars the best PvP MMORPG experience.

You can read the full announcement below. Darkfall Unholy Wars has been available for some time for pre-order, with existing members receiving a discount on the initial purchase price.

(Source: Darkfall)

En Masse Entertainment Bringing Streaming To TERA

Hey, remember when En Masse Entertainment was offering a demo version of TERA on Gaikai? And then remember when Sony purchased Gaikai and shut everything down? We didn’t either, but luckily that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on The Exiled Realm of A Massive Installation just because TERA is about fifty gigabytes. In a press release sent out today, En Masse Entertainment has revealed a partnership with Happy Cloud Incorporated, to bring TERA to players devoid of time and bandwidth. Rather than having to download the 22gb file required to install TERA, players simply boot up the application and let the game download the files it needs as they are needed.

“Improving our user onboarding process for TERA: Rising is a priority for us, and using Happy Cloud’s system is an easy way for us to get more players into TERA’s immersive, 3D world,” said Soo Min Park, COO at En Masse Entertainment. “Taking a graphically rich, fast-paced game such as TERA: Rising, which contains hundreds of hours of gameplay, and delivering the bytes in the order they’re needed is no small task, but we’re confident this will provide an even better experience for our fast growing legion of fans.”

Happy Cloud’s download system is available now through the TERA website once a user registers for an account. As far as MMO Fallout knows, this service only applies to the North American version and there has not (to our knowledge) been any announcement by Gameforge in Europe.

(Source: En Masse Entertainment Press Release)

Disney Shuts Down LucasArts

In a truly disappointing move, Disney has confirmed to Game Informer that the game publishing subsidiary LucasArts has been shut down, accompanied by an expected number of layoffs associated with such a change. Instead, LucasArts will move toward licensing rather than developing games based on the Star Wars franchise.

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

Unfortunately this likely means the cancellation of the upcoming, and extremely beautiful looking, Star Wars 1313. As Game Informer points out, the shuttering wasn’t exactly unexpected, with the absence of both the Force Unleashed and Battlefront series, not to mention the total lack of any serious Indiana Jones games in the past few years outside of LEGO Indiana Jones.

MMO Fallout hopes for fast employment by those affected by the layoffs.

Dungeon Fighter Online Shutting Down In North America

Dungeon Fighter Online launched in 2009 in North America and despite some complaints about issues with gold spam, it was actually a fun game to play. Despite the shortcomings of gold farmers and hackers, DFO was a solid side scrolling hack and slash game, one that probably deserved a much warmer reception than it apparently received. Sadly fortune does not always find us, and Dungeon Fighter Online never caught on with the kind of audience Nexon expected, and the developer has posted a notice on the official website that services will be coming to an end on June 13th. The ramping down will begin on April 11th with the closure of the game’s cash shop.

For more than three years, our teams worked hard in hopes of building a strong community through new content updates, service fixes, and events. We tirelessly battled hackers and farmers. We even had the honor of presenting the game to you at E3 and PAX. However, Dungeon Fighter Online was not able to grow beyond its very special and proud core following. Sadly, Dungeon Fighter Online has not attracted enough player interest to properly service the game. Internally, we struggled deeply with the popularity of DFO in North America as the title is immensely popular overseas. For more than three years, we went through many milestones and several pushes before we came to this very difficult decision.

Information regarding compensation will be coming on April 11th.

We will compensate the purchase of Permanent, Durational and Consumable items purchased within the past six months. The dollar value is correlated with the time of purchase. Please note that this compensation is non-transferable.

(Source: Dungeon Fighter Online)

Greed Monger Threatens MMORPG.com With Lawsuit, Game Unlisted

Greed Monger has been completely unlisted from MMORPG.com following a request from Electric Crow Games. According to Managing Editor Bill Murphy, the MMO news website was contacted with a request to remove negative posts, with legal action against the website threatened if the requests were not made. MMORPG.com’s policy is to completely remove a game’s listing when such a request is made.

Bill Murphy commented:

In case this hasn’t been answered yet, yes. He emailed me directly and asked us to remove the negative posts about the game. He also hinted at taking legal action if we didn’t remove the posts of our users, and we decided we didn’t need a baseless lawsuit.

If you want to blame someone for the removal of the game listing and forums, blame Jason Appleton. But when someone threatens us with legal action, we can either a.) ignore it or b.) react with what we think is appropriate. In Greed Monger’s case, it’s probably just better to igore its existence as a website.

I wish the Greed Monger devs well, but I’m not too thrilled with how they handled the negativity our forum users tossed their way. If they can’t take the criticism and claims of trolls, they’re in for a rude awakening in this industry.

Maybe one day we’ll re-add the game to our list, but that depends on whether or not our users are allowed to post about it without the site being under threat of legal recourse.

This is not the first time a game has been unlisted from MMORPG.com. World War II Online was removed at the request of Cornered Rat Software just recently, and Mourning was famously removed in response to Loud Ant Software abusing MMORPG.com staff.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Total Sum Of My EGO Rewards

Defiance has launched, and if you are considering buying the game you might be interested in the game’s My EGO rewards. By entering in 120 easily obtained codes, you have access to all of the following perks, including boosts to your weapon skills and an increase in inventory slots. These perks work on all versions of Defiance, console players simply need to link their accounts to the Trion accounts that they unlock the codes on.

+6 total inventory slots
Pistol skill +1
Light machine gun +1
Sniper rifle skill +1
Assault rifle skill +1
Shotgun skill +1
Firestorm unlocked
Thundershock unlocked
TMW Hannibal 650R unlocked
Scavenger perk
Basic lockbox
Bonus ark salvage
Title: VBI Recruit
Title: VBI Operative

Players who pre-purchased on Steam will also enjoy several additional bonuses:

7-day exp boost
Outlander Outfit
Steam exclusive sniper rifle
Exclusive titles
+10 inventory slots
ATV Mount
Exclusive vehicle
Free copy of Rift
Discount on DLC season pass

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