MMO Fallout

MMOrning Shots: Bullet Run Retrospective

It’s been a couple of weeks since Bullet Run shut down, so what time better to criticize everything that was done wrong? While it wasn’t a terrible game, Bullet Run is another piece of evidence that you can’t just throw out a free to play shooter and expect it to bring in the same kind of dough as Team Fortress 2 or Call of Duty. It also doesn’t help that the game was heavily accused of having a pay to win system, but for the casual player the game fell short on a big factor: no content.

There is also the factor of the free to play shooter genre, amazingly, being even more saturated than the free to play MMO genre. Most gamers have settled into either a specific game (Planetside 2) or move along with their brand (Call of Duty/Battlefield), so to put out a very basic arcade shooter is inviting a market flop. The market leans even harder against a newcoming shooter when said game launches, again, with a total lack of content but a fully featured cash shop. It’s a bit like a stadium opening up with no bleachers, but with fully stocked (and priced) food stands.

That isn’t to say that Bullet Run would have been a runaway success if it had launched with more content, but additional game modes certainly wouldn’t have hurt in convincing players to stick with it in the long term and throw some cash Sony’s way.

Gamigo Shutting Down Grimlands Development

Gamigo’s upcoming MMO shooter Grimlands has announced that it is setting development. In a news post on the game’s website today, Gamigo has revealed that Grimlands is the unfortunate victim of a shift in company focus, with less priority placed on high-risk and in-house developed projects, and putting more focus on publishing games. The announcement in its entirety:

The intensified focus on publishing and distribution and reduction of high-risk development projects has been pushed further forward. With this in mind the decision has been made not to proceed with the development of the MMORPG, Grimlands. The game still requires substantial additional funds to be brought to completion. Even other games in the “development pipeline” are to be critically assessed anew according to opportunities and risks.

With luck, Grimlands might be picked up by another developer and brought to completion.

Jagex Unveils RuneScape 3

We’ve known about a next generation RuneScape for quite a while now. What we know so far is that RuneScape 3 will be a continuation of RuneScape 2, where the current game will cease to exist and players (and their characters) will be fully transferred to the new system. RuneScape 3 will also bring with it better graphics, powered by HTML5 and a fully orchestrated soundtrack.

We will have more details about RuneScape 3 as Jagex hands them out.

(spoiler alert)

With the recent release of The World Wakes, Jagex released a quest to set up where the future of RuneScape will head. Guthix is dead and his edicts banishing the gods from Gielinor have been destroyed. Followers of all of the gods are making preparations for the return of their deity, and undoubtedly Jagex’s MMO is about to plunge into a planet-shattering war.

Star Trek Online Introducing Romulan Faction

Cryptic Studios has revealed the next free expansion to Star Trek Online: Legacy of Romulus. Players take control of one of the last remaining Romulans following the destruction of Romulus and Remus. The Tal Shiar are cracking down on dissent and it is up to you to rally a revolt against an oppressive regime. The expansion comes with a brand new storyline tailored specifically for the Romulan faction, giving control over the Romulan Warbird. The expansion releases May 21st, and will be available for free for all players with monetization. There are also changes coming to the game’s interface and trait system.

(Source: Star Trek Online)

KingsIsle Reducing Free To Play Accessibility In Pirate101

If the title has you scratching your head, you aren’t alone. Generally whenever we hear about an MMO changing the manner in which its free players enjoy the game, it is to open up more content or to allow accessibility into more features. Very rarely do we see the pay wall be pushed backward rather than forward. That being said, KingsIsle Entertainment has published the most recent patch notes to the test server, which will reduce the amount of content players can access before they are asked to fork over.

New players will encounter Premium Areas earlier than previously. However, both of the following new Premium Areas will be given to all accounts that have existing characters created before these updates are released to the live game:

Prologue: Part 1—the first Premium Area will be encountered during the Quest “A Good Ship?” after talking to Dockmaster Dan.
Prologue: Part 2—the second Premium Area will be encountered during the Quest “To Jonah Town” just before players dock to Jonah Town.

You can find the test realm patch notes at the link below.

(Source: Pirate101)

Wildstar In Less Than Five Minutes

Wildstar is an explosive cocktail just looking for someone to party with. Check it out when it heads into beta.

TERA Boasts 1.4 Million Users In North America

When TERA announced that player numbers had doubled, and that number was now “over one million,” I had a feeling that since Gameforge was making the announcement that the figure did not include regions outside of Europe. Turns out I was right. In a press release by En Masse Entertainment today, the publisher has revealed that free to play has similarly risen to over 1.4 million users. Maximum concurrent players has also risen dramatically, increasing over ten times its previous number.

“We’ve been blown away by the waves of players logging into TERA, and we’re seeing amazing growth in both registrations and daily users. It’s always great to eclipse the one-million-player mark, and at our current rate, it won’t be long before we hit two million,” said Chris Lee, CEO of En Masse Entertainment. “This success is pushing En Masse even harder to deliver more content and improve our service, so stay tuned!”

To celebrate, from March 20th through the 24th players will be able to hunt Big Ass Monsters for high end equipment and rare drops.

(Source: En Masse Entertainment Press Release)

Defiance Might Not Hit Steam Tiers

Those of you who read Flying Ostrich Media are aware that over there I have covered Steam’s new system of pre-purchase reward tiers from time to time. If you aren’t familiar with the system, it works pretty simply: The more people pre-purchase through Steam, the higher the percentage and more rewards are unlocked. Bioshock Infinite, for instance, offered a free copy of XCOM for the ultimate reward. Trion’s upcoming shooter Defiance is offering everything from exclusive vehicles to weapons, titles and xp boosters all in return for more people pre-purchasing through Steam on the PC.

The system also works to gauge interest in the game, and unfortunately Defiance’s progress does not give great first impressions. With two weeks to go until the title launches and the deadline to pre-purchase is passed, Defiance has still not hit its first milestone. At 33%, it isn’t even close. Now obviously using this to gauge the game’s overall success is virtually meaningless. We have no way of knowing how many people have pre-purchased through alternate sources from Steam, or how many have purchased the game on the PS3 or Xbox360. We also have no way of knowing how many orders are required to hit each milestone.

So why isn’t Defiance skyrocketing to unlock all three tiers of rewards (at least not yet)? It’d take a day and a half to go over all of the variables, from releases on other platforms to Steam not opening up pre-purchases until after the game had been available at other outlets, to the game launching on consoles, etc. On the other hand, players are still able to grab rewards regardless of their system of choice, or whether or not Steam hits its targets, by submitting a lot of Arkfall codes as they are discovered. The number of codes discovered is approaching ninety at the time of this publishing, out of one hundred twenty total, and the more codes you enter, the better stuff you get out of it including permanent skill bonuses, weapons, titles, and more.

Defiance comes out April 2nd on PC, 360, and PS3, and operates on a buy to play model supported by DLC content.

(Source: Steam)

Sevencore Shutting Down

You all remember Sevencore, right? If not, you’ll be saddened to know that gPotato will be shutting down the MMO come April. In a news announcement released today, gPotato explained the shut down as a direct result of the game’s poor performance and developer pulling out.

Today, we regret to inform you that we are shutting down the SEVENCORE service because the developer is no longer able to support the game. SEVENCORE has proved to be less attractive to players than anticipated and thus become unprofitable for the developer to be continued as a game. Without the developer’s support, we see ourselves with no other choice than to close the service, unfortunately.

Players will be relieved to hear that all gPotato Chips spent on the game since the 1st of February will be reimbursed, along with a portion of money spent prior. Along with a few other updates, gPotato is also looking to make the cash shop items free until the game does shut down late April.

We are going to reimburse all gPotato spent between the 1^st of February and today, and between 30% and 75% for purchases prior to this date.
We will close the in-game shop with immediate effect but are looking into an option to make all shop items available for free.
The game service won’t be closed until the end of April.
During the final period of the game, we will boost EXP gain and run various events to make the final weeks as entertaining as possible.
We are currently working on some very interesting offers for all SEVENCORE players if you decide to play one of our many other games. These packages are currently being discussed and finalized once we have all the details we will update you on this topic.

Unfortunately when the developer kicks the bucket, there isn’t much that the publisher can do about it. Sevencore players can at least look forward to some perks coming their way if they choose to go to one of gPotato’s other titles.

(Source: Sevencore)

PointMMO Improves Functionality With Additional Features

PointMMO is a digital distribution platform for free to play MMOs. The program is currently in beta and has been updated with new features to make downloads faster and more accessible. Essentially, PointMMO is a program along the lines of Xfire, or Raptr that tracks your play time and includes promotional items, except you can also use the platform to more quickly download the games you wish to play. And the list is nothing to scoff at. Players are encouraged to sign up and take advantage of free beta keys and promotional items.

Check out a list of supported games. PointMMO is 100% free.

Age of Conan
Aika
Allods Online
Anarchy Online
Bloodline Champions
City of Steam
Dino Storm
District 187: Sin Streets
Flyff
Golfstar
The Guardian: Dark Ages
GUNS and ROBOTS
Hawken
King of Kings 3
The Lost Titans (Beta)
Maestia: Rise of Keledus
Rift
The Secret World
SEVENCORE
Uncharted Waters Online
Warframe (Beta)
Wargame 1942
World of Tanks
World of Warplanes (Beta)

(Source: PointMMO Press Release)

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