The Agency Canned Amidst Sony Layoffs


SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.

With the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment had performed layoffs and shutting down studios (Denver, Seattle, Tuscon), a lot of the eyes on the news websites turned at The Agency, Sony’s upcoming yet secretive MMO. So, although disappointing, it isn’t all too surprising that the game is the first on the chopping block among the cost cutting at SOE.

Granted, the news is not all bad. In reaction, John Smedley has posted to Planetside Universe that the Planetside Next team has actually expanded, and a post on the Everquest forums has reaffirmed players that the game is not going anywhere.

Once again our best wishes go out to the 205 employees who are now on unemployment. Hopefully you’ll all have just as easy of a time finding a new job as the Realtime Worlds guys did last year.

The Agency Canned Amidst Sony Layoffs


SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.

With the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment had performed layoffs and shutting down studios (Denver, Seattle, Tuscon), a lot of the eyes on the news websites turned at The Agency, Sony’s upcoming yet secretive MMO. So, although disappointing, it isn’t all too surprising that the game is the first on the chopping block among the cost cutting at SOE.

Granted, the news is not all bad. In reaction, John Smedley has posted to Planetside Universe that the Planetside Next team has actually expanded, and a post on the Everquest forums has reaffirmed players that the game is not going anywhere.

Once again our best wishes go out to the 205 employees who are now on unemployment. Hopefully you’ll all have just as easy of a time finding a new job as the Realtime Worlds guys did last year.

Play Rift? Have Friends Who Don't? Free Time For Them!


Hey, Rift’ers. I know you’re busy fighting back Alsbeth and the legion of undead attacking Telara at the moment, but offer me a moment of your time. Do you have a friend looking into Rift who just doesn’t want to throw $50 down on the box, but doesn’t want to miss the event? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you’re in luck! Your friend can play with you during select times, just by creating an account and applying a code.

Have your friend head over to Trion’s website, log in (or create an account), and give them the code you received in your email linked to your Trion account. It will look like this (minus the pixels on the code):

The event goes from 10am PDT April 1, 2011 through 10am PDT April 4, 2011.

Play Rift? Have Friends Who Don’t? Free Time For Them!


Hey, Rift’ers. I know you’re busy fighting back Alsbeth and the legion of undead attacking Telara at the moment, but offer me a moment of your time. Do you have a friend looking into Rift who just doesn’t want to throw $50 down on the box, but doesn’t want to miss the event? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you’re in luck! Your friend can play with you during select times, just by creating an account and applying a code.

Have your friend head over to Trion’s website, log in (or create an account), and give them the code you received in your email linked to your Trion account. It will look like this (minus the pixels on the code):

The event goes from 10am PDT April 1, 2011 through 10am PDT April 4, 2011.

Major Layoffs At Sony Online Entertainment


Word that Sony Online Entertainment Seattle is having layoffs and that studio closure is possible. http://bit.ly/eSxtvq
-George Broussard on Twitter

This was reported by Kotaku, although there has yet to be an official statement, Kotaku reporter Owen Good (who reported on the story) has confirmed it with a more involved source than George. It has yet to be seen which studios have closed down, although reportedly the studio behind the upcoming Agency MMO has been slashed.

This is no doubt a bombshell, not only for us playing Sony’s games but more importantly for the people who are losing their jobs and livelihoods. MMO Fallout is committed to this story, and will be updating as soon as any news is released.

Perfect World Entertainment: This Is How You Charity


You may have thought that the charity articles were over, and you would be wrong. Following all of our other articles, we’ve got an update from Perfect World Entertainment. For the next two weeks, until April 13th, players of Perfect World International (by Perfect World Entertainment) will be able to purchase the Super Inventory Stone, which upgrades your inventory to 64 slots.

The item is one per character, and lasts forever. 50% of the proceeds are sent to charity. The charity of choice is the American Red Cross.

For more information, check out the web post: http://www.perfectworld.com/blog/?p=218551&style=pwi

Rift: Now Integrated With Youtube


The program FRAPS is great, but recording tends to slow down my computer. Xfire video does the job, but not all of my games are supported. I’d love to see more MMOs implement what Trion just did today: integration with Youtube. In today’s patch, Trion added in support for players to link their Trion accounts to their Youtube accounts. By hitting Ctrl + Y in-game, players can record up to three minutes of footage. When the capture is complete, the video is encoded, and once the encoding is complete, can be sent off to Youtube straight away. Note: Unfitting death metal music and terrible editing skills not included.

To show the system, I’ve included a short 30 second video I recorded today, using this system. I did have some trouble on longer videos with the video skipping, and I’m not sure what is causing that.

If you are in Rift, hopefully you’re doing better than my server in fighting back Alsbeth. More importantly, I’d like to see more MMOs incorporate their own recording system. I’m looking at you, Alganon.

APB Reloaded: Thank You, Cheaters!


Reading K2 Networks (GamersFirst) talk about cheaters reminds me of the black knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Even though King Arthur continues to hack the black knight apart, limb from limb, he continues his volley of verbal assaults at Arthur’s ability with a sword, to the point where, in defeat, the knight offers a draw.

In an alternate reality, I might be complacent with Gamersfirst’s handling of cheaters, but given their work in titles like Knight Online (which is full to the brim with cheaters, bots, and gold farmers), my hope for APB’s future is on uneven grounds. Of course, if you go by Gamersfirst’s words, back when Realtime Worlds was still running All Points Bulletin, the company had the information to ban the high number of cheaters, but simply chose not to enforce the rules. The implication being that the new host will be enforcing the rules.

With the latest K2 Networks blog, the APB team has offered a thank you to the cheaters for providing them with useful information.

For the past 3 weeks we have been watching and observing user behavior in Closed Beta. We’d like to extend a “thanks” to the 60 odd players that have been toying around with various hack tools (about 0.4% of the players). Thanks to your hard cheating work, we are now much better equipped to deal with you going forward. How? I guess you will find out.

I wish GamersFirst the best of luck with APB, and I will be there when the game comes out. Unlike their other titles, however, APB isn’t going to survive if it is filled with cheaters. The first failed launch should have been enough of an indicator.

Dungeon Fighter Online Does Not Constitute 360 MMO


Part of my job here at MMO Fallout includes predicting the future, and occasionally I am wrong. This is not one of those times. Now, those of you who follow this website know that I have historically suggested that MMO players who want to play on the console choose the Playstation 3 over the Xbox 360, foremost as there will never be an MMO on the 360 (apart from Final Fantasy XI). Thanks in part to Microsoft’s stringent policies clashing with the inherent requirement that the game be available for regular content and patch fixes, even Square Enix has admitted that the only reason Final Fantasy XI made it onto Xbox Live was due to the system being in its infancy.

So although I offer my congratulations to Nexon for managing to get Dungeon Fighter Online on Xbox Live Arcade, I have to play devil’s advocate and point out one important fact: Dungeon Fighter Online is not an MMO. Structurally, there isn’t much difference between Dungeon Fighter and, say, Castle Crashers. The game is still run via P2P networking.

What this does bode well for is lobby-based, not really true-MMO titles, coming out on the Xbox360, which was never really a problem to begin with. As far as the traditional MMO, well you’re still better off with a Playstation 3, given the system already leads its competitor by multiple MMOs.

gPotato: This Is How You Charity


A little late to the game, but we don’t play favorites when it comes to charity work (unless your company is using Child’s Play as some shameless plug to get money to send a fraction of said donation to charity). Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen an outpour of support from MMO developers toward Japan. The Final Fantasy servers are just coming up, with more game content on the way, and a number of other companies have offered their support, through donations or through the cutting of billing to Japanese players.

gPotato is running a charity where purchases to specific items, seen here, in specific games will result in 100% of those proceeds going to charity. Allods Online and Aika Online are not included in that list, with at least one of the two not participating because the concept of donating involves investing money with no expectation of making a return or profit.

But this isn’t about the developers who refuse to participate in charity. If you play any of gPotato’s games, this is an easy way to make a donation.