Buyer Found For APB: I Hope It Is Epic


adoración para bulletin

If you’re like me, you still have All Points Bulletin installed on your computer, and occasionally start up the client. For those of you who don’t, you can still read the news ticker here: The ticker is occasionally updated with news on APB and Realtime Worlds, the latter still going through the negotiation process to find a buyer for the former.

A couple days ago, the following appeared on the blog:

=== 22/10/2010 ===
It’s looking like there might be light at the end of the tunnel for APB. The end of the administration process is apparently close and there appears to be a buyer for the game.

You can find more information at the above website, or by launching your APB client. We may see APB come back by the end of the year (or early next year). Perhaps Webzen will take it on, they have something of a history picking up dead MMOs. I think this is the longest an MMO has gone postmortem still being covered here on MMO Fallout.

More on APB as it appears.

Updated The MMO Fallout Banner


Old Enough To Be Off The Bottle!

I like to update the MMO Fallout official banner every now and then, despite having no artistic or creative talent, so the previous banner (above) is now retired in favor of the new MMO Fallout banner, as seen below.

News On Fallout Online? Hurray!


Wishing you were cake...

Fun Fact: The last Project V13 article was almost five months ago (June 27th).

When I read the latest description of Fallout Online, it reminded me of Xsyon in nature. Being an MMO, the game can’t give you a simple task like finding a chip to fix the water recycling, or escaping the vault to find your father because the overseer wants to kill you. In Fallout Online, the only conceivable goals would be surviving the post-apocalyptic world and helping to rebuild it. Interplay is going for both.

I think [Bethesda] miss a lot of the humour. Our Fallout MMOG will be extremely funny. At the same time, an MMOG must be a lot deeper than a standalone game… you can shoot, but it’s a very small portion of the game. The game itself is about reconstructing the world.

Interplay is looking to follow their own brand of Fallout, rather than the latest iteration set forth by Fallout 3 and New Vegas (the latter of which attempts to reach back to Fallout 1 and 2). Eric Caen was kind about Bethesda’s shaping of Fallout 3’s world, but had his criticism:

“We appreciate some portions of [Bethesda’s work], and we’re not necessarily fans of everything. I think they miss a lot of the humour, and the fans seem to agree with that. Fallout 3 was a little bit too serious – that’s definitely not where we’re going. OurFallout MMOG will be extremely funny.”

According to Caen, president of Interplay, the Fallout Online team is 90 men strong, and the game is still on track for a 2012 beta and release (hopefully giving players enough time to gain survival tips for the real end of the world later that year).

You can check out the partial interview on Edge’s website, with the full interview appearing in the magazine.

Read more information on Fallout Online here. Want new MMO Fallout breaking stories sent directly to you? Subscribe in the top right hand corner, or follow us on Twitter @mmofallout. Leave a comment, no email address required.

Bloodline Champions Beta Key Giveaway


Giving away keys since some time ago.

Bloodline Champions is an upcoming game being published by Funcom that takes arena based PvP and sticks in several game modes including arena (fight to the death), capture the artifact (capture the flag), and conquest (conquest). The game is viewed from a top-down angled perspective, as you can see above, and controls with the WASD keys.

I have two beta keys to give away, because much like the rest of this website I am extremely cheap and under-performing. All you have to do is post a comment on this page, fill in the email spot with your real email address (I will be able to see it, but no one else will) and write whatever you want in the comment box. At the end of next week (the 29th) I will choose two winners by way of random number generator and send them the invitations.

Get crackin, and don’t fret if your comment isn’t approved immediately, it just means you don’t have any other approved comments and I do check every couple hours.

The Contest is now over. The winners have been selected by process of random number generator, and the invitations have been sent out. Better luck next time to those who didn’t get a key.

Direct2Drive Says They Are Sales, Not Permanent


Direct to my Email Drive

I’ve gotten a bit of feedback on the fact that many of the sales listed on the sales page, those listed through Direct2Drive, have been there since June, putting them at four months on sale at least. A few asked me why I don’t remove them and just consider them permanent price cuts. Back in July I emailed Direct2Drive over whether or not the price cuts were permanent or temporary, and received this answer:

Hi Connor,

Prices can fluctuate depending on pricing offered by the developers and publishers. Some MMO’s are currently on sale and that would be a temporary discount. You can see those games at http://www.direct2drive.com/buy-mmo-pc-games-download The sale items are listed with the original price and the discount price in yellow.

Kind regards,
Rich Metcalfe
Lead Technical Specialist
Digital Distribution

So this is why I still have the games listed. Until Direct2Drive lists them as such, they are a temporary price cut. Hopefully this calms some questions.

Preview LOTRO Europe, Finally! Next Week!

Starting next Monday, the 25th, Codemasters will open up the test realms for Lord of the Rings Online’s transition to free to play, which you can sign up for here. Codemasters is saying that the more people who sign up, the faster the testing can take place (meaning the testing is likely for stability and population capacity under high stress) and the faster that the service can transition on the live servers.


Here's your dice, Europe

It’s almost Friday, which means we’re about a day early on the weekly Lord of the Rings Online: Europegate update, but who cares about keeping up to nonexistent traditions? We have good news finally! Starting next Monday, the 25th, Codemasters will open up the test realms for Lord of the Rings Online’s transition to free to play, which you can sign up for here. Codemasters is saying that the more people who sign up, the faster the testing can take place (meaning the testing is likely for stability and population capacity under high stress) and the faster that the service can transition on the live servers.

Is anyone still reading this? Good. Those of you who sign up and participate in the trial will receive 500 Turbine points (or would they be Codemaster Points?) towards the store once the game goes live. The only information we have on timing is “shortly thereafter,” which can mean anything coming from the company that told us over a month ago that the European service would go free to play in “just a couple weeks,” granted their issues were contractual and thus irrelevant to this new update.

Will this be enough to bring back European players who are on the North American servers, likely some of whom have invested both cash and time into their new characters? Only time will tell.

Guild Wars: This is How You Charity 10K Edition


Pink Day in LA

“Pink Day in LA” was a Guild Wars event held this past weekend, encouraging players to dye their armor pink for breast cancer awareness. Malibu Barbie teamed up with Gaming World Entertainment Network and Gamers Giving Back to bring cancer awareness to Guild Wars. Players purchased almost three hundred thousand bottles of pink dye, donating almost eleven thousand dollars in the process.

“I was totally amazed when we hit our original goal of $1,337 early,” Malibu Barbie said.

More on charities as they appear.

The Technical Issues Are A Lie: Codemasters Reveals


No Dice, Europe

I’ve been speculating for a while now that there is more to this delay of Lord of the Rings Online in Europe than Codemasters has been explaining. On my earlier articles, I noted my thoughts that Turbine had something to do with the delays, although my assumption that Turbine was attempting to take back LOTRO in Europe was obviously incorrect. Codemasters’ General Manager David Solari put out a notice today that the issues were not, in fact, technical, and that Codemasters was having contractual issues that were delaying the launch of LOTRO F2P EU.

“This is the reason why we have been unable to provide you with any substantial information as to when we will go Free-to-Play, despite the desire to share this with you.
Unfortunately a contract was required in order to go Free-to-Play and this has taken much longer to conclude than expected.”

My money says this can be traced back to money, namely how much Turbine wanted in royalties and how much Codemasters wanted to pay under the new contract. Either way, the contract has been concluded, and Codemasters is on their way to a full free to play launch.

We can confirm the launch is imminent and we should be able to announce the dates later this week/early next week.

You can read the rest of Solari’s comments at the above link. More on Lord of the Rings Online as it appears.

By The Way: Everquest II Server Mergers Abound


 

Attack!

 

A great man once told me, “mark my words, Everquest II will have a big server merge less than six months after it goes free to play.” I can’t recall who said this, and thanks to the wonders of corrupt hard drives and lack of backup copies I no longer have his name on file, so I will let him take credit wherever he is. Those of you playing Everquest II, be it the free or paid version, are likely well aware of today’s announcement that Sony will be shuttering a number of Everquest II live servers. Sixteen servers, overall, are merging into eight, with the remaining eleven being unaffected.

Players with legacy titles will have their titles changed to “of <server name>.” The server mergers themselves are nothing surprising, however, as Sony put it:

We’ve been planning to merge the EQII Live servers for a long while now, and most of you have been asking for it to happen for just as long. As part of our ongoing effort to utilize community feedback and deliver the best gameplay experience possible, I am happy to announce that we will begin merging several servers this fall.  Bigger population density on a server is just simply more fun for everyone involved, so it’s time to get it done.

Everquest had a server merger just a couple months ago. It happens when your MMO is not named World of Warcraft.

More on Everquest II as it appears.

Play Allods Online Now, My Lord: Free Forever.


T&A for cents a day!

It’s shameless advertising day on MMO Fallout, and today’s publicity prostitutes are gPotato with Allods Online! Sex sells, and nothing says free to play cash shop fantasy title like two blond haired women in underwear groping one another.

Is it just me, or does the woman on the left bear a resemblance to Yeoman Janice Rand from Star Trek?

Janice Rand.