Tag: Battle Royale

In A Christmas Miracle: Z1 Battle Royale Population Spikes


In a post-Christmas miracle, Z1 Battle Royale has received the breath of life from…someone somewhere. At least it’s a lot more lively than it has been.

Z1BR’s death has been slow cooking in the crockpot of Steam’s lavatory for the last seven months or so, so it’s all the more surprising that the last few days have seen the population spike. Insanely spike. I’m talking hitting peaks of nearly six thousand concurrent players if you bothered to read the header image in this article. All this from a game that wasn’t . What gives?

A tournament. With Twitch streamers.

This Friday (1/17), a tournament is going to take part in H1Z1 with a lot of the big streamers from back in H1Z1’s heyday…except Ninja. The attention of streamers has brought people back into the game to take part in the scrimmages that have been going on this week, and it has breathed a bit of life back into the mostly dead title.

Will Z1 hold its traffic up after the tournament is over? Only time will tell.

Source: Steam Charts,

Video: Hunter’s Arena: Legend Drops New Trailer


Hunter’s Arena promises all the content of an MMORPG in the span of a 30 minute match. From studio Mantisco, Hunter’s Arena might be the most confusing game pitch that I have seen in the past few years. It combines battle royale, MOBA, and action RPG in a game that sees 60 players and ten thousand monsters thrown into a battlefield and fighting for survival.

“Survive among 60 players and 10,000 monsters! Farming, Upgrading, Raiding, Dungeons and PvP action – try this MMORPG-like experience within just a 30 minutes game session! It’s not just a Battle Royale with an RPG combat system, it’s a full-scale RPG available in a Battle Royale mode. Utilize teamwork in party play and backstab your enemies!”

You can check out the trailer above and read up on Hunter’s Arena at the Steam link below.

Source: Steam, Press Release

Ubisoft Enters Auto Chess Arena With Might & Magic: Chess Royale


This is a thing.

Ubisoft today announced the next title in the Might & Magic franchise will take on not one but two gaming trends. Might & Magic: Chess Royale is an auto chess title with battle royale leanings. The core gameplay is tied into the auto chess genre, a round-based strategy game where players select from a pool of characters that automatically battle it out in waves against mobs or other players, with the ultimate goal being to level up your units and outlast the other players.

Might & Magic’s spin on the genre is to merge the auto chess with battle royale and run matches with up to 100 players as opposed to the standard 8 person matches in other similar titles. Might & Magic: Chess Royale will be available on PC and mobile devices on January 30. Pre-registration is now available. We are assuming that the game will be free to play with microtransactions.

Source: Ubisoft

Surprise! Planetside Arena Has Been Cancelled


In a business decision that even Michael Pachter could have correctly predicted, Daybreak Game Company has announced that Planetside Arena will go to the big recycling bin in the sky. It’s the same recycling bin that Everquest Next resides in.

Planetside Arena is a battle royale spinoff of the similarly titled Planetside 2, and launched this year to what can be described as more-than-unanimously negative reception. In addition to rather low review scores, Planetside Arena almost immediately suffered from a radical drop in player count; down into the single digits just a few months after coming out. For a game that relies on 12-man squads, it was literally unplayable.

The Planetside Arena servers will be playable until January 10, 2020 for the three people who still log in to check their cosmetics. Those who invested any real money in the game will see their purchases refunded by Steam after the game shuts down.

The full announcement has been posted below for your pleasure. Post and FAQ available on the official website.

Hello Everyone,

After careful consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down PlanetSide Arena servers.

While our team set out with an ambitious vision for a game that combined the massive-scale combat and camaraderie of PlanetSide through a diverse collection of new game modes, it has become clear after several months in Early Access that our population levels make it impossible to sustain the gameplay experience we envisioned.

As a result, PlanetSide Arena will formally shut down servers on January 10th, 2020 at 5:00 PM (PST). We are actively working with Steam to ensure that all players who made purchases during Early Access will automatically receive a full refund to their Steam Wallet after servers shut down in January.

Thank you again for your loyalty and support during Beta and Early Access. Your feedback was invaluable, and your enduring passion for PlanetSide remains the bedrock our community is built upon. As painful as it is to close this chapter so quickly, we remain deeply committed to this franchise, and look forward to continuing this journey through the PlanetSide Universe with all of you.

Andy Sites
Executive Producer, PlanetSide Franchise

Planetside Arena Already Adjusting For Low Population Matches


Planetside Arena Squads mode can handle up to 300 people per match, but at the rate the game is going Daybreak Game Company can only hope that the entire population of the game hits half that number. In the few weeks since the Planetside battle royale spinoff launched, the game’s population has plummeted and is continuing to drop. As a result, players are finding themselves in a massive arena built for 1,000 with not a lot of things to shoot at.

Thankfully Daybreak is on the case. This week’s update has brought with it changes to how the pain field works and where players drop in low population matches:

In order to escalate squad engagement more quickly during low-population times, we’ve made several adjustments to the location Squads drop in and pain field behavior. During lower population matches, Squads will deploy closer to the initial safe zone and in proximity to other Squads.  In addition, depending on match population thresholds being met, the time between phases and speed at which the pain field moves will vary – the lower the population, the shorter the wait times between phases and faster the pain field migration.

More update details on the official website.

Column: Planetside Arena and the Friday Night Whatevers


It’s Friday night! I’m playing a few rounds of H1Z1 to get my anger on before throwing my Gamefly rental of Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a good weekend film to watch.

I’m going to tell you my wonderful readers what I told Daybreak before Planetside Arena launched into Early Access this week: It’s a neat concept that definitely has something going for it, but your biggest struggle is going to be convincing people to play it. What I didn’t tell them because I didn’t want to seem to blunt or immediately burn bridges with the new PR people (the old ones stopped talking to me) is that they have an uphill battle for two reasons: First, they are Daybreak Game Company. Second, it’s a free to play battle royale game.

I’ll be frank; Daybreak Game Company doesn’t have a great reputation as far as battle royale games go considering how badly they managed to mess up Z1 Battle Royale and H1Z1 and grasp failure from the hands of market dominance in both cases. There are a lot of people still very angry about Daybreak’s continued mismanagement of the PS4 H1Z1 and I should know. I’m one of them. Expect an H1Z1 season 5 roundup at some point in the future. Actually Daybreak doesn’t have a great reputation period. It just seems like large swaths of people that they’ve come across have come away feeling burned in one way or another. Everquest players, Planetside players, H1Z1 players, the ones hanging on to those games that shut down like ten years ago. All of them. Daybreak couldn’t have a lower public perception if John Smedley was still employed and inviting people to DDOS the servers again.

Second; it’s a free to play battle royale game in a market full to the brim. Sure, Planetside Arena has massive battles with upwards of 300 people. Is it filling them up? Nah. We’re in the opening Friday night and the game is having trouble keeping above 700 people concurrently. There are over 1,300 people playing Planetside 2, nearly double the amount in Planetside Arena and one of those games is seven years old while the other should be getting its early access launch rush. Over on the Twitch side of things, Planetside Arena has 434 viewers as of this publishing. You know what has more? H1Z1. So people aren’t playing and they aren’t really interested in watching and again, we’re in weekend #1.

And ultimately Planetside Arena isn’t even that bad of a game, which is why I’m sitting here typing about it at nearly 1am on a Saturday when I could be doing weekend stuff like sleeping. My big fear with Planetside Arena is that it would release to a shrug and a “whatever,” and that appears to be exactly what is happening. Who knows, maybe Daybreak can pull it around and convince people to actually play the game. They haven’t managed it with the streamers, but after all this is just weekend #1 and who ever said you only get one chance at a launch?

Oh right.

Battle Royale Comes To Lineage II: Revolution


Battle Royale is coming to Lineage II: Revolution, because of course it is.

Netmarble this week announced that the popular mobile MMO will receive a 25-player battle royale mode. Utilizing one of four battle royale specific characters, players will engage in combat and avoid penalty zones that apply debuffs. Players can also acquire exclusive skills from NPCs and various buff zones on the map, all in the effort to become the sole survivor.

Lineage II: Revolution players will also have access to the following events and items:

  • Sailor Costumes – Costumes that transform players into sailors are now available through the in-game Shop. Players will receive a Hat and Outfit, both of which increase Combat Power (CP) once owned.
  • Water Gun Weapon Costume – Cool off during the summer with the Water Gun Weapon Costume, now available in the in Shop. This also increases CP when owned.
  • In-Game Events – Netmarble is celebrating today’s new Battle Royale update with special events, such as:
    • Bingo events, where players earn points to complete an in-game bingo board by completing missions, for special rewards;
    • Attendance events, where Heroes receive prizes by logging in every day for up to fourteen consecutive days;
    • The Megakurin Web Events, where players collect stamina to evolve their Kukurin mount to receive various rewards for each evolving step.

Source: Netmarble Press Release

Z1 Battle Royale Will Shut Down South American Servers


Z1 Battle Royale, the PC shooter by Daybreak Game Company, is coming to an end on season 3 and bringing big changes with it. Chief among today’s announcements includes the reveal that Daybreak is shutting down Z1’s South America servers on April 30 to coincide with the end of season 3. This move will consolidate American players into the North American servers, hopefully speeding up queue times and ensuring the servers are populated going into season 4.

Z1’s traffic has been on a steady decline over the past couple of years, with Daybreak making changes in response to the smaller population.

Source: Steam

Daybreak Announces H1Z1 Season 3: Beyond Royale


Daybreak Game Company today announced the third season of H1Z1 on Playstation 4. Dubbed Beyond Royale, the free expansion introduces a number of new features as well as a new 100-tier battle pass and various improvements to the quality of life for players.

Among the highlights, a new free for all deathmatch mode will pit 50 players against one another in a tight combat zone with respawning and a rotating arsenal of weaponry. The first player to 25 kills before the timer runs out wins. Joining the FFA deathmatch mode is a new leaderboard system that introduces ranks for singles, duos, groups, and tracks kills, matches played, and other statistics.

Season 3 battle pass features 100 levels and over 200 rewards, offering three tiers for free, paid, and PS+ members. Battle pass players will enjoy attendance rewards, additional challenges, and more this coming season.

Source: Daybreak Game Company press release.

Daybreak Game Company Announces Planetside Arena


Daybreak Game Company today finally unveiled their next title: Planetside Arena. Set to launch in early 2019, Planetside Arena is a massive-scale sci-fi arena FPS set in the Planetside universe. Arena will launch with three battle royale modes in season one: A 250 vs 250 player experience titled Massive Clash with solo and team modes. Later seasons are expected to introduce more traditional game modes including capture the flag, team deathmatch, search and destroy, and global conquest. Daybreak expects the battle royale mode to eventually support up to 1,000 players per match.

“There’s simply no other multiplayer shooter that can replicate the depth of play and massive scale of PlanetSide,” said Andy Sites, Executive Producer. “PlanetSide Arena will expand and evolve the franchise with new modes, new technology and new content, delivered on a scale that only PlanetSide can offer.”

Three initial classes will be available including the Engineer, Assault, and Medic, each with a personal vehicle, jetpack, and unique abilities that can be upgraded throughout the match.

Planetside Arena is currently available for pre-order on Steam, with launch on January 29, 2019.