Tag: Codemasters

Codemasters: APB Could Work…Just Not By Us.


It could by Hi-Rez?

Codemasters General Manager David Solari has been on MMO Fallout’s news bulletins before, with regards to Lord of the Rings Online Europe, but now I get to talk about him weighing his opinion on something not Turbine related. In an interview with Eurogamer on the topic of All Points Bulletin, Solari wanted to express his optimism that the defunct MMO could absolutely work, given the right time.

“[Realtime Worlds] made some key mistakes there, with some key stuff changed that game could be successful. I do think the game could be turned around but it would need nine months of hard work,” he added. “That game could have been successful but the cost of development and everything else was a huge thing. The money it had to make to support that was very high risk. If you could take a smaller team and make all the fixes and operate at a lower cost then it’s fairly unique: there’s not really anything else in the market out there.”

Solari makes a great point. During APB’s short life, I harped on a few points that the game could be fixed and turned around easily, but that Realtime Worlds would be fighting against the clock to fix the shooting and driving mechanics being lackluster in a driving and shooting game. But who exactly is going to pick up APB, Mr. Solari. You?

“We have not picked up APB,” he said, definitively. “I can answer you definitively,” he echoed, “we haven’t picked that up.”

Damn. Well there is still the possibility of Epic Games taking over. More on APB as it absolutely refuses to die.

Lord of the Rings Coming To Europe: November 2nd.


Rolled a Natural 20

Lord of the Rings Online went free to play in North America on September 10th, leaving the European fans with nothing more than speculation on when Codemasters would follow suit. Original claims of technical difficulties spiraled into Codemaster’s General Manager Dave Solari announcing that the issues were contractual rather than technical, earlier this month.

Well the wait is finally over, as an announcement on the Codemasters LOTRO website revealed November 2nd as the official launch day for Lord of the Rings Online free to play, bringing with it Volume III: Book 2, the LOTRO store, and more. Those of you not currently playing on the American Lord of the Rings servers will certainly be happy to hear it.

MMO Fallout wishes Codemasters luck. We’re all counting on you.

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.

LotRO America Seals Deal Sucking In EU Players…


No Dice, Codemasters

MMO players are subjectively patient. As any player can tell you, delays happen for many reasons. An update that wasn’t tested properly, a wayward system that was unable to handle the server load, maintenance that had to be extended longer than expected. As players, however, we have our temporary ways around this system. Our server going offline may lead us to an alt we have on a more reliable server, or if the game is down universally we may go play another game. Often times, however, these events build up until our temporary fix becomes permanent. The guild might be relocating to this new server, or a player might quit the game out of frustration and go join another.

I’ve been entertaining the idea that Turbine must be loving the fact that Codemasters has fully bugged up the Lord of the Rings Online relaunch in Europe, because my research into both the European and American LOTRO forums turns up a lot of disgruntled European players packing bags and downloading the American client, foregoing their current characters and achievements in return for a system that should have been in place a month ago. Of course, one might expect that players coming over to the American servers will be less inclined to stay when Codemasters makes their move, over server location and lag issues.

But, what if Turbine made an offer that would entice European players to keep their American accounts, and even fork over some cash? As I write this, the Turbine sale is going to end in one minute. Today, Turbine placed three major quest packs on sale for 75% off each, offering 300 quests combined, a few new factions, and new instances.

Granted, this wouldn’t be the first time a developer sucker-punched one of its publishers right in the teeth, but for some reason I never saw such an event coming from Turbine. Yes, Turbine has a masters degree in “hey let’s give this a shot,” but (assuming my theory is correct) I don’t think we could have seen such an event coming where Turbine would be actively drawing subscribers from Codemasters.

Hopefully this works out for Turbine, and LOTRO worldwide. More on Lord of the Rings Online as it appears.

Codemasters: No F2P Yet, No More Welcome Back


No Dice, Europe

It’s time for another weekly “When Is F2P Coming To Europe?” update. Unfortunately, not only is there still not estimated time, Codemasters announced last week that they would be unable to sustain the Welcome Back promotion that LotRO Europe had been enjoying up until this point, although the 5% bonus promotions will still pop up from time to time. The following was posted today on the European forums.

Dear players,

Whilst we don’t have any dates or concrete information to share with you as yet, the good news is that it looks like the major challenges we were facing are nearly resolved and we will be moving forward with the next step of Free to Play implementation for the European service shortly.

At this stage we are optimistically looking to have plans finalised sometime next week at which stage we will be able to give you more solid dates of when we hope to proceed with the launch.

As always we thank you for your patience and do apologise for the continued delay of this launch.

You can sticky up that link for direct updates, and hopefully Codemasters will remain on track for next week’s burst of information. MMO Fallout will continue your weekly updates on Codemaster’s transition to free to play. In the meantime, European players have been playing on the North American servers. There are, as of yet, no IP restrictions on creating an account and signing in, although you will need the North American client.

Sorry Europe, Still No LOTRO F2P For Now…


Barcodemasters

Earlier this month, Lord of the Rings Online went hybrid-cash-shop in North America, with Codemasters’ European venture trailing behind due to perceived issues regarding preparation for this enormous event that would undoubtedly bring a major influx in population to the lands of Middle Earth. Earlier this month, Codemasters issued a release stating that they were aiming for the end of the month (September), but not to quote them on that estimation. Until that time, however, Codemasters has opened up all old accounts, granted a 5% experience boost, and have opened up free travel.

Well the end of the month is here, and if a notice from Codemasters is anything to go off of, the free to play launch is not coming today. Earlier last week, Codemasters updated their thread once again with a statement that the transition will not be coming for another couple of weeks. Until then, of course, European players can still enjoy either their own servers, or playing on North American servers.

More on Lord of the Rings Online as it appears.

Europeans Are Playing LOTRO Free


European.

I’m starting to think Europeans got the better deal with this delay. Assuming you’ve been following LOTRO’s transition to free to play cash shop, you are well aware that Codemasters has delayed the transition since Turbine moved the North American servers over ten days ago (the 10th). What you may not be aware of is that Codemasters has set up a free play period for the duration of this transition, opening up old accounts and inviting new players to this period with the “trial” account system.

To be quite frank, this sounds like a better deal than the American players are getting on the US server. Sure, the cash shop might be down, but doesn’t this mean that players (for the moment) have access to the whole game for free? Obviously not the expansions they don’t own, but the other restrictions that free accounts under the new system have. If anything, being a European player of LOTRO makes now the best time to get into the game, and experience as much of the whole initial game for free before your account turns into a basic, and you’ll know which features are worth paying for when the full free to play experience rolls out.

I might be missing something, but to me it sounds like “Sorry the official cake, which you’ll have to pay for the icing and more than once slice, has been delayed. Have this unofficial cake while you wait, we couldn’t make it official because the period at the end of the lettering is actually a comma, but otherwise it’s the same cake. You can eat the whole thing while you wait.”

Is it too late for Turbine to delay the free to play?

Codemasters Wants Some Well Deserved Hate


So maybe not that brutal...

If you are a newcomer to Lord of the Rings Online, and live in Europe, chances are high that you are currently playing on one of Turbine’s US servers. When Turbine launched the US-based servers last week, they did so with foresight, preparation, and server queues. Lots and lots of server queues. Codemasters, on the other hand, opted to delay the launch to an unknown date, so they could get some kinks out of the system.

Naturally, players are annoyed, and Codemasters wants to validate your anger through an inbox/contest.

The community liaison officers will be your target/punch bag/stress ball and welcome you to throw things at us. The choice of what you throw and how you throw it is yours but you have to be creative: describe it in a text, record a video, draw something or take a funny screenshot – there is no limit to your imagination! You can even bake a custard pie and we will administer the confectionary as requested. The ten most creative and/or funny submissions will receive a Codemasters Goodie Bag and we will feature them on our May Contain Gamers community blog.

PS: Don’t poison the custard pie. Who could say no to a goodie bag? Vent your frustrations and get rewarded for it. Granted, it might have just been easier if Codemasters hadn’t delayed yet another Turbine F2P venture…just saying.

More On LOTRO Europe


Sorry Europe.

“Hi folks,

Following our announcement on Wednesday regarding the delay of Free-to-Play in Europe, we can now provide you with a further update as to its status. It’s not good news I’m afraid. We are currently anticipating a delay of more than a week, potentially launching around the end of the month, and are still not in a position where we are able to confirm an exact date.

As you know, we were tracking a launch date of 10th September and up until recently thought this was still achievable; however, due to some major obstacles this date is simply not possible. Many of you have asked for a detailed explanation as to why this has come to be and why there wasn’t very much notice of the delay. Regarding the implementation challenges we talked about, the good news is that our Store and new servers are just about ready to roll, barring some final, live stress testing that needs to be performed.

We understand this is disappointing for you, more so because of our lack of communication in the earlier part of the week coupled with the last minute bad news. As the situation was changing literally from hour to hour, we weren’t in a position to tell you anything with any stability to it.

As we work to bring Free-to-Play to launch here, all eligible players will still continue to accrue loyalty rewards as per the rewards table on the website. We’re also laying on a bunch of your favourite live events on all servers starting next week and we’re introducing a community competition to allow you to take out your frustration on us and win some great prizes in doing so. We know this won’t substitute for the new Store and Enedwaith, but maybe it will make things a little more fun for you as you wait. Look out for announcements on all of these things within the next few days.

As always, thanks for your support and patience and a particular thank you to all of you who took the time to send us personal messages, those were awesome and really appreciated!”

So no free Lord of the Rings until possibly later this month. Isn’t it about time Turbine took Lord of the Rings back under their watch?

Lord of the Rings Online Free! [Not For Europe]


NSFE: Not Suited For Europeans

Just a friendly reminder to those of you who haven’t been enjoying the head start: Lord of the Rings Online goes free to play today! Well, freemium is a more accurate description. Either way, if you haven’t already been downloading the client, you may want to start it this morning, as the seven gigabyte (ten gigs for the full high-definition client) download is going to take a while, and Turbine’s download servers will no doubt be hit by the sudden rush of players.

Turbine is fixing a bug where players are being shown too many/few Turbine points compared to what they should have. The points may take a couple days to register, for those who obtained them either through Turbine’s subscription promotion, subscription “allowances,” and lifetime subscription allowances.

Reminder: Loyalty rewards may take 7-10 days to appear in your account after the launch of Volume III, Book 2. VIP Points should appear within 2-3 days after your billing date.(Click Here) for more information on account status, points, or other Free to Play related questions.

Still no word on Lord of the Rings Europe. To those player in the US, expect major queue lines (unless you’re a VIP) for the next few weeks.