Outside of major fixes.
Continue reading “Elite Dangerous Ceases Console Development”
Tag: Development
World of Warcraft Development Halted, Says Dev
Is not entirely sure how long this will go on.
Continue reading “World of Warcraft Development Halted, Says Dev”
[NM] Kotaku Investigates Bioware, Bioware Makes It Worse
The only constants in life are death and taxes. The only constants in the gaming industry are EA (or a subsidiary) creating its own PR nightmare and then making the situation worse in response.
If you’ve been following the tale of Anthem and its alleged six year development cycle, today’s investigative piece by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier may not be that surprising to you. Titled “How Bioware’s Anthem Went Wrong,” Schreier talks to no less than 19 ex-Bioware employees who had been involved in the development of the game. The story is a tale of ineffective leadership, understaffed teams, and various departments either unwilling or unable to work together to put a cohesive and thought out plan together. While EA may tout that the game has been in the works for six years, according to employees the majority of the game was built in the last 12-16 months.
Bioware responded with a very stern letter to the public addressing the article. The response is quite baffling as the developer hides behind its declared passion for its customers, concluding with a thinly veiled attack at Kotaku that the article exposing Bioware’s poor working conditions and indifferent management is somehow a detriment to the industry and craft.
“People in this industry put so much passion and energy into making something fun. We don’t see the value in tearing down one another, or one another’s work. We don’t believe articles that do that are making our industry and craft better.”
And here’s the kicker; You may notice that the letter from Bioware doesn’t actually address any of the specific statements made in Kotaku’s article. That’s because Bioware’s response went up mere minutes after Kotaku published their piece. The folks responding to the article didn’t even bother to read it, and it also means that they had this pre-written and ready to go.
How fitting that a company accused of being tone deaf would be so tone deaf as to so blatantly not read the article that they are dismissively responding to. The management at Bioware either naively thinks that this response is going to pull the public to their side, or they are so deep in denial that they don’t see how bizarre the response comes off as.
Source: Kotaku
RaiderZ Is Coming Back: Masangsoft Takes Over Development
It’s been a long time since we talked about RaiderZ, the titular MMO that despite being shut down in Europe way back in 2013 managed to survive another two years until developer MAIET Entertainment also went bankrupt, forcing Perfect World Entertainment to stop publishing as certain critical bugs could not be fixed. Well, two years later and the game just refuses to stay dead. Over at the RaiderZ Facebook page, a new challenger has arisen to bring RaiderZ back to life.
Masangsoft’s announcement acknowledges that RaiderZ is a bit old by MMO standards and needs to be fixed up before it can relaunch. The developer doesn’t have much in the way of timetables, but has asked that we sit tight while they get to work and that more news should be coming soon.
We can’t say how much more time we need to reinvent this game. What’s certain is that we’ll try to provide better and better experiences for many people who look forward to this game. Sooner or later, you’ll hear another news about the beginning of our development.
For a good read, checkout MMO Fallout’s 2013 interview with Perfect World senior product manager Mark Hill.
Age of Empires Online Isn’t Shutting Down, Content Development Ceases
You like Age of Empires Online just the way it is, right? Hopefully you do, because Gas Powered Games has announced that future content development has ceased. A small amount of content will be released in the coming weeks, but after that Age of Empires Online will only see a few small changes to fix bugs as they crop up, as well as maintenance to keep the game running. Following this little bit of content, the game will be set as it is forever. Granted, this doesn’t mean that Age of Empires Online is close to shutting down.
Far from it in fact, rather Microsoft Studios notes in the announcement that nothing will change for current gamers:
However, nothing else changes for players, nothing that currently exists will be removed. You can still play everything you own, earn EP, and purchase any content you do not currently own. We will still fully maintain and support the game and its players; no one is losing anything that you have earned or bought. Our Community team will continue to support the game by way of Community Challenges, streams, contests, PvP tournaments and more.
The cause for the sudden cancellation is due to a reported high cost of developing content for the MMO.
Age of Empires Online Isn't Shutting Down, Content Development Ceases
You like Age of Empires Online just the way it is, right? Hopefully you do, because Gas Powered Games has announced that future content development has ceased. A small amount of content will be released in the coming weeks, but after that Age of Empires Online will only see a few small changes to fix bugs as they crop up, as well as maintenance to keep the game running. Following this little bit of content, the game will be set as it is forever. Granted, this doesn’t mean that Age of Empires Online is close to shutting down.
Far from it in fact, rather Microsoft Studios notes in the announcement that nothing will change for current gamers:
However, nothing else changes for players, nothing that currently exists will be removed. You can still play everything you own, earn EP, and purchase any content you do not currently own. We will still fully maintain and support the game and its players; no one is losing anything that you have earned or bought. Our Community team will continue to support the game by way of Community Challenges, streams, contests, PvP tournaments and more.
The cause for the sudden cancellation is due to a reported high cost of developing content for the MMO.
End of Nations Hasn't Been Cancelled, Trion Taking Over
Finally some good news. End of Nations has not had the greatest of times in recent months. Just a few days ago, we learned about major layoffs at the developer Petroglyph Games, coming just shortly after a prior announcement that the game’s open beta would be delayed until further notice to address some major issues facing the MMORTS. With delays and layoffs, it seemed like the persistent strategy game might never hit store shelves. The good news is that Trion is taking over End of Nations development from Petroglyph. In a post on the official forums, Myll Erik laid out the details:
As End of Nations was reaching the pre-launch phase in its lifecycle, we officially brought the game development in house to Trion Worlds and will complete the development internally. Our team has been hard at work implementing many changes based on your feedback from the beta events. Keep checking back for more updates as we are looking forward to showing off some of the cool new things the team has been working on.
Trion is hard at work addressing player concerns, from difficulty curve to a revamped user interface as well as optimizations across the board. Petroglyph is well known for their real time strategy games, including Star Wars: Empire At War.
(Source: Trion Forums)
End of Nations Hasn’t Been Cancelled, Trion Taking Over
Finally some good news. End of Nations has not had the greatest of times in recent months. Just a few days ago, we learned about major layoffs at the developer Petroglyph Games, coming just shortly after a prior announcement that the game’s open beta would be delayed until further notice to address some major issues facing the MMORTS. With delays and layoffs, it seemed like the persistent strategy game might never hit store shelves. The good news is that Trion is taking over End of Nations development from Petroglyph. In a post on the official forums, Myll Erik laid out the details:
As End of Nations was reaching the pre-launch phase in its lifecycle, we officially brought the game development in house to Trion Worlds and will complete the development internally. Our team has been hard at work implementing many changes based on your feedback from the beta events. Keep checking back for more updates as we are looking forward to showing off some of the cool new things the team has been working on.
Trion is hard at work addressing player concerns, from difficulty curve to a revamped user interface as well as optimizations across the board. Petroglyph is well known for their real time strategy games, including Star Wars: Empire At War.
(Source: Trion Forums)
MMO Fallout 