gPotato – MMO Fallout

Webzen/gPotato Unifies Services

Webzen has announced the unification of its three game portals, bringing together its own games under a single portal with gPotato and gPotato EU. Players will have easy access to all of Webzen and gPotato’s library of games, including the upcoming launch of Archlord II.

“A total of over 40 million players, from 150 countries, will be able to play and enjoy their favourite games together. This is what online games are all about – fostering online friendship.”

Webzen acquired gPotato as well as its parent company, Gala-Net, for a small sum last month.

(Source: Webzen Press Release)

Mail.ru Takes Control of Allods Online

Players of Allods Online will soon have more friends to play with, as Mail.ru has announced that the firm is taking control of global hosting services for the MMO. Beginning March 18th, Mail.ru will take over hosting from gPotato and merge the European and American servers into one service. On the plus side, this means that players will no longer have to worry about regions carrying different game versions, except for the Russian server which will remain ahead by a small margin. On the down side, the Polish language is being dropped.

Having all European and North American players on the same servers will require the client versions to be synchronized; this puts additional pressure on the version preparation – especially on the localization of the new content. Considering all possible risks which may emerge and cause a delay with the upcoming version updates for all players, we had to make a hard decision of not supporting Polish localization starting from v.5.0.00.

Mail.ru is committed to closing the gap between the Russian and global servers, noting in the announcement that the aim is to only have one month difference in updates.

(Source: Mail.ru)

Archlord II Global Server Coming This Summer

Webzen has revealed that Archlord II will launch its global service this summer. The service will launch under gPotato and while there is no date set, a teaser website is already up. Archlord II has struggled in its native home of Korea where the servers have already undergone mergers following a lack of population. Players have criticized the game for launching with a heavy cash shop and pay to win aspects.

Archlord II has received several updates since then to lighten the cash shop.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Allods Online Receives Massive Gold Sink

Allods Online has introduced quite an interesting money sink: Coupons! In a recent post titled Wind of Changes: Closer Look at Pure Soul, the team at gPotato details the new class change coupons. These coupons allow players to change their class, not to mention their gear, race, and appearance, with the click of a button. The catch? The coupons are placed on the auction house once per week, and only one coupon per class is available each week. How much do you really want to change your class? As Jerry Mcguire would say, show me the money!

Join the auction, and keep bidding until you have beaten all competitors! The precious coupon will be yours! Use it and you will be able to obtain a Core Morpher related to the chosen class. Players from the subscription server will receive it via in-game mail, whereas players from the Free-to-play server will acquire the Core Morpher in the Item Shop by redeeming the coupon they won from the Auction House.

Happy bidding.

(Source: Allods Online)

Allods Online’s Subscription Server Is Here

Allods Online is one of the few games to break tradition and transition from a free to play game to an optional subscription. As we reported month’s ago, the free to play title originally launched a separate subscription server in its native Russian host to test the waters. Apparently the service was successful, because gPotato has replicated technology over here in the states. Launching alongside the Everlasting Battle update, the optional subscription server does not allow characters to be transferred from other servers, nor does it include a cash shop of any sort.

For the paltry sum of $15 per month, players will be able to enjoy a server with zero microtransactions. This means no runes, no elixers, no cursed items, no incense, etc. Items including mounts, bags, and pets are available for acquisition from stores and quests, and not only has mob difficulty been toned down to deal with the absence of runes, but player leveling speed has increased 30%. Players who prefer the game’s free to play cash shop portion will find their gameplay unaffected by this new server.

(Source: Allods Online)

Allods Online's Subscription Server Is Here

(Source: Allods Online)

Details On Allods Online Subscription Server

While there is no date currently set for Allods Online’s subscription server, gPotato has come out with a list of new details regarding what will and will not be available to players. As we already know, the cash shop will not be available in subscription Allods at all: This means that items like runes, elixers, strongbox bonuses, and cursed items will be completely removed from the game. Players will enjoy a 30% boost in leveling speed, twice as many stat points per level, and the ability to customize their characters with gold. Bags, mounts, and pets are now rewards from quests and can be purchased with gold, and megaphones will be distributed in small amounts on a weekly basis.

With the removal of Runes, you will be happy to know that mob difficulty on the subscription server will be adjusted. The announcement, including the list of which cash shop items are leaving entirely, can be found at the link below.

(Source: Allods Online)

Allods Online Subscription Server Heading West

Those of you who follow Allods Online still will know that the MMO released a subscription server in the game’s native Russian service. For the cost of a standard MMO subscription, players were able to access the entirety of the game with zero influence from the cash shop. With no cash shop presence, the items previously sold for real money have either been removed completely or added in as drops by monsters or rewards from quests. One other caveat is that while players are able to transfer their subscription server characters over to the free to play servers, they cannot be transferred in the other direction.

Well it appears that the experiment was a rousing success, as gPotato has announced that the same server type will be hitting the west once the next expansion is released. In a Letter from the Producer, Piopico notes that the first priority on the table is the release of the next expansion for Allods Online. Following that release, the team will look at adding in a subscription server. The addition will require a lot of back end work, ensuring that both server types can be accessed from the same client and that the infrastructure will be able to handle the new billing system.

Would you pay $15 a month for an opportunity to play Allods Online with no cash shop?

(Source: Allods Online)

Sevencore Shutting Down

You all remember Sevencore, right? If not, you’ll be saddened to know that gPotato will be shutting down the MMO come April. In a news announcement released today, gPotato explained the shut down as a direct result of the game’s poor performance and developer pulling out.

Today, we regret to inform you that we are shutting down the SEVENCORE service because the developer is no longer able to support the game. SEVENCORE has proved to be less attractive to players than anticipated and thus become unprofitable for the developer to be continued as a game. Without the developer’s support, we see ourselves with no other choice than to close the service, unfortunately.

Players will be relieved to hear that all gPotato Chips spent on the game since the 1st of February will be reimbursed, along with a portion of money spent prior. Along with a few other updates, gPotato is also looking to make the cash shop items free until the game does shut down late April.

We are going to reimburse all gPotato spent between the 1^st of February and today, and between 30% and 75% for purchases prior to this date.
We will close the in-game shop with immediate effect but are looking into an option to make all shop items available for free.
The game service won’t be closed until the end of April.
During the final period of the game, we will boost EXP gain and run various events to make the final weeks as entertaining as possible.
We are currently working on some very interesting offers for all SEVENCORE players if you decide to play one of our many other games. These packages are currently being discussed and finalized once we have all the details we will update you on this topic.

Unfortunately when the developer kicks the bucket, there isn’t much that the publisher can do about it. Sevencore players can at least look forward to some perks coming their way if they choose to go to one of gPotato’s other titles.

(Source: Sevencore)

gPotato Sold To Webzen

Things haven’t been all sunshine and lollipops for Gala Net. In fact, the company has been operating at a notable, and growing, loss for the past four quarters straight. In the most recently released quarterly report, Gala announced an operating profit in the red at -167,145 (thousand JPY). On the heels of this news, MMO Culture has learned that Gala Net’s operations in North American and Europe, as well as Brazil, will be sold off to Webzen. The deal was struck just a few hours ago, and the transaction will take place on February 15th, 2013.

Webzen appears to have picked up Gala Net on the cheap, to boot. According to Reuters, Gala Net was sold for $17.5 million. Gala Net is best known for its publishing of Allods Online, Uncharted Waters, Continent of the Ninth, and more. Webzen has been covered here at MMO Fallout over their publishing of Archlord after Codemasters dropped the title back in 2009. We will have to sit back and see how the two services change as a result of this acquisition, although all likelihood points to gPotato’s games being assimilated into Webzen’s library.

(Source: MMO Culture)

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