Tag: hi-rez

Tribes Ascend “Break Even At Best,” Mod Tools Unlikely


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Erez Goren has posted a letter to the community on the Smite Subreddit/official forum to clear up the “misinformed conclusions” that customers might come to if they look at Hi-Rez’s development history. In case you haven’t been following Hi-Rez Studios, their first game Global Agenda was a major financial loss and Tribes: Ascend, as Hi-Rez’s CEO puts it in the letter, “ended up being break-even at best.” Earlier this year, Hi-Rez Studios announced that development on Tribes: Ascend had come to a close, but revealed that tools were in the works to allow players to create their own maps. Due to the costs of development, however, it is “unlikely” that these tools will ever see release.

Goren goes on to reveal that Hi-Rez had attempted to shop the game to publishers, none of whom were interested due to the game’s niche demographics. Goren goes on to reveal that out of the $30 million in funding, Global Agenda and Tribes have generated $10 million in revenue.

How much did it cost to do the above? At that point I personally funded all the game development with over $30 million of funding (losses) and generated about $10 million in revenue (split fairly evenly between GA and Tribes) so overall we spend about $40 million running the company vs $10 million in revenue.

Smite, on the other hand, has had the pleasure of not just being Hi-Rez’s most popular title, but has grown in revenue and traffic since its launch and continues to grow every month. The team working on Smite has grown from an initial 15 to 80 members, and Hi-Rez has seen interest from outside publishers including Tencent to release the game in China.

(Source: Smite Subforum)

Tribes Ascend "Break Even At Best," Mod Tools Unlikely


e3_globalagenda_domecity

Erez Goren has posted a letter to the community on the Smite Subreddit/official forum to clear up the “misinformed conclusions” that customers might come to if they look at Hi-Rez’s development history. In case you haven’t been following Hi-Rez Studios, their first game Global Agenda was a major financial loss and Tribes: Ascend, as Hi-Rez’s CEO puts it in the letter, “ended up being break-even at best.” Earlier this year, Hi-Rez Studios announced that development on Tribes: Ascend had come to a close, but revealed that tools were in the works to allow players to create their own maps. Due to the costs of development, however, it is “unlikely” that these tools will ever see release.

Goren goes on to reveal that Hi-Rez had attempted to shop the game to publishers, none of whom were interested due to the game’s niche demographics. Goren goes on to reveal that out of the $30 million in funding, Global Agenda and Tribes have generated $10 million in revenue.

How much did it cost to do the above? At that point I personally funded all the game development with over $30 million of funding (losses) and generated about $10 million in revenue (split fairly evenly between GA and Tribes) so overall we spend about $40 million running the company vs $10 million in revenue.

Smite, on the other hand, has had the pleasure of not just being Hi-Rez’s most popular title, but has grown in revenue and traffic since its launch and continues to grow every month. The team working on Smite has grown from an initial 15 to 80 members, and Hi-Rez has seen interest from outside publishers including Tencent to release the game in China.

(Source: Smite Subforum)

Who Needs Proper Forums? Hi-Rez Has Reddit


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I know what you’re thinking: “Omali, forums are for casuals. Hardcore developers prefer to use social networking sites who risk suddenly becoming irrelevant and unpopular.” I know this because that message is tied to a rock and thrown through my bedroom window once or twice a week (email is for casuals). Luckily, Hi-Rez has a close connection to the needs of their community, and not just because their software apparently watches everything you do. Giving twenty four hours notice, Hi-Rez deleted its official forums, directing players toward Hi-Rez’s multiple Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit pages in order to discuss everything from suggestions, show their videos, ask for tech support, shoot the breeze, and more.

And why? I don’t know, Hi-Rez is claiming that this will allow them to better connect with the community and listen to feedback on a level that is impossible with traditional forums. In one post, HiRezDuke states that there is more freedom on Reddit than the T-Rated official forums, begging the question as to why Hi-Rez didn’t simply alter their rules instead of burning the house down. You can check out the Reddit pages for Tribes, SMITE, and Global Agenda. Unless you are reporting bugs in which case you head here. Unless you need tech support in which case you need to contact Hi-Rez directly. Unless you’re reporting hackers on Tribes in which case you have to do it here. And you can find patch notes now hosted on Google Docs.

See? Neat and orderly. Who is to say that this will make Hi-Rez look unprofessional and disorganized, or that it makes the company unappealing to new players, or that it isn’t conducive to maintaining a long term community?

[SMITE] New Single Purchase, All Gods


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Hi-Rez Studios is one of my favorite companies when it comes to the ease of free to play. Earlier this month we saw a Game of the Year edition of Tribes: Ascend release containing all of the weapon, class, and perk unlocks for one price. Following in that model, Hi-Rez has announced a single purchase option for their deity-battling MOBA, SMITE, and boy is it a good one. The SMITE Ultimate God Pack contains all of the 31 gods currently present in the game. To sweeten the deal even more, this pack includes all future god releases as well.

The pack was originally promoted as an immediate unlock of the first thirty SMITE gods, but has been significantly enhanced to include all future gods as well. Players purchasing the pack, including those who purchased it previously, will automatically unlock new gods as soon as they are released into the live game environment. SMITE has been seeing new god releases approximately every two to three weeks.

The god pack costs $29.99 USD. If you have already purchased this package, you will automatically unlock new gods as they are released.

(Source: Hi-Rez Press Release)

Get All Of Tribes: Ascend With A Single Purchase


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Tribes Ascend is enjoying all of the benefits of Hi-Rez Studios’ continued efforts to tweak its free to play model, ensuring that players have access to all of the game content but those that are willing to pay for it aren’t being nickle and dime’d. In response to player feedback, Hi-Rez has announced an upcoming patch for February 15th that will allow players to buy every single weapon, class, and perk in the current game. Non-gameplay affecting items are not included (cosmetics), and VIP players will receive a discount.

If all goes according to plan the single purchase edition will be available this Friday 2/15, along with the upcoming content patch.

No word yet on price, however it is set to be “in the ballpark of other PC shooters.” So possibly around $50-60 for the whole kit and kaboodle.

(Source: Hi-Rez Studios)

SMITE Ultimate God Pack Giveaway And 400 Gems


<b>Entrance is over. The winners shall be revealed in the morning.</b>

Through the power of the internet, I am very happy to present a luck two of you with some great prizes. SMITE is currently in closed beta, and you can grab a closed beta key from our free stuff page here [keys are out] (as well as a copy of DOTA2). SMITE is a DOTA style game set in a battle between gods from Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Norse, and Roman mythology. While the game will be free to play upon release, here is a chance to get your hands on some pricey packs, absolutely free.

MMO Fallout is giving away two packs for SMITE.

  1. Ultimate God Pack ($29.99 USD value)
  2. 400 Gem Pack ($7.99 USD value)

The god pack unlocks 30 total gods, including the 25 current gods and 5 more that will come before release. If you win this pack, they will automatically be activated as they are released. The 400 gem pack contains just that, 400 gems. The rules to enter are simple:

  • Leave a comment with a valid email address and tell us which deity you most look forward to playing as.
  • Leave only one comment.
  • That’s it. Really.

The winner will be chosen on Friday November 16th and the winners will be notified via email. Thanks to the brand new MMO Fallout Super Star Comment System (trademark pending), this should go much better than our previous giveaways. Your comments should be approved immediately by the system. Good luck to everyone, and I will see two of you on Friday.

Remember to follow MMO Fallout here on the website and on Twitter for future giveaways.

Tribes Ascend: Now With More Experience


Tribes: Ascend, the free to play shooter, is great for the very idea that any weapon or upgrade that can be bought with cash can also be purchased by simply playing the game. Granted, by the time you play Tribes: Ascend long enough to unlock every weapon and upgrade, you might be cashing in your retirement check and playing on virtual reality machines.

As part of the June update, Hi-Rez Studios is greatly increasing the rate at which unlocks are obtained. The new system will operate in a manner familiar to sandbox MMO fans: Each piece of equipment has its own experience bar which increases as you use it. To speed up the process even more, you still obtain experience and GP that can be spent on unlocking further upgrades even faster.

Now that Tribes Ascend can (reasonably) be played for free, there is no reason not to jump in and start killing the deserving Sandrakers.

Tribes: Ascend Parodies Dead Rising


Tribes: Ascend has released a new video parodying Dead Rising’s serious trailer. Shazbot!

Hi-Rez has announced an April 12 launch date for the free to play shooter Tribes: Ascend, although anyone can get into the open beta now by heading to the official website.

And Now An Unsolicited Testimonial: Tribes Ascend


Tribes: Ascend is not Tribes Universe, let’s get that out of the way from the start. The game is not the multi-hundred player shooter ala Planetside that Hi-Rez had promised us, that game is currently on hold until development of Tribes: Ascend finishes. Now that we have that out of the way, Tribes Ascend is an upcoming shooter by Hi-Rez, the same guys that made Global Agenda. Billed as free to play from the start, Ascend is offering a rather useful package for those that preorder. The package costs $30, and bequeaths upon you 3,000 Tribes gold ($30 worth), a 30-day booster for experience, tokens, and points ($15 on cash shop) and lifetime VIP status which gives you a permanent boost in said exp/tokens/points, as well as priority access and VIP-only servers.

I love Tribes, and Ascend does an outstanding job of bringing the fast paced action back to its glory days. A third map was added in today, there are currently two game modes (capture the flag and rabbit), with continuous updates as the game progresses through the closed beta phase. I can’t help but be amazed once again at the skill of longtime Tribes players, who are able to use the geometry to move faster than I can keep track of them. They’re like watching someone extremely skilled in Sonic the Hedgehog, the speed at which they can still react fluently is beyond comprehension.

Playing completely free, I have a lot of respect for you. You have access right off the bat to the soldier (with that spinner disc launcher) and a gunner class, but everything else is locked up unless you buy gold coins to unlock the classes, preorder the game to obtain the 3,000 gold to buy the classes, or grind an enormous amount of tokens to unlock the classes for free. Each loadout costs 15,000 tokens to unlock for free, and now that my character is halfway through level 5, with the added VIP bonus, I’ve achieved around 1,200 tokens.

If you’ve been playing Tribes, odds are we’ve come across one another (my username is Omali). I’ve come across familiar faces quite a bit, especially since I tend to play in the off-hours. Otherwise, check out my Twitter page to see how you can nab a beta key.

Hi-Rez Announces SMITE


In a press release today, Hi-Rez has announced the development of SMITE, a free to play, arena based combat game set in the mythological sector of gaming. According to the press release, the game will be a DoTA-style RTS, created on the Unreal 3 engine, and will provide much of the same mechanics in games like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth (stats, matchmaking, etc).

“At this point we already have a really fun playable version of SMITE and we look forward to sharing additional details about the project in the coming months”

More on SMITE as it appears.

[Source: Hi-Rez Email]