Tag: Perfect World Entertainment

This Week In Launches: Dual Wielding Shotguns


Happy days are here! November 20th has come and gone, and left us with a little early Christmas present. Over on the browser side, Jagex has finally unleashed the Evolution of Combat. After five months of strenuous beta testing, the update went live on servers Tuesday to some mixed but mostly positive reactions by the community. Along with the new ability bar (and abilities), Evolution of Combat overhauls the combat formula, changing the way everything from weapons, armor, and NPCs work. Players are now able to dual wield weapons as well.

Over on the Sony Online front, Planetside 2 is live and running. Players are fighting on three factions over three continents in an endless tug of war over territory control. You can download Planetside 2 on Steam for easier access, the game is free to play with a cash shop and optional subscription. Planetside 2 brings three factions and thousands of players together to fight in massive, multi-hour battles over large portions of land and resources. The game does require a decent computer to play, so make sure you check out the requirements if your rig is dated.

Finally, RaiderZ has launched today (the 21st). I have a review coming soon, but to sum it up: RaiderZ is a lot like a free to play version of TERA, with a few alterations to flavor thrown in the mix. A free to play game with a cash shop, RaiderZ emphasizes on action-based combat, where you’ll have to be active in dodging your opponent’s attacks and coming back with your own. The game is supported by a cash shop and published by Perfect World Entertainment.

Neverwinter Delayed To Early 2013


Neverwinter is still alive. Announced back in 2010, Neverwinter has been thrown out as the MMO that Champions Online and Star Trek Online never were (polished). With all of the past events at Cryptic Studios, being discontinued by Atari and then sold off to Perfect World Entertainment, having their new executives delay the title until late 2012 so the game could have some polish and content, and then revising the game to be a full fledged MMO, the idea of Neverwinter being delayed a couple of times isn’t all too alien.

So Neverwinter has been delayed once again, the new release date being “early 2013,” when it will launch with a free to play business model.

(Source: Eurogamer)

Lockboxes Illegal? Cryptic Would Rather Dump Your Country


It’s been almost two years since Bill Roper has had anything to do with Cryptic Studios, but with some of the recent money-related decisions made by the developer, you would never know he’d left. Not long ago, Cryptic introduced lockboxes, cash shop items that have the chance at offering valuable items to the players who buy them. Apparently the lockboxes constitute gambling in some countries, including the Netherlands, and according to several users on the Star Trek Online forums, are being investigated by various government bodies.

And if your laws do prohibit such gambling, Cryptic’s Borticus wants you to know that Cryptic is listening. Not so the company can react, just so they know which country to ban.

I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.

And I know what you’re thinking, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about for Cryptic’s bottom line. Your money wasn’t really that significant anyway.

Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.

And sure, some people might point out that Cryptic’s past monetary decisions didn’t prevent the company from posting six to seven figure losses, leading to them being dumped on the streets by Atari, but those people are missing an important point: Cryptic asked for your money, not your opinion.

(Source: Jupiter Force forums)

Star Trek Online Early Access Begins January 5th


Set your sonic screwdriver to maximum extermination! Sorry, wrong franchise. As announced last year, Star Trek is Cryptic’s second title to make the transition to free to play, although the wait may feel like forever and a day. If only there was a way for Cryptic to allow past subscribers a chance to get into the game before the full launch and before all the new free players mob the server, so perhaps jaded ex-subscribers can get a decent look at how the game has evolved without server queues, crashes, and lag.

Well I have an answer to your oddly specific request: You can. Starting January 5th, Cryptic will reactivate all existing accounts to enjoy the splendor that is travel across the galaxy. You have to have purchased the game at some point, however. Trial players are not included in this offer.

You can check out the free to play matrix to see what will be available when the update goes live tomorrow.

(Source: Dev Blog)

(Free to play matrix)

Video of the ___: Neverwinter Trailer


Is anyone else excited for Neverwinter primarily for the opportunity to create custom dungeons and stories? I hope Cryptic makes a trailer showing off the custom tools next.

Without Reservations: Neverwinter Will Be Full Fledged MMO


It’s amazing how time flies. Fourteen months ago, Cryptic announced what we all knew: A Neverwinter Nights non-MMO game that wasn’t an MMO was being developed as a completely non-MMO coop online, but not massively, multiplayer game that isn’t an MMO. With how in-your-face Cryptic was on reminding us that the upcoming game was not an MMO, a lot of questions were asked. With Atari just recently (at the time) coming out of a lawsuit against Turbine and the settlement papers locked behind closed doors, it appeared to make sense that Atari could continue its Neverwinter game, but could not call it an MMO.

Apparently Perfect World Entertainment, now that Atari doesn’t have the licensing rights to D&D anymore, does not have those same reservations, or the conditions are different, or some other factor we’ll never find out about, because following the news that Neverwinter will be delayed until 2012 to better adjust it, the game is now being touted as a full MMO. It will be an action-based MMO similar to Vindictus or (I’m going to be stabbed for this) Dungeons and Dragons Online, and will likely keep Cryptic’s original vision of session-based gameplay.

You can read the rest of the article here.

 

 

Star Trek Online Heading Free To Play


Tell me you didn’t see that one coming? The blokes over at Seeking Alpha have posted an earning’s call with Perfect World Entertainment’s CEO, who has revealed that Star Trek Online will be heading free to play by the end of the year.

And also Star Trek Online, after the acquisition, in fact Cryptic is working on the free-to-play model for Star Trek Online. This is going to be launched by the end of this year as well. So I think free-to-play model we have a bigger potential in US market and also in China market. Thank you.

Kelvin Lau also dropped the release expectation for the Torchlight MMO:

Torchlight from Runic, as mentioned, I think the MMORPG version is going to be – is scheduled to be launched in late 2012 or early 2013, okay?

Yet another MMO going free to play, although it wasn’t like we didn’t see this coming long before Cryptic was ever acquired by Perfect World Entertainment.

Neverwinter Delayed, Atari Loses Rights To D&D

So many questions answered. The Atari Vs Hasbro lawsuit, who is developing Neverwinter, and what does this mean for Cryptic Studios?


A very long-awaited news line comes to a close today: Atari and Hasbro have settled their lawsuit and Atari has come out the loser in the deal. As announced on Gamespot today, Hasbro is regaining full rights to the digital licensing from Atari, meaning Atari will no longer be able to license Dungeons and Dragons games. As part of the settlement, Atari will still be able to sell and develop a selection of D&D games, from Daggerdale to an upcoming Facebook game.

Neverwinter is the other half of the lawsuit, especially considering the sale of Cryptic Studios to Perfect World Entertainment left a lot of questions unanswered. Did the game transfer with Cryptic? If not, who would develop it? Neverwinter now carries a “late 2012” release date, attributed to Perfect World Entertainment’s desire to invest in a more immersive experience.

The year delay hopefully signals that Perfect World Entertainment won’t be tolerating Cryptic’s habit of game development: Short development cycles that produced products that ultimately lack content and polish. With legal issues out of the way, hopefully development of Neverwinter can resume to its full extent.

My Security Idea Affirmed By Perfect World Entertainment


Back in April, I talked about how to end security issues for a good number of users, and my largest point was the separation of anything that could be compromised along with a computer. Assuming Trion’s figure that 80% of account thefts are via keylogger is correct, the company must assume that a person’s email address is compromised as well, and retrieving a frozen account should not be doable via email. Instead, I suggested offering phone services, like Blizzard and a few other companies do now. In order to protect the account before it is stolen, companies employ a variety of methods. Authenticators, on-screen PIN, computer authentication, etc. Now, my issue with this is that the phone services offered to us without smart phones is lacking, really only applicable once the account is already gone. My idea was similar to Trion’s coin lock, except instead of sending you an email, you register a phone number with your account upon creation and you will receive either a text or a robo-call with the code.

Looking through wikis for Perfect World Entertainment’s games, I found a security feature for Perfect World:

As a prevention system against account hackers, Perfect World has a Phone Lock feature for those who wish to use it. The Phone Lock, when activated, will freeze an account until the player of that account dials in using the registered phone number. Once the number is recognized, the account is temporarily activated for login. The player must login within 10 minutes of activation before the account login is frozen again. The player may continue to play despite the freeze. If the player logs out after the 10 minutes are up, that player must once again dial in to temporarily deactivate the Phone Lock. The phone lock feature is exclusive to the Chinese Malaysian version of the game.

This is a nice idea, but cumbersome in the long run. Personally, I prefer my idea of one-time activation for a computer with per-login activation (for people who use internet cafes) given as a strictly optional option. This does at least show that I’m not the only one thinking about how phones are a better source of account safety than computers and email alone.

Perfect World Entertainment Buys Cryptic Studios


Talk about the pitcher beating the runner with his own baseball bat. Following the announcement this month that Atari was divesting itself of Cryptic Studios and selling off the developer, Gamut News is reporting that Perfect World Entertainment has purchased 100% of the minds behind Champions Online and Star Trek Online.

Under the stock purchase agreement, Perfect World will pay an aggregate purchase price of approximately EUR35.0 million in cash, subject to working capital and other adjustments as provided in the agreement. The consummation of the transactions contemplated in the agreement is subject to satisfaction of closing conditions.

Perfect World Entertainment has been making quite an effort to break into the American/European markets, and this acquisition looks to be their golden ticket. The big question on a lot of minds is whether or not Neverwinter Online is transitioning with Cryptic, or if Atari plans on taking the IP back and licensing it to a different firm. Furthermore, this also raises interest in what Atari’s next quarter will bring financially, with the removal of Cryptic Studios.

Can anyone else say free to play Star Trek Online?