Some out of protest, others maybe out of necessity.
Tag: Russia
Steam: Attempted Review Bomb Backfires Greatly
This War Of Mine flooded with support.
Continue reading “Steam: Attempted Review Bomb Backfires Greatly”
World of Tanks Russian Chat “Breaks”
Russian Icarus Online Shut Down
Lord of the Rings Online Says Dasvidaniya To Russia
Russian gamers will be sad to learn that the local Lord of the Rings Online servers will be shutting down on June 1st. Mail.ru, the publisher of Lord of the Rings in Russia, was either unable or unwilling to renew their license with Warner Bros. and as a result the service is coming to an end. To end the game on a high note, players will be able to visit a tavern where they can level up and obtain equipment, talents, and more.
In addition, everything in the cash shop has had its price reduced to one mark, although new player registration and adding money to accounts has already been disabled. Mail.ru is planning on offering bonuses for several of their other games: Allods Online, Perfect World, and Dragon Nest.
(Source: www.lotro-russia.com)
Economic Trouble Leads To Steam Trade Restrictions
As the Ruble continues to plummet in value, tech giants are taking notice. In a notice released to the public by Steam Database, Valve has region locked all new purchases made by Steam accounts made by Russian players. While the games may be gifted or traded to players in the same region, they will not be able to transfer the games to those outside of Russia. The region locking is a common response by Valve to prevent people from taking advantage of economic turmoil to buy games at a lower price, and currently includes Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, South America, Turkey, and Southeast Asia.
Apple recently announced that they will be halting online sales in Russia.
(Source: SteamDB)
ArcheAge Says Dosvidanya To Non-Russian Players
ArcheAge is a long time coming to the west, so long in fact that dedicated players decided to forego the wait and jump on board the Russian servers hosted by Mail.ru. Hopefully none of them have spent a lot of money on the game, as Mail.ru has announced that access to the servers will be restricted to gamers in Russia and former Soviet states. The IP block was requested by XL Games and provides no details on whether or not players who have already invested money only to be blocked will be able to receive any sort of refund or compensation.
If only Mikhail Gorbachev were here to tear down this wall.
(Source: Announcement)
Infographic: Russian Digital Game Market
Lessons From 2013 #6: A Rift Between Regions
This year taught me that Trion Worlds isn’t all too enthusiastic about overseas endeavors. Over the course of 2013, Rift announced its impending shuttering in China, Korea, and Russia, but what caught my eye wasn’t that the game was shutting down, but why. In early October when Shanda Games announced that Rift would be shutting down in China, the publisher put the blame mostly on Trion Worlds. Xiangdong Zhang, CEO of Shanda Games, pointed to Trion and accused them of not responding to requests for localized content, leading to a lack of updates that harmed the game’s ability to keep customers. Later that month, Belver shut down the servers for Rift in China. In their announcement, Belver also noted that Trion Worlds refused to support the localized version.
The lesson here is not to localize Rift.
Two MMOs Moving Overseas, Just Not Your Seas
Who wants an extra helping of disappointment today? Two MMOs are progressing into new territories, but judging by MMO Fallout’s metrics, they still aren’t coming to your territories. Mail.ru has announced that the closed beta for ArcheAge is set to start in December. Some of you may recall that mail.ru caught some heat over their planned payment system. Players were able to successfully petition the company to change their plans and adopt the Korean model.
Meanwhile, Blade & Soul’s open beta is set to begin next week in China. The open beta client is already available for download and the servers reportedly will not have an IP block, allowing anyone in who feels like joining up.
(Source: Massively.com)
MMO Fallout 