Aion: Ascension Goes F2P April 11th

Posted on Mar 15, 2012

NCSoft today announced that the free-to-play version of Aion will be launching on April 11th.  Aion will be truely F2P, with no content restrictions or account tiers. The highly anticipated update 3.0, called Aion: Ascension will bring with it two new systems, C.U.B.E and the Atreian Atlas. C.U.B.E, which stands for Customizable User Bundling Experience, is

Guild Wars 2 Gets One Million Beta Signups in 48 hrs

Posted on Feb 24, 2012

In just over 48 hrs, ArenaNet received 1 million beta signup to its closed beta testing phase. It is quite the milestone, but does that really mean anything anymore? Over the last few years, just about every triple A title has hit the million beta signup mark including: Age of Conan, SWTOR, Warhammer Online, Aion,

Aion EU Free-to-Play coming Feb 28th

Posted on Feb 23, 2012

Today, Gameforge revealed that the EU version of Aion will be going free-to-play on February 28th. Subscriptions will cease, and players will need to download a new client if they wish to continue playing after that date.  Players with active subscription’s lasting past Feb 28th will received premium currency as compensation. Update 3.0, however, will not be

Aion: A Nostalgic Picture Diary

Posted on May 20, 2011

“A thousand devs of the NCsoft empire descend upon you. Their nerfs will blot out the sun.” “Then we shall QQ in the shade.” It has been recently announced that the long-awaited Aion 2.5 patch has arrived on the Player Test Server.  The new patch will bring additional content in the form of PvE instances,

Hi-Rez Slashes Global Agenda Price, Sales Going To Japanese Relief; NCSoft Donates $6.3M

Posted on Mar 18, 2011

Normally, Lore Hound doesn’t act as a PR siren. We strive to start discussions, highlight the highs and lows of the industry, ask tough questions, showcase upcoming escapist activities and entertain. Even posts on general MMOG news come with Op-Ed tropes. But what happened in Japan last week is anything but normal. To that effect,

Rift vs. TERA: They’re Different Games!

Posted on Feb 04, 2011

MMORPG gamers have two important four letter words that they’re becoming intimately familiar with. No, STFU, it’s not those. The two “words” are Rift and TERA, fantasy MMORPGs set for release during 2011. Same genre, business model (subscription) and release year are bad enough, but when you add in the fact that both titles are

PAX Prime 2010: Photos (Day 1)

Posted on Sep 04, 2010

For those who cannot survive without PAX Prime content: Never fear. Mordil has saved the day by living near PAX, and having nothing better to do but upload photos after a day at the convention. Some of you may not follow iTZKooPA on twitter, but apparently there were some difficulties with getting the videos posted

Know Thy Blogger: Ronix Exposed

Posted on Aug 20, 2010

After a gentle nudge from iTZKooPA, I figured it’s about time to properly introduce myself to the Lore Hound community. As a fellow gamer and an avid disciple of the MMO genre, I am excited to have this opportunity to share my views and experiences with a wide range of opinionated people. I often find

What is the Price of (Not) Trusting a Game Developer?

Posted on Aug 17, 2010

StarCraft 2 recently came out and sold one million units on day one. Analysts predict that this figure will increase somewhere between five to seven million units sold by December 2010, and those estimates are conservative. When faced with this information, people often shrug and say something to the effect of, “It’s Blizzard, what did