It’s been another great week here at LoreHound. More PAX interviews have appeared, we’ve had a few exclusives, and there’s even been some game industry mudslinging. I was terribly excited to see news about Torchlight 2, and I’m sure there’s even more excitement about Diablo 3. I won’t be playing either game as I’ve got weekend plans, but I’m sure between TERA and Diablo 3 there’ll be lots of beta testing going on this weekend.
This week seems to have flown by so quickly! Maybe it’s because I’ve been sleeping through a nasty flu, or wasting lots of time on The Secret War. Actually, given that I’m ranked #2 for my state on the leaderboards, I’d say I’ve been wasting entirely too much time on The Secret War. What can I say, I’ve got not-so-hidden dreams of world conquest, although I’ve been contenting myself with doing my best to keep Brasil and China in the hands of the Dragons. In any event, I feel like no time has passed at all since I wrote last week’s rundown. But enough about me, I’m sure the week’s news is much more interesting!
itZKooPA talked about the new content patch in Champions Online, and how it put the game back on his radar.
PAX East Interview with Victor Kislyi , CEO of Wargaming.net about the upcoming flying MMO World of Warplanes. If you want to take to the skies, there’ll be a public beta in June!
Mike told us about Yet Another Free SWTOR Weekend. How many of these do they plan on having? I agree with Mike, they should just get it over with and open up a fulltime free trial.
I was excited to see the launch of The Secret War, the Facebook app that’s paired with The Secret World, and discussed the unexpected success that shut it down for a few hours. My wild speculations turned me into a laughingstock – I honestly expected the app would be down for days or weeks instead of hours!
TERA‘s open beta weekend kicked of yesterday. Everyone can play this weekend, even if you’ve not purchased the game.
SWTOR‘s subscription numbers may be declining, according to analyst group Cowen and Company.
Bluehole Studios called NCSoft a corporate bully, and said they won’t back down. TERA will be released, even if they have to fearlessly stomp through the grist of rumors and lawsuits.
PAX Interview with Stefan Ramirez of Bluehole Studios. iTZKoopa got the scoop on how the “holy trinity” will play out in TERA, as well as more details about the lauded political system.
The Diablo 3 open beta stress test weekend is underway, allowing anyone to get their hands on the game. I haven’t had much interest in this, but I’ll admit to being slightly disappointed it’s this weekend when I won’t be at home to play.
PARTY!! It’s the five-year anniversary of Lord of the Rings Online, and iTZKooPA spoke with Aaron Campbell, Senior Producer of LotRO, about the exciting events happening within the game to celebrate. Fireworks, mounts and costumes are just a few of the goodies available during the festivities.
In the only embargoed interview of the year to date, iTZKooPA stood up with Aaron Campbell, Senior Producer of LotRO, to discuss the title’s unprecedented festival. Created to celebrate the MMORPG’s amazing five-year anniversary, the gather is the largest celebration in LotRO’s history. Developer Turbine Entertainment took the issue to heart and created the largest event for an anniversary in its history.
Fireworks, unique mounts and costumes are just some of the additions. Most interesting is the veteran’s reward system, granting those that have been in it for the long haul much more grandiose rewards than a player that joined when the title went free-to-play.
Festival gifts, activities, rewards and more are discussed and shown below the cut.
The latest major content update to Lord of the Rings Online went live today, Update 6: Shores of the Great River, and with it, the official update trailer.
Below, you can read some of the major new additions and changes to the game, and after the jump you can view the full trailer.
The Great River Region Travel along the shores of the mighty Anduin in the expansive new region coming in Update 6! The signs of war are all around you as Isengard and Barad-dûr put their dark plans into motion. Push back the Easterlings, dangerous brigands and an ancient enemy of Rohan, as they gather for an attack on Rohan and Lórien. Explore seven new areas along the upper Anduin including the green plains of Parth Celebrant where treacherous shades roam, unable to rest.
The Great River region is free to VIPs!
Epic Story The latest chapter in LOTRO’s free Epic Story awaits! Travel to Lothlórien to seek Galadriel’s wisdom after experiencing troubling dreams. Investigate the grim tidings along the Great River, but be prepared as the evidence may point to a foe more terrible than your darkest nightmares.
Soldier on Landscape Get the helping hand you need with LOTRO’s new Soldier on Landscape! This new feature allows you to summon your faithful skirmish companion in the field. Customize your skirmish solider to help you tackle even the toughest challenges!
Instance Finder Update You spoke, we listened, and now we’re making Instance Finder better than ever! Instance Finder will soon allow you to queue for the specific instances and skirmishes that you want to do. You can also choose to change loot rules and remove players with a fellowship vote. The rewards are being enhanced, too, granting additional XP for skirmish completion and scaling currency bonuses for when you queue for a larger range of instances.
The good thing about being a public company is that they have to release their subscription and sales numbers, so while we can only guess how many subscribers games like RIFT and LOTRO have, we only have to wait for a quarterly report for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
It seems SWTOR did better than EA expected, the numbers are below then some interesting Q&As during the conference call.
2,000,000+ copies sold – 40% sold through Origin
1,700,000+ active subscribers – 1 million concurrent
Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying? A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point
Q: You’ve previously said you need about a half million subscribers to be profitable, is that still the case? A: At 500,000 subscribers, we’d break even. At a million, we’d be making a profit but nothing worth writing home about. As it scales up from there, we’re talking about a nice profit. At this point with the successful launch, we can take the worst case scenarios off the table.
With well over a million pre-orders, I have to say these numbers are not at all surprising. What will be interesting to see is which direction these numbers go next quarter and how many players they will retain. Then I’ll have something to write about.
Everyone fan of The Lord Of The Rings and its online version can rejoice as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Turbine announced a new expansion for The Lord Of The Rings Online. Unlike its sister game from Turbine, this is the fourth expansion to this ever-growing game. This expansion is slated for a release in the fall of 2012.
This new expansion is going to be called Riders Of Rohan and will bring the player base to the vast plains of Rohan, which will include the areas of Amon Hen and Fangorn Forest. Besides going to these iconic areas, max character level will increase to level 85. Other aspects to get players excited; players are going to be able to join up with the Rohirrim and with the addition of mounted combat, it makes for one good combination.
It will be interesting to see how Turbine pulls off the mounted combat in such an old engine.
The announcement brought along a new logo (right). You can read the official announcement after the jump. Continue Reading
Today’s episode of Lore Cast is a mild spoiler kind. Mordil and Beararms are accompanied today by none other than Mrs. Mordil herself, as Sephalon. The majority of the conversation is of Star Wars: The Old Republic and what we’ve been doing, so it counts for today and Wednesday’s episode.
Note: Mordil was getting ahead of himself and spoke incorrectly during the video. It IS indeed, episode 5, and not 6.
Enjoy! As always, the agenda of the conversation is down below the jump.
Rolling around the prefabricated wall to the other half of Turbine’s booth, Executive Producer Aaron Campbell schools iTZKooPA on Rise of Isengard, the upcoming expansion for Lord of the Rings Online. He learns where the epic storyline is progressing, details on the new social hub, the removal of stat caps, aspects of the largest raid in the game’s history and so much more.
Now that the Pre-E3 blues are gone, Beararms and Mordil are here to talk eagerly about this year’s biggest gaming convention in the Americas month’s MMO industry news.
See what toy they’re now using to keep track of the agenda, rather than that clunky and attention-stealing laptop here, or on our Facebook / Livestream page. Below the video is our topics for today.
Reminder: it starts at 11 AM PDT (2PM EDT).
Whatcha Been Playin?
Kyle: L.A Noire, Rift, Oblivion, Portal 2, Magic: The Gathering, Forsaken World
Nathan: Shakes and Fidget, Pathfinder, Starcraft II, Angry Birds / Hex Empire Continue Reading
