26 April 2011 | |
Mordil
Returning from a winter hiatus, the Live Cast is back with another episode to cover the past few months of gaming news. Tune in here to watch it live on Saturday, April 30th at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST).
Below is the agenda we have planned, but always keep in mind that what we discuss may ebb and flow according to what you, the viewers, dictate. See you then!
Whatcha Been Playin?
Kyle: World of Warcraft, Mafia 2, Dungeons and Dragons (Pathfinder), Dragon Age 2, Magic: The Gathering, Lord of the Rings Online
Nathan: World of Warcraft, Shakes and Fidget, Battlestar Galactica Online(BSGO), Dead Frontier
General
- Minecraft update includes weather(snow, thunder, rain), statistics, achievements, booster rails, detector rail, and performance improvements
World of Warcraft
- 4.1 impressions
- Feelings on Zandalari Tribe themed patch
- Overall playerbase feelings of Cataclysm
Starcraft II
- Season 2 is live (Mordil is still in the Bronze League — make fun of him!)
- New achievements added for Blizzard-made Custom Maps (Left2Die, Auir Chef, and Starjeweled)
Continue Reading
9 February 2011 | |
iTZKooPA
There’s a really good chance that you missed this bit of news from last week. I did, and I tend to follow companies that develop games I enjoy so much. Tencent Holdings, predominately a Chinese Internet service company, has acquired a majority stake in Riot Games, the creator of the F2P battle arena game League of Legends. Tencent reportedly paid $350 million to buy out other venture capitalists and put itself in a great position to soak up all of Riot’s money as it continues to innovate its genre.
Obviously, I believe that Riot Games has found a winning formula. The company releases new content weekly, be it champions or the occasional map reskin (which is entertaining for some reason). It levies the new champions against skin sales to generate revenue. A scheme that has cleaned the moths out of many a friends’ pockets. It employs daily rewards for the first win to keep us coming back and has an incredibly deep universe for a game that has no open world. It’s no shock that a company was willing to pay nine figures for a piece of that action. Considering its growth – the company has been on a hiring spree since LoL launched in late 2009 – the profits haven’t peaked yet.
If only I had $351 million… Continue Reading
13 September 2010 | |
Ronix
The current atmosphere in the MMO industry is one of fierce competitiveness. Developers have slowly opened up to experiments with pricing models, new settings and gameplay mechanics just to make their game stand out from the slew of new entries on the market, as well as established franchises in the genre. In the midst of all the marketing blitz and new announcements, it is easy to forget titles that never made it to release or were abandoned shortly after. But, for the people who followed them with enthusiasm, the cancellation of these games felt like a real fiasco.
Today, we take a look at some of the MMOs that were canned at various stages of development and were never given the opportunity to prove themselves.
Halo Online
At first, there were only rumors circulating that Ensemble studios was making an MMO based on the Halo universe. Then, several art assets surfaced on the net, and the eager rumor machine shifted gears. The project codenamed ‘Titan’ had a projected $90 million budget and the support of an experienced development team. As one former Ensemble employee noted, the game was geared to be a real competitor to World of Warcraft. So what caused Microsoft to shut down a game that was based on one of the most popular IPs in gaming? Apparently, they looked at the success of Nintendo Wii and the money brought in by the casual market, and decided that appealing to this audience was a key priority for the company’s gaming direction. How was that related to Halo Online? Beats me.
There are so many possibilities and visions of what a Halo MMO could have been, but all is not lost. A while ago, Microsoft stated that they have several teams working on Halo related projects at any given time, so there is still a chance the title will be resurrected in one form or another. One can only hope.
Ultima Online 2
Continue Reading
17 August 2010 | |
iTZKooPA
Major Nelson tweeted that there would be news from Microsoft at Gamescom 2010, but I don’t think anyone expected this. Microsoft officially announced that the company is working on Age of Empires Online. Where the heck were the unsubstantiated rumors, fifteen-minutes-of-fame leakers and NDA breakers?
AoEO – the acronym I am starting that is pronounced “AhOhweYO” – will feature co-op questing, trading and leveling all wrapped in a storyline and new art style. The title will offer free gameplay using the Games for Windows PC platform.
Microsoft has made numerous attempts to create a successful MMOG, but has never stuck it out. The company famously canned True Fantasy Live Online for Xbox 360 even though it was near completion. It gave up on Marvel Universe Online with Cryptic Studios (the title eventually became Champions Online), and sold Asheron’s Call to developer Turbine Entertainment after five years. Most famously, it closed Ensemble Studios, creator of Age of Empires (AoE/AoE2 + expansions for $9!), during development of an unannounced Halo MMOG.
[Update]
Microsoft saw my headline and responded in kind. According to CVG, a large portion of Ensemble staffers are working on the project. “I’d say about 75% of the team have worked on Age of Empires before,” Microsoft Game Studios GM, Dave Luehmann said. “So it’s the core team that you can feel comfortable with and who are well skilled with Age [of Empires].”
Enough of a history lesson, on to the media. You can view the trailer here, or check out the screenshot gallery below.
