Posts Tagged ‘zenimax’

Put Your Peepers on The First 20 Minutes of The Elder Scrolls Online

15 April 2013 | No Comments » | iTZKooPA

Our exclusive interview on The Elder Scrolls Online not deliver enough details on the highly-anticipated core MMORPG coming from ZeniMax Online for you? Well, the folks at The Escapist tracked down the first twenty minutes of leaked gameplay.

The footage kicks off at the character creation screen that offers a wide range of customization options. It also displays nine (current) playable races and only three classes. It then dives into the clearly beta gameplay. Plopping gamers on a ship without rhyme, reason or much explanation. Then you’re off on FedEx and Kill 10 Rats quests.

The actual gameplay is quite similar to everything experienced at recent trade shows and discussed in our interview. Right down to the opening scenario. That is, you’re effectively playing a multiplayer-based Skyrim, that, at times, can feel very lonely to your experienced MMOG player.

The original video was pulled from YouTube over the weekend. Nothing disappears on the Internet. The full 20 minutes was quickly rehosted over at Riot Pixels. There’s no embed code that I can see, so you’ll have to view it the old-fashioned way.

The Elder Scrolls Online Beta Sign-ups, New Trailer Live

22 January 2013 | 1 Comment » | iTZKooPA

First things first. You can sign-up for a shot at The Elder Scrolls Online beta access here. ZeniMax Online points out that the more optional information you’re willing to provide, the higher the chance you have at gaining beta access. Methinks being older and of the female persuasion may provide additional roll bonuses, but that’s a complete guess. Definitely provide your computer specs with DxDiag though.

Coupled with the ability to sign up for a chance to play TESO, the company has released a new trailer focusing on Alliances. A fantastic trailer set in a fantasy world with swords and sorcery, there’s very little specific details or information to connect the 5+ minute CGI video to the massive universe of The Elder Scrolls.

That’s probably a bad attribute. Check it after the cut and be sure to leave your opinion on the matter. Continue Reading

Thank You Zenimax for Letting Me (and Everyone) Know Elder Scrolls Online Will Suck

30 May 2012 | 11 Comments » | Mike

I’d just like to take the time to thank the developers and PR team behind Elder Scrolls Online for letting me know ahead of time that it’ll be horrible, and that I don’t need to waste my time, nor get my hopes up.

It seems Zenimax is taking a page out of BioWare’s playbook, but didn’t realize BioWare’s lost the game. Fully voiced NPCs, solo story-line, typical MMO tab-targeting combat system, and a separate zone for PvP; can someone please alert Zenimax to tell them they’re making a horrible mistake? This design formula is the expected ruler (the measurement one, not the monarchist one) by the market for the industry. What makes the “next WoW’ is something that bends the ruler to make another, different formula.

What’s even worse is that game director Matt Firor just did an interview with Edge-Online talking about public dungeons as if they were some ancient game mechanic that hasn’t been seen in MMORPGs for years.  Non-instanced dungeons!? Geez, this sounds like the greatest MMORPG ever made (/sarcasm)! Is he serious? There are literally dozens of MMORPGs that released in the last few years without instanced dungeons.

From a team made-up of some ex Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot developers, I can’t believe how horrible ESO sounds so far. They don’t even have a hook yet. What separates ESO from the pack? Is their big selling point, “Hey, it’s an Elder Scroll MMO“? I haven’t heard one thing that’s unique yet; and in this market, the first impression is everything.

Having been an Elder Scrolls fan for over a decade – I only missed experiencing TES 2 - my excitement for this title shot-up through the roof, only to plunge down within minutes of reading the details; but at least they’re upfront about it. So again, thank you for letting me know that ESO will suck, Zenimax.

Elder Scrolls Fans Grumble at MMO Announcment…Really?

4 May 2012 | 6 Comments » | Mike

Yesterday, ZeniMax announced that the many rumors of an Elder Scrolls MMO were true, and officially announced The Elder Scrolls Online, only to be met with fan backlash. The main reason being, that fans believe that Bethesda will be less likely to release another single-player Elder Scroll game, since they do not want to compete with themselves.

While Bethesda is owned by ZeniMax, they are two separate development studios; with ZeniMax developing the Elder Scrolls MMO, and Bethesda doing what it normally does. As a MMORPG gamer first, and Elder Scroll fan second, I don’t see a conflict of interest.  A single-player RPG and a MMORPG are not in the same market. It’s like World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3, one’s a RTS game, and the other a MMORPG. Both can exist at the same time without affecting the other.

One comment on the Bethesda blog stated,

Please say this won’t indefinitely post-pone the release of the next real TES title, the way World of Warcraft has indefinitely put Warcraft 4 on hold.

This user is failing to see that  Warcraft 4 was not put on hold for WoW, but for Starcraft 2. Both are RTS games that do compete in the same market. A single-player RPG is no more of a threat to a MMORPG than any other single-player game.

The only issue I could see is that Bethesda wouldn’t want to saturate and cheapen the Elder Scrolls name by releasing too many games around the same time. However, considering that the Elder Scrolls RPGs normally have a 4-5 year development cycle, we won’t see Elder Scrolls VI for at least another 3-4 years anyway. Elder Scrolls Online has a release date of 2013, which provides a big enough buffer that it probably won’t have any affect on the next Elder Scrolls RPG release date anyway.

Regardless, I can’t wait to learn more about Elder Scrolls Online.

$350 Million for a Majority Share of League of Legends’ Money, I Mean Developer

9 February 2011 | No Comments » | 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