Jon-Van-Caneghem
Latest
Command & Conquer site is back up, Victory Games confirmed as new dev
Oops! After a premature publication of the new commandandconquer.com earlier this week, which spoiled the whole surprise, EA's finally ready to re-reveal the news that its created a new studio – following in the wake of studio rebrandings like Visceral Games and Danger Close – to handle all things Command & Conquer. Victory has offices in Los Angeles – home of EALA, the former studio brand responsible for C&C, following the acquisition of Westwood – Austin, and Shanghai and is led by former Trion CCO Jon Van Caneghem. "Victory Games was created to be the focal point for the creation of strategy games for the Games Label at EA," Caneghem said. "Our current focus is making a AAA Command & Conquer game, which I am very excited to be working on." While Caneghem didn't have much more to add regarding that game – it's "for the PC" but Victory's "not yet at a stage where [it] can go into any details" – he did say that the studio's mandate "the future of Command & Conquer" and that this work on this first game will help "create a stable base for future development." If you're a C&C fan, it sounds like EA's not through with the franchise by a long shot.
Rumor: New Command & Conquer site goes live, disappears
Electronic Arts apparently flipped the switch on a new Command and Conquer website today before intended, deciding shortly after that it wasn't too keen on sharing it with the world. Rock Paper Shotgun spotted the site, which announced the project is being developed by EA's newly dubbed Victory Games, a collaboration between three studios in Los Angeles, Texas and Shanghai. Victory Games will apparently be headed by Jon Van Caneghem, an executive who "transitioned out" of his role as Trion World Networks president and chief creative officer in April of 2009. According to RPS, before the information was pulled, there was an "interview" with Caneghem on the site that noted the new title was for PC and that a formal announcement was coming later this year. We'll likely get more details when EA commands the web team to conquer the publish button.
Trion asks president and CCO to try on new career
We received a rather inflammatory anonymous tip about Trion World Networks and the current state of the company, but the only piece we feel comfortable in sharing is that President and Chief Creative Officer Jon Van Canegham has been let go from the company. We followed up and an official representative for the MMO publisher informed us that Canegham has "transitioned out" and no longer has "any operational responsibilities" -- his creative and operational roles have been distributed among the senior team. Find the full statement after the break.On paper, Trion World Networks is doing quite well, having raised $100 million in capital and announcing this week that it has joined the ESA. The company will allegedly show its first title at E3, but that's just "rumor and speculation" for now.
Over $100 million invested in Trion and its unusual distribution platform
Trion announced that it has managed to get another $70 million in invested funds, bringing the total amount to over $100 million. For reference: that's somewhere in the ballpark of the development cost Grand Theft Auto IV, and about half of what Blizzard has spent on World of Warcraft since its 2004 launch.Trion is the company co-founded by EA alum Lars Buttler and Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, which announced that it'll be making a game in concert with The Sci-Fi Channel, as well as a fantasy console MMO we know little about.We've talked a bit about Trion's plans and business model before, but here's a refresher: it is creating development tools for making games that will run completely server-side. The graphics will be drawn on the client, but everything else -- physics, game logic, etc., will occur on the server and be downloaded to the user's computer. This serves two important functions. It greatly reduces the minimum hardware specifications for games and it makes piracy extremely difficult. We're not going to say yet that it makes piracy impossible, because, well, "life finds a way."
Trion surpasses $100m in fundraising ... without releasing ANYTHING
Take note: Certain really rich folks are showering Trion World Network Inc. with money. Wait ... Trion who? Exactly. Don't fret being out of the loop, we've only mentioned Trion a handful of times (read: just three) and it's our job to be in the know. Today Trion reminds us there's good reason to keep tabs on the server-based gaming company, as it's now raised over $100 million after a recent $70 million Series C funding round (a very formal way of saying, venture capital firms and media companies, like Time Warner and NBC Universal, have been dropping their change in the collection cup since 2006 -- a lot of it). And the best part is, Trion still hasn't released anything. So if you're wondering how to get rich like Trion, we strongly advise taking our crash course on the company after the break.
G4 claims the Trion/Sci-Fi project revolves around Stargate [UPDATED]
While the rest of the MMO community is happily buzzing about what Trion World Network is working on in conjunction with the Sci-Fi Channel, G4's The Feed has come right out and said it: "A Stargate MMO developed by Trion World Network and the SciFi channel is going to be integrated with the Stargate series sometime in 2010."Now, we're not out to immediately call shenanigans on G4, but our interview with Jon Van Caneghem doesn't mention any specific shows, and he should know, so ... where is G4 getting this information? A couple of the commenters for the post have noticed this as well, so we're glad it's not just us.[UPDATE: Our own Mike Schramm, who conducted the interview with Mr. Van Caneghem, had confirmed that this will be a new IP, so that rules out Stargate completely.]
Massively interviews Jon Van Caneghem about the SCI FI Channel MMO
Trion World Network is quite a company -- without releasing a single game, they've put together millions of dollars in venture capital and compiled a staff list that's got team members from across the history of MMO games, from EverQuest and Ultima Online to World of Warcraft and City of Heroes.This week, they sent waves through the MMO community by announcing that not only were they working on a fantasy MMO to be helmed by Jon Van Caneghem (original creator of the Might and Magic series of RPG strategy games and co-founder of the company along with Lars Buttler), but that they were forming a groundbreaking partnership with the SCI FI Channel to develop and publish and MMO to live alongside a television show. Finally, we had a small glimpse of just what Trion, with all of their money and experience, were up to.To find out more, Massively sat down with Van Caneghem (a busy man since the news dropped on Monday) to chat about both the fantasy MMO and the SCI FI project, and what Trion's been working on since they formed. Van Caneghem told us why Trion wants to make a different kind of MMO, and how they'll balance an online game with a television series from the network that's running Battlestar Galactica. The interview starts right after you click the link below.
Trion on their new distribution platform
When young, unproven companies make that first step of announcing new projects, as Trion did yesterday, there are typically scant few details for gamers to work with in trying to figure out what the company is going to be like. Fortunately, Trion bigwigs Lars Buttler and Jon Von Caneghem were willing to sit down for an interview yesterday to discuss what the focus of their new company is going to be with the development of the Sci Fi Channel project and the unnamed fantasy game.Their big emphasis seemed to be on innovating the distribution model, removing the retail barrier for entry that may be keeping a lot of potential players from getting invested in serious MMO experiences. Along those lines, they also want to plug into social networking and let players feel they have a presence in the game world even when they're not sitting at their home PCs. Also interesting was their plans to centralize most of the "smart" elements of their games, like the physics calculations, server-side, reducing the hardware requirements for the player. They see their role as much as a platform provider for future MMOs as anything, but the proof is in the pudding, and their games are going to have to impress if they want to have any hopes of success.
Trion announces another project, coming to consoles
Despite predictions that this generation of consoles would herald in the first wave of successful console MMOs, we've really yet to see anything more than scattered chatter and a few announcements here and there. That's why we were excited to hear that Trion World Network, who we found out earlier today are also working on a project with the Sci Fi Channel, announced plans to bring a new fantasy MMO project to the Xbox 360 and PS3, in addition to a release on the PC.Jon Van Caneghem, creator of the Might & Magic series, will be the creative force behind the game, which we still know precious little about at this point. The comments from Caneghem indicated that the as-yet-unnamed game will have a dynamic world that would change based on the actions of players. No word yet on the scale of the project, whether there will be cross-platform play, or whether there is some sort of development timetable. Very interesting news from a developer/publisher that is quickly finding a place on our MMO radar. And hey, they're hiring!
