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Frontier lays off 15 employees
Frontier Developments has axed 15 positions from its Halifax studio somewhat unexpectedly, leaving this branch of the overall studio with a somewhat hazy future. According to investor reports, the move is the result of a refocusing of the company's business plan around its two major games, and with all of the expertise on Elite: Dangerous and the upcoming Coaster Park Tycoon concentrated in Cambridge, it simply made more sense to reduce staff in the satellite studio. No word on what this means for the long-term health of the Halifax location, which may very well be facing the axe as well. Our deep consolation goes to all employees affected by the layoffs.
Make My MMO: January 18 - 24, 2015
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, Star Citizen's release window made headlines, as did the new VAT tax that's about to hit Euro fans of the space sim opus. We also heard from TUG and Shroud of the Avatar, while Pantheon hosted a dev roundtable and promised a public vision. Click past the cut for our weekly crowdfunding news roundup.
Make My MMO: January 11 - 17, 2015
This week was relatively tame as far as crowdfunded MMOs go, though we did see a new entry in the Kickstarter sweepstakes as Maestros of the Anthymn officially launched its campaign. The tile seeks to raise some $200,000 CAD to fund a game where you can "literally mold the world around you, solve puzzles, and conquer impossible enemies through creating and wielding music itself." And someone said there's no innovation in MMOs these days! Click past the cut for the rest of our crowdfunding roundup.
NCsoft snaps up more mobile studios
Does NCsoft see mobile gaming as the wave of the future? If its business acquisitions are any indication, it definitely has a strong interest in that field. The mega-publisher recently picked up two indie studios, NOVN and Dotomchi Games, for $740,500. It is looking at a third mobile studio as well. Last year, NCsoft announced that it is working on mobile versions of Aion, Blade & Soul, and Lineage Eternal, among other titles. We've got trailers for those titles after the break to refresh your memory.
Make My MMO: January 4 - 10, 2015
This week was a busy one in MMO crowdfunding land. Divergence Online released its first new build in over a year while music-focused Anthymn rebranded itself as Maestros of the Anthym and insisted that it's still going to be an MMO. We also said hello to new Kickstarters for Isles of Eventide -- which lets you play as an animal -- and Identity, an open world MMO set in the modern era. More MMO crowdfunding news awaits you beyond the break.
Blacklight: Retribution loses studio, continues on anyway
It turns out that the worst news for an online game -- having its studio close -- may not be the end of the world after all. Zombie Studios, the devs behind multiplayer shooter Blacklight: Retribution, announced today that it's closing shop and that a new studio has arisen from its ashes to take care of the game: "Now it is time for us to part ways and close our doors [...] We want to congratulate and wish nothing but success to Builder Box, the new studio starting up that has acquired some of the work Zombie is parting with, including all rights to Blacklight: Retribution. The new studio is comprised of past Zombie employees that put their hearts into Blacklight and we have no doubt will continue to do so." Builder Box's Facebook page also posted a notice, reaffirming the game's future: "What does this mean for you the fan? While ownership of the game has changed, the people behind the scenes who have been constantly contributing to the Blacklight universe for the last four years remains intact. Builder Box will be working with Perfect World so that, as a fan, you can look forward to more updates and exciting changes in the coming year."
Kickstarter successfully aided 1,980 gaming projects in 2014
We've been wondering around the office if crowdfunded MMOs are on the downswing after previous years' highs. It might well be the case, but even so, Kickstarter continues to be a funding powerhouse in the games industry. GamesIndustry reports that 1,980 gaming projects were successfully funded via Kickstarter in 2014, with a total of $89.1 million raised between them. Those projects were just a fraction of the year's 22,252 funded campaigns. For more Kickstarter and crowdfunding news, make sure to read Massively's Make My MMO column every week.
Perfect World founder seeks to take the company private
Perfect World may be going private in the future, if its founder and chairman of the board Michael Yufeng Chi has anything to say about it. Chi submitted a proposal on December 31st of last year to buy up all remaining shares of the studio. He already owns some of the company's stocks, although it is unclear what percentage he has. The company has put together a committee to evaluate the proposal. Perfect World is the Chinese parent company of North America's Perfect World Entertainment, which in turn oversees Cryptic Studios. It recently appointed Yunfan Zhang as its new COO.
Make My MMO: December 28, 2014 - January 3, 2015
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, pretty much everyone took a vacation. Including Frontier, which now finds itself with something of a mess after its Elite: Dangerous server went whacko and screwed over the sci-fi title's economy. In happier news, Project Gorgon got the green light from Steam's community, and Pathfinder's early enrollment period got underway at long last. Click past the cut for the rest of our weekly roundup to make sure you don't miss a beat.
Rob Pardo argues that the Olympics should include e-sports
E-sports should totally be a part of the Olympics. Or so said former Blizzard CCO Rob Pardo in a BBC interview. "Video games are well positioned to be a spectator sport," Pardo said. "There's a very good argument for e-sports being in the Olympics. I think the way that you look at e-sports is that it's a very competitive skillset and you look at these professional gamers and the reflexes are lightning quick and they're having to make very quick decisions on the fly." Pardo conceded that championing e-sports in Olympics might come down to the age-old argument of whether a sport must include physical activity or simply skill-based competition.
New studio ArtCraft creating MMO with 'real skill, real risk, and real consequence'
Heads up, MMO fans -- there's a new player on the scene. Industry vets J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton have come together to form ArtCraft, a studio that's making a mystery MMO with "real skill, real risk, and real consequences." "We're building something completely different, completely unique. We believe the MMO industry has grown stale. It's time to create something new," Coleman stated. Coleman and Walton have worked on many MMOs, including Shadowbane, Wizard101, Ultima Online, and Star Wars Galaxies, and they say they are building an "all-star" team for this new project. The teaser website for the game asks, "Where did we go wrong?" with the MMO industry and vows to take chances with this new game. There's a countdown timer on the site (62 days as of the writing of this article) and a sign-up for the beta. [Source: ArtCraft press release]
Make My MMO: December 14 - 20, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, Elite: Dangerous launched. Let's hold here for a brief round of applause. Moving on, Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs talked up developmental transparency, and his PvP sandbox closed in on $3 million in total funding. Last but not least, Massively interviewed Shroud of the Avatar gurus Richard Garriott and Starr Long. Click past the cut for more of our weekly crowdfunding roundup.
Elite: Dangerous scores a HUD color mod and grats from Chris Roberts
The stage was set for a truly epic battle of words with the launch of Elite: Dangerous. In one corner, David Braben and Elite, a project that's launched and offers a space sandbox experience with the controversy of a removed offline mode. In the other corner, Chris Roberts and Star Citizen, another space sandbox that hasn't actually launched but hasn't managed to irritate its fans yet. The intense rivalry between these two developers is... well... it's nonexistent, actually, as Roberts recently released a letter congratulating Braben and his team on the launch and wishing them the best of luck. Roberts states in the letter that he's happy to see more games like Elite: Dangerous on the market; he says everyone benefits from having the game on the market, especially since his game and Braben's game both feeling distinct from one another. He also states that he's looking forward to playing the game himself during his time over the holidays. And thus the battle of words never happened because the rivalry doesn't actually exist. Hint, hint. In other Elite: Dangerous news, an intrepid modder has released a tool to help players change their UI HUD colors. How cool is that? [Thanks to Oliver, Cardboard, and Carson for the tips!]
Make My MMO: December 7 - 13, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, Shards Online pretty much stole the show. Sure, Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous made some noise like they always do, but the player-driven sandbox world-builder from Citadel Studios not only polished off a successful Kickstarter campaign but also started getting a bit of pub outside the usual MMO blogging circles. Click past the cut for the rest of this week's crowdfunding roundup.
Make My MMO: November 30 - December 6, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, Shards Online talked up its permadeath plans as well as how it intends to balance crafting vs. loot. TUG's devs revealed that they're hoping for an investor, while Star Citizen continued to make a lot of money and a lot of commenter rage. Finally, Pantheon previewed a dungeon with a single screenshot and continued taking donations via Patreon. The rest of this week's MMO crowdfunding news roundup is after the break.
RIFT announces Christopher Junior as game director
The release of RIFT's latest expansion has led to a minor changing of the guard over at Trion Worlds. It's still the same guard, though, just in different positions. A shuffling of the guard, if you will. The game's new executive producer Bill Fisher announced in a letter to the community that Christopher "Archonix" Junior is getting brought up to the director position following the release of Nightmare Tide. Junior, by his own words, has been working with RIFT focusing chiefly on the systems end of design. The game's holiday event is scheduled to live next week, followed by the first major patch since the launch of the expansion. The patch, tentatively titled Storm at Sea, will include a new open-world area, extensions to the existing raiding area, and updates to the Minion systems that were introduced with the expansion. Check out the full letter to the community for another few details and a bit more introduction to the game's new director.
Rumor: A Borderlands MMO might be in the works
Back in February this year, Randy Pitchford, CEO and president of Gearbox, specifically stated that the developer was not working on Borderlands 3. In fact, the most he'd say on the matter was that the team knew a sequel would have to be massive and impressive. All fairly standard interview stuff. Not too long ago, a Chinese site for publisher Shanda Games was discovered, with what certainly appears to be a silhouette of the franchise's iconic robot Claptrap. This would all seem completely unrelated if not for the fact that Pitchford had stressed both the need for a massive game and the possibility of making the next Borderlands title into something endless, akin to League of Legends. None of this serves as a single smoking gun, but if you look at all the evidence through the right lens, it does start to appear awfully gun-like. Then again, this is Borderlands; everything looks gun-like.
ArcheAge launching in China in July 2015
If you want to relive the experience of ArcheAge's launch again or just love seeing the game come out in new regions, you'll want to keep your eyes on the game's Chinese version. Tencent Games recently announced that the game will launch in China in July of 2015, complete with some exclusive content to entice players who may have already heard of the game. Players in the Chinese version can look forward to what appear to be panda-styled gliders, special pets, some new costumes, new ship designs, and traditional Chinese house designs. No word has been released on business models, although it's almost a given that the game will be free-to-play as it is almost everywhere else in the world. Let's hope for a smooth launch for Chinese ArcheAge fans free of bugs and game-breaking exploits.
Make My MMO: November 23 - 29, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, I played some Elite: Dangerous! OK, no one cares, but Elite: Dangerous did make headlines with its Gamma launch. Fellow space sim Star Citizen topped $63 million and more importantly, it dropped the curtain on its avatar damage and death mechanics. A post-apoc title called SKIES and a sci-fi something or other called Descendants got their Kickstarters going, while Valiance Online cancelled its funding drive. Click past the cut for the rest of this week's news roundup.
Make My MMO: November 16 - 22, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, a lot of people got mad at Elite: Dangerous. Developers of the sci-fi sandbox subsequently started offering refunds to customers who felt duped by the company's decision to excise a previously mentioned offline mode. Elsewhere, Shards Online met its Kickstarter goal, while Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen started taking donations via Patreon. You can see what else happened in the crowdfunding sphere by click through to our roundup.
