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Ascend: Hand of Kul to remain playable on 360 until November
Despite the game being discontinued on Xbox 360, existing owners of Ascend: Hand of Kul will remain able to play it until November 18, after which it will officially close. The news follows Microsoft's removal of the free-to-play action-RPG from the marketplace, a decision developer Signal Studios only learned of as it was investigating player troubles. "We can confirm that effective November 18, 2014, Ascend on Xbox 360 will close," a Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer. "Players will still be able to play Ascend on Xbox 360 and use any content they have already acquired until the game closure date.
Microsoft abruptly removes Ascend: Hand of Kul from Xbox 360
Free-to-play action-RPG Ascend: Hand of Kul is no longer available on the Xbox 360 after Microsoft discontinued it this week, apparently without informing developer Signal Studios beforehand. In what's seemingly less a case of "So long, farewell" and more Jazzy Jeff leaving the Fresh Prince's house, Signal Studios said the news only surfaced when the team was investigating player troubles from the weekend. "We are deeply saddened by this decision and the impact it has on our community," Signal Studios said on its site while urging players towards the Steam version released in May. The studio didn't note what Microsoft's reasoning was behind the decision, and when we approached the publisher a spokesperson told us Microsoft had "no further comment."
Ascend: Hand of Kul spreading Titans to the realm of PC
The fight to be recognized as a mighty Caos, a brand of powerful warriors serving the gods in Ascend: Hand of Kul's universe, has been waged between players since September on XBLA. That fight will soon envelop PC users, as Signal Studios is bringing the action RPG to Steam on May 20. In case you're wondering why anyone would strive to be on call for a higher power's war-oriented needs, Ascend's world is plagued with immortal giants called Titans. You'd think Titans would use their unlimited span of life to master every skill they ever wanted, right? Nope, they're stuck on the "savage killer" trait, devouring human souls in their endless state of being jerks. Considering the other option is to wait around in a village for a Titan to digest your very being, life as a Caos doesn't sound so bad. [Image: Signal Studios]
Free-to-play Ascend: Hand of Kul out tomorrow on XBLA
Free-to-play action RPG Ascend: Hand of Kul will launch on XBLA tomorrow. Developed by Signal Studios, the game was originally known as Ascend: New Gods until being renamed in May. Ascend: Hand of Kul features both single player and asynchronous multiplayer modes, the latter allowing players to invade the worlds of other players. Among the other games being offered on Xbox Live this week is Alpha Protocol, which is now available via Games on Demand along with Viking: Battle for Asgard, Phantom Breaker Extra and Hot Wheels World's Best Driver.
Ascend: New Gods renamed to Ascend: Hand of Kul
Signal Studios' free-to-play asynchronous multiplayer XBLA strategy game Ascend: New Gods has had its name changed to Ascend: Hand of Kul. "A year has passed since our big unveil at E3 2012, and the New Gods are no longer 'new,'" as Signal Studios representative explains in a lighthearted update on PlayXBLA. "It was a tough decision, but during their board meeting in The Sanctum a couple of weeks ago, the New Gods decided to step down from power." Aside from the fact that Hand of Kul is a "more story-centric name," no further explanation was given for the change. Well, no further real explanation. At any rate, please adjust your complicated, all-encompassing video game databases accordingly. Y'all have those too, right? It's not just us?
Ascend: New Gods is XBLA's next F2P game, Happy Wars out in September
Ascend: New Gods, from Toy Soldiers developer Signal Studios, is the second confirmed free-to-play game coming to XBLA, following Happy Wars' launch in September, Microsoft tells OXM. Ascend: New Gods is scheduled to ship "in several months."XBLA's free-to-play games require an Xbox Live Gold subscription, "as many of the games planned will be multiplayer games by nature (an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription is required for multiplayer gaming)," Microsoft says. The free-to-play games will "leverage the Microsoft Points system," which we assume means they will "use Microsoft Points to offer players pretty, but useless items. And tons of people will buy them."
Expect SmartGlass support in every Microsoft Studios game going forward
Microsoft's SmartGlass initiative aims to enrich the entertainment offerings on Xbox with an informative, context-sensitive "surface," spread across compatible tablets and smartphones. Phil Spencer, Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, tells me you can expect SmartGlass support from all of the company's games after the feature becomes available this fall."It just makes so much sense for a developer who wants to supply, maybe not time-critical information, like 'that enemy is getting ready to shoot you,' but information that augments what's happening on screen," Spencer says. He used last year's Halo Waypoint Atlas app, which offered multiplayer GPS tracking, as an example of how SmartGlass features could share additional game information without hampering the moment-to-moment gameplay. "And then you're even going to see situations like with Ascend, where there's actually gameplay that happens on the phone, even when you're away from your television and that interacts back with the online game that's happening. So I think you'll see information sharing, context sharing while you're in the room, with video and with games, as well as gameplay happening in more distributed environments."SmartGlass will be encapsulated in a single app that syncs with your Gamertag and enables features based on what you're playing or watching (provided they support SmartGlass). "You don't have to log in and out of each app – you know, 'I'm gonna start the Mass Effect app, and now I'm gonna start the Game of Thrones app.' So you have this surface, this smart surface," Spencer says, "that sits on any device that you already own that's always in sync with what's happening on the television, and it knows where to go and grab the right content to display at the right time, to make sure that if you're playing Halo, then the Halo surface is available on SmartGlass."During its E3 2012 press conference, Microsoft showed a concept of what might become Halo 4's SmartGlass functionality. The app, as shown, allows players to track stats and send game invites via tablet or smartphone. Microsoft has said that it supports the "device you already own," but hasn't directly addressed SmartGlass variations between iOS, Android and Windows 8.
'Ascend: New Gods' coming from Toy Soldiers dev Signal Studios [update: trailer]
Signal Studios, best known for the Toy Soldiers series on XBLA, just revealed its next project, Ascend: New Gods, during the Microsoft press conference. It's a turn-based strategy game with asynchronous multiplayer (like Draw Something, you know?) that works across Xbox and Windows Phone.
