black-prophecy-shutdown
Latest
EVE Evolved: Will Star Citizen or Elite harm EVE?
Publishers haven't been willing to put a lot of money behind a sci-fi sandbox for some time, but upcoming games Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous seem set to revive the genre thanks to the power of crowdfunding. Star Citizen in particular has collected a world record $19.6 million in pledges so far from almost 258,000 individuals, eliminating the need for publishers and heavy investment entirely. Though both games are designed to be a primarily singleplayer or small-scale multiplayer adventures, their respective developers have already promised shared online universes and sandbox gameplay that could give EVE Online a run for its money. The past decade has shown EVE to be one of the most resilient MMOs on the planet. It's survived several major scandals, barely noticed the release of giant World of Warcraft, and has somehow maintained its subscription-based business model in a market rapidly being overtaken by free-to-play titles. Even at its lowest point, the game managed to survive the 2011 monoclegate scandal and the subsequent fallout that saw CCP Games lose 20% of its staff worldwide. EVE's subscriptions and concurrent user numbers have historically been unaffected by the release of new MMOs or sci-fi titles, so why should Star Citizen be any different? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how EVE Online has lived with very little direct competition until now and ask whether Star Citizen and Elite could be among the first games to directly draw players from EVE.
Black Prophecy closing down on September 26th
Apparently Black Prophecy was in the red, as Reakktor Media has posted a closure notice on the free-to-play sci-fi title's official website. Today marks the last day that players will able to purchase in-game currency, and Black Prophecy will close its doors for good on September 26th. If you've purchased KK$ any time in the past six months, gamigo will be sending you an email credit voucher that may be applied to other titles in its portfolio. The closure post also mentions upcoming send-off events, and we'll keep you informed on those as we learn more. [Thanks to Wesley for the tip.]
