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MV Guide: June 27 - July 3
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively's Livestream channel. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of games to take a look at. During Livestream events, you can participate in the live chat to learn about the game, ask questions, and spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, Livestream events are subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's scheduled for this week!
MMObility: Fifty games for the mobile lifestyle
I like lists. Lists help keep my candy-coated brain functioning. I see so many games, devices, and developers that I need to write things down periodically or become lost. Not so long ago I made a list of 25 games for your shiny new laptop, but I wanted to update it with other devices as well. I'd like to clarify the devices I have, though, especially since it was brought to my attention that a lot of players use laptops as their primary gaming machines. When I refer to a laptop, it is far from a gaming machine and could not run games like EverQuest II or Age of Conan. So here are some stats: I have an HTC Inspire, an iPhone 3GS, an iPad, a Phenom Triple-core PC desktop with an Nvidia 9800 card, six gigs of ram and onboard sound. My laptop is an HP G62 with an AMD Athlon II P340 dual core processor, three gigs of ram and an AMD graphics chip built in. I also have a more powerful gaming PC, but that is often referred to as "the wife's machine" around here, and it is so packed with her items that I rarely touch it. So most of these games can be run on their native devices, and if they are meant for PC, probably on netbooks as well. When I'm playing on netbooks, resolution is often the major issue. Some games just will not fit on the tiny screens without some slight modding. Anyway, click past the cut to see the list. The first 11 are my favorites, the ones that I play often, if not every day. The rest are in no particular order, so keep that in mind as well. Remember that this year is going to be an incredible one for mobile, thanks to the new games I found at E3. So this list will change!
Funcom plans a more casual direction for future games
Back in December, we talked a bit about Funcom's new studio SweetRobot, which will be designing games for a much younger market than the Age of Conan crowd. Pets vs. Monsters is the first offering from the studio, with the promise of more to come. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas took some time to sit down with gameindustry.biz and discuss where the company stands now, and how that has influenced their decision to explore this new opportunity. Of course, Funcom had to employ some cost-cutting measures in 2009: "...it's become almost a default thing for businesses in the last year it seems." Tapping into the vast tween market could be a very lucrative move in the face of those measures -- while their cash reserves are more than comfortable, gaining new subscribers is the way to keep the company moving forward. Make no mistake - the grownup side of Funcom isn't going anywhere. Age of Conan is here to stay and The Secret World is still coming, but Funcom is also giving plenty of attention to their more casual new studio as well. The full interview can be read here.
Age of Conan dev Funcom spawns casual MMO label SweetRobot
Despite a year that saw it incur financial losses, less-than-stellar subscription uptake for its flagship MMO Age of Conan, plus layoffs and a delay for its next major title, The Secret World, Funcom has announced that it's launching a subsidiary called SweetRobot to publish family/kid-friendly MMOs. "Our passion and dedication for high-end online games remains the same, and Age of Conan and The Secret World are still our primary focus," company CEO Trond Arne Aas said in today's announcement. "But we are also eager to explore new opportunities within the industry, and it felt natural for us to step into the social gaming segment especially considering our outstanding experience with making online worlds and communities." SweetRobot's first title, the free-to-play Pets vs. Monsters, has yet to be stamped with a release date, will be entering beta soon. Aas feels that "the fact that these productions require significantly lower budgets and smaller teams to develop" makes games like it attractive, since "it allows us to try out several concepts instead of placing all our resources into one single bet." It also lets Funcom, er, SweetRobot do things like make a game that looks sort of like Diablo, only with robot frogs and trees covered in snot. Hey, it's what the focus groups said the kids want!
Funcom unveils SweetRobot, announces Pets vs Monsters
When most parents think of children's MMOs, nobody would likely think of a studio like Funcom. After all, Funcom is the company that brought us Age of Conan, an MMO rife with boobs, blood, and beheading. Quite possibly the absolute last place you'd let your kiddies romp around, really. That's undoubtedly why they decided to spin off a new studio called SweetRobot as they start up their newest MMO offering aimed at the 8-12 year old crowd: Pets vs. Monsters! Slated to be a free to play game, Pets vs. Monsters has apparently been under development for two years and will enter public beta this month. Now how's that for a holiday surprise!According to Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas, "SweetRobot will be focusing on publishing games outside the traditional high-end MMO-segment which Funcom has been focusing on the last years. This will allow us to explore new market opportunities that differ from what we have been doing before while still retaining Funcom's familiar profile. This definitely marks a new and exciting direction for us." It is, however, a highly competitive market, so time will tell if this newest outing will take off for them. If you're curious to see a bit more of Pets vs. Monsters, then be sure to check out the gallery of screenshots and concept art below, or better yet, have a look at the game-play video for an early peek! %Gallery-80112%
