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Fight for evil in Inferno Legend's open beta today
If the idea of jumping in and playing through a game as a traditional villain in Inferno Legend piques your interest, you'll be happy to know that the multi-platform game opens up its beta doors today to let everyone in. Built on the Unity 3-D engine, this game allows players to select from five races of devils and fight against the so-called "just" authority on PC, Android, and iOS. Other features include hundreds of pets (each with different skills and attributes), a player arena, random battles, an exploration system (that unlocks at level 30), and a "Miracle" system. If you need another incentive to check out Inferno Legend, Gamebox is giving players free gift codes for rewards such as rare skills, gold, and gems. Get a taste of the action in the open beta launch trailer below. [Source: Changyou press release]
Inferno Legend moves into closed beta testing
Have you ever sat down to play Diablo III and thought that the game would be better if you were playing alongside the villains? Considering the fact that angels in that game are also tremendous jerks, it's kind of an understandable thought. Inferno Legend is meant to speak directly to that impulse, putting players on the side of Hell and the demons fighting back against legions of humans, angels, and similar antagonists trying to kick you out of hell. Taking the role of Vampires, Mummies, Cyclops, Faeries, or Samurai, players fight back in a turn-based Diablo-style environment. It's also boasting synchronization between browser-based gameplay, mobile clients, and traditional desktop clients, so you can play however you please while still making progress. The game has just entered its closed beta testing today, so if this sounds like just your cup of tea, you should go ahead and sign up in hopes of taking part. [Source: Changyou press release]
Renaissance Heroes fires its starter blunderbuss
The day of days is finally here: Renaissance Heroes has launched. Yes indeed, after countless years of anticipation, fan speculation, and agonizing countdowns, this renaissance-themed first-person shooter has been delivered into the hands of eager players. The title, which has released in both Europe and North America, received a rather substantial last-minute upgrade. Renaissance Heroes added a couple of new arenas, the Domination game mode, and a crossbow-wielding character to its list of bullet point features. ChangYou has plans to both livestream the game and throw tournaments featuring the most elite heroes of the 16th century. If you're curious but don't want to pick it up just yet, stay tuned as we livestream the game next week! [Source: ChangYou press release]
The Firing Line: On Destiny, Tribes GOTY, and Ghost in the Shell
It's been a pretty eventful week for online shooter news, and The Firing Line is back to help you catch up on all the tidbits you might've missed. Since we've got so much to cover, what say we skip the usual game journo intro puns and get right to it?
Exclusive video shows off Renaissance Heroes prior to next week's launch
If you've got a special passion for both shooters and the Renaissance, then ChangYou's upcoming lobby-based Renaissance Heroes is right up your dark, cobblestone alley. And come next week, you can dive right into that olden time with guns blazing; the game launches on February 19th in both North America and Europe. Players familiar with the game from the beta will find even more content once the game goes live, including new maps, new weapons, a new character, and competitive game modes. Eager to get in on the action? To help tide you over during the wait, Massively has an exclusive trailer for you after the break. [Source: ChangYou press release]
The Daily Grind: Do MMO sunsets kill your investment in other MMOs?
When Star Wars Galaxies' sunset was announced not much more than a year ago, it made me more than sad -- it made me distrustful. I knew that games had shut down before, but they were usually unlucky or unprofitable. In spite of the NGE, SWG maintained a healthy population for a second-gen MMO, and SOE was supporting it better than some studios support their current-gen games, so I fooled myself into thinking it'd be around forever like the rest of SOE's titles. And when I realized it wouldn't, my investment in other games fell off sharply. Why pour years into a world that can be ended arbitrarily before its time? Zentia's impending closure brought that distrust to the surface again. Western audiences have a hard enough time adopting "foreign" games with funky localization and pay-to-win cash shops, so losing one of the best imports inspires no faith that other games will survive long enough to make an investment of time (and money) worth it. What about you? Do MMO sunsets kill your desire to invest in other MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Free for All: Zentia closes, MilMo's Junebud declares bankruptcy
It's always a sad day when a favorite game or games announce some bad news. Over the last week, I read about two of my favorite titles -- Zentia and MilMo -- coming to a end way too early. Both announcements surprised me, but these days there are so many games in so many different genres across so many different devices that any game that becomes successful is somewhat of a triumph. I can list off many, many MMOs, all vying for the attention of players' time and money. That list would reach into the thousands once I counted in the ever-expanding mobile and social market. Heck, a representative from an international games group told me at E3 a few years ago that hundreds MMOs were due out of the East within that year alone. In the case of Zentia, the closing is not as unexpected. There hasn't been much at all happening with the game for quite a while. MilMo, on the other hand, was a complete surprise.
Zentia announces the end of its run
Sunrise, sunset. All that ascends must one day fall into shadow -- and sadly, the time has come for Zentia to do the latter. The charming Asian fantasy title has just told its players that it will be breathing its last as of August 13th. ChangYou sent out the farewell letter to its playerbase with the sad news: "Unfortunately, we are unable to continue to keep the Zentia servers available for play after August 13th. The good news is that we will be re-focusing our efforts and resources on some very exciting upcoming titles." The company is urging its players to move to one of its other games, specifically Dragon Oath and Sword Girls. Players who do so will have their store currency moved to that game with an extra bonus of tokens for the trouble.
Renaissance Heroes closed beta starts May 31st, and we've got keys
Renaissance Heroes isn't exactly an MMO (it's a 12-player lobby shooter if you're curious). Given the fact that it melds the Unreal Engine 3 with 16th century Renaissance Europe, we figured you'd like a beta key to take a look. The game features the usual deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag modes, along with over 100 unlockable achievements. Unlike your daddy's FPS, it also features crossbows, battlehammers, and other classical weaponry. Closed beta starts May 31st, but we're handing out 1000 keys now to get you ready. Again, the keys won't be able to be redeemed until May 31st. Click past the cut for your beta key redemption instructions.
The Firing Line: 16th century fragging edition
What do War Thunder, World of Warplanes, Leonardo da Vinci, and Tribes: Ascend have in common? Not a whole lot aside from their respective appearances in this week's edition of The Firing Line. Won't you join me after the cut for a rundown on some recent and notable online shooter news? If you're feeling particularly ornery, you can point and laugh at the fact that I'm still not in the War Thunder beta.
Free for All: Zeroing in on my favorite free-to-play mains
I felt a little nostalgic this week. Heck, at my age, I feel nostalgic every time I smell chimney smoke or hear Christmas music. I suspect it will only grow more common with age. MMOs have been such a huge part of my life for well over a decade now that I feel nostalgic about many of the things that happened during that time, and for many of the characters I have grown -- and lost. I'm not overly sentimental about it, but it is interesting how we feel about the pixelated versions of ourselves, the ones we control while sitting at a keyboard or while touching a tablet. I don't want to downplay how important gaming can be for many of us, either. Once, years ago, I met a fellow player in a social game called There. She was a wonderful person who had over time lost the ability to walk. She loved the freedom that the avatar gave her. Needless to say, she was very connected to her character. I made a short list of some of my favorite characters from the years. As I think about it, this list says a lot about me as a gamer and about the types of games I love.
The Game Archaeologist: When dead MMOs come back to life
Maybe I'm alone in this, but my jaw just dropped when I came home this past week to see that Massively posted the news that Shadowbane is coming back to life. Granted, it's only going to happen in China, but still, that's pretty incredible. Shadowbane's been in the ground for three years now, and if I had to pick an MMO that deserved resurrection, this particular one would be farthest from my mind (no offense if you liked the game; it's just that there are so many others that are even more worthy). But how can this not give you hope? Many of us have lost an MMO we loved or at least had a decked-out character populating the character select screen, and the thought of that game coming back against all odds is a goosebump-rising one. It may also smack of justice served, as some MMOs fail not because of faulty gameplay but because of mismanagement by the studio, complex legal wrangling, or bad marketing. Today let's look at a few examples of dead MMOs that were brought back to life and what this may mean for the future of the industry. Zombie MMOs! Not, you know, MMOs with zombies.
ChangYou plans to bring Shadowbane back in China
MMOs die. It's a very sad reality, but a reality just the same. And more often than not, there's no chance for a revival. But every so often the stars align just right and fans get lucky, which is almost the case with Shadowbane. Nearly three years after the game's shutdown, it looks like it'll be getting a new lease on life... as the basis for a new title developed by ChangYou. There are no firm details on what the new game will look like, although it appears to have been in development for roughly a year at this time. Preliminarily titled World of Shadowbane, the game is still too far in the future for any sort of launch information, much less discussion of whether or not the game will see an American release. Still, it's closer to a chance at revival than the game has had in the past three years, and that's something.
Previously on MV TV: The Week of February 18th
It's time again to look back on the previous week of MassivelyTV and dig up the greatest moments that we could find! The best thing about this column is that if you have missed the earlier week's streams due to real life hassles, you can now sit back in the comforting arms of the weekend and watch hours and hours of livestreaming action -- only the choicest cuts picked by the staff. And this week we have some goodies for sure. Starting off, Richie jumped back into Guild Wars, Mike acted like a newb in 0.0 space in EVE Online, and Adventure Mike stole a time machine and visited Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds once again. Plus we saw more Guild Wars action with Adventure Mike, RuneScape on my Thursday stream, and a bit of Zentia! Make some popcorn, sit back, and click past the cut. Well, click past the cut and hit play first, then sit back. Unless you have a wireless mouse, then you can... well, you get me.
Rise and Shiny recap: Cloud Nine
You know, I haven't been as head over heels in love with the graphics of a game in a long time as I am with Cloud Nine. As I get older, I find myself disliking more realistic graphics and tend to enjoy cartoony, or even better, stylized graphics that do not quite push into cartoony territory. It's not like I'm trying to relive my youth; I just take a game more "seriously" when it attempts to look less serious while actually being pretty serious. I'm talking about games like Free Realms or Ryzom or Glitch: games that are cartoony and not ultra-realistic but do boast some serious gameplay or even lore behind the art. I love that. So when I first logged into Cloud Nine, you can imagine how I felt.
ChangYou reports record profits for the year
If you live in China and play online, you know the name ChangYou. The company is a bit less well-known over in the US, but it's still made a name for itself with quirky titles like Zentia and Duke of Mount Deer. It's also apparently making a massive amount of money. According to the company's fourth quarter financial report, ChangYou wound up with a total gross revenue of $435.5 million, with profits surging to $248 million. CEO Tao Wang says the company can thank a variety of games for its success -- the aforementioned Duke of Mount Deer, an expansion for Tian Long Ba Bu, and the browser-based DDTank. The success of the company in the online market is just part of the ever-expanding Chinese marketplace, which generated over $5 billion dollars last year alone. That's good news for ChangYou and its fans, since the company will enter the next year with plenty of money to generate more games.
ChangYou reports record revenue, registered accounts
With all the layoffs that seem to be going around the MMO industry as of late, it's about time we hear some good news from a developer. ChangYou, known in North America primarily for its quirky title Zentia and the bizarrely named Duke of Mount Deer, reports a 119 million USD revenue for its third fiscal quarter. The company's amount of registered users rose as well, with the company citing 159 million current gamers inhabiting ChangYou's titles. CEO Tao Wang is understandably pleased with these results and says that "we believe these results once again demonstrate our ability to understand and fulfill gamers' needs and showcase our content development and game operation strengths." For the full details, check out the article over at Gamasutra.
Zentia's 1.4 update heralds Dragon Boat Festival and more
Fans of ChangYou's cutesy Chinese-flavored MMO Zentia are in for a tasty summer treat today. The company is wrapping up the season with the launch of update 1.4, which brings with it the first part of the third Heavenly Test, known as the Ten-Position Test. No, that's not veiled innuendo -- Zentia's Heavenly Tests are world events in which elite groups of players compete to advance the server and level-cap. The patch also offers new disciplines, quests, drop-rate tweaks, paintings, updates to the cash shop (including new pirate-themed costumes), and a new instance named Silent Altar Challenge, which is aimed at highbie players. Coinciding with this content update is the introduction of a new themed event called the Dragon Boat Festival. Running from August 17th to the 24th, the festival encourages players to donate raw materials to NPCs called Provincial Officers, who will craft the titular dragon boats and teach players how to make party food known as zongzi. A "surprise" awaits those who lend their materials to the project, so if you're in the mood for a snack and a boat ride, don't delay. Past the break, we've included an official trailer highlighting the best of the patch. Enjoy!
ChangYou reports impressive profit and revenue gains
It's been a great year for ChangYou, and the Chinese developer responsible for Tian Long Ba Bu and Duke of Mount Deer recently reported its fifth consecutive double digit growth quarter. Tian Long Ba Bu has seen two successful expansion packs thus far in 2011, with a third scheduled for September. According to Gamasutra, Duke of Mount Deer recently increased its server headcount to 110 (up from 64), and the success of both titles powered ChangYou's $54.2 million profit as well as a 35.1 percent revenue jump over the previous year. ChangYou also bought into a browser-game specialist called 7Road last spring with the intention of expanding its interests beyond traditional MMORPGs. All told, Gamasutra says that ChangYou contributed an impressive $327 million in revenue to a $5 billion Chinese game market.
Dragon Oath offering real-world prizes for virtual contest
The folks at ChangYou are introducing a new contest for their Dragon Oath players, and it's one that virtual pet fans are going to love. The contest is called "Pump up Your Pet," and it gives every entrant a free white fox pet along with a chance to win a Nintendo 3DS, a Tt eSports prize package, or one of three Amazon gift cards. To enter, you'll need to have a Dragon Oath character of level 10 or above, and "like" the Dragon Oath Facebook page. Click the "promotions" tab on the Facebook page to receive a code to add the pet to your account, and then the real fun begins! Your task is to level your new pet as much as you can by 1:00 p.m. EST on July 28th. When the deadline arrives, take a screenshot of your character and pet and send it to contests.dragonoath@gmail.com along with your character, account name, and the entry code you received to get your white fox pet. The top 10 players with the highest leveled White Foxes will be put in a raffle to win one of the prizes, and ChangYou will announce the winners on August 26th. Best of luck to all who enter!
