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APB's Reloaded Games merges with parent company
Reloaded Games, the operator of the revived APB Reloaded, has merged with parent company K2 Network. The new company retained the Reloaded Games moniker and intends it to signify a move to running more cross-platform MMOs. This is a change from K2's old practice of merely importing Korean games. The new Reloaded Games covers both the GamersFirst platform (which includes, among other games, Fallen Earth) and Reloaded Productions studio. The studio will continue to be a subsidiary of the company. Reloaded Games CEO Bjorn Book-Larsson says that this is just the first sign of a bold new initiative by the company: "We have already signed contracts with independent developers to use our platform and portal for their free-to-play game distribution. We will announce those agreements in the next couple of weeks."
GamersFirst sees a management shakeup
GamersFirst is in the minds of gamers for its successful relaunch of APB: Reloaded, which went from a lightning-fast shutdown to a successful free-to-play title. The company is also developing new games based on original IPs for future release. But there's some rumbling going on behind the scenes at the company, as the company's parent corporation, K2 Network, saw the resignation of its CEO, Joshua Hong. Bjorn Book-Larsson, former COO and CTO, has been promoted to the CEO position, with Hong's future uncertain. The official statements claim that the transition of power was amicable and pre-arranged, but it also comes on the heels of worldwide layoffs from K2 and rumors of a power struggle behind the scenes. Rahul Sandil, the company's public relations chief, claimed that there was no truth to these rumors and that the plan was to move forward from simple localizations of titles developed in foreign markets. Sandil went on to confirm that APB: Reloaded continues to be a large-scale success for the company and that further development will be centered around work that Book-Larsson had already seen during his time as CTO and COO.
First Impressions: A second look at APB on launch day
On June 29th, 2010, Realtime Worlds launched All Points Bulletin, an MMO that was highly anticipated for its character customization options, open-world "gang warfare" PvP, and similarity to the wildy popular Grand Theft Auto series of video games. In fact, the original APB's lead designer was David Jones, creator of such classics as Lemmings and the original Grand Theft Auto. But six weeks later, Realtime Worlds entered administration, which essentially means that the company was having financial troubles but was allowed to continue running while looking for a new owner. That new owner didn't materialize quickly enough, forcing the company to announce the game's closure during what may be the shortest MMO lifespan of all time. But who should come to save the day on November 11, 2010? None other than K2 Network, parent company of free-to-play publisher GamersFirst, which swooped in to rescue the game under the new title APB: Reloaded. Today marks the official re-launch of the crime MMO on Steam, and I've been spending entirely too much time with the game, rediscovering why I both loved and hated the original version. Follow along after the cut for our second look at a First Impressions of APB.
All Points Bulletin: Reloaded open beta delayed
As we reported a couple of weeks back, the All Points Bulletin: Reloaded open beta test was scheduled to begin today. Unfortunately, we've got some bad news for all you wanna-be gangsters and law-enforcers out there: The game will remain in closed beta while the team rolls out a new patch this afternoon in an attempt to fix a "player disconnection issue." In the post, TechMech says, "The issue manifests itself in disconnecting some groups of players after one to two hours of gameplay, which clearly is not acceptable in Open Beta." As a thank-you for the continued efforts of all of APB's closed beta testers, the team is preparing a "goodie-pack" of in-game items for everyone who has participated in the closed beta test so far. This bag o' fun will be available to players the week after the open beta is released to the public. When will that be? "If we determine after the next patch that the issue has been resolved, we will then proceed to release the game to the public," the post explains. For further details and any updates, check the official post.
APB: What it was and what GamersFirst hopes APB: Reloaded will be
With the news of APB rising from the grave as APB: Reloaded, Joystiq spoke with GamersFirst's CTO and COO Bjorn Book-Larsson. The company is a free-to-play publisher which maintains a steady following and, as you can imagine, we were left with plenty of questions following the announcement -- the biggest being: why? APB was largely seen as a failure, both commercially and critically. It was called "ambitious" by some, which may have been its biggest problem. But for Book-Larsson, it's all about opportunity. "We think of it as an opportunity," he told Joystiq. "It's worth our effort to take it and combine it with all of the user data we have and let the game take its time to reach its full potential."
APB acquired by GamersFirst, relaunching as APB: Reloaded in the first half of 2011
The earlier reports are true: Reloaded Productions Inc., a subsidiary of GamersFirst -- which is, in turn, part of K2 Network -- has purchased the presumed-deceased MMO, APB, from its creator Realtime Worlds. The publisher plans to relaunch the game sometime in the first half of 2011 as APB: Reloaded, a free-to-play iteration utilizing the micro-transaction model. Come back later today for an interview with GamersFirst's COO and CTO, Bjorn Book-Larsson, for an answer to the most crucial question: Why?
Report: APB rights bought by K2 Network
It seems the dead-on-the-vine action-MMO APB may get a second shot at life thanks to K2 Network, which just purchased the property for just over $2.4 million, according to GamesIndustry.biz sources. Those same sources say the game may be up and shooting again by year's end. If you're unfamiliar with K2, the publisher makes a habit of taking in stray US and international MMOs with no place else to go. When Acclaim went belly up, for example, K2 picked up 9Dragons and carefully nursed it back to health. What we're saying, basically, is that K2 is the crazy cat lady of publishers. Here's hoping they can do something for APB which was scarcely out of kittenhood before it was left in a cardboard box on the side of the road.
GamersFirst publisher purchases APB
Most of the time, when an MMO goes under, there is a strong core of fans remaining hopeful that their game will get picked up by another company and come back. Most times that simply doesn't happen, but APB might just be the exception to that rule. There have been rumors flying for a while, and speculation was that Codemasters had purchased the game. After David Solari put a stop to that, we all went back to wondering what -- if anything -- would happen. We've finally got our answer this morning. According to gamesindustry.biz, K2 Network, the publisher behind GamersFirst, has purchased APB. Sources say that K2 paid around £1.5 million for the game, and that there is a "possibility that the shooter may be up and running again before the end of the year." Furthermore, the game is likely to adopt a free-to-play business model. Check out the full story on gamesindustry.biz.
The Social Gaming Summit: Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds
Friday the 13th: An inauspicious day for the superstitious crowd, but a great day for attendees of the Social Gaming Summit, held in San Francisco. The day saw a schedule full of great panels, populated by some of the industry's finest movers and shakers, among them representatives from Gaia Online, Nexon, Three Rings, and Gamasutra, among others too numerous to list here.A particular highlight of the conference for this blogger was the panel entitled "Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds", which provided a lively discussion on what it means to create a virtual social space, how to monetize free-to-play content, and what exactly is a casual MMO? Trying to divide attention between listening raptly and taking notes is difficult; here is the result, along with the panelists, after the jump.
Sword of the New World expands with Nocturnal Sonata
IGN has a scoop on the new 'Nocturnal Sonata' expansion to Sword of the New World, an MMO also known as Granado Espada in Asia. Sword of the New World is a free-to-play title brought to North America and Europe by the K2 Network. Massively has looked at this game in the past and found it to be a quirky title; IGN describes its setting as 'the European Baroque period if it was designed by a modern anime artist'. Sword of the New World becomes even more surreal given that its old world setting is juxtaposed with a techno soundtrack. Surreal qualities aside, the game has some interesting features, particularly the use of collectible UPCs, or Unique Player Characters. The concept is somewhat comparable to the Heroes in Guild Wars. You control up to three characters at once who are members of your 'family'; certain NPCs for whom you've successfully completed quests offer themselves up to be added to your family as UPCs and called upon to aid you in your adventures. They provide access to special hybrid classes with unique powers to match. There are over 40 such UPCs, and two more are initially being added in the Nocturnal Sonata expansion: Vincent Rio (who inflicts damage with music) and Baek Ho (martial artist extraordinaire). Yet more UPCs are to follow in the coming months, adding new gameplay possibilities to Sword of the New World. The Nocturnal Sonata expansion will be released on June 25, and closely follows the 'The Land of the Dead' expansion released only three months ago.
Sword of the New World has announced a new expansion
K2 Network, recently named the 2008 Entertainment and Gaming Company of the Year (in Southern California), has announced a new expansion for their MMO Sword of the New World. Like any good patch, "The Land of the Dead" includes new monsters, new Cash Shop items, new spells, new elites and more. This patch also introduces the Polisher System which brings Ancestral items into the mix. These are extremely powerful and rare items which are similar to the Elite items, yet will be bound to your family only, and can't be dropped or traded."The Land of the Dead" includes a PvP-enabled player map filled with all creatures of the dead, where everyone is considered the enemy. It can be accessed through Los Toldos in Porto Bello, A Deserted Quay. Two new UPCs also join the fray, with the introduction of Kurt and Eduardo. These Unique Player Characters add a new element to the existing pool of UPCs we've encountered previously. So head on over to the Sword of the New World main site to check out more details on this new highly-anticipated expansion.
First Impressions: Sword of the New World
You've got to love that "new world smell". Sword of the New World or Granado Espada was created by imcGames and the creator of Ragnarok Online, Hakkyu Kim. K2 Networks has brought the game to North America and has made it free to play via the GamersFirst network. I'm not one to pass up a free to play game and since I had already been eyeing Sword of the New World with interest, it seemed like the perfect setup. The first step was to create an account on GamersFirst. The site/network plays host to a number of free to play games you can gain access to and manage from their site. They also have giveaways and who doesn't love giveaways? Brace yourself, however, the game client is a 3-gig download and then you need an additional 600mb patch once you start the game. My advice: start the download before you go to work, provided you have a job. Then, start the patch when you come home for lunch. By the time you get home, the game should be ready to play and you'll be ready to go where no one ... well, where a bunch of people have gone before. But it will be new to you! %Gallery-16084%
K2 Network launches free MMO portal powered by microtransactions
K2 Network, the folks behind the localization of titles like Sword of the New World, Red Stone, MU Online and others, has announced a new MMO portal called GamersFirst (or G1) that will give players access to all of their free to play titles using one centralized account. Sounding remarkably like the plans we've been hearing from NCsoft all of last year, you'll be able to purchase G1 Credits that are usable in all the titles in their portfolio. This is welcome news for those brave enough to dive into the world of the free MMO with any regularity, as managing a myriad of accounts across multiple games (and let's be honest, you can burn out on free MMOs pretty quickly) can be hazardous to one's mental health and the safety of one's credit information. The site is also considerably less obnoxious looking than we expected, which is an added bonus.As a cherry on the proverbial sundae, they're running a myriad of giveaways over the next twelve weeks to bribe you into virtual submission. At stake are Creative Headphones, an Alienware PC, an 8gb iPod touch, a 19" Samsung monitor, and more. They never really elaborate on the more, but we're sure it's fancy. From poking around on the contest page a bit, it seems that you can enhance your odds of winning these goodies by buying G1 credits, inviting friends to join the network, and playing a flash version of that boardwalk game where you throw darts at balloons. The registration process is a bit of a pain, but hey, free stuff, right?
Sword of the New World gives players their Manifest Destiny
If you're a Sword of the New World player who's been looking for more stuff to do in his -- or her -- game of choice, then you're in luck! What's being called "The long awaited expansion" to Granado Espada (Sword of the New World to us Stateside) has finally hit the game. It's name is Manifest Destiny, which also happens to be your families' claim to the new lands by order of Queen Vespanola.The expansion (which is free) contains more content then you can shake your weapon of choice at and a bevy of tweaks. Most notably are the two new areas Gigante Island and Bellem's Relic, a bunch of new items and an event that is very uniquely titled "Andre's UFC" or "Andre's Ultimately Fabulous Competition" Well, we can't say that Sword of the New World lacks a personality when it so obviously has the quirky thing down pat.
IAHGames changes Granado Espada model again - returning to free-play
After announcing that Korean MMOG, Granado Espada, would be commercial on 30 August, 2007, Asia-Pacific operators IAHGames have announced that the MMO will be free-to-play at some (as yet) unannounced date in the Asia-Pacific region in the very near future (The game is, as we understand it, already free-to-play in North America, having gone free-to-play on 21 August 2007). That's Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Granado Espada (also known in North America as Sword of the New World, where it is operated by K2 Network), won the 2006 Korean awards for Best Graphics, and for Game of the Year. Reviews and responses in North America have been more mixed, but Granado Espada does provide some interesting departures from more regular MMO fare.
MMO Gamer interviews K2 Network
For those of you wondering 'K2 who?', you're not alone; the interviewer himself admits to having to look up the company on its website before beginning the interview. However, as publisher of mostly Asian free-to-play MMO titles such as Knight Online, Global MU Online, and the recently-released Sword of the New World, K2 Network is well-stocked with potential gaming goodness. One of the questions I've always had about these free-to-play MMOs is 'How do they make money?' The answer is 'Item sales', where in-game objects are paid for through purchased currency, which is apparently the standard business model of these types of games in Korea.It's an interesting interview, and one that made me curious to see these games, so watch for my take on them in the near future.[Thanks, Siam!]
