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Blizzard livestream today at 1:30 pm Pacific time with Legendary
Patch 5.4 is just around the corner and plenty of Blizzard developers are doing the rounds of interviews. Today, at 1:30 pm Pacific time, World of Warcraft's Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas and Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street are going to be on Gamebreaker's Legendary livestream. We'll be watching, so you should, too.
Guild Wars 2 could launch before Thanksgiving, release date announcement 'imminent'
Yes, Guild Wars 2 fans, we know that ArenaNet can't put the game out quickly enough. Believe us, we know. Thankfully, some new information uncovered through a bit of detective work on behalf of Gamebreaker's Jason Winter indicates that we may not have to wait too much longer. Financial reports issued by Korean Development Bank's securities firm, which is one of the largest brokerage firms in Korea, have included a number of documents involving the much-hyped title, in which predictions are made for a Guild Wars 2 release date in Q3/Q4 2012 (likely before Thanksgiving) and an "imminent" release date announcement. Keep in mind that this isn't just some random guy on the internet; these predictions come from people who report on these things for one of the largest brokerage firms in Korea, which means a lot of money (and probably some jobs) are on the line. To get the full details straight from Winter himself, go check out the full video on Gamebreaker, but take it all with a grain of salt. As ArenaNet is fond of reminding us, nothing is official until Anet says it is, and the game will be out when it's ready.
This Week in MMO: Gannon-free edition
It's time for This Week in MMO, kids, and no, you don't need to adjust your televisions monitors. That is not Gary Gannon behind the mic this week, but it is Mike Schaffnit, and he's joined by Mike B. and Jason Winter for the customary MMO news roundtable. Tops on the agenda is TERA, which went from announcing its launch date to having a potentially launch-affecting lawsuit leveled at it by NCsoft. As the week wore on things got a bit better thanks to pre-order announcements (and the associated closed beta invites), but there's still a bit of a cloud hanging over En Masse's maiden title that our trio discusses at length. Other newsy bits include The Secret World's new trailer, World of Planes namechange, and the overbearing nanny-state that is South Korea. Check out the full show after the break.
This Week in MMO: Beta weekend edition
It's Friday, and that means it's time for the traditional recap of This Week in MMO. What's that, you say? Why, it's the weekly videocast roundup over at Gamebreaker, of course. Gary Gannon is your host, and he's joined by series regulars Mike B. and Mike Schaffnit. The trio discuss anything and everything relating to popular MMOs, including Star Wars: The Old Republic's Ilum-related troubles, Sony Online Entertainment's noises about selling user-generated content, and the upcoming Guild Wars 2 beta. The guys also get around to talking about Blizzard's ongoing Titan project, and more specifically, the speculation surrounding in-game advertising. The full show is yours after the break.
MMO Community Spotlight: Gamebreaker's Gary Gannon
What would an MMO be without its community? Development is only a fraction of what makes an MMO successful; the passion of its players is what really makes or breaks any massively online game. So we're excited to spotlight those members of the MMO community who we think are particularly passionate about our favorite hobby. If you don't know the name Gary Gannon, you will soon enough. Gary has created or helped create everything from a successful MMO podcast to a social media site for gamers, but he's now looking to boost his Gamebreaker media network into the "CNN or ESPN of gaming" in the near future. Sound like a pipe dream from yet another in the sea of overly enthusiastic game-journalist wannabes? Not if that person has spent his entire adult career actually working for some of the largest news organizations in the U.S. We caught up with Gary to talk about his gaming roots, his passion for the community, and the future of his Gamebreaker network.
This Week in MMO: Thrones vs. Sith edition
How does a smackdown featuring Game of Thrones vs. Star Wars grab you? This Week in MMO examines the fallout from BioWare's recent disclosure of what Star Wars: The Old Republic might have been, and Gary Gannon and crew have some interesting insights (as well as a clear affinity for a galaxy far, far away). Mike B. and Mike Schaffnit join Gannon for his weekly dive into the MMO news headlines, and in addition to the SWTOR monster, the trio also talks up DUST 514 and its chances of success as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. PlanetSide 2's new trailer also gets a mention, as does EverQuest II's nifty new dungeon maker toolset. Head to Gamebreaker.TV for the complete episode.
This Week in MMO: Fable edition
What new this week in MMOs? You'll have to watch This Week in MMO to find out. Funny how that works, huh? Host Gary Gannon is joined by Mike Schaffnit and Jasmine Hruschak for the traditional news roundtable, and boy is there a lot to talk about. Topics include Star Wars: The Old Republic's launch and post-launch reactions, Cryptic's SWTOR ripoffs homages, and TERA's endgame political system. The heretofore single-player Fable franchise gets a mention as well, due to Microsoft's curious job posting that seeks an experienced MMO programmer. Join the trio for all this and more at the Gamebreaker website.
Gamebreaker's 12 Days of Smack Talkin' brings holiday cheer, WoW-vs.-SWTOR arguments
Everybody knows that nothing says "Happy Holidays" like throwing some more fuel on the WoW-vs.-SWTOR fire. Gamebreaker.TV fully realizes this and has decided to contribute its own rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas in the form of a World of Warcraft Rogue trading verbal blows with a Star Wars: The Old Republic Sith Assassin over whose game is better. It's a rather amusing way of mixing MMOs and holiday spirit, but let's not let it devolve into a real flame war, hm? Click on past the cut for the full video.
This Week in MMO: The Crucible Edition
Gamebreaker.TV is back to bring you roundtable discussion of the week's hottest MMO news. In the latest episode, host Gary Gannon is joined by Mint Chip and Mike B., and the trio have a lot to cover in a week that saw Funcom interviewed at length regarding The Secret World as well as the release of EVE Online's new Crucible expansion. The gang also examines Neverwinter's latest story trailer and comes away feeling somewhat underwhelmed. Finally, Bigpoint's controversial microtransactions also merit some discussion, and you can watch the full show by clicking past the cut.
This Week in MMO: Sex with Firefall edition
Episode 70 of Gamebreaker.TV is in the books, and Gary Gannon and friends have 50-odd minutes of MMO news to discuss. Topics include having sex with Firefall (that's right, with Firefall, not in Firefall), Guild Wars 2's polarizing cinematics, lots of new Lineage Eternal gameplay footage, and a bit of a free-to-play roundtable. The guys touch on recent F2P conversions including DC Universe Online, EverQuest II, and Lineage II. Finally, there's a dip into the mailbag to answer some reader questions (and a bit of discussion about Bethesda's ubiquitous Skyrim title). Check out the complete show via the embed after the break.
This Week in MMO: MechWarrior edition
In this week's TWIMMO, Mike B aka Fony, Josh Allen, and Mike Schaffnit join host Gary Gannon for Gamebreaker.TV's weekly chat about recent MMO stories. They kick things off by pondering how a video stuffed with anti-gay slurs slipped by Blizzard Entertainment (and a lot of the folks in the live crowd, as well) at BlizzCon. They also gush like fanboys about the newly announced F2P MechWarrior Online MMO before spending some airtime on PlanetSide 2, World of Darkness, and RuneScape. Hit the break for the full show!
This Week in MMO: Do you like pandas edition
Gamebreaker.TV has put the finishing touches on episode 67 of This Week in MMO, and you get two guesses as to the primary topic. OK, it's not all about pandas, panda-induced fanboi raging, and much-publicized expansion packs. Host Gary Gannon brings together ZAM's Mike B and Beckett Massive Online Gamer's Jason Winter for a lengthy jaunt through the week's MMO news, and the trio has a lot of ground to cover besides Mists of Pandaria. Final Fantasy XIV's return to the realm of the subscription fee generates some discussion, as does CCP's downsizing spree. Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium's far-future release date gets a mention, and did Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online forums get hacked? Head to Gamebreaker to see what the guys think.
This Week in MMO: Honestly EVE edition
The life expectancy of subscriptions -- and the enormous discussion swirling around it -- is at the forefront of Gamebreaker.TV's This Week in MMO. Massively's own Rubi Bayer joins the crew as they analyze Mark Jacobs' comments on subscriptions vs. free-to-play. Jacobs' blunt labeling that most F2P games are "crap" is incendiary, although it's hard to deny there are a lot of shoddy titles out there. The roundtable goes on to talk about CCP's apology to EVE Online players and what's being done to repair faith, trust, and ship-spinning in the game. It seems that frank apologies from higher-ups to customers is en vogue these days, from Netflix to Square-Enix, although it's debatable how much face is saved from such actions. Hit the jump to watch the full episode!
Win a BlizzCon ticket from Gamebreaker.TV
Seeing as how this year's BlizzCon tickets were sold out in the same amount of time that it takes you to read this sentence, the only way for you to experience the convention now is either virtually or by snagging a ticket from a generous donor. Fortunately, Gamebreaker.TV has a spare ticket on hand that it's prepared to bestow on a lucky fan -- and anyone can take a crack at winning it. To try your hand at winning the golden ticket, you simply have to buy as many Wonka bars as you can possibly... no, wait, that's not right. Actually, all you have to do is head over to Gamebreaker.TV's Facebook page and click "like" to be entered into the drawing. BlizzCon tickets were priced at $175 apiece and were sold out as of this past May. The convention might not have the big reveal of Blizzard's next big MMO, but it's got plenty of Foo Fighters to compensate.
This Week In MMO: Conspiracy edition
It's a new week; It's a new theme song for This Week In MMO. As you know, every week, Gamebreaker.TV hosts a round-table discussion about the latest news in MMOs, inviting different hosts from different media outlets to share their opinions and speculation. This week, everyone's favorite host, Gary "Bing Bong" Gannon, is joined by Mike "the Chinhawk" B and Jason "Red Shirt" Winter. It would not be an episode of TWIMMO if everyone didn't get tinfoil-hat hair. Starting with speculation revolving around the Star Wars: The Old Republic release-date announcement, two of the panel members were convinced that it was directly related to the Diablo 3 2012-pushback announcement. But that's not the only pushback that had our panelists theorizing. According to Gannon, End of Nations may be feeling the SWTOR pressure, too. The Trion Worlds MMO RTS was recently pushed back to 2012 as well. Keep your aluminum brain-barrier intact because our hosts also believe it is possible that CCP's World of Darkness MMO may be going free-to-play. All of this, plus the biggest question on everyone's mind is answered: Could there be a Kim Kardashian MMO and would there be an oiler profession? Check out the full episode of This Week In MMO after the break!
Choose My Adventure: RIFTastic!
Frenzy engulfed this last week's poll, which is one of the reasons I tweeted about it so often. EverQuest II and RIFT battled to the death over which would hold the attention of this writer for the next five weeks. Ultimately, the power of Regulos overpowered the Norrathians, but not without a fight. Usually the first community manager or game developer who catches wind of his or her game's appearance on Choose My Adventure wins. And just like past devs, Community Manager for EverQuest II Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence tweeted and posted in the EQII forums to encourage fans to vote for her game. However, Lindsay Lockhart, Lead Defiant Lore Writer for RIFT, would not have Telara beaten by Norrath, so she tweeted about it and passed the information off to Community Manager Erick "Zann" Adams, who posted it on RIFT's Facebook page. Immediately, RIFT's votes doubled then grew quickly after that. Congratulations to the RIFT fans. I hope I do your game justice, but I do want to give a shout out to all the EQII fans. I hope you stick around for this. You put up an awesome fight and certainly made the poll interesting to watch. As for this week, we step into RIFT's character creator. All the decisions are up to you! Should I roll Defiant or Guardian -- Warrior or Mage? Just cruise past the break for all the details!
The Guild Counsel: Why The Raid is worth seeing
Over the weekend, Gary Gannon from Gamebreaker.TV hosted a unique event in the world of MMOs: a film premiere, complete with fancy suits and ties and even an afterparty (albeit in the form of a chat room). The film is The Raid, which followed the World of Warcraft guild Double Dragons as it worked through the raid content from Wrath of the Lich King. There has been a lot of feedback from those who saw the premiere, but it's been decidedly mixed so far. Furthermore, viewers had such strong reactions to certain parts of the documentary that director Kevin Michael Johnson made a post on the site to try to address some of the criticism. But is the mixed review simply the cynical gamer at his best, or is it legit? In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll take a closer look at The Raid, and I'll explain why I think it's definitely worth seeing.
Watch SOE Fan Faire address live on Gamebreaker, or listen in-game
Sony Online Entertainment's annual Fan Faire starts this week, but if you can't make it to Las Vegas for the festivities you'll still have a front row seat. Gamebreaker is teaming up with SOE to provide live pre-show coverage beginning July 7th at 6:00 p.m. PDT. SOE bossman John Smedley's community address will happen an hour later and if you can't check it out on Gamebreaker because you're playing EverQuest or EverQuest II, you can listen in by joining the Vivox-powered Station Voice service. For EQ users, it's as easy as enabling voice chat and clicking on the event button in the UI. For EQII, type: /vcjoinuri confctl-3583@e2p.vivox.com Fan Faire. If you're planning to watch the Gamebreaker livestream, you'll need to register and claim your virtual ticket. Head to the official SOE forums for full instructions. [Update: Corrected pre-show coverage time]
One-thousand-Gnome race invades WoW's Horde capital
What do you do when you've finished a World of Warcraft-centered show and you have time on your hands? If you're the guys from Legendary over on GameBreaker.TV, you gather up an obscene number of friends and viewers and have the mother of all roving dance parties on the way to the ultimate goal. Not content to rest on their laurels of dragging 300 young Orcs into battle with Gamon, this time they managed to gather up a thousand starting Gnomes to rampage across the landscape of Azeroth, ultimately ending in a confrontation by any means necessary with Garrosh Hellscream. Of course, huge races across World of Warcraft aren't a new idea. Anyone who has played the game for years has undoubtedly heard of one at some point -- if not taken part. With that said, herding 1,000 footbal...err...Gnomes is definitely a hectic, crazy thing to do, especially when mobs are intent on taking bites out of your racers. Add in some excellent video editing, music, and the odd snippet of commentary, and what's old is new again. You can check out the video of the Legendary crew's epic after-party behind the break as they attempt to prove that there's no race like Gnome.
GDCO 2010: CCP talks EVE, Dust, and World of Darkness
Gamebreaker.tv recently sat down with CCP's Nathan Richardsson at GDCO for a lengthy video interview about EVE Online, Dust 514, and World of Darkness. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the EVE discussion focuses on the new character generator, recently made live on the Singularity test server and representing the first step towards 2011's long-awaited Incarna expansion. Richardsson doesn't have a lot to say regarding Dust 514, even though he talks about it for several minutes. The gist of the conversation is that CCP will release it when it's ready, and they're not even close to being prepared to talk about it. He does reiterate the game's console focus, stating that "our goal is delivering the EVE experience on different platforms, console being one of them of course. We'll be looking at more platforms, we already are." Moving on to the recently announced World of Darkness, Richardsson again declines to answer most of the pressing questions, though he does drop an interesting nugget relating to control of the game's intellectual property. Turns out that CCP's plans for a WoD virtual world required a certain level of control over the IP that wasn't possible with it residing in the hands of another company, hence the acquisition of WoD parent company White Wolf. Check out the full 30-minute interview after the cut and on Gamebreaker.
