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Zombies Monsters Robots revealed, spiritual successor to Mercenary Ops
Some games pit players against zombies. Some feature monsters. Still others go toe-to-metal-toe with robots. EnMasse Entertainment's Zombies Monsters Robots has all three. EnMasse announced the game at this year's GDC, revealing it to be a free-to-play third-person shooter and spiritual successor to iOS shooter Mercenary Ops. Unlike Mercenary Ops however, ZMR will be coming to PC, with early access starting in May. In ZMR, portals have opened into alternate dimensions, unleashing zombies, monsters and, yes, robots. Up to eight players band together to stop the advancing hordes across multiple game modes, including a campaign and wave-based survival. Alternatively, if you can't - or don't want to - beat 'em, join 'em by playing competitively; the game also features a 16-player head-to-head mode where teams are split into monsters vs. humans. Polygon reports that EnMasse plans to roll out extra content after the game is launched, including "Dino Island" DLC which features an map inhabited by dinosaurs with guns on their backs. Screenshots released for the game show off plenty of other baddies as well, so place your bets on which creature will be your undoing. Personally, we vote death by merman. [Image: EnMasse Entertainment]
Bringing a Chinese shooter to the west with Mercenary Ops
Mercenary Ops is something of a rarity. While there are quite a few Western-developed games being published in Asia by Chinese and Korean companies, there aren't a lot of Chinese-developed online titles being published by Western companies.Developed in China by Yingpei Games, which used to be called Epic Games China, the shooter is being distributed by the San Francisco-based outfit Kalends, a group of developers who've decided to try their hand at publishing on their own.As for the game itself, Kalends has announced that Mercenary Ops will be released as a free-to-play, microtransaction-based title – a business plan that has deep roots in China, but is only just breaking ground stateside.%Gallery-149855%
Epic Games China isn't quite part of Epic Games [update: even more info!]
Yesterday, we went to a GDC appointment with "Epic Games China" to see a game called Mercenary Ops. Built in Unreal Engine 3 and filled with Gears of War-esque gameplay, it was revealed as the first project from "Epic Games China." As it turns out, that's not quite true. "Mercenary Ops is being developed by Ying Pei Games, which was formerly Epic Games China. However, as with our many development and publishing partners, they are utilizing Unreal Engine technology," Epic Games' US reps told The Verge.More bizarre? "Ying Pei" in Mandarin means "Epic," making "Ying Pei Games" the equivalent of ... "Epic Games." According to Epic Games (the American one), "We do own a minority stake in Ying Pei Games and we do work with them as with our other Unreal Engine developers, but Epic Games is not developing Mercenary Ops."Additionally, EpicGamesChina.com directs to the Ying Pei website, and we were told by reps yesterday that the studio is a "subsidiary" of Epic Games US. The game's publisher, "Delkans," is brand new to North American publishing and has two mystery owners from the tech sector, making this whole story all the stranger.Update: Epic Games' US reps tell us, "When they first launched the studio we clearly gave them Epic's blessing to call themselves Epic Games China. We were ready to have a more on-the-ground presence in China to reach those developers with our technology more effectively, not to mention we wanted to learn more about that market's needs and its growing talent base."They changed their name in 2010, can't recall which month. We didn't make a big fuss over it because our working relationship hasn't changed. They use our tech, they sell it, they make their own games, nothing new to report." So there's that!Update 2: Ying Pei Games' publisher, Delkans Publishing, issued the following statement to Joystiq this afternoon: "Delkans Publishing, a new North American game publisher, wants to clarify that Mercenary Ops is being developed by Yingpei Games, Ltd., which is formerly known as Epic Games China. Yingpei Games, Ltd. is going through a transitionary phase and will continue to garner support from Epic Games and utilize their Unreal Engine 3 technology. Delkans Publishing will provide further background information on the developer, Yingpei Games, Ltd. in the coming weeks. Delkans Publishing apologizes for any confusion."
Epic Games China bringing Mercenary Ops exclusively to NA/EU computers this summer
There's a whole group of folks at Epic Games China and they're working hard on the first big title from Epic Games' eastern subsidiary. The game, Mercenary Ops, is a ... somewhat derivative third-person shooter built in Unreal Engine 3, which uses cover, blind fire, and active reloading mechanics (from the Gears of War franchise) as main gameplay concepts. Given the "mercenary dudes" setting, the combination of Gears gameplay and bro'd out characters gives it a Gears of War meets Call of Duty feeling, as we discovered during a brief hands-on session today at GDC 2012. So ... yeah, perfectly competent, but not the most original.Perhaps more interesting, the game isn't being published by EGC's American parent company, but instead a brand new North American publisher named Delkans. And what in the world is Delkans? That's a good question -- one that company reps weren't willing to supply an answer for when repeatedly asked during our meeting today. Apparently the publisher is made up of folks from the tech industry, though that's all we could pull out of reps.Mercenary Ops is planned for a summer 2012 launch in North America and Europe, with Asian markets potentially following (Delkans isn't talking solid plans just yet).%Gallery-149855%
