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SMITE previews Ao Kuang in detail
Turning into a dragon is always a viable strategy if you can manage it. Most people can't; you cannot respond to criticism from your boss by turning into a dragon, for example. Ao Kuang can do exactly that in SMITE, however, and that forms the core of his playstyle in the game. If he has a target with low enough health, he can turn into a dragon, destroy them, then fly to a new area with area damage and a recharged sword so that, hopefully, he can take out someone else by turning into a dragon. Ao Kuang's passive mechanic is a sword that carries charges that are auto-spent to buff his abilities, with a slow regeneration out of combat or a quick regeneration if, again, he turns into a dragon. He's a melee mage-type character, encouraging players to swing in, take out a target, and then move on to the next. You can get a clearer picture of how this will work in play on the official preview page. [Thanks to Sorenthaz for the tip!]
Arcane Supergirl arrives in Infinite Crisis this month
Arcane Supergirl is coming to Infinite Crisis, according to developer Turbine's latest press release. Arcane Supergirl is "able to summon firebird and flame at will," and she'll be available for play on November 26th. Click past the cut for a new video that focuses on both gameplay and lore.
Ex-Riot Games devs' Vainglory makes MOBAs mobile on iOS
Thought you were safe from the MOBA craze just because you prefer to game on mobile devices? Think again: developer Super Evil Megacorp is bringing their MOBA, Vainglory, to iOS devices this month. Vainglory simplifies the typical MOBA formula by reducing team size to three (instead of the more common five) and limiting matches to 20 minutes long (not unlike the Crytek MOBA Arena of Fate). There's also only one lane to push against, and the game's controls are based around the touchscreen interface. For more information, there's a basic overview video after the break. Those living in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand can already download the game for free, while Europe will gain access on November 13. The North America, South America, Middle East and Africa App Stores will get their versions on November 18. China, Japan and Korea have no announced release date. No matter where you live, you'll need an iPad 2 or later or, if you're playing on your phone, an iPhone 5S or later. Vainglory is Super Evil Megacorp's first game, the studio itself being comprised of ex-Riot Games, ex-Blizzard and ex-Rockstar developers.
League of Legends spotlights Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance
Yesterday, Riot Games formally unveiled the long-rumored Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance, a new champion coming to MOBA League of Legends. Says the studio, Kalista is a marksman who cooperates with her Soul-Bound to deal substantial sustained damage, access her full repertoire of abilities and wither her enemies under her relentless assault. Kalista’s potential is unlocked by solid communication and cooperation with allies rather than raw mechanical skill. While still capable in her own right, Kalista misses out on Soul-Marked's bonus damage and effective use of her ult without direct cooperation from her ally. Riot has a brief unembeddable spotlight clip on the official site; we've included a longer one from YouTuber SkinSpotlights below.
Warner Bros. plans more layoffs through early 2015
The rocky situation for Warner Bros. is far from over. Game Informer is reporting that the conglomerate is planning more layoffs through "most business groups" starting this week and going through early 2015. Variety says that up to 1,000 employees from TV, film, and other divisions will be let go from the cuts. This report stems from a staff memo that discusses this internal, company-wide restructuring. While Turbine was not specifically mentioned, there is concern following the recent bout of layoffs that hit the Lord of the Rings Online developer.
Dawngate shutting down in 90 days
We hope you haven't pinned your future MOBA hopes on Dawngate, as EA has decided to take this title out of the running completely. Dawngate, which has been in beta most of this year, said today that it will be shutting down service in 90 days and is refunding testers any money they have spent thus far. "Today, I have the unenviable task of announcing that we've decided to stop development of Dawngate," Group General Manager Matt Bromberg posted. "Dawngate has been in beta for almost 18 months, including a full open beta for the past six months. Through that time, we've taken a lot of feedback from players and delivered lots of new features and innovations. And although the game has grown, we're not seeing the progress we'd hoped for." You can read Massively's hands-on experience with Dawngate as well as our interview with Composer Jeff Broadbent.
BlizzCon kicks off on Friday, virtual tickets still available
If you've been waiting patiently for the next big convention focused entirely around Blizzard's game catalogue, your wait is almost over. BlizzCon 2014 kicks off on Friday, November 7th, with the opening ceremonies starting at 2:00 p.m. EST. There's no chance of attending in person if you don't already have a ticket, but you can still pick up a virtual ticket, and DirecTV customers can also grab a pay-per-view stream that includes a virtual ticket and the associated benefits. The convention will host a variety of tournaments, including the Hearthstone championships, the StarCraft II championships, and the World of Warcraft Arena championship. There will also be the usual assortment of lore panels, development previews, and reveals for the various games under the Blizzard banner, included the much-anticipated Warlords of Draenor expansion. If you've been on the fence about getting a stream, take a look at the list of festivities and get ready to see what's coming from the studio this weekend.
Smite enters beta arena on Xbox One early next year
Hi-Rez Studios plans to kick off its closed beta for Smite on Xbox One in early 2015. The developer revealed plans for its console beta at PAX Australia, as discussed by co-founder and COO Todd Harris in a recap video found after the break. The studio intends on launching the Xbox One beta in the first half of next year. The MOBA first arrived on PC in March, and has since reached over five million registered players. Smite was among a lengthy list of independent games confirmed for Xbox One during Microsoft's Gamescom press event in August. It will be the first console game from the developer, whose other PC efforts include Tribes: Ascend and Global Agenda. [Image: Hi-Rez Studios]
Professional League of Legends streamer makes over $817,000 a year
If you ever tried to make the argument to your parents or loved one that you could be earning a living from doing nothing but playing video games, now you have some solid ammunition to back up your case. OnGamers translated an article that discusses how several professional Chinese League of Legends players are making six-digit salaries a year from streaming. One such player is 22-year-old Wei Han-Dong, who "retired" from playing professionally in order to sign a contract to stream 90 hours of matches a month for $817,863 a year. He maintains that streaming is less stressful than entering in tournaments, in which he was part of a world championship team in 2012. The lengthy article discusses how competitive and costly the world of professional esports and streaming has become, how managers are paying large chunks of money to sign players, and how the industry is rife with negativity and instability.
Gigantic wants to greatly expand its alpha test
Gigantic's alpha program is progressing fairly well, but the team is concerned that the pool of available testers have yet to push the servers to their limits. The solution: expand the MOBA's alpha test. "The whole point of the test is to find out how many players it takes to push our game systems and our server capacity over the cliff," Motiga posted this week. "So bad news for us is good news for you: We desperately need more of you, so we will be adding more alpha testers throughout the fall season. Thousands of new testers." The studio is also working to expand the alpha past North America to other regions and is hiring more team members to support a worldwide rollout.
SMITE reveals Nox, Goddess of the Night, just in time for Halloween
Nox, Goddess of the Night, will soon debut in MOBA SMITE, Hi-Rez has announced. Based on the classical goddess of the same name, playable Nox is both beautiful and terrifying, a shadowy figure rarely seen, who "glides between the light just at the edge of vision." Her core mechanics revolve around the clever implementation of candles and candlelight; abilities used near Nox light up the candles she wields, reducing her mana consumption. Other powers include a mitigation shield, a damage-plus-silence raven attack, and multiple darkness-themed debuffs. Check out Nox's god reveal trailer below! [Thanks, Sorenthaz.]
New King of Wushu video showcases graphics, awesome hair
Snail Games wants you to know that its MOBA, King of Wushu, is not some chucked-together, low-poly, button-mashing spectacle -- it's a Cryengine 3 game with style. It's got Dynamic Flowing Hair and Cloth, people. At last week's Nvidia Game Festival, the developer revealed a new trailer to show off its graphics, and we think you'll agree that the character's lush mane is totally dynamic and flowing. And hey, the martial arts play is pretty spiffy too. Revealed last June, King of Wushu is based on Snail's MMORPG Age of Wushu. The MOBA is destined for a 2015 launch. Check out the video below.
League of Legends poised to generate $1 billion in annual revenue
Few things mystify me more than League of Legends. I just don't get MOBAs in general and Riot's juggernaut in particular. Judging by a new report from SuperData Research, though, I'm fairly alone in that assessment as the title is poised to break the $1 billion annual revenue barrier. According to SuperData, LoL generated $946 million via in-game spending between January and September of 2014 and, get this, it makes more money than World of Tanks, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and Hearthstone combined.
League of Legends tops MMO revenue list, Hearthstone No. 10
MMO games, including MOBAs, compose 21 percent of the worldwide digital game market and are on track to generate $11 billion in revenue this year alone, SuperData Research reports. By 2017, that number is expected to rise to $13 billion. In 2014, the No. 1 MMO in terms of revenue is League of Legends, which has so far generated $946 million, beating out subscription games such as World of Warcraft, which is No. 4 on the list with $728 million. World of Tanks comes in at No. 5 and represents the largest revenue gap on the graph at $369 million. Dota 2 is No. 9 with $136 million, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is No. 10 with $114 million. See the full graph below.
Infinite Crisis reveals creepy alien starfish Starro
Crowd-control fans, listen up: Turbine MOBA Infinite Crisis has today announced Starro, a new playable controller champion going live on November 5th. For those not up on their DC lore, the short version is "creepy alien starfish." Long version? Starro is a Star Conqueror. These nomadic and parasitic creatures roam the cosmos in two forms: motherstars and parasites. Motherstars are sentient, while parasites are extensions of the motherstar's consciousness. A parasite attaches itself to other sentient creatures, allowing the motherstar to control that creature's mind. Once controlled, the victims work toward growing more motherstars to go out and bring universal harmony to other planets-by conquering them. Little did the Star Conqueror who came to be known as Starro know how difficult carrying that plan out on Earth would be! Starro has little concern for what happens to the individuals it controls. They're a tiny part of the whole. When Starro speaks to creatures it doesn't control, it does so telepathically, urging them to join in universal harmony. We've got some pics and a video below to finish out Starro's reveal.
Skara: The Blade Remains moves to Steam early access
Have you been longing for a violent multiplayer combat game on Steam with no regard for how early it may be in testing? Then you'll be happy to learn that Skara: The Blade Remains will be landing on the Early Access service on October 27th. Players will initially be limited to one-on-one battles in the earliest client, although the ultimate plan is to make the game play as an 8v8 mix of RPG and MOBA elements. You can get a sense for how the game will look in action in the gameplay trailer just past the break. Purchasers will ultimately have their money refunded in the form of virtual currency once the game launches as free-to-play in 2015. If you want to get involved in the testing and don't want to fund the game directly from the developer's site, just hold on a little longer and you can pick it up through Steam. [Source: 8-Bit Studios press release]
Riot tweaking LoL's refer-a-friend to combat account sellers
If you've been using Riot's refer-a-friend program to bot, commit fraud, or otherwise misbehave in and around League of Legends, your time's almost up. The company has announced changes to the program in order to prevent would-be sellers from loading up accounts with skins and currency. The new RAF update will reward players with 1000 IP for each referred friend who reaches level 10. You can refer a total of five people, and three referrals nets you the Grey Warlock skin while five grants you Medieval Twitch. Full details are available via Riot's blog post.
Heroes of the Storm's Azmodan is more than just a pretty face
Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, is large and in charge in Heroes of the Storm. Literally, he's in charge; his whole schtick is summoning more demons and empowering minions, serving as a general to the many units under his team's command. But this support-type hero has more to him than just a pretty face and a skittery set of legs. A new article underpinning Azmodan week explores the character in depth, covering his backstory as well as his playstyle and looks. If you've played Diablo III, odds are good you're familiar with him to some extent already, but the article highlights trivia you may have missed and includes more of his backstory, like his tendency to give away his plans out of a certainty that no one can defeat them. (You can guess how that works out.) You can also check out a trailer for the tactical demon just past the break. It's an appropriately spooky hero to highlight as we move closer to the end of October, and you can catch all of the details on the official site.
Layoffs hit Infinite Crisis developer Turbine
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment confirmed today that a round of layoffs will soon affect The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine, Inc. "As part of our normal business process, we're routinely looking at the strategic alignment of our company," a Warner Bros. representative told Joystiq. "Unfortunately, in order for us to invest in growth areas at Turbine, we have to eliminate some positions. These are always tough decisions, which we don't approach lightly, but it's crucial that Turbine is structured in a way that reflects the current and coming marketplace." After debuting its landmark MMORPG Asheron's Call in 1999, Turbine continued with a string of successful PC follow-ups and expansions, including The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online. The studio's latest project, the DC Universe-based MOBA Infinite Crisis, is currently in open beta, with a final release due by the end of the year. [Image: Turbine]
EVE Evolved: Fixing EVE's player activity
It's been a sort of running gag in EVE Online throughout the years that players spend inordinate amounts of time docked in stations and spinning their ships around in the hangar, but this is oddly close to the truth. Those of us who have been hooked to EVE for years know just how intense the game can get at its most frantic and how incredible it is to be present for historic events and important PvP battles, but those moments are rare, and there's typically a lot of downtime between periods of activity. For every PvP battle fought, incursion fleet formed or wormhole op organised, players often have to spend hours in stations or in space amusing themselves or doing busywork. With gamers now spreading their increasingly limited free time across a growing catalogue of online games, some EVE players log in for only a few minutes per day to queue skills, chat with corpmates, and see if anything interesting is happening. The recent announcement that the upcoming Phoebe release will contain infinite length skill queues has some players concerned that people will lose the motivation to pop their heads into New Eden each day and see what's going on. Since the best sandbox gameplay is emergent in nature, just getting players to log in so they're available to take part in something awesome when it happens is extremely important. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I ask whether EVE is in trouble due to its recent decline in player activity, look at the impact of people with just a few hours per week to play, and suggest a new app idea that could help solve all of those problems.
