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Soul of the Ultimate Nation heading back to Webzen
First we heard that NHN, running under ijji.com, would be transferring control of Huxley back to its developer Webzen here in North America. Now, news has reached us that NHN has decided to follow suit with the other Webzen game ijji.com has held for the last year -- Soul of the Ultimate Nation. Thankfully, those who are a part of the world of SUN need not fear: Plans are underway to make sure that all active characters are transferred smoothly between hosts. (Those of you who tasted the banhammer are SOL, even on the new host.) The cash shop in Soul of the Ultimate Nation is already closed; character transfers are already open and will continue until January 21st, 2011. For those who have already set themselves up to make the jump, Webzen's SUN servers will be online as of December 15th, ready to welcome veterans and new players alike. If you choose to opt out of the transfer altogether, ijji.com is offering a pro-rated refund of cash shop items that your character may have had before the 22nd of November. For more details, check out the detailed FAQ on the ijji.com site.
Webzen to resume publishing duties for Huxley: The Dystopia
NHN USA, or ijji.com, has been the company responsible for publishing Huxley: The Dystopia internationally, but the people in charge have announced that they're passing it back to developer Webzen. Webzen will be self-publishing Huxley, but it's not as much of a change at it might seem at first glance. NHN USA and Webzen are separate divisions of the same company, NHN Corporation, and the two divisions will continue partnering with one another to publish other projects. If you've purchased G Coin Cards, don't worry about losing out: "G Coin Cards branded with Huxley imaging will remain valid as long as they're purchased through an authorized retailer." NHN USA's official statement will appear on ijji.com today.
Soul of the Ultimate Nation closed beta test starts today for all ijji.com players
If you've been looking forward to Soul of the Ultimate Nation finally coming to America, well now's your chance to give the game a whirl. Today marks the opening of the game's closed beta test, which really isn't as closed as it sounds.If you're an ijji.com member, you already have access to the game. If you're not, well simply sign up for an account to get the ball rolling. Please be aware that only four territories have access to SUN on ijji.com currently, and that's Mexico, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. If you're having trouble logging in, check out this thread on their forums.Closed beta testers will also get the chance to win an exclusive in-game pet -- the husky. To win this illustrious pet, you'll need to fill out one of their closed beta test surveys and have more than 2 characters on your account. The winning 100 accounts will be chosen randomly and will be announced during the first week of the open beta.So while you're downloading the client, feel free to check out some of our exclusive screenshots below. You'll be awash in the game soon enough. %Gallery-65491%
Joystiq interview: Huxley project manager Andy Hong
You remember Huxley, right? It's that Webzen-developed MMOFPS we first heard about way back in 2005. We even played it ... in 2006. Not ringing any bells?Huxley was billed as the first MMOFPS to hit the Xbox 360 and PC, and it was to offer cross-platform multiplayer and promised 100-vs-100 online battles. Sounds to good to be true, right? Apparently. The game suddenly disappeared from public eye -- for years! And then, just as sudden, Huxley re-emerged from hiding through a handful of new screens and is now under the (hopefully!) steady hand of ijji.com (owned by NHN America).We caught up with Andy Hong, project manager for Huxley: The Dystopia, to see where the game has been and where it's going:How different is Huxley now, as compared to the original coverage (back in 2006)?There's been a real focus on polish and that really shows in the current version. There haven't been any major changes to the game, but the gameplay has changed a lot, it's a lot faster ...
Huxley: The Dystopia beta signups begin
Huxley: The Dystopia is the re-monikered MMOFPS from Webzen that will be published in the West by NHN USA and ijji. Huxley clearly puts more emphasis on FPS than MMO although elements of the latter are certainly there, and Massively had a chance to see a bit of what the game can offer at GDC 2009. Shortly afterwards, they launched a teaser site counting down to... something. We admit, we must've looked away from that countdown for too long because the teaser site changed today, adding video footage, forums, screenshots, character descriptions and backstory info. The main thing we'd like to mention to our readers is that Huxley: The Dystopia is currently taking closed beta signups. The signup period is May 6 - May 20, and the first round of closed beta testing will last from June 3 - June 14. If you've been looking forward to fragging in Huxley, head on over to the Beta Test Registration page at ijji, and check out all the new info about the game they've added to the site.%Gallery-48874%
GDC09: Massively previews Huxley: The Dystopia page 2
Quests and PvP You can pick up quests in the city. Those are either story quests or instanced quests where you can either go solo or group up to wipe the map of enemy NPCs. Huxley's cities are large and while a player can navigate on foot, it's much faster to take a hoverbike, or travel by tram or train. The quests themselves often bring a player outside of the city (via train) or beneath the city, where they need to fight against the hybrids in the sewers. While the game's quests can either be handled solo or in squads, players can also advance in Huxley through PvP. "With PvP you earn experience points as with quests, but you also earn rank points which let you level up your rank, such as private, sergeant, lieutenant, and beyond. The benefit of higher rank is access to the most powerful S-type weapons and bragging rights. People see the symbol next to your name and see what rank you are," like a title system, says Hong.
GDC09: Massively previews Huxley, a hybrid sci-fi MMO and FPS
Huxley: The Dystopia is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) in development at NHN USA. We haven't heard much about the title since mid-2008, so we were happy that NHN USA was willing to sit down with us at GDC 2009. We spoke with Andy Hong, Huxley's Project Manager, who showed us some of the basic concepts behind the game. Huxley is a persistent world built upon Unreal Engine 3 foundations and is a game that differs from many of the MMOs we cover at Massively. Like other titles entering the market such as Global Agenda, Huxley is a marriage of the twitch combat of a first person shooter with classes, skills, trading, banking, and player housing we associate with MMOs. "At the core of the gameplay in Huxley, at its heart, it's an FPS," says Hong. But the depth of the rest of Huxley's gameplay, not limited to its quest and crafting systems, makes it a title quite unlike any pure FPS. %Gallery-48874%
Huxley's Xbox 360 fate still in the air
One of the first MMOs announced in the new generation of consoles, Huxley, is having a difficult time making its way to consoles. While Huxley developer Webzen has announced that the PC title will finally make its way to North America after signing a new deal with publisher NHN USA, the Xbox 360 version continues its release limbo.Other items that need to be ironed out of for the Unreal Engine 3 MMO/FPS include the business model approach for the title and a firm release date, as Webzen only specifies an expected PC release in late 2008 for North America and Western Europe.[via Big Download]
Huxley coming to NA and Europe by way of NHN USA
The rumors of Webzen's North American demise have been greatly exaggerated. News on the inter-streets is that Webzen has found a PC-version publisher for their MMOFPS game Huxley in gaming portal heavyweight NHN USA, which is a subsidiary of the Korean NHN. There still isn't any mention of the 360 version, however. This is a pretty big deal for Webzen as it means that Huxley will be sold through the incredibly huge ijji.com videogame portal. That's the same portal through which over six million people play tons of games including Gunbound, Gunz, Drift City and Soldier Front.You may or may not know about ijji.com, but trust us when we say it's a pretty big win for Webzen. Originally announced when Hoover build the dam, Huxley has been in the works for a long, long time. Which is the main reason we've all been questioning its US release solidity. All joking aside, the real question we should be asking is whether or not NA and European players will even like the game. Some of us here at Massively haven't been decidedly impressed by anything so far. Only time will tell.
