PAX-East-2013
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EVE Online hits 500,000 subscribers, heads into second decade
Most modern MMOs launch to an initial flurry of sales followed by a steady decline in player activity, but sci-fi MMO EVE Online has lived life in reverse. The game initially failed to secure a large number of launch sales but has since grown organically into one of the most successful subscription MMOs on the planet. EVE developer CCP Games told Massively today that the game has now officially broken the 500,000 subscription barrier. Subscription numbers hit the 450,000 mark following the relaunch of EVE's Chinese server Serenity in December of last year, and they have continued to climb ever since. This new subscription milestone is attributed to the success of EVE's recent Retribution expansion and the anticipation building over upcoming console MMOFPS DUST 514, which is set on actual planets in the EVE universe. EVE is due to hit its 10th anniversary this year on May 6th, and developers have been taking the opportunity to look forward at what the coming decade will bring to the game. We caught up with CCP for a quick peek at the studio's plans for the future and to find out what kind of announcements we can expect from EVE Fanfest in April of this year.
Final warning: PAX East 2013 almost totally sold out [update: all gone]
The official PAX twitter account notes that PAX East is "down to the last 500" tickets for Sunday, March 24. Three-day passes sold out last year and tickets for Friday and Saturday have been sold out for a while.Take this as your final warning if you have any intention of attending the Boston event, being held March 22-24. Grab a Sunday ticket here. Tickets aren't likely to last the next 24 hours.Update: And it's sold out!
Blizzard to attend PAX East
Blizzard Entertainment sort of does its own thing these days. The company has the clout to ignore most gatherings outside of the obvious BlizzCon when you consider the sheer size of World of Warcraft and other properties. But it looks as if this year things will be just a little bit different. Blizzard has stated that representatives will be attending this year's PAX East to show something off. And to compound the bafflement, it's not what you'd expect. Whatever the company is showing off isn't a sequel, expansion, or the obliquely referenced Titan. So what in the world could it be? The Diablo III console port? Something entirely new? A mobile game in which you follow along behind World of Warcraft NPCs and nod enthusiastically? Snakes? Whatever it is, we'll find out at the end of March when the company rolls into Boston with the rest of the PAX East crew. (We're betting on snakes.)
The death of Fallen Frontier and Moonshot's mobile resurrection
Downloadable console games were all the rage in 2009, the year that Damián Isla, Rob Stokes and Michel Bastien left Bungie and founded Moonshot Games. Stepping away from the AAA development halo, the trio envisioned a digital game for XBLA and PSN, and in 2010 they received two publishing deals for Fallen Frontier, a co-op platforming shooter with a wicked split-screen mechanic.By 2011, both of these publishing deals were dead."Here's the problem with that situation: When your game gets funded, you start spending a lot of time doing stuff that helps you make the game – lots of infrastructural stuff on the engineering side, lots of tool-building, lots of deep story and design work on the design side – but doesn't necessarily do a lot to help you sell the game," Isla told Joystiq. "So each time a development deal fell apart, it was a whole lot of time lost."Moonshot took Fallen Frontier to PAX East 2011 without a publisher, and players were "really receptive," Isla said. The money, however, had moved on."I would say that our main mistake was one of timing," Isla said. "We arrived at the XBLA/PSN space a year or two too late. If we had been showing the game at PAX 2009 rather than 2011, we would be telling a different story right now. But by 2011 the publishers' appetite for development funding in the console downloadable space had evaporated – probably for pretty good reason – and the only deals we were hearing them sign were distribution deals."
PAX East Indie Showcase to include Spaceteam, Saturday Morning RPG
The indie games featured in this year's PAX East Indie Showcase have been revealed. Seven games will be showcased at the event this year, which highlights excellence in mobile games we've never heard of.The full list includes Sleeping Beast Games' iOS party game Spaceteam, Little Chomp by ClutchPlay Games, PagodaWest's Major Magnet, Trinket Studios' puzzler Orion's Forge, Saturday Morning RPG from Mighty Rabbit Studios, Time Surfer by Kumobious and Third Eye Crime by Moonshot Games.
Mercenary Kings on display at IGDA Demo Night, PAX East, this gallery
Mercenary Kings, the run-and-gun-and-craft action game by Wizorb developer Tribute Games, is well on its way to reality following its Kickstarter drive. The developer shared three new in-progress screenshots today, and announced plans to show the game on January 22 at the IGDA DemoNight in Montreal.More fans will get to see what are most assuredly spectacular animations at PAX East, where the game will be playable in a Tribute Games booth.%Gallery-176760%
PAX East Saturday passes are 'low,' stop procrastinating and get some
PAX East has a habit of selling out pretty quickly, as we keep telling you, and passes for Saturday are now "low." Saturday is the final day still available, so if you haven't purchased tickets yet, this might be your last chance.The official PAX East Twitter says Saturday passes "probably will be sold out before the end of the night," so get your booties in motion.
PAX East 2013 three-day passes 'low'
Three-day badges for PAX East 2013 are now "low" on the show's official site. We warned yesterday that PAX tickets have a nasty habit of selling out quick, so consider this the final warning if you want a three-day pass. Tickets for the expo started going on sale yesterday."They are very low. They will probably sell out in the next day," Penny Arcade Inc. president Robert Khoo tells us.PAX East is planned for March 22-24, 2013. Hotel deals are also available now through the PAX site. Although, those are starting to sell out too. Time to make decisions if you're on the fence.
PAX East 2013 tickets, hotel registration now available
Tickets for PAX East 2013 are available for purchase right now. That wasn't a statement of fact as much as a warning to do so before the choice tickets are sold out. It can happen very quickly, so we stress grabbing them now if you're planning on attending.PAX East, which will take place in Boston until 2023, is set for March 22-24, 2013. Hotel deals are also available now through the PAX site.
