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Steam tops 8 million concurrent users as sale draws to a close
Steam is quite popular during its Summer Sale thanks to its massively discounted games. How popular? As it turns out, the PC game distribution service reached a new peak of concurrent users, 8,020,792 to be exact, according to stats provided by Valve. Steam broke the 8 million mark as the storefront updated on Sunday for the final day of the Summer Sale. Valve revealed in January at its Dev Days event that Steam reached 75 million active users in total, up from the 65 million it had in October. The Summer Sale ends at which ends at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT) today, and includes games like The Wolf Among Us ($8.49), Tomb Raider ($4.99), Civilization 5 ($7.49), Dishonored ($4.99) and the Complete Edition of Metro: Last Light ($6.49). [Image: Steam]
EVE Evolved: EVE needs real colonisation now
MMOs have absolutely exploded in popularity over the past decade, with online gaming growing from a niche hobby to a global market worth billions of dollars each year. Once dominated by subscription games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft, recent years have seen free-to-play games take centre stage. Global MMO subscriptions have been reportedly shrinking since 2010, and EVE doesn't appear to be immune to this industry-wide trend. Though February 2013's figures showed EVE subscriptions have technically grown year-on-year, those numbers were published just after the Chinese server relaunch, and CCP hasn't released any new figures since. Developers have done a good job of catering to current subscribers and polishing existing gameplay with the past few expansions, but the average daily login numbers are still the same as they were over four years ago. EVE will undoubtedly hook in plenty of new and returning subscribers when its deep space colonisation gameplay with player-built stargates and new hidden solar systems is implemented, but time could be running out on these features. Hefty competition is due in the next few years from upcoming sandbox games such as Star Citizen, EverQuest Next, Camelot Unchained, and Elite: Dangerous, and CCP will have to release something big soon to bring in some fresh blood. In this week's EVE Evolved, I ask whether CCP should focus on new players and suggest plans for two relatively simple colonisation-based expansions that could get EVE a significant part of the way toward its five-year goal in just one year.
World of Tanks sets new concurrency record of 1.1 million tanks tanking
Wargaming.net's World of Tanks has again broken its own world record for player concurrency, hosting 1.1 million players simultaneously on the game's Russian cluster. This new total handily defeats the previously reported record of 190,541 online players set in March of 2013, though Wargaming.net did note in its press release that average concurrency has been hovering near the 900,000 mark "for the past few months." According to the studio, which now boasts offices in Chicago, Baltimore, Seattle, Austin, Paris, Kiev, Tokyo, and more, World of Tanks has over 75 million players. The press release was not specific on whether these are active players or simply registered accounts. [Source: Wargaming.net press release]
World of Tanks sets new PCCU record, boasts 40 million registered users
OK, let's start with the standard disclaimer. Registered users doesn't mean active users, and in today's free-to-play climate it certainly doesn't mean paying users. That said, 40 million of anything is a fairly staggering amount, and it just so happens that Wargaming.net has 40 million registered users for its World of Tanks title. The game has also set a new peak concurrent user (PCCU) record thanks to over 500,000 players simultaneously connecting to its Russian shard. World of Tanks recently released its 8.0 patch which brought about a physics and lighting overhaul. Head to the official website to check out the game for yourself, or tune in to Massively TV this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. EDT to watch us play. [Source: Wargaming.net press release]
The Summoner's Guidebook: Get back, get back!
Last week, I said I would avoid doing articles on the situational "soft skills" in League of Legends. Well, this week kind of ruins that already. Today we're going to talk about lane positioning, zoning, and harassment. These things are not something I can just give you blanket tips on. There are a lot of nuances involved in good positioning, and every single matchup is completely different. You do not stand in the same places laning against Cassiopeia as you do against Kennen, and those positions change depending on which character you're playing, too. Even though there is a lot of matchup-specific knowledge involved in lane positioning, there are some general tips I can provide. This week I'm going to only teach you about the basics of lane safety but give you some dirty mindgame tricks that will absolutely ruin your opponents. Interested? Read on!
Research firm: SWTOR has 350,000 peak concurrent users
How successful is Star Wars: The Old Republic? That's hard to say definitively, but according to Baird Equity Research, BioWare's maiden massively multiplayer voyage is doing just fine. "We view the early success of Star Wars as an indication of a healthy MMO market," said Baird spokesman Colin Sebastian. The firm estimates that TOR has approximately 350,000 peak concurrent users spread across 215 servers (124 in America and 91 in Europe). That's a far cry from the 491 servers currently in use by World of Warcraft players, and though some analysts and fans expected TOR to compete with Blizzard's subscription king, Cowen and Company says the new title has had "minimal apparent impact" on the market leader.
ZT Online 2 open beta attracts 435K concurrent users
For the past couple of years, EVE Online and World of Tanks have been duking it out to see which game can outfox the other in the hunt for the MMORPG peak concurrent user record. As of this week there may be a new contender for the crown if ZT Online 2's open beta period is any indication. The game is a sequel to Giant Interactive's popular ZT Online martial arts title, and the recent open beta period featured an impressive 435,000 simultaneous players online. Gamasutra has the details, culled from a Giant press release, and the company also indicates that approximately 400 developers have worked on the title over the past three years.
EVE Evolved: Expansions, not excuses
Over the last few months, the phrase "Flying in Space" has been increasingly used by both EVE Online's developers and its players to describe features other than those of Incarna. It seems like a redundant phrase as all of EVE's gameplay currently takes place in space, but the distinction has become necessary when discussing the allocation of development resources. Members of EVE's player-elected Council of Stellar Management have recently spearheaded a wave of new complaints about the level of resources dedicated to EVE's in-space features, claiming that developers have been left without the resources necessary to do a good job. In the previous three EVE Evolved columns, I discussed the upcoming nullsec revamp scheduled to begin this winter and the incredible new gameplay players might get as part of it. Members of the CSM know exactly how many people will be working on that revamp, and although those numbers haven't been made public, several delegates have gone public with their disapproval. EVE's subscription fees are currently paying for the development of CCP's upcoming fantasy MMO World of Darkness and its ambitious console MMOFPS DUST 514, leaving few resources for new EVE gameplay and content. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the success of EVE's first blockbuster expansion and ask why development on EVE Online has dramatically decreased over the past two and a half years.
World of Tanks surpasses five million registered players in time for first birthday
World of Tanks' first birthday is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than via a milestone announcement. Wargaming.net's latest press releases touts the fact that the free-to-play World War II action MMO has surpassed 5,000,000 registered players. That's a lot of tank commanders, and apparently more than the company anticipated. "We didn't expect World of Tanks would become this popular. The game's success has given us [the] confidence we needed to continue our expansion into the world of online wargames," said CEO Victor Kislyi. World of Tanks also set numerous peak concurrent user records during its first year, and owns the Guiness World Record for simultaneous player connections at 91,311.
World of Tanks hits 74,536 peak concurrent users on one server
When it comes to smashing expectations, one MMO that's certainly delivering is Wargaming.net's upcoming title World of Tanks. The game isn't even in release yet, and already it has been pushing out some impressive numbers. Last week, Wargaming.net confirmed that over one million accounts had been registered for its closed beta. That milestone figure is a huge increase over last month's 700,000 registered accounts. The majority of the interest in WoT so far has been in the Russian version of the game, which boasts over 70% of the total accounts registered. It's not surprising that the latest big number to make its way to us from the World of Tanks team comes from the Russian server. Yesterday, the peak concurrent user number on the Russian server reached a whopping 74,536. Wargaming.net is calling this a new world record for the maximum number of users playing concurrently on the same game server. In the past, CCP Games has claimed a world record for EVE Online based on the peak concurrent users in a single game universe without the use of sharding or instancing. Although 74,536 beats EVE's latest personal record of 60,453, it's known that Second Life broke the 75,000 barrier in 2008 and peaked at just under 90,000 concurrent users in the same game universe the following year. If World of Tanks keeps growing at the rate it is, however, it seems set to eventually top that total and potentially secure a world record of its own.
EVE pushes over the 60,000 peak concurrent user mark
With its single-server structure, EVE Online is home to over 330,000 pilots, all playing in the same instance of the game universe. As subscriber numbers rise, EVE continues to set new records for the number of players simultaneously online in a single 3D game world. Records tend to be broken in the days leading up to or following a big expansion, usually during EVE's peak activity on Sunday evenings. The previous record of 56,021 set following the Dominion expansion was beaten yesterday with a peak concurrent user total of 60,453. The high active subscriber levels we're currently seeing can be attributed to both the buzz caused by EVE's eighth alliance tournament and the newly released Tyrannis expansion. The main feature of Tyrannis goes live tomorrow, when the command centres required for planetary interaction will be seeded on the market. With two more weekends of the alliance tournament to go and the imminent Tyrannis land grab, we're sure to see this new record pushed even further in the weeks to come.
EVE Online turns 7 today, BIG corp runs huge anniversary lottery
On May 6th 2003, a little online space game by a relatively unknown independent Icelandic games company was officially released. Fast forward seven years down the line and that little company is a megalithic giant in the games industry. Spanning four countries and leveraging hundreds of staff, the company has begun to expand its portfolio with a console MMOFPS and a new MMO based in the World of Darkness setting. Under CCP's development, EVE Online has stood the test of time and enjoyed a steady increase in subscriptions. At EVE's sixth anniversary last year, they announced having reached 300,000 active subscriptions with a peak concurrent user total of 53,850. Some time in December of last year, the number of EVE subscriptions finally surpassed the number of citizens in CCP's home country of Iceland. That number rose to 330,000 active subscriptions by March of this year, with a peak concurrent total of 56,021. With the Tyrannis expansion around the corner, EVE is sure to see the same characteristic growth this year too. CCP took the time to start a congratulatory thread on the EVE forums to mark the day. To celebrate, they're also donating massive prizes to EVE's oldest and most respected player-run lottery. The BIG lottery's anniversary draw is open now for entry and closes on Sunday, May 16th, with a live prize drawing the following day. The first place winner takes home a colossal 25 billion ISK prize, with the second place reeling in a huge 10 billion ISK. CCP is sponsoring prizes of a year's free game time, a battleship model from the EVE store, a copy of the new EVE: The Burning Life novel and an EVE T-Shirt. Not to be left out, E-ON Magazine is offering the latest four issues of the magazine plus a copy of their EVE Strategic Map booklet. Finally, EVE player "Ash Tre" is sponsoring the contest with a pack of faction cruisers. From all of us here at Massively, happy birthday EVE Online!
EVE hits new milestone with 56,021 players online
It was just last week when we mentioned EVE Online's new peak concurrent user (PCU) record of 54,446 pilots online. That record was smashed yesterday though, only one week after the previous PCU record was set, with 56,021 pilots online in New Eden. Beyond the new PCU record being set, this past Sunday's traffic may also make CCP raise the limit on number of players that can be in the Jita trade hub at a given time. 1400 players crowded into Jita yesterday, which is apparently the hard limit that the game's developers had set for the busy solar system. This prompted CCP Games Software Director Erlendur Þorsteinsson (aka CCP Explorer) to state, "We have been increasing the limit in the last few weeks and it looks like there might possibly be room for more in Jita." This could be good news for the legions of traders who flock to the system, and overall a good sign for EVE Online to see the PCU climbing higher and higher. Likely a major factor in the surge of active players is the upswing in nullsec alliance warfare which resulted from changes in the Dominion expansion -- not the least of which is that a certain moon material holds great value now; the desire to control these rare resources is a major driver for large scale conflict. And of course, the recent 'get EVE for $5' sales on Steam probably hasn't hurt either.
EVE Online celebrates 54,446 simultaneous users, a new record
EVE Online has rung in the new year right, announcing a brand new peak concurrency record of 54,446 users logged into the expansive universe of New Eden. Thinking of having 3,000 players on a single server is mind boggling enough, but 54,446? Color us very impressed. The announcement was a very subtle one, only appearing on the game's official Facebook page so far, but CCP's own server graph and the user data collected by third-party website eve-offline.net confirm the announcement. Congratulations to CCP and their very impressive server technology for pulling off such a feat. So guys... speaking of new year resolutions... about that Walking In Stations thing...
EVE Online sets new peak concurrent user record
The sci-fi MMO EVE Online set a new record this past weekend for users logged in at a given time: 54,181 pilots, up from the previous record of 53,850 set in March of this year. This new peak concurrent user (PCU) count is a significant milestone for the single shard setting of New Eden, where all of those players can (potentially) interact with one another. New Eden is a big place though, a galaxy with thousands of charted solar systems and thousands more uncharted, accessible through wormholes. Given the size of New Eden, those 54,181 pilots may not interact directly but their actions can impact everyone else in the game, regardless of whether it's through trading, establishing or toppling industrial empires, or alliance warfare on a massive scale. The new PCU record comes in the wake of EVE Online's Dominion expansion launch on December 1 which focuses on revamping the game mechanics of territorial control, or sovereignty, in New Eden's lawless tracts of 0.0 security (nullsec) space. CCP Games Senior Producer Torfi Frans Ólafsson told Massively: "With Dominion, we've made zero security gameplay so much more engaging. We're seeing a lot of people are taking the leap, updating their clones and jumping into the deep end of the pool. They are realizing that taking risks can bring big rewards, and lots of adrenaline pumped moments as well. Co-operation and having good allies is the key to success in the dark and brutal world of zero point zero space. We're seeing players communicate more, team up more and generally have more fun. Each day since release has been exciting for the developers as they watch this expansion unfold and take on a life of its own, in the hands of our ever-creative playerbase." [Thanks StMistaken!]
EVE Online turns 6 today, announces over 300k subscribers
EVE Online is the first massively multiplayer online title from CCP Games, one that's redefined what we can expect from a sandbox game. They created the gritty far-future setting of New Eden, a place where EVE's players can do as they choose in a vast galaxy comprised of thousands of solar systems, both mapped and unexplored. Today CCP Games celebrates EVE Online's sixth birthday. They state, "A 6 year persistent history. A living history where truly brilliant strategies have unfolded. Truly terrible betrayals unveiled. We are excited to see what will happen next." CCP also announced their new subscriber milestone: EVE now has over 300,000 active subscriptions (not including trial accounts), up 22% over the past five months alone. Their peak concurrent user record has also climbed to 53,850 players interacting in the same space, a record we've noticed they seem to shatter with increasing frequency. "That is exponential growth," CCP says. "We couldn't think of a better birthday present than having more people play EVE Online than ever before. It is another sweet reminder of EVE's boundless potential."Congratulations to CCP Games from the team at Massively, and here's looking to the next six years.[Via Warp Drive Active]
EVE executive producer Nathan Richardsson on the Apocrypha expansion
Develop, a publication focused on the European games industry, recently interviewed EVE Online executive producer Nathan 'Oveur' Richardsson about the coming Apocrypha expansion. Nathan emphasizes the CCP Games stance on charging for expansions: they don't. All EVE expansions to date have been free, as will Apocrypha. The March expansion will also mark the first time EVE has been available as a boxed release since the game's initial launch, which Nathan reiterates is CCP's attempt to reach a broader audience. On the subject of making EVE accessible to more gamers, he discusses CCP's choices made with the New Player Experience which will be one of the changes Apocrypha brings to the title. He addresses the game's learning curve and says, "Massively multiplayer gaming is constantly reaching new audiences that haven't tried it before, which results in a challenging start when coupled with [the] complexity of EVE. We strive to expose the gameplay in a simpler manner, easing players into the different areas of gameplay rather than 'dumbing down' EVE. We're working on everything from usability to re-implementing existing features more intuitively."
Perspective on the widespread use of alts in EVE Online
There are over 250,000 active subscriptions to the sci-fi massively multiplayer online game EVE Online, but have you ever wondered how many players that figure actually represents? The exact number of people that comprise the game's playerbase is unclear due to the common practice of playing with multiple accounts. While the end result is likely the same to CCP Games in a financial sense -- all of those active subs add up to a steady flow of income month to month -- the fact remains that the game doesn't necessarily have 250,000 different people logging into New Eden from month to month. At least, not yet, although the number of subscribers is growing. (EVE set a peak concurrent user record last Sunday of 48,065 players.)Unlike some massively multiplayer online games, EVE is based on real-time skill training rather than using the system of leveling up central to other titles. Each EVE account has three character slots, but skill training can only be active on one character at a time. And as with most MMOs, a player can only be logged into one character per account at a time -- even if multi-boxing. If a player needs to skill up specialized alts, he or she must either sacrifice valuable skill training time on their main, or run a second (or third) account to really advance. A recent EVE-Mag article by Silene Derbhan, "Alternates: Are We Schizophrenics!?", looks closely at how alt play impacts the game. Derbhan states, "I would like to delve deeper into the game mechanics, to see why players are compelled not only to play different characters, as in any other MMO, but also to pay for every one of these added characters."
EVE Online sets new record with over 45,000 players logged in
The new year has already brought with it a new milestone for EVE Online, which has now broken all previous records for players active at a given time in its setting of New Eden -- over 45,000. This is a substantial achievement for a game where the setting is one single server, representing a vast galaxy of over 5000 solar systems to explore or control. CCP Manifest writes: "What a great way to start out 2009 -- a new PCU (Peak Concurrent User) record of 45,186! While we've made tremendous serverside changes in the EVE Online infrastructure with the EVE64 and StacklessIO initiatives, it is truly a testament to our loyal fans that 5 years into EVE's existence we are still breaking records and more people are flying in New Eden than ever before. We know we'll be trying to find leftover champagne from New Year's EVE to celebrate. When we do, we'll toast to you!"
The9 scores again in Q2 '08
The9, which is the company in China that runs Blizzard's World of Warcraft game there, has released their second quarter financial numbers, and they're rocking yet again -- they pulled in record income and revenue, nabbing about US$66.3 million, a full $60.7 million of which came directly from World of Warcraft and all the deals they have surrounding that property there. And their peak concurrent user total for WoW topped 1 million, which means one million accounts (not necessarily people) were logged on and playing at the same time.Apparently the company is also running a few other games, but clearly WoW is dominating their income, and, needless to say, doing very well for them. And probably won't be stopping anytime soon -- if Blizzard follows through on their plan to release Wrath asap in China, odds are that The9's biggest game will get even more popular.
