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Petroglyph to shut down Battle for Graxia just two months after launch
Due in part to the colossal success of League of Legends, the past few years have seen dozens of new MOBAs enter development. The genre that was once a niche inhabited by just a few indie developers has rapidly become one of the most competitive online gaming markets in the world, and small studios are finding it difficult to compete. Independent studio Petroglyph Games found this out the hard way when it launched free-to-play MOBA Rise of Immortals in 2011 to a less-than-stellar reception. The studio attempted to revive the game recently with its Battle For Graxia update, which overhauled the entire game to be more like other competitive PvP-focused MOBAs and added interesting new features like the White Knight system that replaces players who leave in the middle of a game. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have revived the game, as developers announced today that they will be pulling the plug on June 27th. Petroglyph's future now looks uncertain, as the studio has recently lost the development contract for End of Nations and failed to secure funding on Kickstarter for its own RTS game, Victory. [Thanks for the tip, Venova.]
Petroglyph puts Victory on Kickstarter, hopes for victory
The stack of games made about World War II is pretty thick at this point, but Petroglyph is hoping to add another game to that lineup with its newest Kickstarter project, Victory. Fresh off of its departure from the End of Nations project, the studio is trying something different with the game's formula. It's a strategy game in real-time, but it's not an RTS; rather, it's closer to playing World of Tanks with control over an entire squad. As the project page outlines, players will be given control of a squad of units, which has to either defeat the enemy units or capture and hold key locations. Units that are killed are gone, with no base management or tech trees to worry about in the thick of gameplay. The game is not being designed as a free-to-play title, but it is meant for online competitive play. If this sounds intriguing enough to cut through the fatigue of endless World War II games, take a look at all the details on the Kickstarter page.
Massively's hands-on with End of Nations' PvE and PvP
You know that scene in Contact in which Jodie Foster is looking out at the cosmos, telling the folks at mission control that they should have sent a poet? All the while I was playing End of Nations at Trion World's Gamer's Day event, I kept thinking, "Massively should have sent a StarCraft guru!" I initially felt very much out of my element. MMOs and RPGs are my shtick; I only rarely dive into turn-based strategy games. And RTS games? Forget it. They don't agree with me. If it doesn't have a pause button, I probably don't have time for it. I'm too easily distractible, too impatient, and too exhausted after a work-day of multi-tasking to spend my playtime multi-tasking even more. There's just no time for cooking meals, browsing lolcats, and chatting with the spouse when you're neck-deep in an RTS. RTS games are serious business; they require my undivided attention and concentration, and I don't like doing things halfway. And yet maybe that makes me just the right person to try out an MMORTS hybrid like Trion's EoN. Most people who give it a spin when it hits the market will probably have a lot in common with me -- they'll be loyalists to one side or the other, not to both. Maybe an RTS novice is just the sort of person who can test out the game, present it to MMO gamers, and explain just what the heck this game thinks it's doing playing around in our end of the pool. Or maybe I'll end up sobbing amidst the charred remains of my tank minions. You'll never know if you don't hit the break! %Gallery-99563%
Petroglyph general manager Chuck Kroegel on Mytheon's union of MMO and RTS
We've been seeing a number of new options in online gaming, some clearly definable as being 'massively multiplayer', others less so. One of those game categories that blurs the line a bit is the MMORTS (massively multiplayer online real-time strategy) game... we'll probably just stick with the acronym from now on. But we've wondered, what exactly can we expect from RTS titles as they adopt more features traditionally associated with MMOs? Steven Crews from The MMO Gamer spoke with Petroglyph Games general manager and executive producer Chuck Kroegel about their upcoming title Mytheon. The game is a free-to-play, downloadable title that will be supported by microtransactions and focuses on the myths, heroes, and monsters of the world's ancient cultures. Crews asks the questions we think are on a lot of people's minds when they hear "MMORTS" -- "Why bring strategy games into the MMO space? What do you get from a persistent universe that you couldn't get out of something like Battle.net?"
Universe at War features cross-plat play
Sega has announced that their upcoming RTS title, Universe at War: Earth Assault, will support cross-platform play between 360 and PC players. This makes Universe at War the third title to utilize Live Anywhere (along with Shadowrun and UNO) and the first third-party title to do so. Sega announced the title in February. It's an RTS featuring three alien races warring over control of Earth (humans, it seems, really get the short end of the stick in Universe at War). The game comes from Petroglyph Studios, creators of Star Wars: Empire at War.Okay, we admit it. PC vs. 360 in an FPS game like Shadowrun may be decently balanced, but cross-platform play in an RTS seems downright unfair. This is especially so given that PC players will be playing Universe at War this year. 360 players will have to wait until 2008 to prove themselves.[Via Joystiq]%Gallery-4367%
