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Acclaim to publish The Chronicles of Spellborn in North America
Action-oriented MMORPG The Chronicles of Spellborn has found a publisher in Acclaim Games, the MMO-focused reincarnation of now-defunct Acclaim Entertainment. The company was founded by former Activision CEO Howard Marks, who bought the brand name from the original Acclaim after it crashed and burned in 2004.David Perry -- Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim Games -- published a letter to the Spellborn community announcing the deal. In it, he talks up the game and the dev team behind it, saying that they immediately stood out to him and the other folks at Acclaim. We'll assume that Acclaim was the company that wrote the letter of intent way back in April, but who can say for sure?Spellborn had already landed a publishing deal for Europe and Asia with Frogster Interactive. Last we heard the game was due out by the end of 2008, but we're not super-confident about it. Spellborn is still in its closed beta testing phase at the moment.
Quake creator repeatedly turned down MMO opportunities
John Carmack, co-founder of id Software and lead programmer of the historic first-person-shooter games Doom and Quake, told Shacknews that id has been approached by multiple publishers interested in releasing an MMO version of Quake. Each time, the company turned them down.It was implied that id has not pursued (and will not pursue) the idea because of the etreme challenges of developing a triple-A MMO.There's a good point here. It's not as if Carmack and friends were throwing a money printer in the trash compactor by passing on the opportunity. The concern seems valid: MMOs are expensive, risky endeavors. Even with a team of experienced developers and a well-known intellectual property, there's always a risk that id could get in over its head.[Via Joystiq]
Blackstar's future in jeopardy
Budget cuts. Layoffs. It seems a fairly common thing in the general news lately, and sadly, the MMO genre appears to be no less susceptible to the current hard times. News came down the wire yesterday that Spacetime Studios have been forced to release half of their staff -- and we imagine that this will cause the development of Blackstar to slow down accordingly. According to the Spacetime Studios blog, "[they] have been shopping Blackstar around but - right now, at least – the concept of a SciFi space/ground IP has proven to be a challenge. Our studio cannot survive at its current burn rate without a publishing deal..." Considering we've seen quite a few studios hit by either cutbacks or shutdowns in the last year, we're concerned by what this seemingly implies. With the current popularity of World of Warcraft and other MMOs; strong soon-to-be-published titles like Warhammer Online; and news of more and more titles coming out seemingly every other day (especially if you count the Asian market) it is a good time for MMOG players. On the other hand, the heavy market saturation means an extremely competitive market where some good ideas may sadly not find their way off the drawing board. The hope is that Spacetime Studios can find a publishing deal for Blackstar soon. We are definitely interested in seeing more from their studio, if their concept art and ideas are any indication of what things may come. If you'd like to check out a short clip of Blackstar's alpha, be sure to join us after the break!%Gallery-23010%
Edge: Nintendo tops industry's best publishers
The online edition of UK gaming magazine Edge, formerly Next Gen, has come forward with what the proprietors feel exemplifies the top 20 game publishers the industry has to offer. Based on what we're sure represents a complicated formula of revenue, momentum, catalog, and review scores, the magazine found Nintendo to be the absolute crème of the crop, though we imagine it'll be difficult to make out the company's acceptance speech from beneath all that money.Other notables include Actilizzard and EA, which took home the silver and bronze medals, respectively, while Midway managed to break out of Arkham Asylum just in time to claim the list's 20th -- and final -- spot.
2K Games to publish Champions Online
Look, up in the sky! It's a bird- no wait, it's a plane! No! It's 2K Games (the publishing label of Take-Two) announcing that they'll be publishing Cryptic Studio's upcoming Champions Online for both the Xbox 360 and PC in North America. Sorry, the opportunity presented itself and we couldn't resist. As you may or may not know, we here at Massively follow both Cryptic and their MMOs very closely -- you could call us fans. So it's great that the game officially has a publisher, because that only further solidifies Champions Online as a very real MMO. It's also worth noting that this makes Champions Online the very first MMO published by 2K games.This revelation -- while wonderful for everyone involved -- is also a change of tune from Cryptic's original plans to publish in-house. We're honestly happy to know that more money and manpower can now be spent on creating their next MMO (and subsequently other MMOs) rather than publishing them in tandem. No firm release date has yet to be announced but all good things will come in time, cousin.
ESRB's leaky faucet finally fixed?
For those of you that stop by our little corner of the internet every day, you know that a great deal of what's coming to the Virtual Console and WiiWare is found out via the ESRB's website. Well, it looks like things are about to change.How? well, the ESRB are instituting a new policy for when publishers submit games for rating. These publishers will be able to designate a specific date when the title is revealed on the website, allowing both the ESRB and publishers to better keep a lid on hot titles. Like, say, Earthbound.There's still hope for ESRB site perusers, however. If publishers leave the reveal date field blank on their submission forms, the ESRB will showcase the title on their site 30 days following the title's rating.
JoWooD seeking developer to make action RPG
Gothic publisher JoWood wants to make a new action RPG. There's just one problem: Who's going to make it? The Austria-based company is currently seeking an indie developer to grind out code for a new action RPG based on one of its existing brands for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.Next to nothing has been revealed about the project-to-be save for the publisher's belief that the franchise is "renowned for an epic background story as well as exceptional graphics and polish." JoWood says that it will continue to look for dev until May 16, and in taking a look over the company's back catalog of established brands we can't help but hope that this means we'll soon be hunting killers and solving mysteries in an action RPG based on an Agatha Christie page turner.
Spellborn character screenshots
With all this news coming out of the Chronicles of Spellborn closed beta, can open beta be far? Well, actually, probably yes. The glimpses we have gotten of the game world so far look absolutely beautiful. Today's screen shots of actual characters shows off the unique Spellborn art style. And yet... the game world still seems barren and lifeless. Despite all the media Spellborn International is showing us, it seems unlikely they will make their Q2 '08 date for open beta. Further, without a US publisher, it could be a long time indeed before we get a chance to play.
Sega: We're not interested in a buyout, thanks
Apparently, one merger per decade is enough for Sega. Despite falling on some tough financial times recently, Sega has declared that it is decidedly not interested in getting bailed out by some generous big-time buyout (not that anyone else was necessarily interested, mind you).In an interview with Reuters, Sega Sammy CEO Simon Jeffrey said his company isn't eager to ride the industry's recent wave of consolidation. "That's not an area we want to play in right now," he said. "We have no interest in being acquired, we are very happy with our position right now."Buoyed by extremely strong sales of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Jeffrey seems perfectly content with his company's current sixth-place position in the game publisher rankings. "There is plenty of room for smaller companies to be successful and profitable in this business," he said. "You don't have to be number one or number two. You can be number six very happily," Jeffrey said. Chant along with us everybody: We're number six! We're number six!
Codemasters to publish Jumpgate Evolution
Jumpgate Evolution fans can cheer now-- the game's got a publisher. Codemasters is going to publish the game, according to a press release they dropped this morning. As we've reported before, they've been very successful with MMOs in Europe, running DDO, LotRO, RF Online, and ArchLord there. It's unknown whether Jumpgate Evolution is the game they were planning to announce in March (or if there is another announcement coming), but Codemasters says they're proud to bring the game to both European and American audiences.And as for a release date, they don't mention anything we haven't heard before. Besides confirming that the game should come out sometime in 2008, Codemasters doesn't reveal anything further than "late" in the year. We'll let you know about news of the release as we hear it.%Gallery-9918%
Wii Warm Up: A matter of trust
After we announced the Baroque delay, a few of you commented about your warm feelings for Atlus. Not only does the company have a good sense of humor, but Atlus also tends to publish (and develop) fun games. That led us to wonder, though -- what other publishers and developers do you trust? Aside from Nintendo (that one's a given), which companies do you know you can count on?
Activision was #1 US publisher in 2007
Activision became king of the hill in 2007 as the number one US publisher. According to NPD data the company's current market share is 17.7%, a 7.2% increase over last year. Of course, Activision utilized the powers it has as a third-party publisher to sell Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,the number one and three titles in sales respectively, across multiple platforms. This is the first time in the company's history that it reached the top spot.Activision was certainly on a financial and critical acclaim rampage in 2007. COD4 got a spot on our Top 10 list and GHIII was the number one game for our significant others. As successful as last year was, it's now looking like Rock Band is poised to make GHIII yesterday's news, which could be troubling for Activision considering how financially successful the Guitar Hero series has been. Then again, this year we'll start seeing the armed and fully-operational Blizzavision (yeah ... still working on that name).
Official word: Perpetual lives, STO "still a triple-A game"
There has been a lot of confusion with regards to the fate of Perpetual Entertainment and Star Trek Online over the past few days. First, an SEC report was filed by Gravity that appeared to say that Perpetual Entertainment was liquidating all assets and would cease to exist as a company. Then, Shacknews ran a story claiming that STO had been bought and would be re-invented as a "more casual" experience.Star Trek Online's Executive Producer Daron Stinett addressed panicked fans, saying that not all is as it seems. We have the lowdown here for you. The heart of the matter: it appears that STO has not been canceled or nerfed after all --at least not to the degree that we feared. That said, here's the full story so far.
Chinese MMO publishers hit the market
China's relationship with MMOs goes much deeper than just RMT scams. In his latest editorial on the Chinese game business for Gamasutra, Shang Koo gives an appraisal of the public offerings of NetDragon and Giant Interactive, two of the premier Chinese game publishers to emerge from the recent gaming boom in the East. Giant Interactive, which is set to premier on the New York Stock Exchange starting this Wednesday, is the publisher responsible for Zhengtu Online, the second-most popular game on the continent since it was released last year. NetDragon, which itself is set to appear on the Hong Kong stock exchange this Friday, developed Eudemons Online and is working with Ubisoft on the upcoming Heroes of Might and Magic.Koo looks at the ways that game sales are affected by the differences in the developer/publisher relationship in China, and forecasts gloomy days ahead for companies trying to license their titles in the enormous Chinese game market, which today is largely dominated by home-grown titles.
Publishing exec 'steals' Google laptops in silly demonstration
We can't say that we'd recommend a CEO steal property from Google in order to prove a point, but the head honcho of Macmillan Publishers pushed his superego aside and did just that at a recent BookExpo America in NYC. It's no secret that a number of publishers have been up in arms about Google's approach to digitizing their works, but Richard Charkin went so far as to recruit a colleague and swipe a pair of laptops from a Google Books kiosk at the event. About an hour later, the booth attendants actually noticed the missing goods and presumably began to panic, and the haughty executive then had the nerve to return the machines to their rightful owners whilst dropping the "hope you enjoyed a taste of your own medicine" line. He justified the bizarre behavior by suggesting that "there wasn't a sign by the computers informing him not to steal them," apparently referencing Google's controversial tactics when scanning books. That'll show 'em, Mr. Charkin.[Via TechDirt]
Rumor redux: Nintendo Power heading to 3rd party publisher
There are further rumors about Nintendo Power, Nintendo's official gaming magazine, but the rumblings have changed slightly. The latest word is that the publication will continue, just with a new publisher working things behind the scenes, which is how the European Nintendo magazine is handled. It's a good time to to relive some nostalgic moments with the magazine, and Infendo recently clued us in on a shiny new set of covers courtesy of Flickr user kocojim. Go forth and bask, and let's hope this version of the rumor is true.
Motocross Challenge loses publisher, passes savings onto you
Developer DHG Games poured its heart into completing Motocross Challenge. The small studio built the GBA title from the ground up, hoping to one day see the game on store shelves. Despite months of negotiation, however, Motocross Challenge's planned publisher backed out of the project, citing declining GBA software sales. After having invested three years into creating Motocross Challenge, DHG found itself with a finished game and no way to commercially release it. Not wanting to see its hard work go to waste, DHG has made Motocross Challenge available to the public, offering the GBA ROM for FREE to anyone who will play it. We've already put a couple of hours into the racing game, and it plays a lot like an updated Excite Bike or Motocross Maniacs. There's a slight learning curve with figuring out how to land, managing your boosts, and memorizing the tracks, but it's all worth it when you start hitting ramps at full speed and racking up points with mid-air stunts. The fact that Motocross Challenge's publisher dropped the game says nothing about its quality. If you are a fan of motocross titles and want to support independent developers who slave over a project for the sake of making a great game, it won't cost you anything but a few minutes to try this one out. Head past the post break for a trailer of the different tracks and game modes.
Which publisher is the PSP's biggest supporter? [Update 1]
The other day I got to thinking about how many antelope it would take to kill a professional wrestler. After I was done thinking about that, I wondered which publisher is the biggest supporter of the PSP. Then I remembered that I have no life and also blog on a PSP site, so I decided to get an answer to that question. Before I started looking into it, I assumed Capcom would be in first or second place for supporters just judging my library and what I typically see in stores.Surprisingly, they weren't even the third biggest supporter with only ten games on the system. My next hunch was that either EA or Ubisoft (being the giant companies they are) must have the most games on the PSP. They do have a lot of games out, but at eleven games each, they can't take the crown of biggest supporter. Activision did beat out many contenders with their number of games totaling fourteen, but they also were not the winner. So who is the PSP's biggest supporter? While this may or may not be surprising, it's Sony themselves. SCEA has at least twenty-six games on their own platform and easily bested all comers with their release library. While a first-party publisher winning may be obvious, to many PSP fans (including myself), I often think Sony isn't doing enough to support their portable. While that may or may not be true, they still have by far the most games out on the platform. Let's just hope that Sony as well as other publishers continue to be kind to our beloved portable in this new year. [Via Gamespot][Update 1: Fixed font error.]
Wild Hare to bring Alten8's games to U.S., Europe
Publisher Wild Hare Entertainment has joined forces with developer Alten8 to bring their upcoming PSP to the U.S. and Europe."With reciprocal content publishing and distribution between our like-minded companies, we can create a strong alliance for a cross-Atlantic partnership, which opens new doors not only for us, but for the developers, which up until now have had no access to mainstream publishing and distribution in Europe or North America," said Paul Andrews, CEO of Alten8 Limited. You may have heard of Alten8 before. They're the developer who earlier this year caught flack for their mobile phone title, Office Massacre. In order to appease their critics, the developer changed the name to Office Zombies and reworked the plot, as well.Hopefully in this new venture, the company can stay out of the critic's targets and focus on bringing great games to the PSP.[Via DCEmu]
Sadness finds a publisher
We've been covering NIBRIS' Sadness for quite some time now. We like indie developers and wish for nothing but the best to happen in their endeavors. As such, we're extremely happy to report that NIBRIS has found a publisher for their game Sadness, however we aren't able to report on who that publisher is at this time. An NDA stands in the way of us and the valuable information we use for sustenance, so stay tuned for a future update revealing the publisher behind Sadness.
