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Console popularity powers DC Universe Online past 18M registered players
Eighteen million sets of eyeballs on your MMO is no number to dismiss, and SOE is definitely glad that DC Universe Online is the subject of so much attention. The studio said yesterday that more than 18M players have registered with DCUO since its inception. The real reason behind DCUO's phenomenal growth is thanks to the reception it's been getting on the PlayStation 3 and 4, as over three-fourths of the game's playerbase is on consoles. SOE President John Smedley said that 40% of new registered users are on the PlayStation 4 these days, and they have created almost 3M superheroes to date. Even more interesting, it seems as though console players are willing to spend more on this free-to-play title than their PC counterparts. Smedley said that PlayStation sales per capita accounted for 3.5 times more than PC sales.
NBA 2K Online reaches 19 million registered ballers in China
While Take-Two was busy counting its fat stacks of cash following its healthy fiscal 2014 financial report, it also noted milestones in its collaborative efforts overseas. Namely, CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed during the company's call with investors today that "usage and player engagement with NBA 2K Online continued to gain momentum, and it's now the number one PC online sports game in China with 19 million registered users." NBA 2K Online was announced in June 2009 as one of Take-Two's major pushes into the Asian market. Arriving in October 2012, the game is a free-to-play basketball simulation for PC that features every licensed NBA team. It is the result of a partnership between Take-Two and Tencent, a developer with experience in crafting free-to-play versions of popular properties suited for the Chinese market, including Monster Hunter Online for Capcom and FIFA Online 3 for EA. [Image: Tencent Games]
Path of Exile boasts 3.7 million registrations, prepares for patch next week
Path of Exile's team is celebrating a gangbuster 2013, but has plans for an even better 2014 starting with a new patch next week. A forum post from the devs lists all of the accomplishments from 2013, starting with the fact that the game went from closed beta to launch during that time frame. Other significant numbers include 87 patches, 35 new team members, a peak of 70,000 concurrent players, and 3.7 million registered players. Patch 1.0.5 is scheduled for Thursday, January 9th, and will add an Enlighten support gem, new cosmetic microtransactions, more vendor recipes, unique items, and achievements. The team said that 1.0.6 will be "even larger" when it hits.
Path of Exile going strong a month after launch
Path of Exile is strutting its stuff a month after its official launch, boasting a huge community, a new patch, and strong sales of its new supporter packs. Grinding Gear Games announced that Path of Exile has topped four million registered users and sees over 250,000 players every day. Last Wednesday's 1.0.2 patch was the first post-launch update for the game, containing new items, recipes, achievements, and various fixes and balance tweaks. The studio sold nearly 5,000 purchases of its supporter pack bundles, which range from $50 to $900, over the Thanksgiving weekend. Grinding Gear says that these purchases "have funded a significant portion of the game's development." [Source: Grinding Gear press release]
Final Fantasy XIV tops 1.5M registered users
Final Fantasy XIV is going strong even with the subscription-only model, topping 1,500,000 registered users this week according to Famitsu. Of course, "registered user" is a murky term that may or may not apply to active players, but it's still a figure worth noting. The reborn title also is in the midst of its All Saints' Wake in-game holiday. Check out the website's lore for the event, and then head in-game to speak to a member of one of the shifty traveling troupes to get a special quest during this spooky time of year. All Saints' Wake will continue until November 1st, and our own Eliot will be talking about it in-depth in his column tomorrow.
The Perfect Ten: Obnoxious studio buzz words
So say that you write for Massively. Or say that you work for another news site while wistfully refreshing Massively's front page hoping to see a "we're hiring!" notice pop up. Or say that you're a two-headed frog that has a respectable blog that one head writes for while the other one eats flies. The important thing for this example is to imagine that you write news. Because you write news, a good chunk of your day is spent prowling for stories. Some of them you find while browsing. Some of them are sent to your email. Once in a great while your cell phone registers a call from California and a way-too-peppy voice tries to sell you on the notion of writing a 2000-word feature on a game that only the mole people have heard of. In all of this, you are exposed to a great amount of PR-speak. You see the same phrases pop up, again and again. You understand how words can be hollow shells wrapped around a complete lack of meaning. You start to go mad until your other head tells you to snap out of it and eat some more flies. So today you're going to join me here on this side of the news desk as we look at 10 of the most obnoxious buzz words or phrases that studio PR and devs like to toss our way. You could get really cynical reading this list, but I suggest that you make a bingo sheet instead to turn this into a fun game that never, ever ends!
Gazillion trumpets 1.5 million registered Marvel Heroes users
I have a confession to make. I once registered as a Marvel Heroes user. This was before I confirmed my initial suspicion that the game wasn't my cup of tea, and it was motivated in large part by the fact that I cover many games that aren't my cup of tea for a living. My reason for telling you that I'm a registered Marvel Heroes user is because Gazillion is also telling you something about registered users in its latest press release. Specifically, the company is crowing about the fact that its game has 1.5 million of them. What it's not saying is how many of those users, like me, have never spent and will never spend a) any money on the product and b) any time playing it. But, hey, 1.5 million is a big number! Gazillion also announced that the game's new Asgard zone will release this Fall. Finally, a series of planned summer updates will include PvP and endgame additions, a new tier of "ultimate" items, and a new currency. [Source: Gazillion press release]
Clone Wars Adventures hits 10 million player milestone
The Force is strong with Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures -- about 10 million strong, in fact. In a press release today, Sony Online Entertainment announced that its free-to-play, family-friendly Star Wars title has reached 10 million registered players. The studio also includes a list of interesting statistics, such as the number of stages of gameplay available to players (584) and the number of trophies available to earn (96), but really, only one statistic matters. That statistic is this: Players of Clone Wars Adventures' Stunt Gungan minigame have collectively launched Jar Jar Binks over 4.5 billion meters. For reference, that means players have effectively bounced Jar Jar to the moon and back seven times. Let's have a round of applause for these unsung heroes, shall we? But hey, CWA players: Next time, aim for the sun. [Source: Sony Online Entertainment press release]
Bigpoint surpasses 250 million registered users
The folks at Bigpoint must be feeling quite nice about themselves about now, as a new press release from the company has announced that the studio's games now have a total of 250 million registered users worldwide. Heiko Hubertz, CEO and founder of the browser-focused MMORPG developer, is quite pleased with the development, claiming that "since 2002, [Bigpoint has] strived to bring high-quality games and experiences to the widest possible audience... and we're not done." The press release goes on to make the bold claims that "Bigpoint introduced the concept of F2P games" and that "over the past decade, Bigpoint has radically improved the quality of... online games." The statement conclues that "the company is planning a series of new launches in 2012, including new titles that leverage world-class Hollywood intellectual property." We already know that Bigpoint is the studio behind the upcoming MMOs based on A Game of Thrones and The Mummy, but what else does the studio have up its sleeve? We'll just have to wait to find out. [Source: Bigpoint press release]
Funcom highlights Age of Conan player numbers, offers in-game reward pack
DC Universe Online isn't the only MMO crowing about its freemium changeover this week. Age of Conan made the switch last summer and now Funcom is highlighting the fact that more than 600,000 players have tried the Unchained version of the fantasy title since July. As a token of appreciation, the company is presenting players with a little ditty called the King's Reward pack. Everyone who logs in prior to November 21st can grab the bundle via the special offers tab of the AoC item shop. The pack contains various potions designed to speed your way through Hyboria, but it's also limited to one character per account, so make sure you're on your main when you claim it.
ChangYou reports record revenue, registered accounts
With all the layoffs that seem to be going around the MMO industry as of late, it's about time we hear some good news from a developer. ChangYou, known in North America primarily for its quirky title Zentia and the bizarrely named Duke of Mount Deer, reports a 119 million USD revenue for its third fiscal quarter. The company's amount of registered users rose as well, with the company citing 159 million current gamers inhabiting ChangYou's titles. CEO Tao Wang is understandably pleased with these results and says that "we believe these results once again demonstrate our ability to understand and fulfill gamers' needs and showcase our content development and game operation strengths." For the full details, check out the article over at Gamasutra.
Need for Speed World laps five million registered users
Another day, another creatively defined user record shattered. This time around, Need for Speed World does the honors by surpassing five million registered users. The free-to-play racing MMO from Electronic Arts most recently made metrics-related headlines last December when it topped three million registered users. Gamasutra has the details on the latest milestone and also notes that NFSW is offering motorsport fans a chance to check out virtual versions of actual automobiles from Audi, including the new A1 ClubSport Quattro that was unveiled yesterday. Need for Speed World is the 15th iteration of EA's venerable racing franchise and the first to feature MMORPG stylings. You can read all about it and download the free client at the game's official web destination.
Nexon revenues are up, largely driven by MapleStory
One of the most successful companies operating in the free-to-play games arena is Nexon, which reported their July revenues are up 35 percent year-on-year, according to Worlds In Motion. Much of this good fortune can be attributed to MapleStory, which set a new max concurrent user record of over 70,000 users last month. While the number of registered users in a free-to-play MMO doesn't tell the whole story, Nexon recently announced MapleStory has 92 million registered users worldwide, six million of which are in North America. Nexon America VP of Marketing Min Kim was quoted by Worlds in Motion about the company's plans for North America. Kim said, "We're heavily investing on all fronts -- in our games, our publishing platform, aggressive marketing efforts as well as customer service. The best news for Nexon America is that our success isn't just reflected in registered users, but in actual, dramatic revenue growth."
Runes of Magic reaches 1 million registered users
Here we are, not even two full months after the release of Frogster's Runes of Magic, and they're already announcing that they've hit the one million registered user milestone. Not only has this announcement come so soon after launch, but the EU and NA public hasn't even known about the game for a year yet, according to the Berlin-based publisher.Frogster plans to release the free-to-play MMO in at least four further localized versions later this year, including a Russian version in a cooperative partnership with Game Factory Interactive. "We are convinced that with the up-coming offering of additional language versions we will achieve further strong growth in Europe," stated Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH. We wish Frogster, Runewaker and the entire Runes of Magic team continued success with their game.
Silkroad Online boasts 7.2 million registered users
World of Warcraft is huge by pay-to-play standards. We know that. But if you want to play the numbers game, some free-to-play MMORPGs can stand toe-to-toe with WoW when it comes to registered users. Silkroad Online does, according to Korean publisher Joymax. The company just announced that it has reached a new milestone -- 100,000 concurrent users. That's out of 7.2 million registered users. And that's just on its own servers; Joymax boasts that 18 million people are registered for the game across all providers and regions.18 million users in a free-to-play MMO is not necessarily as good for business as 10 million paying subscribers, since F2P users are only potential sources of income. Joymax didn't share any information about revenues, and it didn't explain what percentage of registered users regularly purchase virtual items with real world currency.Silkroad Online spans the globe in both a virtual and a real sense. Users are registered in countries from Asia to North America, and the game's fantasy setting is based on the historic Silk Road trade route, which has connected Western and Eastern countries for centuries.
