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Pirate Bay acquired by Global Gaming Factory, going legit like Napster
It's true, The Pirate Bay has agreed to being purchased by Global Gaming Factory (owner of a network of Internet cafes and gaming centers) for 60 million Swedish Krona or roughly $7.8 million. According to a press release, "GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners." In a post on TPB's blog, the rogue file sharing site says that the project has been in the works for many years and should help evolve the site while trying to stay the same. Here's how they put it:If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That's the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And - you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That's awesome and will take the heat of us.We'll have to wait and see how this pans out but it certainly smacks of a Napster v2 like situation at first blush. Assuming of course the deal closes by August as anticipated.Update: As a hint, perhaps, of what's to come, GGF also announced the purchase of Peerialism, a software company responsible for developing what GGF calls "P2P 2.0" file sharing technology. [Thanks, JOKR Solutions]Read -- The Pirate Bay blog postRead -- Press Release
Mortal Online pre-orders delayed by two weeks
We announced some details about the Mortal Online pre-order which was slated to kick off today in the game's online store. However the Mortal Online developers, Star Vault, announced there will be a two-week delay with the launch of the Mortal Online online store. Star Vault CEO Henrik Nystrom announced: "On the 25th of June we brought you some good stuff, but today we have to bring you bad news. We have been working very hard to get the shop up and for it to accept different methods of payment, however it's not obvious we have been too optimistic this time as we have encountered several last-minute problems.More information and a new schedule will be announced on the Mortal Online game store soon." (Thanks for the tip, Rhys)
Star Vault reveals Mortal Online beta and pre-order details, launch info
Another competitor in the hardcore PvP niche in MMOs may give Darkfall Online a run for their money: Mortal Online from Sweden-based developer Star Vault. The game is presently in closed beta and is about to get its first test of the release build. The real news here is that Mortal Online has announced its open beta and release schedules. Pre-orders for Mortal Online will begin on June 29th via the official site, and the actual launch (with monthly subscriptions) is slated for Q4 2009. Anyone who pre-orders the game "in any of the formats available" will have access to all of the beta phases remaining until the title launches. The catch, however, is that the pre-orders are limited to 10,000 people.
Ericsson and TeliaSonera reveals world's first commercial LTE site in Stockholm
Mmm, the sweet smell of mobile data burning up the pipes in the morning. Gets us every time. Evidently, the same aroma does something to the brains of Ericsson and TeliaSonera, who have taken their January agreement to the next level by introducing the planet's first commercial Long-Term Evolution (LTE) site in Stockholm, Sweden. Mind you, we've seen lots of trial runs over the past year and change, but this one's no test. Rather, this site will become part of a commercial network scheduled to go live in 2010, bringing wicked fast mobile transfers to Stockholmers everywhere. Now, let's hope these American carriers get jealous, and fast.
Hunt ghosts on your Nintendo DSi with Ghostwire
Sweden-based development studio A Different Game has been watching too much Ghost Hunters, it would seem, as the company is preparing Ghostwire, Kotaku reports. Ghostwire is a game where you use your Nintendo DSi to hunt down ghastly ghouls in real life. We're not joking; through use of the Nintendo DSi's camera, microphone, and touch-screen, players will locate ghosts in real-world locales and figure out what they need to be at peace.Ghostwire currently has no scheduled release date.
Inafune skips Nordic Game conference due to swine flu restrictions
Capcom Producer Keiji Inafune won't be pigging out on fine Swedish meatballs at the Nordic Game conference, due to swine flu concerns. GI.biz reports a Nordic Games spokesperson was informed that Capcom has a "corporate policy restricting foreign travel" during the current media-hyped pandemic. Capcom also mentioned that a dog ate Inafune's plane ticket ... not really, but it's just as viable an excuse.Taking Inafune's spot at the conference will be Team 17's Martyn Brown. So, the guy with a severe case of Worms is taking over for the one afraid of catching piggy flu? [Image]
Pirate Bay lawyer seeking retrial
A lawyer representing Peter Sunde, spokesperson for Pirate Bay, said his client will "demand a retrial" amid reports that the preceding judge in the case was a member of several copyright protection organizations. Last week, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were sentenced to a year in prison and fined 30 million kronor ($3.6m) in damages for operating the file-sharing site, The Pirate Bay. According to reports by Sveriges Radio's P3 news, judge Tomas Norström is a signed member of the Swedish Copyright Association, three members of which are representing the entertainment industry in the case against The Pirate Bay. Norström also holds membership with the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, an advocacy group for stricter copyright laws. However, Norström stated his connection with copyright protection organizations did not sway his opinion when ruling in the case against The Pirate Bay. Peter Althin, the lawyer representing Peter Sunde, told The Local that the connection represented a conflict of interest, one the defense was not given an opportunity to investigate. Althin added that a lay judge in the case had already been excused for the possibility of a connection in order to maintain an impartial ruling. Looks like the pirate ship hasn't sunk just yet. [Via Edge. Original image: marcusrg]
Telenor and Tele2 agree to split LTE buildout costs in Sweden
Network buildouts our expensive, and virtually every carrier in the world is staring down the barrel of a potentially multibillion-dollar LTE or WiMAX upgrade over the coming years. How do you soften the blow? One option is to make a strange bedfellow or two, and that's exactly what Telenor and Tele2 have done in Sweden. The rival carriers have agreed to form a joint venture to share the cost of crafting a new LTE network from the ground up and sharing spectrum in the 900 and 2600MHz bands, kicking off this year with the goal of offering service in 2010. From the customer's perspective, it seems like this could ultimately limit competition and healthy price pressure in the marketplace -- but if the alternative is waiting a few more years for these pricey networks to get off the ground, we suppose we'll take it. [Via GigaOM]
The Pirate Bay founders sentenced to prison, website soldiers on
In what's being described as a landmark verdict, four men responsible for assisting throngs of dubious internet users to download all sorts of copyrighted material are being ushered off to prison cells for twelve whole months. The Stockholm district court in Sweden found the defendants guilty not of hosting materially illegally, but of "providing a website with sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and a tracker linked to the website [that helped users commit copyright violations]." As expected, the foursome seems unaffected by the ruling, with Peter Sunde (shown) tweeting that "it used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release." After jail, the crew will be forced by pay 30 million kronor ($3.56 million) to a number of entertainment companies, which is far less than those firms were hoping for. Curiously, we're told that the verdict didn't include an order to shut down The Pirate Bay website, and you can pretty much bank on an appeal being filed in record time.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Swedish museum puts Pirate Bay server on display
The Pirate Bay itself may now be entangled in a high-profile court battle, but it looks like Sweden's National Museum of Science and Technology figured that was the perfect time to grab a piece of the site's controversial history and put it on display. While it may not look like much, that server above is in fact one of the original servers that was used by the Pirate Bay and confiscated by the police in January, 2008. Despite that storied past, however, the museum was apparently able to acquire the server for just 2,000 kronor (or about $240), and it's now found a home alongside a 1970s-era cassette tape recorder in an exhibit that's intended to "stimulate interest in finding out more about the area of intellectual property rights" -- which, unfortunately, is not called "Steal this Exhibit."[Via The Register]
Mirror's Edge vs. Age of Conan at Nordic Awards
Nordic Game 2009 is fast approaching and, like you, we're gearing up by listening to loads of ABBA, driving Volvos and wearing nothing but H&M clothing. That's all they do over there, right? Anyway, with the conference comes the obligatory awards show, though this one comes with a uniquely nordic theme. While über nordic games like LasseMajas and Englekræsj show up on the list, EA DICE-developed Mirror's Edge and Funcom-developed Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures are duking it out for two major awards: Artistic Achievement and Best Nordic Game. We can't speak to the ... ahem ... games we've never heard of running against Mirror's Edge and Age of Conan, but retro remake Bionic Commando: Rearmed is also competing for the Best Nordic Game award, while Watchmen: The End is Nigh takes on the two for Artistic Achievement. The awards are set to be a veritable smörgåsbord of gaming, if you will. (Those are Swedish, right?)[Via Edge]
Entropia Universe to operate real-world bank with virtual world presence
Most of our virtual world coverage at Massively is focused on Second Life, but we're still keeping an eye on what's happening beyond the walls of Linden Lab. One significant development revealed this past week is that Entropia Universe will be the first virtual world to have a bank that's actually backed and regulated by a real-world government, called Mind Bank AB.We received word on this from MindArk's PR: "The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) has granted a license to conduct banking activities to virtual universe developer MindArk PE AB's wholly owned subsidiary Mind Bank AB. The unique step of integrating MindArk's virtual universe Entropia Universe with the real world will allow Mind Bank AB to function as a central bank for all virtual worlds within the Entropia Universe."
Swedes honor their own: Mirror's Edge wins Swedish GOTY
Little known fact: Swedes love a good pat on the back. It's true, all of us like to be congratulated on a job well done, but for them it's in a league of its own. This year, they've heaped the honor for the best Swedish-made game at the annual Dataspelsgalan award show onto DICE's parkour-inspired first-person scoot-er, Mirror's Edge. When asked why it was so special, top Swedes commented to Joystiq that the "graphics on level three were really tight," among other things. One thing is certain: Mirror's Edge was definitely one of the better games from last year.Previous Swedish GOTY winners: 2000 Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter 2001 Ground Control 2002 Headhunter 2003 Battlefield 1942 2004 - 2005 Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay 2006 Battlefield 2 2007 GTR 2: FIA GT Racing Game 2008 World in Conflict
World of Warcraft as addictive as cocaine? BS!
The Swedish Youth Care Foundation has an upcoming report in which they describe World of Warcraft as "the cocaine of the computer games world", indicating that it has been involved in every case of gaming addiction that they have dealt with. As the report is not yet published, it doesn't indicate what other games might be involved. Swedish news outlet, The Local, interprets this with the headline 'World of Warcraft is as addictive as cocaine', a statement that is neither supported by the quotes, nor apparently supported in fact. The addiction rate for cocaine is 5-6% per use during the first decade and 15-16% per use thereafter. If World of Warcraft were really that addictive, then umpty-million players would be well and truly addicted -- a fact not in evidence. The Local's headline therefore, appears to be purest hype (or as we like to think of it, an attention-getting lie).
Swedes say WoW is as addictive as crack
We've heard a few horror stories from Sweden already about excessive WoW-playing there -- we've reported on a 15-year-old collapsing after not taking any breaks, and we've even heard from a teacher in that country who's targeted World of Warcraft as a challenge to her students' attention. But now one group up there is claiming it's an epidemic -- the Youth Group Foundation has released a report comparing the game itself to cocaine, and says that of all the game addiction cases they've encountered, World of Warcraft has played a part in every one.Obviously, here at WoW Insider, we're fans of the game, and it's hard to blame an inanimate object like a computer for serious problems in someone's life -- while World of Warcraft is one of the easiest ways an addictive personality can manifest itself, millions of people around the world are able to play it and maintain healthy lives and relationships.Still, if you're playing World of Warcraft (or doing anything else) so much that it's affecting your health or social life, it's time to stop and/or get help from an organization like this. We won't blame the game for causing someone to pass out (common sense says that doing anything for 15 hours straight isn't good for you) or do poorly in school, but if either of those things are happening to you, in Sweden or anywhere else, because you're playing the game, then cut it out.
LG's flagship KM900 S-Class UI caught on video
Are you the type who falls deaf in the presence of the latest gadget? Add a girl and your mouth falls agape from the loss the muscle control required to speak? Good, we've got the video for you. A site in Sweden is showing off LG's new Arena KM900 flagship phone along with a first peep at its dynamic 3D S-Class UI. While we're not seeing any of that promised multi-touch here, the cubic interface is interesting and makes good use of the KM900's 3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel WVGA display and dedicated media chip. It's also expected to hit in April for 4,500 Swedish Krona or $535 US if our translation of that image (lower-left) is correct. Worth it? Hit the read link for the video (in Swedish) and let us know.[Thanks, Martin]
Nokia's Comes With Music goes on European tour, Asia next, Americas deemed too boring
It was just yesterday that Reuters predicted Nokia's Comes With Music service was headed for something of a pilgrimage through the wilds of Europe, and now we have the official confirmation of this "pan European" expansion. The company has secured partnerships with music licensing and publishing big-wigs in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, and is indicating that Singapore and Australia are next on its to-do list. Alas there was no mention of other nations getting any sort of attention, meaning Nokia handsets in the New World are unlikely to come with anything but guilt for the forseeable future.
Huawei and Ericsson land LTE contracts with TeliaSonera
LTE just got officially legitimized under a month ago, and already Nordic-based TeliaSonera is lining up contracts in an effort to showcase its forward-thinking nature to the world. Both Huawei and Ericsson have been chosen to provide 4G LTE equipment for high-speed networks in Stockholm and Oslo, with SE proclaiming that the Swedish network will be ready for commercial launch in 2010. It's expected that the first devices to tap into these newfangled waves will be of the USB / external variety, with 4G handsets following six to twelve months later. Did our 3G just get slower, or are our brains already messing with us?[Via Network World, image courtesy of BusinessWeek]Read - Huawei dealRead - Ericsson deal
Game revenue taxation begins spread to Sweden and South Korea
They always say the two things you can't avoid in life are death and taxes. Yet, being an MMO player, death always just seems to be a part of life. And now, governments around the world are beginning to become interested in putting in the other unavoidable part of life in our gaming experience -- as if we had enough of death.As in-game transactions and RMT are beginning to become major boons to business the government is getting interested. And, of course, like any good government, they want their share. China was only the first, now Sweden and South Korea are interested in getting their tax laws straight as well.Taxing game transactions, however, isn't as easy as making laws that tax a physical currency. There's the issues of relative value, constantly diminishing returns as more money flows into virtual economies without enough monetary sinks in the game, and the whole issue if the game goes out of business.We tend to believe that worlds like this should avoid colliding, but it seems that as we begin to mesh our virtual currencies and begin to value them as much as our real world ones, paths like these seem inevitable.
European bands sign up for World Tour
Because Activision loves you all equally, it's decided to offer a bunch of downloadable Guitar Hero World Tour tracks from European bands.Our knowledge of non-UK European music extends to ABBA, Kraftwerk, and, embarrassingly, 2 Unlimited, so we're laughably out of our depth commenting on these (though Swedish group Backyard Babies already appeared in Guitar Hero III, so that name does ring a bell). Mind you, some of them sound pretty good (videos of all six follow the break), and we're certain our millions of Dutch readers are going wild over the inclusion of Di-Rect. 200 Wii points each, if you're interested. "'54, '74, '90, 2010" by Sportfreunde Stiller (Germany) "Dis Moi" by BB Brunes (France) "Por La Boca Vive El Pez" by Fito Y Fitipaldis (Spain) "Mama Mae" by Negrita (Italy) "Degenerated" by Backyard Babies (Sweden) "Johnny" by Di-Rect (Holland) %Gallery-23491%
