Western
Latest
Bringing a Chinese shooter to the west with Mercenary Ops
Mercenary Ops is something of a rarity. While there are quite a few Western-developed games being published in Asia by Chinese and Korean companies, there aren't a lot of Chinese-developed online titles being published by Western companies.Developed in China by Yingpei Games, which used to be called Epic Games China, the shooter is being distributed by the San Francisco-based outfit Kalends, a group of developers who've decided to try their hand at publishing on their own.As for the game itself, Kalends has announced that Mercenary Ops will be released as a free-to-play, microtransaction-based title – a business plan that has deep roots in China, but is only just breaking ground stateside.%Gallery-149855%
TERA's Korean version influenced by Western feedback
While we're still impatiently drumming our fingers waiting for TERA to release in the West, it turns out that our feedback is causing real change in the game's live Korean edition. According to a forum post by Producer Chris Hager, Bluehole Studio has taken several suggestions passed along by En Masse and is incorporating them into the live version of the game. Hager says that this is "just a taste" of how the two developers are interacting and collaborating. On November 24th, the next big Korean update will hit the servers, and with it come the implemented suggestions from En Masse's fans. This update will include a dungeon finder system, rest XP, group XP bonuses, modified PvP rules, a guild battle system, and "more skill diversity through new master Glyphs." Oh, and there will be the ability to sit because roleplayers would be lost otherwise. "This is a very exciting time for us as we are starting to see what true collaboration looks like," Hager writes, "and it also shows that you guys do carry a voice with us. The best part is that there is more to come."
DeNA bringing Infinity Blade X to Japan's Mobage platform
DeNA's been on the iOS hunt for about a year now -- I saw them at GDC Online last fall asking developers to create games for their Mobage mobile platform in Japan, and then they outright purchased popular iOS developer ngmoco not long after that. Now they've put together plans to bring another big iOS game to the Mobage platform -- along with Epic Games and developers Chair Entertainment, DeNA will be bringing a version of the popular iOS game, called Infinity Blade X to Japan. The game will be very much like the Infinity Blade we know, using swipe controls to fight RPG-style through an old castle, of course. But it will also be free-to-play, and instead be monetized with virtual goods, as well as offer social connections through the Mobage network. The game will run in Unreal Engine 3 as well, and will be available across the Mobage-town platform, which runs on a number of different cell phones and services in Japan. DeNA has a huge network and lots of resources in Japan, and as I said, they've been looking for Western games to bring over and adapt for their huge audience. This won't be the last big title we see translated for the Mobage platform, I'm sure. Show full PR text DeNa to Bring Infinity Blade X to Mobage in Japan Epic Games' Popular Sword-fighting Adventure Game to Go Social DeNA Continues to Enrich the Mobage Catalog with a Diverse Range of Games TOKYO, JAPAN – June 22, 2011 – DeNA Co., Ltd. has announced today that the company is expanding the Mobage social gaming platform's catalog of hit titles, with the social game version of Infinity Blade, offered in collaboration with Epic Games, Inc. and its award-winning studio, ChAIR Entertainment. The adaptation of the popular sword-fighting adventure RPG will launch exclusively on Mobage for iOS in Japan as a social game in the fall of 2011. This Infinity Blade title is the newest in DeNA's diverse lineup of apps for Mobage, spanning from casual to core games. Provisionally entitled Infinity Blade X for Mobage, the social title is the first Mobage game developed with Epic's Unreal Engine 3, allowing high-end sophisticated graphics. The gameplay maintains the design and control features of the original version, while adding the ability for players to fight or collaborate with each other via the Mobage network. Infinity Blade X for Mobage will be free-to-play, with virtual goods on offer as well. The original Infinity Blade is an international hit as an iOS mobile game, with revenue earned by its developers exceeding 10 million US dollars in just six months after launch. In the original game, players take on the role of a heroic knight, with the mission of defeating the God-King and freeing the kingdom's citizens from a reign of darkness. Fans of the RPG battle, loot, and upgrade their skills in a fantasy world with unprecedented graphic quality and a touchscreen-optimized user interface. # # # About DeNA DeNA Co., Ltd. is a world-leading Web service company that operates the Mobage social gaming platform, social networking services and e-commerce websites. Drawing on its extensive community base and rapidly expanding developer line-up, Mobage currently serves over 28 million users in Japan with more than 1,000 game titles for smartphones, feature phones and PCs. The company generated annual sales of more than 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in fiscal year ended March 2011. To expand the Mobage platform globally, DeNA is building a presence in the US, Europe and in China. DeNA is listed on the Tokyo stock exchange (2432).
E3 2011: Spacetime Studios on the Legends franchise
Blackstar has a new name to capitalize on the Legends brand -- it's now known as Star Legends: The Blackstar Chronicles. At this year's E3, we caught up with Spacetime Studios' Fernando Blanco to see how the revived project (as well as the company's hit Pocket Legends) is coming along. Star Legends is only a month away from launch, and Spacetime hopes that the Pocket Legends fever will spread to its sci-fi brother. The name's been changed to communicate the studio's intent to provide an ongoing story rather than a one-shot experience. The game will launch with the first 20 levels of content, but Spacetime has grand plans to expand this much further. Blanco gave us some of the backstory to the game: In the far future, humans are exploring the cosmos and have stumbled upon a resource-rich area. Corporations, as they are wont to do, have swooped in to exert their dominance but have come across hostile aliens in the process. War breaks out, invasions start popping up all over the place, and you're called in to clean up the mess -- and make a quick buck in the process. Hit the jump to hear more about Star Legends' classes and gameplay!
First Impressions: Forsaken World
Perfect World Entertainment's latest title, Forsaken World, is made to sound like the polar opposite of Perfect World, the older flagship title that serves as Forsaken World's foundation. When I first heard about this newer project, I was enthused. After all, I wasn't really fond of Perfect World. I thought it was too stale and linear. Still, I have admired Perfect World Entertainment for a long time, mainly because the company knows its audience and does really good work. Its games are flexible when it comes to system requirements, and its titles fit all sorts of different players and age ranges. Also, the developers claimed that Forsaken World would be a game made for a "Western audience." Of course this means absolutely nothing to me, being that there are easily millions and millions of players for decidedly "Eastern" games like Nexon titles or other large publishers, so I figured that PWE meant to say that it was a game made for those snootier Western players who consider free-to-play games to be nothing but point-and-click junk. Strangely enough, PWE got the WASD movement wrong in Forsaken World. I have no idea how or why this was missed, but the "Western" audience will notice, I promise. Click past the cut and let's talk about everything I loved about the game -- and a few things I did not.
Riot Games confirms Tencent majority buyout
Riot Games has confirmed that a majority of the company was bought by China's Tencent, putting its stamp of approval on rumors of the deal last week. Brandon Beck, Riot's CEO, is quoted as saying that "Tencent's investment will provide our talented team of designers, developers and community staff with additional resources to focus on innovating around League of Legends and launching new projects that push the boundaries in the gaming space." Financial Times has a nice analysis of the deal -- it sounds like this agreement will help both sides, as Riot will not only get that nice cash infusion of a rumored $350 million, but also invaluable assistance and insight for what it was already hoping would be a nice overseas adoption. And Tencent, of course, gets to lay claim to League of Legends and any other titles that Riot developers, along with the huge microtransaction-based revenues that go along with them, both here and eventually overseas. Plus, this is a sign of the growing trend of Eastern publishers picking up Western companies to develop content for the large audiences over there. Chinese publisher The9 recently bought another Blizzard spinoff, Red 5 Studios, for $15 million, and Japanese firm DeNA picked up iOS developer ngmoco for $400 million as well. Western audiences are big, but Eastern audiences are bigger and, as a result, there's high demand for well-developed games in that market.
Free for All: The difference between East and West
Like many gamers, I find myself going through stages of obsession. Once in a while, I'll get on a PvP kick, followed by having a thing for immersion, then I'll be consumed by running dungeons or grinding. Lately I have been investigating older Western MMOs, games like Asheron's Call, Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, and EverQuest. While I have already played all of these titles at one time or another, they can become different games between visits. This recent kick of mine started me thinking about the first free-to-play MMOs I enjoyed, as well. The first one was either Flyff or Rose Online, around six or so years ago. I've chatted with a developer who used to work on Flyff, and she claimed that those were some of the very first free-to-plays to see success in North America. What are the differences between the two, Western and Eastern? Is there a difference? If there were, are there still differences between Eastern free-to-play games and Western games? Click past the cut and we'll take a look.
The Game Archaeologist and the dragon of the deep dungeon
The Game Archaeologist is a lazy adventurer-slash-professor who dons his trademark cap for a weekly expedition through some of the most famous MMOs of the past few decades. Each month, he chooses a different title in order to examine its highlights, talk with its developers, and invite its fans to share their experiences. Part of the holy mission of the Game Archaeologist is to ferret out the roots of history that ultimately led to MMORPGs as we know them today. Another part of the mission is to root out ferrets, as my claw-scarred arms can attest. Some of that history is fairly recent, but today we're going to travel back -- way back -- to a time before many of you were born. Including me, as a matter of fact. The year is 1974. The world is hip-deep in the throes of shag carpeting, driftwood furniture and the strains of Grand Funk Railroad. It truly seemed like nothing would ever be cool or non-earth-toned again. At this, the lowest moment in all of history, game designers Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson took the concept of miniature wargaming, merged it with a fantasy motif, and sold it under the name Dungeons & Dragons. Geeks everywhere had a reason to rejoice, and through this roleplaying game the foundations for MMOs were laid. Let's take a brief survey through D&D, giving special emphasis to how this great-granddaddy of RPGs passed down a legacy that we enjoy in our modern online titles. Also, there will be popcorn.
SPB TV brings streaming TV to the iPhone and iPad, if you aren't too picky
SPB TV Free is a little app that gives you more than 100 free TV channels for your iOS device. You get channels from 17 countries, including a few in the US. The only problem? You may not be interested in the television shows the app makes available. There are English language broadcasts from NHK in Japan, and other channels from Italy and Germany. I tried a local Florida station, and instead of the station I got a traffic camera feed. There are some Public Access stations, but I saw mostly city council meetings and water rate hearings. NASA channels are there, but NASA provides an app to see them anyway. There is a old Western channel and one with sci-fi, along with two US Christian-oriented feeds. While the app is free, it won't work unless you provide an email address. The developers promise they won't sell or use your info improperly. A static ad also plays before you start every video feed. The app works in landscape and portrait mode, and while picture quality is variable, it's certainly watchable. Playback does not require WiFi -- it worked just fine for me on a 3G connection. SPB TV is not a substitute for Hulu, but if you want to see a smattering of international news, and some rather mundane local broadcasts, this is the free app for you. It's just been updated to support the iPad, so give it a go if the channels available interest you.
Free for All: So, what does "MMORPG" mean?
As a reader of Massively, you should have a pretty good idea what MMORPG means. Not just what it stands for, but what it feels like, looks like, and behaves like. The problem is, despite common definitions, the games keep coming in different shapes and sizes -- and from all over the world. While I receive many comments about the Western coverage that Massively features, I would only be doing half my job if I reported on only the latest half a dozen games to break the multi-million-dollar budget mark in America. The world is a smaller place, especially now. And across the world there are MMORPGs that are being played and enjoyed in many different ways. There are PvP games, games that place players into instance after instance with only a handful of other players, all while offering the potential to hang out with thousands of other people. Is an instanced combat game still an MMO? How about a game like Mabinogi, which maintains a persistent world, but is broken into several invisible channels for players to skip in to and out of? This is impossible, but I think I will try to define exactly what MMO means -- now, in this current market.
The Daily Grind: Go west young man
Well, my wandering game eye is at it again, this time casting lustful glances over at the single-player space, and more specifically Rockstar's recently released Red Dead Redemption. Many of you are no doubt joining me in taking a bit of a break from MMOs to spend some time in the sprawling frontier sandbox, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one who thinks such a setting is fertile ground for the AAA MMORPG treatment. I say AAA because an indie game based on the early American frontier has been languishing in lack-of-funding hell for seven years now, and it makes me sad to think that no established company has the gumption to pony up for a massive excursion to the land of six shooters and well-worn cowpokes. With Rockstar's game tearing up the sales charts, there is clearly an interest in the subject matter, and toodling around in the game's free-roam mode brings to mind all kinds of interesting possibilities for something new in our favorite genre. So, what say you Massively readers? Why not the Old West? While we're at it, if Bioware can make the genre jump, why not Rockstar?
Playdom CEO: 'Core gamers are playing this stuff'
Social gaming is bigger than ever. Playdom CEO John Pleasants gave an interview on stage at the LA Games Conference today, and said that while the western market for Facebook and social games currently pulls in over $750 million, it's going to balloon to as much as $4 to 5 billion in the next five years or so. His own company is developing at an extremely rapid pace -- it's purchased and acquired enough companies and studios to have ten different teams developing, and they plan to release ten games, "all original ideas," in just the next five months. So why aren't you "core" gamers playing these games yet? Pleasants says you are. He told Joystiq after the presentation that "If you look at something like Mobsters 2, and you go look at the boards where people are talking about it, they're like, 'Look, I love this game, but I have to go back and play Halo.' Core gamers are playing this stuff." He said that the numbers alone prove that traditional gamers are already on board with social games. "This business is bigger than that business, in terms of reach," he told us. "By definition, those circles overlap." Pleasants also believes that the core game companies like Sony, EA, and Microsoft already know that -- in the next year or so, he said, almost 20% of the social gaming market will be owned by bigger brands. "This space has gotten enough notice now that people believe it's real."
Hands-on: Red Dead Redemption
I love Westerns: Shane, Stagecoach, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Unforgiven, Open Range. These are the immersive stories that I've always wanted to play in games. There have been some decent efforts, like Dead Man's Hand, Gun, Call of Juarez, and even Red Dead Revolver, but they all confine the player to narrow paths. What happened to the wide-open Wild West? Enter: Red Dead Redemption. This is the largest world Rockstar has ever created. Can you quantify that? "It's big," a representative assured me. %Gallery-43816%
Final Fantasy XIII director comments on linearity, early reviews
If you're an avid follower of pre-release review scores for super anticipated titles, you've probably noticed the scattershot scores garnered by Final Fantasy XIII. Most critics' biggest complaint with the game is its linearity -- a qualm which the game's director, Motomu Toriyama, claims to be a hang-up that's native to Western audiences and reviewers. During a recent interview with Xbox World 360 magazine (via CVG), Toriyama explained, "we think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view." He later added, "when you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like... it becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom." We'd advise Toriyama to take caution when badmouthing freedom, lest he wants to become the subject of a scathing Toby Keith song.
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West previewed, screenshotted
Hang on a sec, are you trying to tell us that you weren't at the Paradox Interactive Convention in Stockholm, Sweden last week when the publisher showed off its upcoming game, Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West? Lucky for you then that Paradox Interactive recently released a mélange of screenshots and a developer interview to help assuage your fear of totally missing out. Developed by Swedish company Fatshark, Lead and Gold is a third-person multiplayer-focused shooter set in the Old West. As described by executive producer Martin Wahlund in the video after the break, the game features a a variety of different competitive multiplayer modes (variations on the traditional "team deathmatch" and "capture the flag," among others) to be played by the game's four classes. Set for release in "Q2 2010," we have to imagine we'll be getting some face time with the game (and news on which consoles it's coming to) in the not too distant future. %Gallery-84320%
GameStop offers chance to vote on Red Dead Redemption pre-order bonus
If you pre-order Red Dead Redemption from GameStop, you'll be able to start redeeming a bit early -- specifically, a code for an exclusive pre-order bonus. The retailer will offer customers the chance to vote on one of three in-game challenges that, when completed, will award players an in-game costume. The hard-earned costume changes will have some unspecified effect on gameplay: according to Rockstar's announcement, "the outfit will uniquely affect how the surrounding world responds to the game's protagonist, John Marston." We don't know what any of the three choices are, but people would respond differently to a man in one of those inflatable sumo wrestler costumes. Just putting that out there. More information about the challenges and the outfits will be released in January. %Gallery-78181%
New Red Dead Redemption screens showcase the finer things in (cowboy) life
A slow trickle of information and media on upcoming Old West-em-up Red Dead Redemption has been coming from developer Rockstar Games for some time now. And if it weren't for the game's somewhat unique setting – as well as our (admittedly strained) faith in the game's developer – we might not indulge the it with so much attention. Alas, these screens, much like the screens and video that came before them, keep impressing us. Call it a predilection for Western-themed entertainment ... we're not sure. Peep the screens below and decide for yourself if the game is worth your time during the busy second holiday release season. %Gallery-78181%
PAX 2009: Red Dead Redemption lets you kill ... everything
Red Dead Redemption's promised Wild West sandbox came to life in a build shown off to attendees at PAX over the weekend. One of the first things we noticed is that you can end a life whenever you want. What kind of lives? See a bunny bouncing by? Kablam. Attacked by a wild bear? Kapow. Angry at your horse and want to put him down? Kablang. You can kill literally every living thing in the game and, in some cases, skin them and sell their hides to the furrier in town to make some dough. We doubt he deals in horse skins, however. There's more beyond the break, just mind you don't get shot.%Gallery-72189%
Last-minute App Store freebie: Wanted
In the long-established tradition of apps that make your pictures extra silly, Portego is offering its app Wanted free of charge through the end of February 5 (yes, that's today). Snap a photo of the nearest cowpoke (cheesy music is optional, but it does tend to attract a crowd of would-be bandits), accessorize with a selection of facial hair, weapons and other goodies, select the text you want and then save the "wanted poster" to your photos roll.Even though the 1.3 version notes in the App Store suggest that "ALL CRASHES are solved now," I did have the app lock up on me on my 2nd picture; however, if you get it for free today, what's to complain about? Starting tomorrow, Wanted will set you back $0.99.
Resident Evil 5 producer is worried about Western developers
The fine folks at Capcom don't have a whole heck of a lot to be concerned about -- their shares are still selling at fairly epic prices, and they've got a pretty solid release schedule lined up for the first half of 2009. Still, Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi recently said in a Famitsu interview that he's worried about "the movements of Western developers," specifically the movements into Capcom's home turf, Japan.Takeuchi hopes that 2009 will see an improvement in Japan's domestic games market, stating, "it's not good if Japanese developers are making games that can't be enjoyed by Japanese people." Capcom seems poised to lead that charge -- Takeuchi hinted that Capcom's unannounced plans for this year's releases might just "surprise" their fellow countrymen. We hope they've got Mega Man X9 somewhere up their sleeves. Man, Japan would never see that one coming.
