OnRPG Shotgun News 8/28: TSW, Hawken, LoL, EVE, and much more!
By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist
Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond Renamed Starlite
The NASA themed MMO by Project Whitecard Studios has been renamed to Starlite. It is being privately funded and developed in accordance to the “Space Act Agreement” with NASA Learning Technologies. The adventure game will be playable in browsers and on mobile devices. Beta is expected to start by the end of 2012.
The Secret World Sells Over 200,000 Copies
Funcom’s Q2 reports are out and show that more than 200,000 copies of The Secret World were purchased. This is well below what was expected. This has been blamed on poor reviews by press with some giving the game a rating as low as 50%. As a result the company is undergoing cost cutting measures which include a reduction in personnel. Funcom will be introducing initiatives to acquire new players. It isn’t all bad news though. TSW has had a very high player retention rate, meaning once they get players they keep them. Funcom also has an upcoming Lego Minigs free to play MMO and an unnamed large scale MMO being called Project A upcoming.
Hawken Will Support VR headset Oculus Rift at Launch
Free to play first person mech shooter Hawken will launch with support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The Oculus Rift headset is still in it’s Kickstarter phase, though only for a few more days. Meteor Entertainment has promised that latency will be as low as possible to try to eliminate any motion sickness players may experience.
MLG Disqualifies League of Legends eSports teams
The MLG has taken back titles and over $40,000 in prize money from two LoL teams competing in this summer’s championships. The teams, Curse NA and Team Dignitas are accused of “collusion” during the first round of the summer championship’s final match. Both teams are accused of manipulating the rules, something for which Curse NA has come out and apologized for. MLG has decided not to award 1st and 2nd place finishes for the summer championships for LoL, a decision the developers Riot Games fully supports.
Nexon America Appoints New CEO
Min Kim who is currently serving as Nexon America’s Senior Vice President of Live Games has been appointed the new CEO of Nexon America. This move comes as current CEO Daniel Kim relocates to Seoul to take on new duties at parent company Nexon.
Singularity Brings EVE and Dust 514 Together
CCP has announced that Singularity is open for both EVE and Dust 514 players. This will allow players of both games to communicate with eachother in local chat, send emails back and forth and importantly Dust 514 items are available on the market, though you can only buy them in EVE.
Game Developers Choice Online Awards Opens Audience Voting
The GDC Online awards have opened voting to the public to vote on their favorite persistent online game. Voting will run until September 14th but the winner won’t be revealed until the award ceremony on October 10th. Games that qualify for the award include subscription MMOs, Free to play MMOs, browser games, social games and others. For your chance to vote go to http://www.gdconlineawards.com/audience.php
The West 2.0 Launches Into Beta
Frontier Adventure Browser game The West is getting its most extensive upgrade since its launch in 2008. Players who are eager to get their hands on it now can go to the beta servers to try it out and give feedback before it goes to the live game which InnoGames hopes to do in the next few weeks.
