Monthly Archives: August 2014

EA: Appearing at Gamescom 2014

Appearing

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) will unveil the latest in content and share a few surprises at its annual Gamescom 2014 press conference on August 13 at 9:00 a.m BST (10:00 a.m. CET / 4:00 a.m. ET) live from Hall 6, Booth B 060 at Koelnmesse and streaming from www.ea.com/gamescom. See the latest from Dragon Age™: Inquisition, Battlefield Hardline™, EA SPORTS™ FIFA 15, The Sims™ 4, Dawngate, Titanfall™ and more.

Public attendees of Gamescom 2014 can visit EA’s booth from August 14 – 17 to get their hands on some of the games you’ll see during the broadcast.

For more info, visit www.ea.com/gamescom

Runescape: “Lost city of the Elves” expansion announced

Runescape

Jagex Games Studio, makers of the multi-award winning fantasy MMORPG, RuneScape, has announced the very first expansion pack for the game. Lost City of the Elves delivers a brand new area – the elf city of Prifddinas, the largest city in RuneScape – for high level players to explore, as well as a new campaign, new mini-games, new weaponry, and more. The largest piece of content to be released into RuneScape since it launched in 2001, Lost City of the Elves is the final part of the epic Elf Quest1 campaign that has been building for 12 years.

From today, high level players can begin their journey towards Prifddinas by taking part in the new and epic Plague’s End quest, the largest adventure in RuneScape to date. As well as being voted for by RuneScape players as part of the game’s Player Power initiative, the development of the Lost City of the Elves has seen considerable collaborative efforts between Jagex and the community throughout its creation. The expansion pack is being released in three parts to enable players to experience and enjoy all areas of the new content: today’s release of Plague’s End will be followed by the unlocking of one half of the elf city in September, and the second half in October.

Lost City of the Elves expansion pack includes:

  • · Largest quest (Plague’s End) and largest city in RuneScape (the elf city of Prifddinas)
  • · Dozens of new skill training methods, new weapons and armours
  • · New mini-games, including a combat horde mode
  • · A max guild social hub for ‘Completionist’ players
  • · Hundreds of hours of new gameplay

“Launching the Lost City of the Elves is a landmark in the history of this extraordinary game. We’ve captured the imagination of hundreds of millions of players for the past 13 years, and so many of them have been waiting for this city,” said David Osborne, senior narrative designer of RuneScape. “Developing this high level, aspirational Lost City of the Elves expansion pack has been a huge responsibility, but tremendously fun for the entire team.”

“This has been a year of resurgence for RuneScape, from the introduction of the Legacy combat mode and Twitch integration to the launch of our debut expansion pack, voted for by players as part of our Player Power initiative,” said Phil Mansell, vice president of RuneScape.

“In addition to the remarkable environments, challenges, and gameplay that the Lost City of the Elves brings, it also underlines the collaborative efforts between the RuneScape development team and our passionately loyal players as we work to bring the game they want to experience to life.”

For more info, visit www.RuneScape.com

SMITE NA Lan Kickoff Witnesses Underdog Upset

SMITE Dignitas NA LAN

This past weekend we were on site at the Cobb Center in Atlanta, Georgia to witness what was certainly the most heart pounding and closely matched set of four teams in SMITE‘s esports history duking it out in the first official battle on the road to deciding the teams who will compete for the World Championship in January 2015. HiRez employees were present in droves as well as plenty of die hard fans who nearly blew the roof off as 8 minute long battles over the Fire Giant were common place throughout the day.

SMITENACogRedchamps

While we’ll have a recap coverage video posting on MMOHuts’ youtube later this week including a victory interview with Cog Red’s team captain Snooby, but in the meantime I highly advise SMITE fans to head to twitch.tv now if they missed out on the action and catch the replays of Cognitive Red doing what no one expected them to do and taking home the victory with a team consisting of players barely old enough to drive. SMITE’s Facebook page is also covered in tons of images from the event. Keep an eye out all week as we’ll be handing out Convention Guan Yu skins as well!

LANKickOff2

X-Tactics: New RPG from former SE, Capcom and SEGA vets

X-Tactics

AMKIN Inc., formed by veterans of Square-Enix, Capcom and SEGA, announced today they have begun a crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo platform for their latest game: X-Tactics. X-Tactics, is an episodic RPG, set in the modern world, that combines tactical gameplay with elements of urban exploration.

The campaign starts today and will last until Monday, September 15. More details about the campaign can be found here: http://igg.me/at/xtactics

“When we set out to make X-Tactics, we didn’t want to make just another tactical game, nor create some sort of perfect tactical experience. Our goal was to create something new.” said Robert Gould, X-Tactics’s producer and lead designer. “Leveraging our expertise, we combined equal parts of tactical gameplay like that of ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’ and ‘Valkyrie Chronicles’, with fighting game mechanics and aesthetics, like those found in the ‘Street Fighter’ series, to create a new gameplay experience, that we at least, have not seen done before.”

“It is our mission here at GAMKIN, to mashup our gamedev expertise with other fields. So we are using real world data streams, like weather, and location-based data, to enhance X-Tactics gameplay, creating an urban exploration sandbox mode for our players. This combined with the curated episodic nature of X-Tactics will allow us to build a living game, and allow us to expand the X-Tactics universe based on our community’s feedback.”

Regarding crowdfunding, Kengo Okinaga, founder and CEO of GAMKIN, explained that “unlike most other game-related crowdfunding, that depends on funding to start production, we wanted to wait until we had the game’s systems nailed down before starting our campaign, so we could reduce the risks for both our supporters and partners.” adding that “the development team is now focusing on improving features and creating the remaining content needed for release, not simple tasks, but tasks that we feel confident we can handle.”

“We chose Indiegogo as we are based in Japan, and Indiegogo is the best truly global crowdfunding platform out there. And that same global reach will also play an important role to help us build an international community of players that will be able to make the most out of the title’s unique urban exploration features.”

For more info, visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/x-tactics-urban-tactical-rpg

Albion Online’s founder packs launched

Albion

Sandbox Interactive, the team behind the cross-platform sandbox MMO Albion Online, are moving into the next stage of development and releasing founder’s packs. There are three different packs offering access to the alpha and beta testing as well as plenty of exclusive items. In addition to this, a new gameplay trailer features never-before-seen action from within the medieval fantasy world of this free MMORPG.

Exclusive access and unique rewards
The Veteran Pack offers guaranteed access to closed beta testing, to commence in 2015, for $29.95. In addition to this, the pack contains 2,000 Gold, with a real-world value of $10, a 30-day premium account, as well as a founder’s certificate to decorate your unique player house.

Epic Founders secure themselves access not only to the closed beta, but also to two alpha tests to run in the summer and winter of 2014. They’ll also receive a cool 4,500 Gold, equivalent to $20, a 60-day premium account and a founder’s certificate. A sterling silver nameplate and avatar and an epic Explorer Armour Set round off the pack to truly mark out these founders as epic.

The most extraordinary rewards are to be found in the Legedary Pack: Legendary founders get to be the very first to explore the new world of Albion, in the alpha tests as well as the closed beta testing, with guaranteed access before other players. The packet, costing $99.95, also offers a 90-day premium account, founder’s certificate, a shiny golden nametag and avatar, 12,000 Gold worth $50, a legendary explorer armor set, two different mounts, and an impressive ingame statue.

For more info, visit http://albiononline.com/founders/

ArcheAge: 3rd closed beta coming soon

ArcheAge

Publisher Trion Worlds and developer XLGAMES have concluded the second Closed Beta Event for its long-awaited MMORPG adventure ArcheAge to great success. Additionally, they’ve announced the next Closed Beta period for the game will begin at 6pm BST next Thursday, August 14th and run through Monday, August 18th at 6pm BST. Growing in size, this Closed Beta Event will double the amount of invites to those who signed up on the website and increase the amount of servers.

For more info, visit http://www.archeagegame.com/en/news/2014/08/producer-letter-sailing-through-beta/?dm_i=XF5,2P6VR,6W0EWT,9UNW8,1

Crytek: Coming to Gamescom 2014

Crytek

Crytek today announced that they will be among the attendees at Gamescom 2014, where they will invite players to battle it out in Arena of Fate and feast their eyes on the PC version of Ryse: Son of Rome.

Fresh from a wave of positive feedback at E3, Arena of Fate will challenge the crowds at Gamescom to choose from legendary historical figures and prevail in intense 5 vs. 5 battles before time ticks away. From Robin Hood and Nikola Tesla to Joan of Arc and Fenrir, every player will find the perfect hero to suit their style in this action-packed online multiplayer game.

As well as going hands-on with Arena of Fate, conference attendees can experience an all-new incarnation of Ryse: Son of Rome. Featuring brutal battles and captivating drama from the heart of the Roman Empire, Ryse is now coming to PC ready for 4K resolution, and Gamescom visitors can be among the first to sample it with playable demos at Crytek’s booth.

Last but not least, Crytek will also have a presence in the Gamescom Business Center, where they will be showing off the latest developments with their cutting-edge CRYENGINE technology. Having recently been released on a subscription basis through Steam, and with some major titles currently in development based on the engine, now is the perfect time to see how CRYENGINE is continuing to keep licensees ahead of the game.

You can visit Crytek on the show floor during Gamescom at booth B031 in hall 7.1, or find us in the Business Center at booth A033, hall 4.1.

For more info, visit http://www.crytek.com/

War Thunder: Revenue shared UCC coming soon

War Thunder

Gaijin Entertainment has announced an exciting new addition to their WWII MMO mega-hit War Thunder with the introduction of its revenue share initiative.

Back in April, War Thunder players got the ability to design, upload and share missions, skins, new planes and tanks on the community driven hub War Thunder Live. This user-created content was playable only on local PC.

Beginning from Update 1.43, some of these players will be able to earn currency from their created designs. Gaijin Entertainment is going to pick the best user-created content and integrate it into the game, making it available for purchase to all War Thunder users. Players successful enough to have designs incorporated into the revenue share initiative stand to earn up to 25% of the adjusted gross revenue from any sales their content make, less taxes and other applicable fees.

“Empowering our players with the ability to create, share and earn through War Thunder Live exemplifies the dedication and passion of War Thunder’s fantastic player base, encouraging our community and fans to contribute to the game via this initiative can only make the game a richer and more rewarding experience for players everywhere”, – said Creative Director Kirill Yudintsev.

For more info, visit http://warthunder.com/en/game/faq/revenueshare