Monthly Archives: November 2014

EA’s Nick Earl Joins Kabam as New President of Studios

Nick Earl

Kabam, the leader in the western world for free-to-play mobile games for traditional players, today announced it has hired Electronic Arts veteran Nick Earl as the President of Kabam Global Studios. In his new role, Earl will oversee development of all Kabam’s first-party mobile games, including original titles and those developed in partnership with Hollywood studios.

Earl will lead game development throughout all of Kabam’s worldwide offices including San Francisco, Vancouver, Canada and Beijing.

“Nick Earl is the perfect choice to drive the next phase of Kabam’s evolution and growth,” said Kabam Co-Founder and CEO and recent Fortune magazine “40 Under 40” honoree Kevin Chou. “Nick’s deep experience creating AAA titles will help Kabam continue to redefine what mobile games can be.”

A twenty-year game industry veteran, Earl joins Kabam from Electronic Arts, where he was senior vice president of EA Mobile. There, he oversaw development of all of Electronic Arts’s free-to-play hits such as The Simpsons™: Tapped Out, The Sims™ FreePlay and Real Racing 3, and led the company’s transition from premium to free. Prior to EA Mobile, Earl was senior vice president of EA Games launching such console franchises as Knockout Kings, James Bond, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, The Godfather, Lord of the Rings and Dead Space.

“Kabam is increasingly delivering console-quality game experiences on mobile devices,” said Earl. “I am thrilled to help drive the future of Kabam’s first-party games and the future of the entire gaming industry.”

Kabam has strengthened its role as the leader in free-to-play games throughout the last year with a number of high-profile executive hires from Electronic Arts and other firms, a significant financial investment, and new partnerships with Hollywood studios.

Kabam’s evolution to console-quality AAA mobile games has attracted world-class executives to the company. In June, Kabam hired Aaron Loeb, another senior Electronic Arts executive, as its senior vice president of North America studios. Within the last year, Electronic Arts executive Jordan Edelstein joined Kabam as vice president of Marketing. Additionally, Kabam has added Chris Petrovic as head of corporate development from Gamestop; Paxton Cooper, Jr. as senior vice president of platform from Mozilla; and Doug Inamine as senior vice president, people from data storage leader Xyratex.

In August Kabam announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba, which included a $120 million investment from the Chinese e-commerce giant to help drive Kabam’s expansion into Asia.

Kabam also continues to partner with the biggest Hollywood studios to develop games based on blockbuster entertainment properties including: The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Fast & Furious, as well as Marvel Contest of Champions.

R2Games Announces Open Alpha of Newest Browser Game Kingdom Rift

Kingdom Rift WP

Kingdom Rift, the latest game set to be released by global publisher Reality Squared Games, has opened its alpha test today.

In Kingdom Rift, Players assume the role of one of three distinct classes, Warrior, Hunter, or Warlock. As they traverse the expansive world, players will be faced with a dark storyline, and battle alongside Goddesses, as well as other adventurers. Combat is real-time and action oriented, with a focus on player skill and positioning.

Kingdom Rift screen

Key Features:

  • Active player abilities focusing on skill and reflexes
  • Goddess Companions with unique upgradeable Artifact equipment
  • Multi-stage PvE systems, including tiered Dungeons and horde modes
  • In-depth player item trading system

Kingdom Rift opened its Alpha doors to the public Monday November 3rd PDT at 09:00AM. It will last for 7 days, and all player feedback will be used to refine the user experience, as well as fix any bugs that might occur. The alpha ends at Sunday November 9th, 00:00AM PDT. Upon the conclusion of the Alpha, server data will be wiped to make way for the Open Beta test. For more details, visit the official Kingdom Rift Website at http://kingdom.r2games.com/.

Everstar

Everstar is a fantasy RPG designed to be played either as an action game or as a strategy title. A group of teenage gladiators head into the world to face terrible things and become their own kind of hero.

Features:

Choice and Consequence: Many times, the young heroes will face choices that will influence the game – some of which are timed to force a sense of urgency.

Sanity: As the game keeps track of your choices, it will consider how consistent your behavior is. If you seem to be choosing chaotically, reality may begin to slip.

Time Matters: The game simulates a real timeline with set events that will happen on certain days, regardless of where the player is at, making every decision all the more crucial.

Co-Op Campaign: Play solo and control a party of six, or invite up to five other friends to play alongside you in the game.

Age of Wulin: Chapter 3 Expansion Available on Nov. 25th

WEBZEN, a global developer and publisher of free-to-play games, is delighted to announce that the martial arts MMORPG, Age of Wulin will release its second expansion on 25th November, officially ending the Open Beta Phase.

Chapter3: Wisdom is a Journey” will be released in English and delivers a ton of exciting new features to the already expansive game, while also fundamentally revamping existing functions.

As of November, Age of Wulin players will benefit from two fundamental level cap enhancements, which each offer undiscovered heights for new and old players alike:

Firstly, the character-specific strength cap will be increased by opening up the new, mysterious 4th Internal Skill of each of the 8 existing Sects, while also providing a greater level cap for non-Sect “Jianghu” Internal Skills.

Secondly, the character-defining Sect skills will receive a critical upgrade; players will soon be able to perfect their martial art skills to the 8th and 9th levels.

On the path to these new heights, players will be able to test their newfound power in tougher, more challenging versions of existing dungeons, particularly the “Sect Forbidden Instances”. They can also bring their skills to the PvP arena, and take the opportunity to demonstrate their dominance in our two new PvP tournaments: The Dragon and Tiger Tournament & the Inter-Sect Tournament.

While the Inter-Sect Tournament focuses on Sect dominance by limiting the usable skills to only those available from your native Sect, the Dragon and Tiger Tournament is a more generic tournament with fewer restrictions. Both new competitions offer near-daily matches, leading up to weekend finals, with opportunities to win skill books and progression items along the way.

Accompanying the Mount Hua Competition, our monthly in-game tournament, these two new functions bring Age of Wulin further up in the line of competitive PvP play.

The Age of Wulin team will regularly reveal more features on their website. Stay tuned for more: http://en.wulin.webzen.com/

Skyforge: Adept and Order System Revealed

Skyforge

My.com and The Allods Team previously introduced the Orders of Aelion, revealing the most loyal followers in Skyforge called adepts. Adepts are a major source of the player’s personal power and utilising them to their fullest will be the key to maximizing the potential as a god.

Here, My.com and The Allods Team delve a little deeper into the Order system by revealing the differences between each adept and the exact ways in which players may influence their adept’s progress.

You can find more information about Skyforge and the adepts in the following article: http://games.premiercomms.com/pics.asp?i=3289