Artplant, the award-winning studio behind Battlestar Galactica Online, has launched the first major feature update for Entropy, its ambitious interstellar space MMO. ‘Hostile Takeover’ introduces an innovative faction conflict system that allows players to fight for control of the star systems across Entropy‘s frontier.

Players contracted with one of the game’s three mega-corporations can now work together to destabilize star systems controlled by their rivals and create opportunities for attack, or protect their own star systems from the actions of opposing players. This ongoing conflict culminates in battles fought in and around heavily defended space stations to decide the fate of entire star systems.

“I love the way that the feature is making every action meaningful,” says Jack Wulff, Entropy’s producer and chief executive officer of Artplant. “Your journey shapes the universe around you. Our players have been requesting more focused and meaningful PvP events, and with support for up to a hundred players in the same match, we expect some truly epic battles.”

During a meeting with Lightmare Studios’ Infinity Wars creator, Elphie today, we discovered the teased upcoming Star Trek faction addition to their fully animated iTCG is set to enter the pre-order phase today.

Although fully free to play and offering multiple arenas that counter any pay to win elements, true fans of Star Trek and science fiction fans in general can ensure they have access to building out the first themed decks of this nature by putting their orders in now. Full details should be live on the official site later today.

Kraken Games, an independent development studio based in Moscow, have today unveiled detailed information on the in-game factions, character types and classes within Warside, a visceral multiplayer sci-fi shooter featuring classic 2D gameplay combined with RPG elements, which is set to make a crater sized impact on the indie gaming map this year. Currently acquiring fans on Steam Greenlight, Warside is set to release on PC in 2014.

Set against a futuristic backdrop of three powerful rival factions attempting to dominate the galaxy, each with their own backgrounds and political ideologies, players choose their allegiance to one of the factions which will determine their starting planet within the game along with the equipment available to their character.

Once the faction has been determined in Warside players can then select one of four character types and from there one of five classes, with classes possessing their own preferred weapon types and gadgets. These choices of faction, character and class ensure a high level of customization is available to the player from the outset making their character feel distinct and unique to them on the battlefield.

THE FACTIONS
·      Galactic Commune: a communistic faction consisting mainly of industrial planets separated from the Empire after the revolution. Typically they fight for freedom and equality
·      New Empire: the remnants of the old aristocratic families gathered by a young charismatic leader claiming to be the heir to the last Emperor. They fight to restore the Empire to its former glory
·      Corporation Zetta: a company that evolved in to a giant conglomerate and become the dominant corporation in the galaxy. They fight for profit

THE CHARACTER TYPES
·      Faceless: high starting Speed, low starting Attack. Double-jump ability and can hang on walls
·      Guardian: High starting Armour, low starting Speed. Antigrav that allows him to float above the battlefield for a limited time
·      Huntress: High starting Attack, low starting Armour. Dash ability allowing her to cover significant distances very quickly
·      Mercenary: Balanced starting stats. Has a Jetpack. The most balanced and intuitive of the classes

THE CLASSES
·      Defender: Tank class. High armour and defence. Preferred weapons: machine gun, handgun. Gadgets: stationary shield, extended shield
·      Assault: Main damage class. High attack capabilities. Preferred weapons: assault rifles, melee. Gadgets: rocket, stationary turret
·      Infiltrator: Damage class with some control abilities. Preferred weapons: sniper rifle, shotgun. Gadgets: poison dart, stunning trap
·      Destroyer: Damage class focusing on area damage. Preferred weapons: rocket launcher, flamethrower. Gadgets: grenade, mine
·      Medic: Healer class, specializing in keep teammates alive. Preferred weapons: charger, sub-machine gun. Gadgets: charging grenade, charging station

For more information on Warside and to get behind the future of tactical multiplayer squad shooters, head to Steam Greenlight at: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=242674873

Triumph Studios, the team behind the Overlord and Age of Wonders series, today releases the first Age of Wonders III patch along with plans for continued support and fan interaction.

Since the critically and commercially successful release last week, the team has been hard at work looking at the feedback we have received and can now present the first official patch for Age of Wonders III. Many thanks go out to the players testing this patch in beta form over the past week.  The overall goals with this first patch are: performance optimization, fixing hardware specific issues, registration issues, improved AI behavior and the first balance adjustment. Triumph also added the first feature requests such as quick saves and native high resolution support.

Triumph Studios, is working closely with the fans at ageofwonders.com to provide continued support in the form of free features, as well as gathering ideas for expansions.

Read the full patch changelog here.

MyDream Interactive today are thrilled to reveal that high-profile gaming industry legend, Richard ‘Lord British’ Garriot has shown his support by backing MyDream.

MyDream’s has already reached its KickStarter funding target, but now has its sights set on the first stretch goal: “Survival Mode” which brings in MyDream’s RPG element. It draws inspiration from Ultima Online with its early sandbox gameplay, as well as Ultima 6, Minecraft and Myst.

“Players can expect the unexpected. Adventures and questing from point to point in a realistic world 100km wide.“, said Allison Huynh, CEO of MyDream Interactive. “There will be simple, fun combat with monsters that have the dynamic friend/foe dichotomy. Enemies could be turned to friends, with the proper skills and character development.”

Working closely with their community the developers go regularly in-game and play together for feedback. As well as operating a realtime Q&A session during the weekly Twitch stream that runs every Thurdays 3-5pm PDT at twitch.tv/slumpcity

MyDream Interactive believe strongly that the player community will shape the direction of the game’s future. Having delivered the creativity platform they are now making the traditional game play and character development via the RPG elements.

Kabam, the leader in the western world for free-to-play games for traditional players, today announced its ongoing global expansion with the announcement of a new office in Berlin, Germany.

Kabam opened a temporary office in Berlin last year with 50 employees working on live operations, localization, quality assurance, marketing and player experience services dedicated to countries in the European market including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

The new office will occupy roughly 20,500 square feet and two floors at Greifswalder Straße. It will initially house 80 employees and Kabam estimates it will grow the employee base to 150 by year-end.

“Berlin is a vibrant tech hub with a unique multi-national workforce, and is the ideal place to expand Kabam’s European games support,” said Andrew Sheppard, president of Kabam Studios. “Europe is a thriving free-to-play market where more than forty percent of Kabam revenue comes from, and our new Berlin office best suits the needs of our partners and customers in that region.”

The Berlin office will support a number of Kabam’s hit franchise games including: Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth, Fast & Furious 6: The Game, and Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon. Three of these titles have generated more than $100 million in lifetime revenue. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North and The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth were two of the top ten grossing games across iOS and Google Play stores in 2013.

The Berlin office will also help support the efforts of the Kabam WorldWide Developer Fund. The $50 million fund enables third-party game developers in China, Japan and South Korea to take advantage of Kabam’s industry-leading monetization and marketing expertise to expand their games to North American and European markets. In less than a year of announcing the Fund, Kabam has secured partnerships with 23 developers, producing 30 titles. These games span six genres and are currently played by Kabam customers in 90 countries. Kabam will have invested the entirety of the Developer Fund by mid-2014 and, as a result, expects to generate $175 million to $200 million in revenues from published third party titles this year.

Kabam has experienced massive growth since its founding as a games company a little more than four years ago. The company now has more than 800 employees in offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Kabam generated more than $360 million in revenue in 2013, a 100 percent growth over 2012, and predicts $550 – $650 million in revenue in 2014.

• Three full days of HD programming live from Fanfest
• Access to the HD stream of the 24 April pre-Fanfest livestream with CCP developers who will give exclusive details about what to expect at the big event
• A choice of one of four unique industry ship skins for EVE Online: the Inner Zone Shipping Iteron (Gallente), Tash-Murkon Bestower (Amarr), Nefantar Mammoth (Minmatar) or Wiyrkomi Tayra (Caldari).
• Digital copies of the Fanfest 2014 “Quafe” Tshirt for EVE Online (one male and one female)
• Subscriber-only giveaways and chat emotes during streams