Monthly Archives: February 2015

Jagex unlocks Cryptocurrency Payments

Jagex Games Studio – creators and custodians of the fantasy MMORPG, RuneScape and upcoming online multiplayer action game, Block N Load – has announced that they will, as of today, be accepting cryptocurrency payments for their games.

As vanguards of new transaction models throughout their time in business, Jagex will now become the first merchant to partner with BitPay and Adyen to accept bitcoins. In doing so, the company will join the growing number of businesses attracted to the benefits of peer-to-peer, borderless and charge free payment methods offered by a cryptocurrency.

RuneScape players are now able to use the protocol to purchase membership and partake in microtransactions, such as the game’s hugely popular bonds system. As a consequence, Jagex intends to give their global audience as wide an opportunity as possible when it comes to cost effective and secure ways of experiencing their games.

“Gamers are smart. We know they get tech, and we know that for them the cryptocurrency protocol is cool and here to stay. By allowing our players to pay however they want, we remove any obstacles between them and having fun,” said David Parrott, payment services director, Jagex. “We’re always examining new and viable ways of widening our payment options, and the excellent services that BitPay and Adyen offer give us the commercial peace of mind to do just that.”

For more information on Jagex titles and their commitment to consumer security, please visit: http://www.jagex.com/payment.

SMG creates unique collaboration between Vevo and Wargaming.net

SMG

London 3 February: LiquidThread, Starcom MediaVest Group’s branded content division, has created a unique partnership between Wargaming.net, the award-winning online game developer and Vevo, the world’s leading all-premium music video and entertainment platform, to launch a global online campaign.

The creative campaign will see Wargaming.net sponsor the rock and metal music genres across Vevo’s properties internationally, including Europe, America and Asia. As part of the campaign, Wargaming.net will have presence across video and display, featuring music from some of the best known rock performers available on Vevo.

The campaign kicks off on 5 February with a coordinated takeover of Vevo’s rock and metal genres in the UK, US, Italy, Spain, France and Ireland.

As part of the partnership – which runs until mid-March – a bespoke music video playlist featuring the world’s greatest rock stars will also be available to Vevo viewers.

Al King, Global Brand Director at Wargaming.net, said, “The Wargaming.net brand had been looking for a viable global music partner for some time. We needed the right fit with our audience and a way to satisfy their love of rock and metal music. Vevo delivers this and the campaign that SMG’s LiquidThread has negotiated is the perfect experience for our audience to relate to their interests and increase their excitement about the brand.”

Lindsey Webb, Partnership Manager from SMG’s Liquid Thread, said: “Wargaming.net are a really imaginative client who are open to the creativity and collaborative spirit we thrive on. As a result this unique global partnership with Vevo will allow them to reach a highly engaged and relevant audience.”

James Cornish, Vevo’s UK Sales Director, said: “We’re delighted- and really excited- to be working with Wargaming.net for the first time on this campaign. Home to the world’s biggest music video catalogue, Vevo has a huge audience of passionate Rock and Metal fans and so we will provide the perfect platform for Wargaming.net to engage and entertain their target audience on a global scale.”

Mordheim: City of the Damned: Early Access Phase 3 Revealed

Mordheim

Rogue Factor‘s turn-based tactical-RPG Mordheim: City of the Damned, based on Games Workshop‘s tabletop game, is receiving today its second major content update. On this occasion, players entering Early Access from tonight till Friday 6th of February will enjoy an exclusive -33% discount!

Mordehim: City of the Damned now features a fourth playable Warband – the Cult of the Possessed – and introduces extended warband management and new mission objectives in Skirmish mode.

With three Warbands previously available to players – the Mercenaries of the Empire, the Skaven of Clan Eshin, and the Sisters of Sigmar – Mordheim: City of the Damned welcomes now the Cult of the Possessed, bringing the total of playable Warbands to four. New content and new features are of course planned for release in the near future, including extended Warband Management. Visit our Steam Page for a detailed road-map!

For a detailed explanation of exactly what’s coming in this second content update, see below:

The Cult of the Possessed: Worshipers of the Dark Gods of Chaos, the Cult of the Possessed is a group of degenerates and mutants gathered together seeking to gain the favour of the Shadowlord by returning the Wyrdstone to the Pit, slaughtering all those they find trespassing on their master’s domain. They of course boast their own skills, such as Terror, a passive skill which has a chance to enforce a leadership test on any unit that passes his threat zone, or Boon of Chaos, which will buff up a squadmate, increasing physical, mental or martial statistics.

Reserves management: Extending the the Warcamp, the ‘reserves’ management option allow you to choose which of your units will head in and out of combat, allowing you to strategically place units in the heart of battle depending on the match load out you might need for the fight.

New Skirmish mission objectives: New skirmish objectives are introduced in this new update: Marked for Death have your hunt for a specific enemy unit – Crush their Will is reminiscent of capture the flag, where you have to steal the enemy’s idol while protecting your own, and finally Wyrdstone Rush, where you will have to gather the precious green shards and secure them.

More features will be available in the near future, such as Warband leveling. Be sure to check the steam page for more detail about what’s coming next.

Nosgoth reaches one million downloads

Nosgoth

Nosgoth has now passed the one million downloads* mark, one week after the launch of Open Beta, and to coincide with the news, a brand new Vampire class known as the Summoner, is available in game today. Nosgoth is the team-based multiplayer game set in the Legacy of Kain universe.

“It’s great that everyone can now experience Nosgoth with the launch of Open Beta. We’re grateful for the continued support from the players, some of whom have been with the game since the very beginning of Closed Alpha over a year ago,” said Phil Rogers, CEO of Square Enix in the West. “We’ll continue to add new content and features to the game and with the help of the community we’ll keep improving what Nosgoth has to offer.”

NEW – Summoner class
The Summoners of Clan Melchahim have supernatural projectile-absorbing shields, large and long range sorcerous barrage attacks, and an ability to summon and command ghouls called from the underworld – the Summoner class offers a unique and different gameplay experience to existing Vampire classes in Nosgoth.

(* one million downloads of Nosgoth refers to the number of lifetime downloads of the game)

For more information on Nosgoth, please visit the official Nosgoth Blog: http://www.nosgoth.com/blog

Blade: The Age of Blood – iOS Australian Soft-Release Announced

Age of Blood

Four Thirty Three Inc., (4:33 Creative Lab) announced the soft-launch of Blade: The Age of Blood on Australian App Store. Developed by ActionSquare, this epic action RPG generated more than 5 million downloads and was the first ever mobile game to win grand prize of Korea Game Awards in 2014.

There are three different modes including Dungeon, Arena and PvP that provide single and real-time multiplayer gameplay. Blade: The Age of Blood is powered by Unreal Engine to display visually realistic and immaculate graphics which captivates dynamic sword slashes and lethal magic spells. Equipment and enhancement of legendary gear and accessories, combined with an active skill tree incorporates traditional RPG elements into this action blockbuster.

“We are excited to soft-launch in Australia,” stated Tae Hwan So, CEO of 4:33 Creative Lab. “Australia is a key market that we’d like to propel our most successful title prior to the global release, and we’re certain to captivate the hearts of many RPG fans around the world.”

Blade: The Age of Blood is now available for free on the Australian Apple App store at https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/blade-the-age-of-blood/id890337220?mt=8 and players are invited to join our social community for upcoming details.

Wildstar: Quick Look at the Protogames Initiative

By Michael Sagoe (mikedot)

A brand, spanking new update has just arrived for NCSoft and Carbine Studio’s fantasy & sci-fi themed MMORPG, Wildstar. This new update which they’re calling the “Protogames Initiative” features the capitalist-loving green pickle men of Protostar as they set out to improve the planet of Nexus in the only way they know how: Commercial Promotions, Advertising and Forceful Marketing!

This update also includes a hefty amount of new content and features, some of which have been needed for this game for quite a long time. I was given a quick preview for all this new content, as well as had a few questions answered to go with it.

The first bit of content they showed off was one of the new shiphand missions (mini-dungeons) called “It Came from Fragment Zero!” which players can access early on in the game from LV6.  This new instance takes players on a wild journey through a skeech-infested space site, currently being controlled by an augmented and crazy Pell warrior. Just like with all other shiphand missions, players can either tackle these mini-dungeons by themselves or with up to four other friends.

ProtoGames

Along with a new shiphand mission, the Protogames Initiative also marks the arrival of veteran shiphand missions that can be enjoyed by elder game players. These instances allow fresh LV50 or casual players to gear up and prepare themselves for upcoming Adventure instances and let veteran players earn some extra elder gems, decor items and more. Pretty much there is always a reason for players to come back for more. Like with regular shiphand missions, these can be done solo or with up to four other players.

ProtoGames

The next bit of content that they showed off was the new Protogames Academy, a LV10 tutorial dungeon that teaches players how to handle themselves and work together as a group in order to tackle the more difficult dungeons that lie ahead, such as Stormtalon and Kel Voreth. The Protogames Academy will teach players how to destroy sets of interrupt armor, earn “Moment of Opportunity (“MoO”) damage by stunning or knocking down enemies, deal with all kinds of crowd control attacks, learn to dodge environmental hazards and so much more. This is just another feature that Wildstar desperately needed for a long time, as it will make new players more confident in their ability to take on Wildstar’s challenging content rather than just raging quitting after the first wipe in Stormtalon.

ProtoGames

The last bit of content on preview was their newest dungeon called “The Ultimate Protogames,” which can only be described as some kind of Japanese game show from hell… IN SPACE. The main goal of this dungeon is to play through six of eleven different rooms in this dungeon, along with several mini-challenges that will increase your group’s overall score. The higher the score your group has by the end of the dungeon, the better chance players will have to achieve bronze, silver and goal level rewards.

ProtoGames

The development team mentions here that they’ve made a handful of changes to the way players will progress through dungeon content, as they now have a better idea of how to handle content development better than before through player feedback and metrics. Previously, a lot of dungeon ideas that sounded good on paper did not translate well once the active playerbase got a hold of it, suggesting that many concepts weren’t as straightforward, fleshed out or instantly understandable as they should be. But now that the game has been out for quite some time, players can expect future updates to be tuned a lot better than before.

ProtoGames

It was also mentioned that the new Ultimate Protogames dungeon will be the most difficult dungeon in Wildstar to date, dethroning Skullcano as the most difficult dungeon available. It makes sense then that the Ultimate Protogames will have the best-in-slot dungeon gear available (before raiding gear, of course), encouraging players to bring their A-game to the table.

ProtoGames

Some of the challenges that players will have to engage in for the Ultimate Protogames will border between silly and insane: One minute, you’ll be riding around on giant bird mounts while trying to eat, slash and smash as many critters as possible, while in the next instance you’ll be fighting off marauder pirates while riding on top of a spaceship that’s caught in hyperspace, and then in the next instance, you’ll be dodging lasers and jumping over giant beer kegs in order to reach a huge boss that just HAPPENS to be a giant ProtoStar brand vending machine.

ProtoGames

With up to six out of eleven different challenge rooms and several bosses to deal with, the Ultimate Protogames dungeon will contain a hefty amount of replay value while ensuring players will never go through the same run twice in a row.

While this new update brings in a lot of new content, it also brings a lot of Quality-of-Life changes to the game, such as an improved leveling pacing from LV3 to LV42, new customization options for housing, an option to change your character’s physical appearance via an in-game barber shop, as well as changes to how the group finder works, CC changes, class changes, weekly quests and so many other changes that I couldn’t possibly list them all here. It’s quite clear that Carbine has been taking in a lot of player feedback to heart and have been implementing many of those suggestions straight into this next update. This is their ultimate love letter patch to match their “The Devs are Listening” motto.

ProtoGames

While all this new content and changes are great, there’s still one major issue with the game that needs to be dealt with, which is the lacking playerbase, so it was mentioned near the end of the presentation that they are planning to have some kind of “Welcome back” program for Wildstar soon after their next update is released. Personally, I would like to see the inclusion of open free trials for the game, as well as a free weekend event for new and old players to enjoy the game without any restrictions (not to mention that a free weekend event would be the perfect time for returning players to stock on CREDD, allowing them to play the game for free instead of purchasing a subscription.)

Overall, the new Protogames Initiative seems be Carbine’s biggest and best update for Wildstar yet. For those that haven’t touched Wildstar in a while or have been on the fence about trying the game at all, I would easily say  that NOW is the time to jump in.

ProtoGames

Want to learn more about Wildstar in vivid detail? If so, then be sure to stick around this month as Mikedot will be giving his long awaited review on the game!