Yearly Archives: 2015

Battlefield Hardline Joins the EA Access Vault

Battlefield Hardline Joins the EA Access Vault news header

It’s the real deal! Starting today, EA Access members can experience the strategy, speed and story of Battlefield™ Hardline as the game enters The Vault, only on Xbox One. Battlefield Hardline joins a growing collection of titles in The Vault, including Dragon Age: Inquisition, Battlefield 4, FIFA 15, and Need for Speed™ Rivals. Players simply download the game from EA Access and can play as much as they want.

Battlefield Hardline delivers the ultimate cops and criminals, blockbuster, action fantasy delivered through a world-class multiplayer experience that fans have come to love from the  Battlefield franchise and an all-new episodic single player campaign inspired by modern TV crime dramas.

To celebrate the addition of Battlefield Hardline to The Vault, EA Access members are invited to join the developers of the game from Visceral Games™ to experience the gritty streets of LA with them. From 12:01AM BST to 1:00AM BST on October 15, players can join Visceral in several game modes on Battlefield servers named “EA Access.”

EA Access members can experience the best of EA for just £3.99 a month. Members get unlimited play of every game in The Vault, a growing collection of more than a dozen great EA games including Battlefield 4, FIFA 15, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. They can also play upcoming EA games before they’re released, and get an exclusive 10% discount on all EA digital purchases on Xbox One. The Play First Trial of Need for Speed hits the streets on October 29, followed by Star War Battlefront on November 12.

Overwatch Beta Coming Soon

Overwatch Beta Coming Soon news header

Get ready for battle: Overwatch beta begins Tuesday, October 27 in the Americas region, with other regions to follow!

The Overwatch beta officially begins October 27, and Blizzard getting ready to invite their first batch of recruits for some field-testing!

The beta test will kick off on the 27th with Americas gameplay region, with Europe and Asia to follow. Read the mission briefing below to learn more about the plans for the beta, and don’t forget to sign up if you’re interested in helping shape the fight for the future.


We’re aiming to accomplish two primary goals with our public beta test: First, get tons of top-notch feedback on the gameplay—including balance, feel, and fun—to help us make Overwatch the best team-based shooter on the planet. Second, we want to hammer the heck out of our tech, including stress-testing our server infrastructure and making sure the game runs great on the widest variety of systems possible.

To accomplish this, we’re dividing our beta participants into two different groups, each with different mission objectives and deployment schedules. The Closed Beta group will form the core of our testing crew. In addition, we’ll be conducting a number of Beta Test Weekends with wider groups of players when it’s time to break out the big guns.

Closed Beta

The Closed Beta will be composed of a small number of testers who will have regular access to our public beta test. Our goal for the Closed Beta is 100% gameplay feedback, and we’ll be encouraging participants to discuss and dissect every hero, map, ability, and other aspect of the game on our upcoming beta forums.
In order to get the most meaningful and constructive feedback possible, the total number of players in the Closed Beta will be extremely limited—though we’ll be adding more people from time to time to make sure we have the right number of heroes actively engaged.

The first phase of the Closed Beta will deploy on October 27 in the Americas gameplay region, and players may be added gradually to start (with more being invited as new features are ready to test). During this time, we’ll continue to make preparations for our Europe and Asia gameplay regions—our goal is to have Europe come online next, with Asia following at a later date.
We’ll provide more details—including an FAQ—once the Closed Beta begins.

Beta Test Weekends

From time to time, we’ll also need to open up the floodgates and call upon an army to overwhelm our hardware. The goal: get as many heroes playing as we can, all helping us “stress test” our servers to ensure they can withstand the assault.

These larger-scale Beta Test Weekends will be brought online occasionally for a limited time, generally over a weekend, and will run concurrently with our ongoing Closed Beta test. Because Beta Test Weekends are primarily hardware- and tech-focused, the number of heroes, maps, and gameplay modes will be restricted—but feedback on everything will definitely be welcome.
Multiple different Beta Test Weekends will be assembled in various parts of the world. We have tons of would-be heroes signed up for the Overwatch beta, and we want to give as many as possible a chance to play during the testing period. The first Beta Test Weekend is currently slated for after BlizzCon—stay tuned for more information following the event.

A few more things: The Overwatch beta will be Windows-only, and you’ll need to have the Battle.net desktop app installed to play. If you’re selected to participate in either the Closed Beta or one of our Beta Test Weekends, you’ll receive an email with instructions shortly before you’re deployed. Read this article to make sure our transmissions won’t get filtered, and don’t forget to opt in if you haven’t already.

Webzen Celebrates 14th Anniversary of MU Online

Webzen Celebrates 14th Anniversary of MU Online news header

WEBZEN, a global developer and publisher of free-to-play games, today announced that the full-3D MMORPG MU Online has released its expansion roadmap for “Season XI”.

 

Celebrating MU Online’s 14th anniversary, WEBZEN today held a press conference named “MU:STORY and Next…” in Seoul, Korea.

 

MU Online is the first ever Full 3D online game in Korea. Since 2001, MU Online has been running for 14 years now, and in many countries, still have a significant number of registered players, with 8.5 million in Korea alone. A fantasy RPG that takes place on the legendary continent of MU, the game has grown in 14 years to incorporate not just the usual hack and slash events, raids and quests, it also boasts large castle siege events. It was the trailblazer in 3-D MMOs and added to that, it is very easy and simple to play and a strong community.

 

Moreover, MU Online has had a quite impressive history. Over the course of its life, over 30,000,000 characters have created on to MU Online for a combined total of over 5.4 billion hours (that’s over 620,000 years!) of play-time. Together WEBZEN has released and enjoyed 10 major updates, along with numerous smaller content patches, events and other milestones.

 

WEBZEN currently works together with local publishers in other countries such as China, Japan, Thailand, etc. to provide service in corresponding countries and also provides global service via its global game portal ‘WEBZEN.com’.

 

WEBZEN also works in partnership with FHL games for a distribution channel service of MU Online. MU Online is available in Spanish language through ‘KAYBO.com’, game portal service of FHL games. WEBZEN plans to expand the distribution channel service in order to add support for more languages.

 

Season XI will introduce a new map ‘Ferea’, including the most powerful boss monster, a new armour set ‘Dark Angle’ and new skills, and this upcoming expansion is currently scheduled for spring 2016 in the West.

 

ArenaNet and ESL to Launch ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League

ArenaNet and ESL to Launch ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League news header

ArenaNet™, publisher and developer of the acclaimed Guild Wars franchise, and ESL, the world’s largest esports company, today announced the ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League, an all-new tournament series offering $400,000 (USD) in cash prizes. The prize pool, which will be offered over the course of two seasons, is both the largest ever for Guild Wars 2 competitive play and represents one of the biggest cash prizes ever offered by ESL in Pro League competition. The tournament opens up elite competition to the widest group of Guild Wars 2 players ever by lowering age and region restrictions for eligibility.  It’s also open to new players who can now play the core Guild Wars 2 game for free. Guild Wars 2 Pro League kicks off in November with open qualifiers, with the first season slated to culminate in a Season Finals LAN event at ESL studios.

 

ArenaNet’s move to Pro League is part of the ongoing growth and evolution of Guild Wars 2 competitive play.  The game recently saw record numbers for players participating in PvP.  It’s part of a growth trend overall in the player community since ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, the game’s first expansion coming on October 23, and made the core Guild Wars 2 game available to play for free this past August.  The game’s elite competitions had already grown last year with the introduction of the Guild Wars 2 World Tournament Series (WTS), its first global competition where teams from North America, Europe and China vied for US$150,000 over the course of three tournaments held in Beijing, Boston and Cologne.

 

The ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League now replaces WTS as the game’s PvP championship, and it also marks the end of the weekly ESL Go4GuildWars2 Cups. Guild Wars 2 Pro League seasons will each lead up to a Season Finals LAN event to be held at one of ESL’s studios.  At the end of two seasons, ArenaNet will host a World Championship event.  Timing, prizing and location for the championship event will be announced during Guild Wars 2 Pro League seasons.

 

“We’re seeing massive growth in players joining Guild Wars 2 and competitive play is the fastest growing segment in the game,” said Colin Johanson, Game Director at ArenaNet. “Working with ESL to develop this tournament is a natural next step for us, inviting more players from this growing community to come take their shot at being elite.  Guild Wars 2 Pro League is the result of our vision to create a tournament system where the majority of our player community can participate and are given a clear path to improve their skills, form teams and qualify, giving them a real shot at fame, glory, and big cash prizes.”

 

Guild Wars 2 Pro League makes elite competition in Guild Wars 2 attainable for the great majority of players, using ESL’s guidelines to lower age restriction to anyone 16 years old and over, and broadening eligibility to all global regions.  ArenaNet has also developed systems within the game’s PvP mode designed to give players a path to pro competition.  In August, ArenaNet used the stage at its last WTS Championships in Cologne to announce the introduction of an in-game system called PvP Leagues coming with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. It’s a system intended to help beginning and up-and-coming players progress their skills, set goals and earn in-game rewards as they fight their way into higher ranked divisions. The system also introduces leaderboards for guild teams as part of a Guild Challenger League, which will become a feeder system into the new Pro League. At the end of each Pro League season, the bottom ranking teams will have to face off against the top teams from the Guild Challenger League in the Challenger Cup, risking possible removal from competition. The top teams per region from the Challenger Cup will then be promoted into the next season of Pro League.

 

“ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 recently enjoyed record numbers for players participating in PvP competition, and we are confident that the ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League will help further foster this growth,” said Sebastian Weishaar, Senior VP of International Business at ESL. “At ESL, we’re very excited for what lies in store for the ever-evolving game and look forward to enjoying its high-level competition both online and in our Burbank and Cologne studios.”

 

Once teams are in the ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League, eight teams from each region will compete for a combined prize pool of US$400,000 over the course of two seven week seasons. The first season kicks off with qualifiers in mid-November, as an open tournament that will determine four of the eight teams who will compete in the ESL Pro League.  The other four teams will include a mix of World Tournament Series Finalists and the highest ranking teams in the final round of the October Go4GuildWars2 Cups, which will continue to run as weekend tournaments until October 25. The season will ultimately lead up to a Season Finals LAN event at ESL studios featuring the top four teams. All teams who make it to the finals are guaranteed winnings from the US$200,000 prize pool for that season.

 

For details on the ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League including official rules and information on eligibility, please visit: http://pro.eslgaming.com/gw2/proleague/news/.

Battle Crime in the new Skyforge Law and Order Event

Battle Crime in the new Skyforge Law and Order Event news header

Developers Allods Team and Obsidian Entertainment and publisher My.com are launching the all-new “Law and Order” event in the sci-fi fantasy MMORPG Skyforge which pits player against the criminals of the in-game world. Players can begin their hunt for outlaws in the Skyforge “Law and Order” event beginning today, October 14, at 12pm Pacific Time through until October 28.

For too long criminals and gangsters have preyed on the citizens of Aelion. Any player that has reached 2050 Prestige and has their own order can join the event! Players will send out their faithful followers to patrol the streets and catch lawbreakers.

As a living symbol of what true courage looks like, the bravest of the brave will receive the Glider Patrol mount and the exclusive Guard Costume. Additional rewards for keeping the peace include:

  • Combat Consumables
  • Ammo and Supplies
  • Holy Texts
  • Victor’s Medals (can be exchanged for Optimizers)
  • Spark Replicators
  • Special Enhancement Stones for equipment,
  • Guard licenses,
  • Particles of Mastery (deducted from the cap),
  • Extra point of progress on the scale for receiving guaranteed prizes.

There are even more prizes for players that take up the challenge to be a symbol of justice in the Law and Order event. For more information and the rules of participation, visit the official Skyforge website.

KOG To Bring HeroWarZ to North America

KOG To Bring HeroWarZ to North America news header

KOG Games (CEO Eugene Kim), a leading publisher of popular free-to-play action MMORPG’s, and A.Storm (CEO Kim Yoon Jong), a leading Korean game developer, announced today that the two companies have signed a service contract to bring the popular MMORPG HeroWarz to every gamer in the west.

With an isometric view, HeroWarz is a fast paced, engaging online PC action MMO game that allows players to choose from many different playable characters, each with unique abilities and skills, and will be supported with constant content development. The game launched in September of last year in Korea and has been one of the most popular MMORPG’s there.

“We have been in talks to sign this deal to bring HeroWarz to North America and the western market for some time and we are very excited that it is finally a reality,” said Eugene Kim, CEO of KOG Games.  “The game has been a huge success in Korea, hitting the top 10 at one point.  We know that the game will really appeal to the Western market and we can’t wait to share more information and details later this year.”

Founded in 2010 and based in Irvine, California, KOG Games combines extensive game development and publishing expertise to bring players award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online games including Elsword.

Both A.Storm and KOG Games are companies known for their focus on providing deep and engaging action gaming experiences. A.Storm is a new developer headed by industry veteran and former Neople producer Kim Yoon Jong who is known for developing Dungeon Fighter Online and Cyphers, while KOG Games specializes in providing action games such Elsword and the award winning Grand Chase.

Kim Yoon Jong, a world renowned game developer and CEO of A.Storm states “Based on the success of Elsword in North America, we are truly excited to be servicing HeroWarz with KOG Games. Together with KOG Games, we plan to bring fun and excitement to players in the west and beyond through our dynamic, addictively fun action game.”

HeroWarz will join KOG Games’ other leading title, Elsword, as part of the KOG Games community in early 2016. More information and details about the western launch of HeroWarz will be revealed later this Fall.