KOG Games and Perfect World Entertainment Inc., both leading publishers of widely-acclaimed free-to-play MMORPGs, announced today a partnership to bring the popular side-scrolling fighter, Elsword to Arc. Arc players can now download and play Elsword for free at http://www.arcgames.com/ and join the powerhouse anime-inspired fighting game community. KOG Games and Perfect World are hosting a Twitch livestream about the game today at 2:00 PM PST/5PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/perfectworld_community

“We are excited to bring Elsword to Arc as it continues our efforts to deliver a variety of experiences for our players,” said Mark Hill, senior manager of platform at Perfect World Entertainment. “Our team is committed to bringing quality online entertainment to our players, and we look forward to welcoming such a strong game and community to our platform.”

“With over 1 million players enjoying the game, Elsword is one of the most successful free-to-play action MMO games available today,” said Eugene Kim, CEO of KOG Games. “Elsword will bring more variety to Arc –where there aren’t any side-scrolling anime fighters. We look forward to welcoming the Arc players to our vibrant community.”

In Elsword, gamers can choose from nine specialized and customizable characters as they explore an immersive world and battle rivals to complete dynamic quests. As players progress through the game, they can evolve their fighting styles by upgrading to new job classes, learning deadly new abilities and mastering combo attacks. With intuitive and straightforward controls, Elsword offers players of all skill levels the ability to experience the thrill of victory in combat either on solo missions or cooperatively in a party of up to four players. For those who welcome a challenge, Elsword also delivers action-packed PvP combat.

To learn more about Elsword please visit www.elsword.com

Firefly Studios today released an ambitious new expansion for Stronghold Kingdoms — Stronghold Kingdoms: Rise of The Wolf, available now for free on PC and Mac. Rise of The Wolf recreates the savage world of the original Stronghold in an MMO environment, featuring new PvE gameplay in a world under siege from series antagonist The Wolf:

“The idea with Rise of The Wolf is to invert the gameplay of Stronghold Kingdoms. We’re turning Kingdoms’ hardcore player-versus-player gameplay on its head and challenging people to work together, to defeat a common enemy”, said Simon Bradbury, Creative Director at Firefly Studios. “While you can still enjoy a more pure PvP experience on the regular game worlds, we developed Rise of The Wolf because it offers a new way to play our MMO for those who enjoy or indeed prefer PvE. I can’t wait to see what tactics players use to take down The Wolf, The Snake, The Pig and The Rat!”

Available now on PC and Mac, Rise of The Wolf is a special game mode featuring classic Stronghold characters, improved AI and new PvE (player-versus-environment) gameplay. After being assigned a starting location on a medieval map of the British Isles, players are forced to hold back an AI invasion from The Wolf, The Snake, The Pig and The Rat. The Wolf has returned to take vengeance against the people of Britain, forcing players to take back villages by engaging enemy troops and winning votes in the political arena to gain control of vital land. These new AI opponents have similar abilities to regular players, allowing them to raze and capture player villagers, vote for themselves in elections, repair castles, scout resources and more.

Players can take revenge against The Wolf and bring a halt to his invasion of medieval England by playing Stronghold Kingdoms: Rise of The Wolf now for free: www.strongholdkingdoms.com

Today Dark Day Interactive today are pleased to announce Once Bitten, Twice Dead, a horror survival title, is now on Steam Greenlight and will be released on PC and the Nintendo Wii U.

A heady mix of action adventure, horror and survival, Once Bitten, Twice Dead will land players in the middle of a virus pandemic that’s mutated living things into undead munchers.

Humanity have holed themselves up in camps after the ‘falling’ – a catastrophic event that spawned the munchers, survivors only venture out for precious building materials, guns and ammo, and, of course, food and water.  Do you have what it takes to lead a team to survive? Or are you a lone wolf, looking after number 1?

Once Bitten, Twice Dead gives you the freedom, to play how you want to play.
Game features

• True open world environment
• Venture alone or in a multiplayer team – remember, there’s strength in numbers
• Take control of vehicles to explore the huge game environment
• Harvest, craft, cook and survive
• Random boss encounters
• Competitive arenas and death match modes
• Outbreak mode, where YOU play as the infected

For more info, visit http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=379270278

Jagex Games Studio is excited to announce that Block N Load, the online multiplayer shooter, will launch for PC on Steam on 30^th April 2015. The game, which has been in phase one beta testing since December 2014, features a unique and innovative blend of intelligent and creative tactics played out across ever-evolving battlefields.

In preparation for launch, Block N Load’s beta will transition on Monday 9^th March from its initial ‘always-on’ phase to weekend stress and balance tests that will run up to launch. This change over will allow the development team to focus on fine-tuning the play experience in preparation of taking the game live. Players looking for a flurry of 24/7 Block N Load action before the next beta phase begins, should log in and take advantage now!

“We’re totally thrilled to confirm the 30^th April launch date for Block N Load. The game has had a fantastically productive first beta phase since we opened access last December, and we’re hugely grateful to all of the beta players for their enthusiasm and feedback,” said David Solari, vice president of Block N Load.

“During the past few months, we’ve iterated, improved, and introduced new features much of it driven directly by player feedback.  We are now almost ready to unleash our block-tacular game,” Solari continued. “But, before that, we’ll be holding a series of beta weekends to fine-tune all aspects of the game. As such, we’ll be asking all of our players to jump in and ensure Block N Load is the best it can be ahead of its full launch on Steam.”

Block N Load is available to pre-order now. In addition to access to the final beta window, the Fully Loaded Edition also includes the ‘Skins for the Win’ downloadable content, plus a digital copy of Ace of Spades: Battle Builder.

For further information on Block N Load, visit the game’s official website.

BANDAI NAMCO Games America Inc. and DeviantArt today announced the grand prize winners of their worldwide search for new card designs to be featured in the wildly popular mobile collectible card battler, Outcast Odyssey.

The Outcast Odyssey Card Master Challenge tapped into DeviantArt’s global community of independent artists, many of whom have already produced incredible portfolios incorporating fantastical elements from their favorite games and more. Participants were asked to create original artwork depicting one of three classes in the game – Steampunk Warrior, Witch/Warlock or Dragon/Monster. Over 2,500 submissions from around the world were considered. From there, 25 semi-finalists were judged by a panel that included Joe Riego, Mobile Games Producer at BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Jonathan Durr, Senior Designer at Magic Pixel Games, and Outcast Odyssey artist and DeviantArt member Warren Louw.

“We knew the game was received well, but to see so much passion and enthusiasm from our fans across the globe really touched us,” said Joe Riego. “I wish we could feature every design submitted – perhaps we’ll have to run another contest in the future!”

The full list of grand prize winners can be viewed online at http://www.deviantart.com/outcastodysseywinners. They are:

Entry: Say Tchiiiiz !!!!
DA Name: DoganOztel
Name: Dogan Oztel
Country: France

Entry: Witch
DA Name: NikitaBolyakov
Name: Nick Bolyakov
Country: Ukraine

Entry: lady snake
DA Name: Igor-Grechany-Ostrov
Name: Igor Grechany
Country: Russia

For more information on BANDAI NAMCO Games’ titles, please visit http://www.bandainamcogames.com.

GDC this year is bursting with great news for independent developers especially. One of the most exciting is probably Unity Technologies announcing Unity 5 – the next generation of a well-known engine, bringing a whole bunch of new features. Wastelands Interactive developers decided to use this opportunity and move their 4X turn-based strategy game – Worlds of Magic, to a whole new level. The game will be launched on Unity 5 on March 19^th this year.

Watch the new gameplay trailer video HERE. You can also buy the PC version of the game now via Steam Early Access visiting Worlds of Magic product page HERE or support developers directly and buy the game from their store HERE.

Worlds of Magic will be the first 4X game of such a scale released on Unity 5 and Wastelands Interactive developers are most excited about the features the new edition of the engine brought to the table.

The new generation of Unity 3D gives us more control over the creation of out game. With the new, just released Unity 5.0 we will be able to greatly increase the stability and overall performance of Worlds of Magic. The new audio mixer will make the game sound better. We will also be able to illuminate the objects in many more ways and make all the materials look more realistic, which will lead to the whole game looking way better visually. Thus new Unity 5.0 is not only a much better tool for developers, making our jobs more efficient, but what is most important, this will give players a much more stable, smoother running, better looking and sounding games. We are very happy that such a large project as Worlds of Magic  will be released in just two weeks after making Unity 5.0 available for developers. – said Leszek Lisowski, Wastelands Interactive CEO.

Worlds of Magic, unlike many other games out there, has not only went through Kickstarter campaign successfully and appeared on Steam Early Access, but will also be published across platforms including launching on PC, Mac, Linux on March 19^th and on PS4 in Q3 this year.

For more info, visit  http://myworldsofmagic.com/

ArenaNet™, publisher and developer of the acclaimed Guild Wars franchise, today announced activities at PAX East that are sure to fire up Guild Wars 2 fans, whether they’re braving the cold in Boston or catching the show from afar. The studio is using PAX East to premiere the first playable demo of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, the upcoming expansion to Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet is also holding the Guild Wars 2 World Tournament Series (WTS) Finals at the show in partnership with ESL.  PvP teams from North America, Europe and China who qualified through multiple online tournaments will come face-to-face on the show floor on Saturday, March 7, as they vie for $50,000 in cash prizes and the title of Guild Wars 2 global PvP champions.

ArenaNet will be at PAX East booth #5116 March 6-8 in Boston. The WTS Finals take place at the ESL Arena on the show floor on March 7. The official Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel will be streaming all three days during show hours and will provide full coverage of the WTS Finals on Saturday.

ArenaNet is bringing the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns demo to fans at PAX East after announcing it as the first expansion to Guild Wars 2 in January at PAX South.  Fans should line up early at ArenaNet’s booth #5116 to get their hands on two different demos. There is a PvE demo that takes players on the first steps of the journey into the new Heart of Maguuma jungle, where they can experience the revenant, the entirely new playable profession coming with the expansion. They can also get a glimpse of the Mastery system, ArenaNet’s new approach to introducing endgame progression in an MMO. There is also a PvP demo of the all-new Stronghold game mode. Stronghold introduces new strategy and role-play into PvP with a mode where teams become either pirates or knights who must infiltrate and defend ground to kill the enemy lord. In addition to the opportunity to get hands-on with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, ArenaNet will have a stage at its booth running developer-hosted demos, guest play sessions with popular online Guild Wars 2 streamers and trivia contests with prizes.

The WTS Finals at PAX East mark the North American leg of Guild Wars 2’s global PvP championships.  In December 2014, ArenaNet crowned the first ever WTS champs, North America’s Abjured, at a tournament held in Beijing. Now, the Abjured must fight to retain their title as they collide with new foes in Boston. The winners will take their lion’s share of the $50,000 cash prize and be among the first to have their names engraved on the official WTS championship trophy being unveiled during closing ceremonies.  The WTS Finals takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST (15:00-23:00 UTC) on March 7, at the ESL Arena on the PAX East show floor and streamed live on Twitch.

Joining ArenaNet at PAX East are popular Twitch streamers Shinryuku_ku, DocGotGame, Donna Berry and Reyana ATac. They will be part of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns guest play sessions at ArenaNet’s booth, and streamed online at Twitch, at the following times:

Friday, March 6 – PvE Demo

• 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (18:00 UTC) with Shinryuku_ku
• 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (20:00 UTC) with DocGotGame
• 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (21:00 UTC) with Donna Berry
• 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (22:00 UTC) with Reyana ATac

Sunday, March 8 – PvP Stronghold

• ·         11:30 a.m. Eastern Time (15:30 UTC) with Shinryuku_ku
• ·         1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (17:00 UTC) with Donna Berry
• ·         3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (19:00 UTC) with DocGotGame

To follow all of the latest updates on Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and learn more about Guild Wars 2, please visit www.guildwars2.com.

Today InnoGames has introduced a new feature to its classic strategy MMO Tribal Wars. The new game component, named the “Mentoring System” aims to help new players rapidly learn and assimilate into competitive play by assigning a veteran of the game to them. Through quests and personal guidance, they help them get the important first steps right. The company has also released an accompanying video explaining the process.

Through this brand-new system potential mentors and apprentices are determined and matched based on their achievements. This means experienced players can coach novices by assigning tasks in the form of quests. While this helps beginners, mentors also benefit by being recognized as valuable members of the community. A mentor rating is included into this element to guarantee mutual satisfaction. Qualifying and interested members can access the Mentoring System via their profile menu.