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KoTOR MMO confirmed by EA Boss!

July 18, 2008 | 5 Comments

In an interview with Portfolio.com, John Riccitiello of Electronic Arts, “may” have spilled the beans on the new Bioware MMO being published by EA as Knights of the Old Republic. The article quotes Riccitiello as saying:

We’ve got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development,” said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. “And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about — in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it.”

Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? “Yes,” he said.

[Source]

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World of Starcraft still a possibility

July 5, 2008 | 0 Comments

The Blizzard World Wide Invitational 2008 is over and as we all know Diablo 3 was announced. Although, slightly disappointing for those of us who had hoped to hear an announcement about the secret MMO project on which Blizzards “Team 3” has been working for a while now. But there were indeed tiny bits of information. You only had to listen carefully:

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  • Rob Pardo, Executive Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard: He confirms in an interview at the WWI in Paris, that Diablo 3 isn’t the secret MMO: “..Diablo 3 isn’t an MMO,” Pardo says, “So we have another development team.” (Editor’s Note: that should be Team 3)
  • Paul Sams, Blizzard’s Chief Operating Officer: Confirmed in an interview with Gamasutra that no new IPs are coming soon. “Are we ever going to release a new [franchise]?” Sams says, “I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don’t know when that day will be quite yet.”

So let’s recap the current situation with Blizzards major franchises keeping in mind that no new Blizzard IP is to be expected anytime soon:

  • World of Warcraft: the game is still doing well and Blizzard has projected the lifespan for WoW to be approximately 10 years. That would put a sequel quite far away.
  • Diablo: The non MMO successor has just been announced. But even IF Blizzard had a Diablo MMO in the works it would probably cannibalize on the WoW subscriber base due to the relatively similar background.
  • Starcraft: Starcraft 2 has been announced on last year’s WWI and similar to Diablo 3, the title has strong multiplayer capabilities but is definitely not an MMO. The difference is that unlike with a Diablo MMO, a Starcraft MMO would not interfere with the WoW subscribers but instead would open a MMO market for Blizzard without any real competition except maybe for Anarchy Online.

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Ex-Lucasarts Employee claims BioWare MMO is Kotor3

June 8, 2008 | 1 Comment

According to some recently laid-off Lucasarts Employee(s), BioWare’s top-secret MMO project is KotOR 3:

“We’ve continued to receive e-mails throughout the day from folks who it seems are now formerly in the employ of Lucasarts, telling us this and that about the circumstances behind their departure from the company …  Some of the titles they report Lucasarts apparently have in this stacked pipeline, whether as publisher or developer, include:

- KOTOR 3 (They say it’s an MMO: most likely a joint project between Lucasarts and BioWare)”

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The Secret World inspired by movie The Ring

January 30, 2008 | 0 Comments

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In an interview with the PC Zone magazine, Funcom reveals that it’s super secret mystery shrouded MMO Project The Secret World, was in part inspired by the classic Japanese horror movie The Ring.

Funcom product manager Erling Ellingson explains: “The setting for The Secret World is actually our own world… But there is something out there, another world beyond our own”. Further down he reveils: “We’re putting a lot of effort into making huge, believable environments … you will actually be exploring vast cities such as London and New York. This creates some really exciting opportunities for us as a developer, to actually set a massive online game in real-world cities.”

Ok Funcom you got me hooked! More details please. Kthxbai.

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More Rumors pointing to Starcraft Online

January 29, 2008 | 0 Comments

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An article published at TradingMarkets.com points to the chinese Caijing Magazine that claims that an “industry insider” was quoted as saying that China’s leading online game operator Netease.com will be responsible for Blizzard’s next big MMO project *drumroll* Starcraft Online.

Netease CEO Ding Lei didn’t confirm the market saying, adding that the company is observing many online games and has not signed any formal license contract.
On an industry meeting earlier this month, Ding disclosed that Netease will strive to provide more game products by being licensed foreign games and co-developing games with foreign partners.

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Jumpgate Evolution gets publisher

January 29, 2008 | 0 Comments

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In a press release issued today, Codemasters announced that the company will publish Jumpgate Evolution, a space combat MMORPG currently in development by NetDevil Ltd., in Europe and North America. The announcement does not reveal a release date other than “late 2008″ which confirms that the game is scheduled to ship in 2008 but nothing more.

29th January (2pm GMT) - Codemasters Online have today unveiled their next generation MMORPG set for release in 2008, Jumpgate Evolution. Developed by the US-based experienced MMOG developer NetDevil, Jumpgate Evolution is a space-based MMO incorporating all-new action style gameplay like never seen before in any previous online game.

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New Interview with Hermann Peterscheck

January 28, 2008 | 0 Comments

The Escapist recently interviewed Hermann Peterscheck, Lead Producer of Jumpgate Evolution. In interview Herman talks about his job as producer, why Jumpgate Evolution turned out as sequel rather than an expansion and how the game has evolved over time.

In late 2001 NetDevil, a small independent developer, released Jumpgate: The Reconstruction, a unique take on a then young MMOG market. The game, which would earn a devout if relatively small following, centered on intense space combat in a massively multiplayer setting, though it would remain overshadowed by larger projects with bigger budgets. Now, NetDevil is looking to reinvent its own niche with a sequel to Jumpgate called Jumpgate: Evolution, a larger and more organized effort to finally make the property both a cult and bona fide hit. We sat down with Hermann Peterscheck, Lead Producer of Jumpgate: Evolution to find out how NetDevil is planning to elevate their game to the next level.

Via TentonHammer.

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BioWare conducting market research on MMO

January 26, 2008 | 0 Comments

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Rumor has it, that BioWare is secretly preparing to conduct an extensive market research study on their upcoming MMO. Supposedly, the studio is currently looking for volunteers within certain internal channels that meet the following criteria:

  • Aren’t affiliated in any way with the fields of advertising, journalism (d’oh!), public relations, video game hardware or software developers, video or computer game retail.
  • Can’t have participated in more than 3 paid focus groups in the last 6 months
  • Must own at least one video game console or handheld system, but no more than four.
  • Must play games on the PC, but have no experience with MMOs
  • Must own 2 or more video games
  • Must have purchased 1-5 games in the last year
  • Must play between 1-9 hours a week

Unfortunately this information still does not provides us with any clues as to what the secret MMO project is all about, so we have to continue speculate if the project is the rumored KotOR based Star Wars MMO or something entirely different. Want to hear my personal opinion? I say its Star Wars and here’s why.

Via Massively.

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Age of Conan Instance Run Video

January 25, 2008 | 0 Comments

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Ben Avery of the Guild “The Acolytes“, author of the excellent AoC Visual FAQ, was one of the lucky folks who were invited by Funcom to the recent AoC Community Event in Oslo, Norway. At the official Age of Conan Forums he has the following to say about this video:

Hiya, just a short video clip from the Community Event in Oslo, showing a little of the Sanctum of Burning Souls. I was playing for quite a long time with a group and remembered to pick the camera up at the same time (sometimes) hard to control with half a hand! … I played the Assassin and Jeff from Tentonhammer was also filming but not playing there really so expect some nice footage from them too. (longer) For me I couldn’t pull myself away … Bit at the end is the top floor view in Funcom Offices and 10 meters behind me is where they were working on the secret un-named mmo. (Editor’s Note: Maybe “The Secret World” ?)”

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WoW: Sunwell Loot?

January 25, 2008 | 0 Comments

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Mmo-champion posted an image showing some items they dugg out from the depth of the World of Warcraft Client Data files. The items in question are supposed to be related to the coming Patch 2.4, which will also introduce a new 25-Man Raid instance “Sunwell Plateau”. Be warned though. Although the folks at mmo-champion are 95% certain that these items are not fake, the items could still be changed or removed before the patch hits the live servers.

Summary:

  • Items seems to be ilvl 154~155
  • At least one of them is ilvl 164 (Apolyon, the Soul-render), we can assume it’s a loot from Kil’jaeden. I didn’t try to get the ilvl for all items, maybe there are more loots from KJ.
  • Even if they’re legit, these stats are probably from early beta servers and could be changed/removed once the 2.4 patch is released on PTR.
  • The feral staff is with the caster weapons, I know, I’m not redoing the screenshot just because of that. :/
  • Nothing is confirmed by Blizzard, trust it at your own risks.
  • (Bonus) It seems that the Arena Season 4 sets will be named “Brutal Gladiator”. This one is still fairly unconfirmed though.

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