Another game day for Amazon. Today the company is launching Game Connect, a new platform for cloud gaming that will see the company add a new selection of massively multiplayer online and free games to its catalog. It is also opening the Game Connect platform to developers for them to integrate their games with Amazon’s existing game accounts. Launch titles include Battlestar Galactica, World of… → Read More
Parallel Universe is an Israeli technology company that promises video game companies the capability to make Matrix-style games through parallel processing, allowing millions of objects to be tracked in real-time.
Founder Ron Pressler is a software engineer who has been developing simulated environments for the Israeli Air Force. He is part of this summer’s Y Combinator class. Spacebase, the… → Read More
DC Universe Online, the first “big” non-World of Warcraft MMO release of the year (the other being Star Wars: The Old Republic), has done quite well for Sony. It’s done so well, in fact, that Sony has had a hard time keeping it on store shelves. So says a tweet from Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley. → Read More
Blizzard has confirmed its next-generation MMO. It’s currently called, or at least referred to as, Titan, and it was first noticed in the leaked roadmap that surfaced a few days ago. The company isn’t too happy that the project’s existence leaked (a Blizzard China manager resigned in wake of the leak), and that it’s currently working on recruiting “the best talent in the industry” to help work… → Read More
We’re, what, three weeks away from the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm? Yes… I have noticed the sun shining brighter, the air tasting sweeter of late. Right on cue, then, is the new the new MMO keyset for SteelSeires’ Shift keyboard. → Read More
Comic-Con visited New York at the weekend, and I was there. I agree with what Fez Whatley said on Ron and Fez earlier today: the show was fun, but you can definitely tell that New York Comic-Con is the B show to San Diego’s A show. That’s not all bad, as the New York show doesn’t feel as commercial as the San Diego one; there are no lame actors trying to attach themselves to geek culture for… → Read More
Picked up your copy of Final Fantasy XIV yet? (You’ll recall that the collector’s edition was released on the 22nd, with the standard edition hitting stores on the 30th.) Any interest in this, thing, a Final Fantasy XIV-branded controller? → Read More
So… there’s going to be a Michael Jackson MMO. How many of you just screamed, “WTF?” → Read More
September 10, 2010. That’s when you’ll be able to play the newly relaunched, and, most importantly, free to play, Lord of the Rings Online. That’s a pretty big deal, yes. → Read More
Online gamers received quite the scare last week when Blizzard announced it would require message board posters to use their real names. This was to be done in order to fight the scourge of online anonymity. The Internet freaked out, of course, so much so that Blizzard eventually changed its mind. I mention this up to not open old wounds, but to take the time to remind you of this: there are other… → Read More
Any of y’all beat BioShock 2? Me neither. Played it for, eh, 20 minutes, then moved onto Napoleon: Total War. Don’t worry, though: the game is on my “to do” list. Also on my “to-do” list: whinge about an MMO based on BioShock. → Read More
The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism doesn’t want the country’s youth becoming addicted to video games, particularly MMOs, so it’s imposing a ban of sorts. Starting in the second half of this year, underage gamers will find their Internet connections disabled for six hours every night, either from midnight to 6am, 1am to 7am, or 2am to 8am. The idea is to ween kids off these… → Read More
Do you want to participate in the LEGO Universe beta? You may be able to! Here’s the sign-up site, but there’s no guarantees you’ll be selected. LEGO Universe? It’s a LEGO-themed MMO. Could be fun, yeah. It’ll be released for the PC later this year if all goes according to plan. → Read More
I’d be lying if I claimed to know anything about Star Trek Online, but I do know that it went into open beta today. That’s good news, yes? → Read More
MMO players have another mouse from which to choose, this time from Razer. It’s called the Naga, and it’s designed to “enhance your ability to control your character.” No harm in that. → Read More
How I missed this, I have no idea. (Actually, I was at SXSW, that’s how I missed it.) Eurogamer, which is always good for a “think piece” or two, is running an exposé on gold farming, a term used to describe the buying and selling of in-game currencies (and items) in games like World of Warcraft. It’s a four-parter, and part two was just published today. Headline there: there are… → Read More
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft now has 11.5 million subscribers. Assuming each subscriber pays $15 per month, that’s approximately $172.5 million per month in raw revenue. That’s quite a bit of coin. → Read More
Flickr’d There’s a group of developers who are trying to resurrect the old, fun version Star Wars Galaxies with the Star Wars Galaxies PreCU Emulation Project. The “CU” stands for Combat Upgrade, a term Sony Online Entertainment, the game’s harebrained developers, concocted to described the game-breaking changes it made to the combat engine. Longtime players of Galaxies, my… → Read More
Wow. That’s pretty much the only word that can describe Tom Armitage’s “If Games Ran The World.” Its thesis is that, in the next few years, people who grew up playing video games will become world leaders. People who have played all the big games from every generation—Pac-Man, the first EA Sports games, Resident Evil, MMOs, fighting games, etc. Real gamers. Then point, then… → Read More
Quick note, amigos. The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, the MMO’s first expansion pack, comes out today. We already discussed some of the game’s finer points, so get in while you can. Unless, of course, you’re currently in the hospital because you’ve overdosed on too much Death Knighting. → Read More
Oh this made me laugh. The developers behind the upcoming Lego-themed MMO, Lego Universe, want to make the game as authentic as possible. Fair enough, sure. But how do they ensure that? One method: by using a team of more than 50 die hard Lego experts who essentially function as hired consultants. “More this, less that.” Et cetera. I never was a Lego fan growing up (more of a TMNT kid, to be… → Read More
Long story short: some kid got tired of playing Final Fantasy XI, and tried to cancel his account. His parents couldn’t cancel from the game’s Web site, and had to—gasp!—call the number found on the credit card statement. The kid’s dad is a bigwig in his state (Illinois), who got his legislator friend to help pass a law stating that online service providers must… → Read More
The San Diego Comic Book Convention is going on right now, and one of the bigger games that’s debuting there is DC Universe Online, an action MMO developed by Sony Online Entertainment, the same group that brought us the ultimately underwhelming Star Wars Galaxies. I read a rather lengthy preview of the game in this month’s Edge magazine, and SOE hired some comic book expert to make… → Read More
Well, that’s kind of an inflammatory headline. But it’s semi-true. The Korean Times has deemed Richard Garriot’s futuristic MMO Tabula Rasa a disaster after its disappointing sales devalued developer NCsoft and cost them millions. A spokesperson for the development team downplayed both the disappointment and the downsizing, noting that MMO staffs normally decline after release… → Read More
Ubisoft recently acquired the rights to author Tom Clancy’s name and they’re going forward with an MMO. It’s unclear how much Ubi was paying in royalties, but the acquisition is estimated at EUR 60 million. Ubisoft expects they’ll be saving themselves EUR 5 million a year with the rights. President of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot had this to say, “Having no fees, it’s going to give… → Read More
http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x4j47t So… Dragon Ball… that was popular (and relevant!), what, 10, 12 years ago? I guess all the more reason to create an MMO based on it, then, which is what Bandai is doing in Korea. I watched the video and didn’t understand it. I guess the game, Dragon Ball Online is set somewhere between the Z and Majin-Bu story lines. In other news, Prince… → Read More
I actually love NASA but seriously, what have they done lately? Where’s my jet pack? NASA is considering possibly working on a Space-themed MMO to teach kids about engineering and science. The resulting virtual space will definitely be a hit with kids who haven’t seen or cared about a Space Shuttle lift-off since 1999. “A NASA-based MMO could provide opportunities for students to… → Read More
Digital Trends is reporting that a Lego MMO-style game is currently in the works. Dubbed “Lego Universe”, the game will allow you to play the roll of a Lego figure in a Lego world. I’d imagine Lego is ready to let you drive around in vehicles, smashing everything in sight. I mean, that’s what makes Legos half the fun – destroying them! MMO maker NetDevil is currently… → Read More
If you’ve had a chance to experience the phenomenon that is World of Wacraft or have had end-on-end guild battles in Guild Wars, you know that the world of a MMO is its own reward. MMOs consume players into the depths of their mom’s basement, where they will never see the light of day again. In other words, these games are literally massive, taking players up to hundreds of hours to… → Read More
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