Archive for December, 2008

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fatfoogoo – a year in review

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

2008 has been a banner year for us here at fatfoogoo.  Not only have we had some amazing talent join us, but interest in not only what we do, but what we can do for the gaming community as a whole has skyrocketed.  Below are some selected highlights from an outstanding year for the foogoos.

I myself joined the foogoos back in April and started coverage of any and all things games, but quickly narrowed that focus down to any and all things free-to-play/microtransactions.  Given the nature of what fatfoogoo does, providing world-class microtransaction based economies to game developers and publishers, this seemed like an obvious choice.  Tie that into the massive upswing in microtransactions over the coarse of 2008, et viola, you’ve got the fatfoogoo blog.

While I couldn’t get an exact number or frequent flier mileage points out of him, our fearless leader Martin Herdina is almost certainly on a first name basis with a number of Vienna Airport staff members.  Back in May, Martin went back to his old stomping grounds and represented fatfoogoo at the ION Game Conference in Seattle, standing shoulder to shoulder with serious industry players including EA, Bigpoint and Crytek.  Martin was there not only to represent fatfoogoo, but to also offer up informed and detailed opinions on free-to-play gaming and how microtransactions can help developers monetize.  A summer full of incredible developments (See below) kept Mr. Herdina out of the check in lines, but as soon as September rolled around, Martin was beating feet (and being scanned with a magnetic wand) this time in Los Angeles for the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo.  A short time later saw fatfoogoo at the Austin Games Convention where we produced a live demo of just a few of fatfoogoo’s features (special thanks go out to the guys that work on the technical end of the foogoo system.  You DO know that Red Bull is an Austrian product, don’t you?  I think these guys may very well have been members of a beta test for super strength Red Bull).

Mid August must mean games in Germany, as who could miss the Games Convention Leipzig?  True to form, the GCDC also heard from Martin talking about in-game economies and item trading, while yours truly along with Patrick and Loki, scouted the convention floor, speaking to a number of games developers about current and upcoming projects.  No time to slow down now Martin, there’s the Virtual Worlds Forum London to get to in October.  Don’t like the fish and chips?  No problem, you’re slated to join Stevie in San Francisco at the vgSummit on October 10th.  James Brown may be the hardest working man in showbiz, but Martin Herdina might well be the hardest working man in the  microtransactionbiz.

But let’s not just make this about Martin, as there are plenty of other folks that make the heart of foogoo beat.

Back in July, our programming team reached a milestone and introduced elements of our technology to the Sun Partner Advantage Program via Project Darkstar.  The open source engine for game developers has already received a number of accolades, and via fatfoogoo, developers can now plug a monetization module into their game from day 1 or add it at a later date.  If our Project Darkstar integration wasn’t enough, a month later we received a nomination for “Best Business Idea of the Year” from German tech magazine Internet World.

2008 also saw the addition of two powerhouse figures at fatfoogoo.  In early August, we made the official announcement of adding Clive Jefferies as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Sales to the foogoo team.  Clive brings over 25 years of software product experience to fatfoogoo, and to say that he knows the ins and outs of international product development and management might be a bit of an understatement.

Likewise, in late September, we really lit things up with the appointment of industry veteran (and some might say legend) Stevana Case, aka KillCreek of Quake fame.  If you don’t know who Stevie Case is, chances are you might be filed under n00b, as Stevie is one of the first professional female gamers and the first woman in the Cyberathlete Professional League.  Stevie heads up our San Francisco office and serves as Vice President of Business Development and Sales.

All in all, 2008 has been an outstanding year for all of us here at fatfoogoo.  While there have been plenty of wins on a number of fronts, the above represents selected highlights.  Daniel Petri’s team of techs are the unsung heroes here, making all the pretty pixels play nicely together, and my hat goes off to them.

Looking forward, Martin has bound my lips with duct tape regarding some projects in the works, and while I’m bursting at the seams to tell the world about what we’re brewing up in the fatlabs, we’ve still got a few nuts and bolts to turn and tweak before it’s ready to be unveiled.  Stay tuned…  (no really, stay tuned, this is some pretty hot $*&#)!

So from all of us here at fatfoogoo, from Vienna to San Francisco, we wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2009!

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SOE talks RMT with DC Universe Online

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Riding hot on the coattails of yesterday’s Red 5 and microtransactions conversation, Gamasutra’s Brandon Sheffield sat down with DC Universe Online’s senior producer Wes Yanagi to talk about the game itself, development, and how RMT’s will factor into the game.

While a wide range of topics were discussed, the 500-pound gorilla in the room turned out to be the ye old subscriptions vs. microtransactions discussion.  Yanagi would not comment on whether DC Universe Online will go with one monetization method over the other, he did say that he thought microtransactions still have a huge potential.  Yanagi specifically pointed to Sony’s Free Realms, which he expects will turn a profit sooner or later, furthering the opinion that SOE is gently testing the free-to-play, microtransaction based waters and learning what the Western market will and will not accept.

Thankfully Yanagi and co. have learned quite a bit about MMO’s and their development, particularly the beta phase and when and when not to release a product to the general populace.  When asked about the development of DC Universe Online and MMO’s in general, along with producing a solid Beta (think the Hellgate London debacle), Yangani responds with,

“… For us, we’re playing it with the team, with our team. It’s kind of our product, our baby, and so it’s always “the best product ever,” and then we can keep playing on that.

But once we release it internally to other parts of SOE, we want to make sure that there’s another level of polish there, so that people are excited about that and then going on to the next step of any kind of closed beta.”

Given the opinions that we’ve heard far and wide in the Western market and the negative opinions regarding the ‘pay to pwn’ theory, introducing microtransactions to DC Universe Online might be a perfect gateway for SOE, as costume customizations in a superhero game simply go hand in hand.  Sony’s already headed down this path with the customizable Little Big Planet outfits, likewise with home.  Toss in the microtransaction based Superhero costume customizations that City of Heroes has already tested the waters on, and adding microtransactions to DC Universe Online is simply a no brainer.

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Red 5 Studios talks Monetization

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Red 5 Studios is a collection of former Blizzard and ex-World of Warcraft folks that has spent the past three years working on potentially the hottest MMO you’ve never heard of.  Their level of secrecy and stealth has become almost legendary.  So when an unexpected change in management surfaced last month, Red 5 Studios started showing up on the radar again.  Christian Nutt from Gamasutra sat down and talked to the now Board Chairman and CCO Mark Kern, and now CEO Michael Weingartner about the new management switch, and more importantly, just what are those Red 5’s working on, and where do microtransactions fit into the picture?

Red 5 has set out to be a global company from the get go, with just over 100 staff member currently working on the current project with two-thirds based in America, one-third in China.  Weingartner makes it very clear that the Chinese branch is not just an outsource, but integral to the company, as they include a number of artists and engineers.

And while Kern wouldn’t let any cats out of the bag, he did drop a hint of an upcoming announcement that will give the world just enough of a teaser to show what’s under the hood of this gaming stallion that’s been lurking in the stables for the past three years.

Nutt did ask the vital question of ‘what and how does Red 5 plan on making some money with this title?’ and while his response is expected, his insight to East v. West is quite interesting.

It’s very interesting to watch how these models work, because I don’t think there’s any one answer. I think you have to look at the type of game that you’re making, and even the market that you’re in.

For example, in Asia, there are very few subscription-based games left, aside from WoW and Lineage, for example. And just culturally, there’s a very different expectation there for how you monetize these games. So, we’re paying a lot of attention to that.

On the other hand, in the West, you have an expectation of a level playing field, and if there are going to be things like microtransactions, they shouldn’t affect that balance. We’re very cognizant of that as well.

That said, there are plenty of companies paving the way for the idea of a microtransaction basis, especially in the console world, where you have a lot of downloadable content.

It’s going to be an interesting future out there. We haven’t selected a business model yet. You can expect it to be competitive with what other triple-A games are doing out there, but it’s a very fluid situation right now.

Kern also continues with a highly relevant statement about the current economy and how it factors into game development, monetization models and pricing:

What’s interesting is maybe even asking ourselves, “Hey, how does the economy figure into this? What about the current financial situation that all these homes are going through? Are games really immune, or are people going to be saying, ‘Listen, I don’t want to pay a huge monthly fee. I want some other way to pay for my game?’” That’s another factor that we have to pay attention to.

Weingartner also adds:

Which all ties back to the whole design process of the game. And we’ve been very careful in the design process to accommodate the revenue model.

Given the resumes of both head cheeses at Red 5, along with their ability to successfully fly under the radar with development, they could very well be on to something outstanding.  Whether they’ll choose a subscription or microtransactions monetization module is yet to be seen, but clearly both Weingartner and Kern are very well aware of the up sides of both paths.  It should be a very interesting development to watch just how and the reasoning behind the selected model will unfold.

Stay tuned…..

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Acclaim announces new free-to-play – Knight’s Blood

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Just in time to fill your holiday vacation with enough adventure to keep those visiting relatives at bay, free-to-play giant Acclaim has recently introduced their newest offering: Knight’s Blood.

A new free-to-play browser based MMORPG where player’s battle for honor and coinage, Knight’s Blood is yet another offering in Acclaim commitment to browser based fun for all.  Players swear their oath of knighthood and alla ‘choose your own adventure’ style, these new knights develop their own storylines based upon the choices they make in game.

Character creation starts with an overview page, complete with important information and more interesting – your own personal link.  According to Acclaim, you can convert knaves to knights online by ‘placing the link appropriately’.  The way I’m reading this is ‘recruit your friends and others to Knight’s Blood via viral messaging and/or other media, and win some in game currency’.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Players may also challenge other knights to duels, but no word of an official PvP system.  As with all Acclaim games, Acclaim coins (their native form of in game currency) can be purchased (microtransaction) via the Acclaim site.  This currency may then be spent on in game character upgrades.  Upgrades include hundreds of weapons, suits of armor, shields, amulets and rings, all designed to improve fighting abilities.  Players also have the option to customize their avatar and even create their own coat of arms.

Again along the lines of a ‘choose your own adventure’ theme, Knight’s Blood will allow players to choose the good or evil aspects of missions that they choose to accept; either via the Knight of Light path, or the Horde of Darkness.

While at the time of writing this, www.knightsblood.com appears to be down.  Either a ‘d’oh!’ on Acclaims end, or perhaps an overwhelming response?  From the concept and premise of the game, I’m not sure it’s going to pull me away from the three other MMO’s I’m playing right now, but I certainly could see it as a nice ‘lunch break’ at the office kind of game.  At least until Quake Live arrives.

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Red Rocket seeks to bring East West

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Add one part GameFly co-founder, one part EA technical art director, three-quarters Shanghai, a dash of Bellevue, WA, ice cubes, and shake with creativity.  Serve into bite sized entertainment over PC’s, Internet, handhelds, and iPhones to create the Red Rocket Games special.

And serve it up they do at Red Rocket.  Jung Suh, Gamefly co-founder and Scott Yu, EA technical art director have set out to merge gaming trends from Asia such as microtransactions and avatar systems with US game design practices.  The company is headquartered in Shanghai, China, with offices in Bellevue, WA.  They’re tackling the project head on, with an ambitious first release date as early as early 2009 via their own portal as well as other casual game distributors and publishers.

Not limited just to just a Chinese and American development crew, Red Rocket features a global pool of talent working from around the world: China, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, France and the US.  Both Suh and Yu agree that their Chinese location has a number of benefits including the ability to outsource non-core project elements to local firms and being able to manage them closely.

“We have an international group of mad scientists here at our Shanghai office, and everyone is tinkering around with the concepts of fun as we develop our first game,” says Suh.

“It’s a great benefit to be here in China and be able to take advantage of the talent and excitement around online gaming, while at the same time having a management team with years of U.S. game development methodology experience garnered from top video game brand companies.”

Red Rocket’s now CEO, Jung Suh formerly served as GameFly’s VP of Content, while Yu takes on the role of Executive Producer.  Together the team has more that 15 years experience with companies including EA, Pogo.com, Sega, Activision, and Disney Online.

Their goal is ambitious: Bring the East – West.  Sadly with a reputation of delivering low quality titles coming out of the East, here’s to hoping that Red Rocket can truly get the mix right and break down the barriers of preconception with some truly awe inspiring pixel magic.

Visit Red Rocket Games at www.redrocketgames.com.

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EA and Crytek give the gift of free – Shades of Futures Past?

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Starting tomorrow, December 19th, players across the globe can get a taste of Crysis Wars, including a new Holiday map pack, for the price of a piece of air.  In other words – absolutely free.  The promotion runs only ten days – the 19th through the 29th of December 2008.

Crysis Wars is the new multiplayer version of the perennial favorite Crysis franchise, as well as a part of this fall’s Crysis Warhead, the follow up to Crysis.  Crysis has been showed with awards including the IGN and Gamespot Editor’s Choice Awards.  Crysis Wars includes three completely different multiplayer modes: InstantAction, TeamInstantAction and PowerStruggle, with 21 diverse maps ranging from large, expansive battlefields, to more ‘intimate’ small scale battlefields.

Chucked in just in time for this ‘free-to-play’ promotion, the Holiday Map Pack will include:

  • Savanna (PowerStruggle): The large savanna plains in the neighborhood of the Victoria Falls provide ideal maneuvering grounds for heavy armored vehicles. The North Korean army has found out about this training facility and launched an attack on the US forces. This large map is perfect for 24-32 players.
  • Frost (TeamInstantAction): As the Alien invasion progresses, new crash sites are discovered around the globe. In the region of Trondheim, NK and US battle it out for new energy sources. This small map is great for 8-16 players.

Registrations are open at www.mycrysis.com, along with a free client download.  Players will receive a unique key generated on the site that will correspond to their registered account.  This key will throw the Crysis doors wide open to players starting at 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time and remain open until 11:59:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.

Crysis Warhead is naturally available for purchase at retail stores and digital content delivery services for the comparatively low price of $29.99.

Now is it just me, or is EA making a lot of waves in the ‘free’ category.  Sure, the one way to look at this is a simple marketing promotion of a pretty slick game.  We all know this promotion, and I’ll admit, these ‘open trials’ have hooked me on more than a few games in the past, but what if this again, is EA testing the whole ‘free-to-play’ waters?  Obviously the marketing data surrounding this promotion is enough to keep EA’s team crunching numbers right on through to February.  First the on going Battlefield Heroes saga, then Riccitello’s ‘misunderstanding’ regarding Knights of the Old Republic being microtransaction based, and then Crysis free for 10 days?  Maybe I’m way off here, but something is afoot at EA, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see EA drop a bombshell next year and REALLY shake things up.

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Free-to-play Myst Online URU goes open source

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Now here’s a recent news development that could open a lot of possibilities and bring back some old school fun.  Think back to one of your earliest gaming experiences.  Depending on your age, this might involve some pretty slick graphics focusing around an island and a ‘choose your own adventure’ style play.  I’ll admit that my first gaming experiences came via and Atari 2600, but once I’d moved on to PC gaming, Myst was one of the first that really opened my eyes to what graphic engines were and how a game can really be an all enveloping experience.

To be completely honest, my attention span with Myst waned, and I found myself moving on to other titles, not really knowing what exactly happened to Myst.  So as you can imagine, a small spark of nostalgia ran through my veins this morning when I heard about Myst rising again from the ashes.

As the story goes, Myst’s road has not exactly been paved with gold.  Ubisoft decided to shelf Myst, as did second owner GameTap.  When original creator Cyan Worlds regained their IP, Myst URU players decided to band together and create MORE (Myst Online Restoration Experiment).  When Cyan posted world of financial difficulties, the URU and MORE project were put out to pasture with no word on further development.  Until now.

Rather than pursue further development, Cyan has made a bold move by releasing all of URU Live’s code to the public as open source.  Granted, we’ve all probably played a round or two of Myst in our gaming careers, so the title is no secret to anyone who’s eyed a pixel or two.  What does make this rather interesting is the solution.  Rather than spend hours pouring over how to, and what to develop and where to put resources into the game, and after a long and arduous battle to re-gain their original property, Cyan Worlds has let the whole world in on the project.

What this means is that an already free-to-play title (while still available) that had pretty much reached the peak of it’s development is now coming back as a completely re invented title, not only for future enjoyment but also as a learning tool.  Thus the possibilities of porting this title to Linux and Mac are greatly increased. Considering the fact that NYU recently announced plans to begin offering a degree in design and development of video games, such an open source learning tool could be a great thing for these and other future developers to being playing with now.  Add to the mix that this game used to be a free-to-play, and the seed is already planted for development of such titles.  Castle Infinity and Allegiance are other such titles to go open source, and adding Myst to the list is another great step forward for developers everywhere.

Thank you Cyan World for this bold and innovative step.

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Runes of Magic now in Open Beta

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Frogster America announced yesterday that their highly anticipated free-to-play MMO Runes of Magic has now entered its open beta phase and welcoming new players.  With 190,000 registered users already questing away, Runewalker Entertainment and Frogster want to run one more final round of ‘beta’ testing before unleashing the full product in an ‘official’ release.

Over the next few weeks, Frogster is planning on rolling out all the bells and whistles, including the microtransaction-based item-shop where users can purchase items to be used in their questing.  Since the move was made to reset all characters at the end of the closed beta, all players can now create new characters and start at level one.

“Runes of Magic is going through its final stress tests and polishing phase which will enable us to ensure a high level of quality and an entertaining and immersive experience for the players,” said Sean Kauppinen, president and CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “Since we’re allowing all characters created in the final beta phase as well as any items acquired or purchased to carry over into the live game, the servers are essentially open for business.”

As we initially reported back in August after playing a demo version at the Leipzig Games Convention, Runes of Magic is quite possibly the long awaited answer to the ‘free-to-play games are of poor quality’ stigma that has plagued the genre for so long.  The title takes the best elements from a number of successful MMO’s, and blends them altogether in an eye-popping collection of multicolored pixel goodness.  Over 1000 quests are available at the launch, and players may choose from six main classes and secondary classes, ultimately offering 36 individual character combos to suite almost every playing style.

One of the unique features available in Runes of Magic is the ability to arrange your own virtual home with various furnishings.  And these furnishings aren’t exactly of the Martha Stewart style.  Your home (or guild hall) serve as a place to keep all your gear, therefore you can decorate your home pad with shields, swords, armor, or any other various equipment you may have acquired.

Frogster is also taking a page from other popular MMO’s and introducing a Christmas theme in game over the next few weeks.  Special events and costumes will be featured, along with a number of other surprises beginning December 19th.  The Runes of Magic website is also holding a competition to run in parallel with the in-game events.  All users that create something Runes of Magic Christmas themed has a chance to win a rare in-game Christmas mount.

To sign up and enter the open beta, visit Runes of Magic at www.runesofmagic.com.

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Grab your gear soldier – Combat Arms set to storm Europe

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Not just for our trigger pulling friends on the other side of the pond, Nexon’s newest runaway hit: Combat Arms is set to go live tomorrow, December 16th all across Europe.

As we reported back in September, Nexon started European testing with a closed beta back that ran from late October through earlier November, with great success.  Building upon this success, Nexon is going in guns blazing and live as of tomorrow morning.  The new open-beta version of the FPS shooter/team tactics game features a number of new maps, a new One-Man-Army game mode, along with an extended arsenal including new gears and weapons.  The launch will also feature an introductory event that will encourage players to show off their skills on the scope and reward top soldiers with top prizes.

Combat Arms is the newest free-to-play, microtransaction supported title from Korean pioneers, Nexon.  Their rise to fame came via MapleStory, but Combat Arms takes a decided turn and is geared towards fans of the first person shooter genre.  Players experience non-stop battle action in various terrain scenarios and are recruited to battle enemies in multiple game modes.  Retaining all the classic elements of a traditional FPS, Combat Arms ups the ante by providing players with a unique backpack system (similar but not identical to an MMO type backpack) which allows players to carry and combine various attributes of weapons for a customized gaming experience.  For example, attaching a long range scope might be handy while perched on a building top, but an extended magazine might come in quite handy for close room to room combat.

“The FPS genre is traditionally an area for hardcore gamers with a steep learning curve, but Combat Arms takes it to another level, offering a low barrier of entry with its free-to-play offering and low system requirements,” says Sung-Jin Kim, Manager of Europe Business Team at Nexon.

While the game is quick and easy to pick up, don’t be mislead by Kim’s statement, Combat Arms serves up more fast paced action that a rainspout in a downpour.  With, what I can only imagine, true to life action and combat scenarios, Combat Arms will keep you on your toes, and coming back for more.

An in game currency and experience points are rewarded after victories and kills, and contribute to a leveling system.  This in game currency may then be spent on character customization including additional weapons, scopes, silencers, and extended magazines.  Obviously, with a free-to-play title, for a small real money transaction, players can purchase addition in game cash for further customizations.

So here we go Europe: Combat Arms arrives just in time to work out some of that holiday season frustration with your best friends on the field of battle.  And the price alone, is enough to keep any Christmas shopper happy.  Good night and good luck soldiers; see you on the battlefield tomorrow!

Visit Combat Arms Europe at: combatarms.nexoneu.com

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EA’s Star Wars microtransaction based economy?

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Well it wouldn’t be a week without at least discussing the flurry of activity surrounding EA CEO John Riccitello’s ‘misunderstood’ comments regarding BioWare’s upcoming Star Wars MMO: The Old Republic.  Nick Breckon and Chris Faylor at shacknews first broke the story on Wednesday at 1 in the morning, and ignited a series of comments, forum posts and he said/she saids.

The comment(s) from Riccitello in question:

“We are continuing to stick to the plan relative to building out our direct-to-consumer models which include microtransactions and subscriptions,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello in a conference call today. “The recent launch of Warhammer [Online] is a great example of that.”

“Other initiatives we’ve announced, for example [the] Star Wars online MMO, are mid-session games which are microtransaction-based,” he continued. “You’ll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call.”

As shacknews goes on to point out, other “mid-session” titles in the EA stables include FIFA Online and NBA Street, both of which are free and then supported by microtransactions.

EA obviously has a valid interest in microtransaction based titles, but with their flagship Battlefield Heroes still mired in the springtime mud outside of Moscow, perhaps EA is looking to other titles to test the waters with?  To be clear, I’m quite certain that EA has no plans of dropping Battlefield Heroes anytime soon, but based on the relative success of their “mid-session” microtransaction based games, especially FIFA in Asian markets, perhaps they’re comfortable with testing other waters?  During the conference call, Riccitello did discuss online gameplay and monetization (read: microtransactions) as a “global, not just Asia phenomenon.”

The Old Republic is currently being billed as a large-scale MMO (AAA title) with a number of single player attributes including dynamic NPC’s that will act as companions.  BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka has been quoted as saying, “Knights of the Old Republic] 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and beyond,” with the official FAQ stating, “the majority of the game can be accomplished by playing alone.”  If that doesn’t sound like a launching board for microtransactions….I’m not sure what does.

Duly noted: shacknews did receive word from EA, and appropriately updated their post with “no statements have been made about the Star Wars business model,” and attributing Mr. Riccitiello’s comments to a misunderstanding.

So is that a yes, or a no?  Obviously, EA is going to respond in that manner, as an admission of microtransactions in a western top tier game would certainly rock the proverbial boat.  Looking at the context of Riccitello’s comments, and where Star Wars falls in the EA hierarchy, could this have been an accidental slip o’ the tongue?  Certainly John’s got 99% of what he’s going to say prepared, but perhaps there was a bit of a slip in the heat of battle?  Who knows.  Maybe I’m complete off here, but then again, shacknews and a number of other commenters have already started the pro and con vocalization.

Either way – EA/BioWare just got the kind of publicity you can’t buy.

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