Omniverse Games has recently announced an exclusive beta tester event for the upcoming Excalibur Online title. The browser based, real-time strategy MMO, developed by Radiance Digital Entertainment will open the doors to an exclusive 1000 players, beginning on March 18, 2010. This will be the first public viewing of the highly anticipated title, where users will put the game to the test, attempting to unify Britain under their own banner, or…will they fail miserably, and be overrun by other players?
A free-to-play, browser based strategy MMO, Excalibur Online is set in Roman Britain, respectively, before the rise of King Arthur and Camelot. In this disjointed, and dark time, players must sally forth to create their own domains. Challenges include gathering of resources, the building of cities, research and development of technologies, and naturally, raise an army, for both defense and offense. As with any MMO, players are challenged with quests, but they can also form alliances that will assist them in the ultimate campaign – to claim Excalibur as their own, and thus, unify the land. Naturally…when thousands of players around the world are all seeking the same ultimate goal – massive battles are bound to occur.
In order to accomplish these lofty goals, players are provided with 16 different types of military units, including magic users and a number of siege weapons. Adding to the realistic environment are over a dozen types of building structures, tavern included, of course, where users can (get potential) heroes (drunk), and recruit them to their cause. There are over 100 heroes available for (drinking with) recruiting, all of them having a real-world historical connection to the Arthurian time period.
“We are pleased to be sharing the results of our hard work with the public for the very first time,” said Jonathan Seidenfeld, CEO of Omniverse Games. “Excalibur Online will provide a rich online experience for veteran strategy gamers, but is easy enough to learn for those new to the genre.”
Excalibur Online not only promises exciting browser based strategy gaming, but will also feature a weekly server wide “Battle for Avalon”. This massive PvP battle will allow any player to commit as many troops as they’d like to one of the opposing armies. Loot will then be divided up based on the percentage of troops committed, thereby encouraging players to contribute to truly massive battles. Naturally, weekly winners will have bragging rights across the server and forums.
There’s no solid details on how Excalibur Online’s microtransactions will work, or at what level of detail they will take on, but Ominiverse Games specializes in free-to-play gaming, with a microtransactions supported business model, so chances are they’ll be doing their best to capitalize on the incoming excitement and rush of interest.
While Omniverse is only letting in 1000 hand selected players into this beta event, interested players can sign up for future beta invites, as well as view screenshots, and learn more in depth about the title at excaliburmmo.com.
Tags: Excalibur Online, Jonathan Seidenfeld, microtransactions, Omniverse Games
