Posts Tagged ‘game’
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
The new free-to-play, microtransaction based Action Strategy/RPG Mytheon is the title of the upcoming offering from the True Games/Petroglyph partnership we first reported back in August.
Petroglyph is best known for their award winning work with Star Wars: Empire At War and Universe At War real time strategy games. Key members of the Petroglyph team were also involved in the development of the original Command and Conquer series while at Westwood Studios. Mytheon hails as uncharted territory for Petroglyph, as this is their first microtransaction game.
Mytheon has a planned launch date of Fall 2009, and is slated to combine the best elements of action, strategy, and RPG game-play with a heavy emphasis on collectability and combat (read – blow shit up!). Players will find themselves in a fantasy universe heavily laden with mythology themes. The starting area turns out to be a no-surprises-here-isn’t-this-where-it-all-started Greece. Ongoing expansions will follow that will further adventurers into exotic mythologies from every corner of the world and historical time period. Designed with ‘not just once’ playability in mind, Mytheon seeks to offer players real-time combat and customizations that will invite them to play the same scenarios in a wide variety of ways via group, PVP, and solo play, an addition to an integrated social networking component.
“There really isn’t a game on the market today that someone could compare to Mytheon,” said Jeff Lujan, Founder and Chairman of True Games Interactive. “The game truly creates an entirely new genre offering a combination of features that gamers would normally have to play several different games to get. There is no doubt it is an ambitious project, but Petroglyph has routinely delivered AAA quality, genre-defining games and Mytheon continues that pedigree.”
Thus far, Mytheon is offering three different character classes each with it’s own specific “power stone” specialty. These power stones are collected throughout the game and offer players unique abilities including the abilities to conjure spells and summon minions.
“The passion and energy behind Mytheon has been tremendous at Petroglyph. This is exciting new territory for Petroglyph to explore,” said Chuck Kroegel, CEO and General Manager of Petroglyph. “We are making a compelling and addictive new genre that will have you fully immersed and entertained. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner than True Games to take this journey with us and I’m certain that together we’ll deliver a long-lasting new franchise.”
Again, Mytheon is slated for a Fall 2009 release, and something tells me, there’ll definitely be a True Games/Petroglyph presence at this coming summer’s GDC in Cologne.
For further info about this exciting up coming free-to-play, visit the True Games/Petroglyph team at www.mytheongame.com.
Tags: Chuck Kroegel, command and conquer series, game, Jeff Lujan, microtransaction, Mytheon, mythology, Petroglyph, power stones, real time strategy, real time strategy games, social networking, star wars empire, star wars empire at war, universe at war, westwood studios
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Sunday, July 20th, 2008
SOE’s upcoming title Free Realms promises to include micro transactions and memberships in addition to it’s free to play platform.
Massively.com sat down with Free Realms Lead Designer Laralyn McWilliams to discuss to new title, and came back with a massive amount of information about the game. McWilliams confirmed SOE’s commitment to Free Realms saying that, “Free Realms is just as important to SOE as The Agency and DC Universe Online. We have the same size team working on this as we do on those titles.” Responding to the question of how exactly Free Realms will generate revenue, McWilliams responded, “The answer is two fold: memberships (which, for a monthly fee, will allow the user access to more content) and micro transactions (allowing you to buy items for your character for small amounts of money).”
SOE’s John Smedley also added, “In order for people to see the games, they have to be able to play them; we’re opening them up to that possibility by letting them play for free.”
SOE might be taking a slightly different route when it comes to micro transactions however. It seems as though the micro transaction question has been given a lot of thought at the SOE labs, and they’re still ironing out the details. Will micro transactions be solely based on decking out your character in custom threads? Will the micro transactions allow players to ‘pay to pwn?’ McWilliams addressed this issue. “We recognize the importance of people earning things in the game but at the same time one of our fundamental tenants is we don’t want to dictate to people how to play our game. So if people want to buy a potion that increases the speed at which they gain experience, who are we to say that’s not acceptable?”
While still working on the details, McWilliams explains that a lot of these issues will work themselves out in the beta testing. “There’s nothing in Free Realms initially that you have to work that hard for. It’s all about variety. So we don’t know how much you’ll need to buy that stuff [experience gain boosts, combat boosts, etc] at this point. We’re focusing on game mechanics that are inherently fun, so you don’t want to shortcut your own experience by buying stuff. There’s an amount of joy in buying something that’s going to make you beat everyone in car racing, but after a while, you want your own skills to be what lets you win in car racing, not stuff you buy.”
Players that want to make micro transaction payments will use an in game wallet that can be stuffed with real cash. Parental controls are also built in to prevent a massive spending spree. While the game currently features real cash (the title has been developed from scratch with PlayStation 3 compatibility in mind), the Free Realms currency may change in the future.
Tags: beta testing, dc universe, free realms, game, games, john smedley, Laralyn, Massively, McWilliams, micro transactions, money, soe
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Sunday, June 29th, 2008
While retailers were dropping enough hints to walk from Europe to North America and back without getting one’s feet wet last week about a December 3rd Starcraft II release date, Blizzard VP Rob Pardo effectively put the squash on these rumors at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.
Speaking about the game’s development, he answered that the Blizz crew was “about a third of the way through”, and are concentrating on story structure and cinematics at this point. In other words, all the pretty go betweens we see between battles, etc. Pardo did comment however that by the end of 2008, Blizzard should have something very impressive to show off.
So there we have it. Rumors squashed. I guess it’s time to update that Christmas wish list as it looks like Starcraft II isn’t going to hit the streets until 2009.
Blizzard didn’t let us walk away with an acrid taste in our mouths. They DID provide some tasty screenshots to make that anticipation just a bit sweeter:
And don’t forget what we’re already been privy to:
Tags: Blizzard, christmas wish list, Europe, game, houston we have a problem, Invitational, North America, starcraft, starcraft ii release date, VP Rob Pardo, Worldwide
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Saturday, June 7th, 2008
If you live anywhere outside the US, your chances of picking up the super spiffy Collectors Survival Edition of Fallout3 are pretty much slim to none.
To add insult to injury, even residents of the Great White North are going to have to pack it up and make a day trip over the boarder to their American P.O. box to receive their copy.
The survival edition comes decked out with a life-sized replica of the wrist mounted Pip-Boy 3000 worn by characters in the game, a super smooth Vault Tech metal lunch box, a Vault Boy bobble-head (who’s ride or desk would be complete without one?), an ‘Art of’ book and a ‘Making of’ DVD. Oh, and the game is included as well.
Amazon.com confirms that the item will only be shipped within the US (and or APO/FPO boxes), and hits the streets October 7th.
So the question is, how on earth will those of us in Europe that are serious fanboys of all things 3000 get out hands on this rockin’ wrapping of Fallout 3? Well, look no further, as yours truly has a connection in the States, and can get my hands on a copy shipped direct from the land of cadilliacs and cheeseburgers. So who’s up for a contest? Based on repsonses below, I might even be able to convince upper management to sponsor a contest with the Survival Edition as the grand prize. In addition to Fallout 3 Survival Edition, we’d be sure to chuck in all kinds of fatfoogoo goodies as well.
So let’s hear it….who is Europe’s biggest Fallout fan?
Tags: amazon, Contest, edition, Europe, fallout 3, fanboys, game, grand prize, great white north, metal lunch box, pip boy, Survival, US
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
The Dutch Game Garden has announced that they’ll be launching at the NLGD Festival of Game on June 19th in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Coming hot off a nice pat on the back, the Dutch gaming industry is 
poised to be a major force to contend with in the Euro gaming market. The Dutch Game Garden foundation is financed in part by the Dutch government, and is supported by a number of universities and schools. These schools along with the government are extremely interested in promoting the growth of the gaming sector. In 2007, the Dutch gaming industry revenue exceeded that of the Dutch film industry, and figures report the gaming sector to have a growth rate of 50% faster than any other Dutch economic sector.
The Dutch Game Garden will support, encourage, and do all it can to help fledgling developers and startups located in the Netherlands, along with companies that choose to relocate to the Netherlands. They tackle this via a three pronged attack:
The Game Development Club which seeks to encourage students of game design, media, arts and programming courses at universities and school to work together in collaborative projects.
The Game Incubator is a pot o’ soup for talented young entrepreneurs. The Incubator project helps young entrepreneurs navigate the often hectic ropes of not only setting up a company, but keeping it afloat, and ultimately, bringing their product to market. By providing training in entrepreneurship and coaching, assisting with housing, providing tools and a network of technical, financial and legal experts, the Incubator seeks to help Mr./Ms. ‘Hey I got an awesome game, but where the heck do I start?’ to hit the ground running.
The Game Development Business Centers provide top-notch facilities for existing and growing game firms in the Utrecht region. The ultimate goal of these facilities is to create a hotspot of gaming, with access to other important companies, A1 research institutes, universities and schools.
The Dutch Game Garden will offer an official presentation along with a panel discussion at the NLDG festival.
To learn more about the Dutch Game Garden: http://www.dutchgamegarden.nl
To learn more about the NLDG: http://www.nlgd.nl
Tags: business centers, collaborative projects, developers, dutch film, dutch game, dutch government, entrepreneurship, Euro, game, game design, game development business, game development club, gaming, gaming industry, gaming market, gaming sector, hotspot, important companies, incubator project, Legal, legal experts, Market, NLDG, programming courses, setting up a company, The Netherlands, US, Utrecht, young entrepreneurs
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Yes that’s right ladies and gentlemen, fatfoogoo is heading to the land of fish and chips, one seriously big clock, and drivers on the wrong side of the road.
Last year over 450 attendees from 23 countries descended upon the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe in London. With over 80 speakers, 2 days of workshops, conferences, expos and networking functions this was THE conference to be at.
This year’s event looks to meet and exceed expectations. With over 600+ professionals interviewed regarding content, take home podcasts, demo and keynote theatre as well as tech developer streams, that’s enough alone to make one shout ‘Blimey!’. But wait….there’s more! Building upon the overwhelming success of the expo area, this year’s Forum includes stands from 25 exhibitors, a shell build scheme, previously mentioned demo and keynote theatre live and in person on the demo floor, live tech developer streams, and 400+ expo only passes.
Direct from Virtual Worlds Forum:
VWF 08 helps you harness the power of virtual worlds to engage with clients, suppliers or customers, connecting brands, corporations, digital and virtual worlds agencies, entertainment and games companies, technologists, academics, regulators and VCs.
We are working on bringing you a bigger expo, more great content and workshops, and parties. We like to party.
Funny…we like to party too!
Our beloved fatfoogoos are raiding London this 6-7 October, are already registered as Associate Sponsors, and our very own Martin Herdina has applied for a speaker placement. Alas, the VWF hasn’t gotten back to us quite yet, but if placement if based on knowledge, experience and all around ‘He’s a good guy to listen to, and knows his stuff’; Herdina’s headed to the podium mighty fast.
Tags: associate sponsors, attendees, blimey, Demo, Entertainment, Europe, exhibitors, expo, expos, fatfoogoo, fish and chips, Foogoo, forum europe, game, games companies, keynote, London, Martin Herdina, networking functions, overwhelming success, podium, Professional, regulators, shout, speaker placement, techno, virtual worlds, vwf, wrong side of the road
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Ok peeps, last shot. Here we go again with what surely will be one hell storm of ticket sales again. Blizz announced earlier this week that they’ve got a whole new block of tickets up for grabs for the Paris event.
Tickets go on sale at 15:00 Central European Time (remember, we’re +6 hours ahead of the East Coast of the US) today. In addition to securing your slot at what’s looking like one helluva good show, Blizz also dropped it like it’s hot and announced the live performance schedule. The live and in person video game orchestra, Video Games Live will be dishing out some of your favorite in game tunes, while Blizzard’s own in-house band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain will be performing live at the closing ceremony. On a side note….will they have to change the name of the band in November (my personal prediction for the Lich King release)?
As mentioned in a previous post, the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational is one spicy meatball going down in Paris on the 28th and 29th of June. Both days are jam packed with all kinds of wicked cool stuff to do and see, including hands on play of the newest stuff Blizz has got in the labs i.e. yes, you’ll get to see the Death Knight and Lich King far before anyone else. In addition, Blizz is hosting a whole round of developer discussions, presentations, and casual (read…I’m gonna pwnd ur @$$ n00b!) tournaments, contents, and much, much more…!
Les Ticket ain’t exactly cheap weighing in at 70 € / £55 for the 2 day event, but then again, where ELSE in the world are you going to get a sneak peak at the Wrath of the Lich King AND Starcraft II?
Again, ticket sales start today at 15:00 CET. Have your credit and/or debit card ready, hit the F5 button on http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/ticketsales.xml at 3, and hopefully…..we’ll see you there!
Tags: Blizz, Blizzard, central european time, closing ceremony, content, Death, death knight, developer discussions, East Coast, Europe, European, event, f5 button, game, game tunes, house band, Invitational, June, King, Knight, level, level 70 elite tauren chieftain, Lich, live performance, new ticket, November, Orc, orchestra, Paris, performance schedule, personal prediction, sneak peak, spicy meatball, starcraft, starcraft ii, ticket, ticket sales, tournament, US, video, world, Worldwide, wrath of the lich king
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Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
ION Game Conference in Seattle: redefining online
Under the motto “Redefining Online”, the Annual ION Game Conference took place in Seattle, WA 
between the 13th and 15th of May. The global gaming industry converged at ION to discuss the future of Online Gaming, exchange news, and set new goals for the coming years. Besides industry titans from both the US and Asia such as EA Games, Bigpoint, Crytek, and Epik; fatfoogoo was one of the few European companies present. We were here not only to represent Fatfoogoo, but also to get a view of the newest developments in online gaming. How these developments look, and where they will be taking the next generation of Online Gaming, we proudly present to you here:
Free Games with downloadable content and additional services
The first Trend that’s abuzz in the industry is the increasing alternatives to drive revenue generation. Publishers will sooner or later move further and further away from costly subscription fees and expensive stand alone games, and more in the direction of a “Free to play” platform, i.e. the game is free to download and play, but it’s also self financing by additional downloadable content, services, and micro-transactions between player to player or publisher to player. An excellent example of this concept would be South Korean publishers Nexon, who with Court Rider and Maple Story have banked over $230M in turnover, or German publisher Bigpoint whom already have over 10 million users. On average 8%-30% of these users have already, or will in the future pay for additional functionality and levels.
Outsourcing
The second trend amongst game publishers deals with competition in the global market and the often negative feelings/opinions associated with outsourcing. In order to spend more time in developing games, publishers are increasingly relying on third technologies; game engines, sound creation tools, and/or micro transactions (the selling and/or trading of objects, items and services within a game), between players or between publishers and players. The time and money saved with outsourcing should be reinvested in the core components of manufacturer; game development. There’s already a prime example of a masterful use of outsourcing in Epik’s Unreal 3. Unreal 3′s engines are pretty much the same as any 3D shooter, but they employ various sound engines from the Dolby Engineering labs, or micro-transactions from operators like fatfoogoo. The already existing cooperation with second and third line suppliers of engines and services should be worked out in the future. At it’s essence this will free up game publishers to do what they do best: Develop and publish games.
The merging of (suppossed) opposites
The third trend focuses on the fusion of the various different pieces of Social Networking and Gaming. The border between PC and Console, virtual worlds, games and personal net applications, mobile and casual games is becoming more and more blurred each day and should interoperate with each other – technically, functionally and economically. The platforms will be open to each other, and offer the end users several different levels of interaction. Nevertheless, the challenge for this kind of openness in technology lies not only in the tech sector, but the judicial as well. Copyright and tax laws vary from state to state, country to country. The challenge of a functional multinational system is a priority not only for software and hardware manufacturers, but for politicians as well.
Final Thoughts
Final thoughts and personal observations from Martin Herdina, our foogoo on the ground at ION:
A letter from America
Being back in Europe the jetlag still doesn’t allow me much sleep at night but – and what’s a lot more relevant – I am looking back to a super exciting week at fatfoogoo.
Listening to the industry legends from EA, THQ and NCSoft talk about micro-transactions as the future revenue model for online gaming and to the success stories around Nexon’s “Cartrider” in Korea ($ 250M p.a.) has been extremely interesting and demonstrated once again that fatfoogoo is serving exactly the right market segment at exactly the right time.
Apart from these business aspects I met a full crowd of great people from the US gaming industry, enjoyed some super cool US Ska music at night (check out http://www.myspace.com/dealsgonebad) and was successful at avoiding all business-development meetings taking place in one of Seattle’s strip clubs.
Best,
Martin
Tags: America, Asia, bigpoint, conference took place, Console, content, content services, crytek, Demo, developing games, download, ea games, Europe, exchange news, fatfoogoo, free games, FTW, game, game conference, game engines, game publishers, gaming, gaming industry, german publisher, global gaming industry, industry titans, Korea, maple story, Martin Herdina, micro transactions, money, negative feelings, new goals, revenue generation, Seattle, sound creation, techno, US
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Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
While it might not be the final nail in the coffin, it certain looks like the iPod of Redmond is starting to sing its swan song.
Major US retailer GameStop announced that it’s pulling the plug on Zunes during a quarterly earnings call last Thursday. The man with the money at GameStop CFO David Carlson said that the Zune would soon be pulled from all of its 5,400 stores worldwide (they will however continue to warehouse the Zune and sell them online until inventory is cleared). He offered no further details, but a company spokesperson told TheStreet.com that the decision was made based on insufficient demand. “We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated” and, “It did not fit with out product mix”. In other words dear readers, the Zune at GameStop was just joining it’s all brothers out there: sitting on shelves collecting dust.
Let’s look at some numbers shall we? The Microsoft Zune launched in November of 2006. Since this date, approx. 2 million Zunes have been sold. In comparison, Apple sold 10.6 million iPods in the last quarter. Ummmm… really, need I say more?
Was he inebriated? Do you even know anyone who owns a Zune? Steve Jobs in response to Robbie Bach‘s enthusiasm regarding the Zune at the 2008 ICES in Vegas.
Microsoft was quick to respond to the blow. Adam Sohn, director of marketing for Zune said, “We will continue to invest in deep retail partnership, and have seen good momentum online and at retail over the last few months including a great response to our recent spring update.”
Tags: Adam Sohn, Apple, CFO David Carlson, collecting dust, company spokesperson, comparison, david carlson, dear readers, director of marketing, game, GameStop, insufficient demand, ipods, last quarter, last thursday, man with the money, marketing, Microsoft, microsoft zune, money, nail in the coffin, quarterly earnings, Redmond, robbie bach, roon, steve jobs, swan song, thestreet com, Vegas, Worldwide, zoon
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Monday, May 26th, 2008
Recently, an ultra rare Star Fox satin jacket popped up on ebay. RawMeatCowboy over at GoNintendo eagle eyed this gem popping up the other day. This rare piece of video gaming history was given out only to those the reached specific high scores at the Star Fox Competition Nintendo hosted back in the day (1993).
According to the item description on ebay, the jacket has only been worn a few times and is a size medium. The seller is also tossing in a couple of rare Star Fox pins, the original documentation sent direct from Nintendo, and a copy of Star Fox for Super Nintendo (I still have mine, got yours?). If owning a piece of gaming history wasn’t enough for you, you can also walk away with a nice feeling knowing that 10% of your purchase price is going to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.
While Star Fox might be 15 years old now, it WAS the first 3D polygon Nintendo game, and in it’s own right, changed the way we look at gaming forever.
I’m placing my bid right now – if I win, who’s up for a contest to re-win this gem?
Tags: 3d polygon, ebay, game, gaming, gaming history, GoNintendo, marine toys for tots, marine toys for tots foundation, Nintendo, nintendo game, RawMeatCowboy, satin jacket, star fox, super nintendo, video, video gaming
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Petroglyph is best known for their award winning work with Star Wars: Empire At War and Universe At War real time strategy games. Key members of the Petroglyph team were also involved in the development of the original Command and Conquer series while at Westwood Studios. Mytheon hails as uncharted territory for Petroglyph, as this is their first microtransaction game.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=4b369e44-1ae4-420f-9ab8-dc1371951e63)
