Posts Tagged ‘gaming portal’

Nival Network raises $5 million for social strategy game

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Usually, when one speaks of social gaming and it’s associated start ups, certain geographical areas come to mind. Obviously the US is a big player in the market, as is most of South East Asia. However, with 142 million residents, Russia has quite a large number of interested consumers. And while they don’t make the news that often, TechCrunch Europe recently spotted a potential diamond in the rough. Moscow based game developers Nival Network have recently secured $5 million in funding for a new MMO titled Prime World, which is slated to run on the Russian online gaming portal ZZima. Ok, let’s go ahead and have a giggle and remember Zima.

zzima

Initially reported in an interview with CEO and founder Sergey Orlovskiy in the Vedomosti paper (in Russian), the funding comes from an undisclosed investor. As stated above, the funding is expected to be put to use in further development of the firms own Prime World. The MMO is meant to be a strategy game that features a number of social networking features. And for the first time in a long while, the mention of ‘social networking features’ does not directly point to Facebook. Facebook, while arguably THE social network globally, has a rather meek market penetration in Russia. However, that’s not to say that the social network doesn’t have a foot to stand on in Russia – as usership grew last month by 123,000 people, topping out at 669,000. Not a bad number, but when compared to the 142 million inhabitants…well, yes. Not good.

And yet, there’s still hope for the Russian developer to tap into the global ‘big-game’. In the same Vedomosti article, it’s reported that Digital Sky Technologies, the now parent to Astrum Online Entertainment, subsequent parent to Nival Network, has also invested in vKontakte, the leading Russian social network, as well as Facebook. So ruling a Facebook Connect option isn’t totally off the table.

Prime World will find itself in good company, as Nival’s current games portfolio contains some top quality titles including Dragonica, Shaiya: Light and Darkness, Cabal Online, and Level-R, as well as browser based strategy game Khan Wars 2., and Acclaim’s Rock Free.

In total, the Russian online gaming market is valued at around $238 million – up a healthy $53 million from last year. $210 million goes into MMOg’s, and the remainder heading into social and casual games.

HatTip TechCrunch Europe and Quintura

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Nival Online and Gala Networks Europe to launch Allods Online – Autumn 2009

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Known as Rage of Mages in Europe and North America, Russian developers Nival Online and Europe’s go to free-to-play publisher Gala Networks are proud to announce that they’re making Allods Online available via the gPotatoe.eu gaming portal.  Allods Online is an MMORPG based on Russia’s most successful gaming series.

allodsWith purse strings in the $12m range, this new title marks the largest budget title in Russian game development in history.  The Nival Online time has recently received the ‘Best Online Game’ and ‘Best Game Developer’ awards at the 2008 Russian Game Development Conference.

This f2p brings European MMO fans into a unique universe of epic fantasy and intense conflict woven into a deep and well-developed storyline.  The setting of this “Fantasy meets Space Opera” struggle takes place on the post-apocalypse planet of Sarnout, and the subsequent formation of the Allod islands.  These islands float in the Astral, a massive living substance that up the game world.  Gameplay takes place on these Allods, where players explore and battle monsters, beasts, and even each other.  Players will also have the opportunity to put their wits and brawn to the test with larger than life Astral Battles, those that occur between various ‘Astral Ships’ manned by multiple players, focusing on cooperative teamwork to achieve victory.

Staying true to the genre, Allods Online features fantasy MMORPG play, with numerous quests, PVP combat, massive exploration opportunities, character development, and plenty o’ social interaction with other players.  Players may choose between six races and eight character classes before having to decide on their faction: The League or The Empire.

“We have spiced up a full-blown fantasy MMORPG with the most compelling elements of space opera and science fiction, with epic battles between huge Astral ships,” said Sergey Orlovskiy, founder of Nival Online. “At the same time, we are keeping a deep focus on characters. Allods Online is not about Astral ships, but about the people on them.”

“We are excited to work with Nival Online who has proved their mastery of PC and online games for over a decade” said Hyun Hur, CEO of Gala Networks Europe. “We are confident that Allods Online will have a major impact on the overall online games industry and demonstrates that top quality games can be free, giving players a strong alternative to subscription-based MMORPGs.”

Mark those calendars now, as Allods Online comes online in autumn 2009, and will be available in German, French, and English via the gPotato.eu gaming portal.  Keep up to date at: allods.gpotato.eu.

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K2 Networks launches GamersFirst 2.0 Portal

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Hot on the heels of the A2M deal, K2 Networks has recently launched a 2.0 version of their popular gaming portal, GamersFirst.

In addition to a (needed) rebranding of the site, GamersFirst.com new features an OpenID registration process, ensuring not only speed but accuracy, a much improved navigation, and most important; an expanded marketplace for game item and premiums purchases.  The marketplace also now features a wider selection of payment options including retail gaming cards.  New gamer profile pages and up-to-the-minute feeds can be found in the user interface.

To their credit, GamersFirst staff appear to be quite pleased about the new launch, appearing in a 3.5 minute film (see below).  The film was created by and stars staff members from production, marketing, and customer service.  The video pokes a bit of fun at gamers across the globe in their natural, if not sometimes odd and intriguing, natural environment.  Be sure to keep an eye out for the Law firm of Fragman, Griefer, and Noob. :)

Serving more than 23 Million gamers in over 160 countries, GamersFirst is currently available in English and Turkish with more languages planned for the near future.

“The new GamersFirst gives our gamers more of what they want,” says Patrick Ford, Vice President of Marketing at GamersFirst. “We’ve made it easier to get started with our games and to shop the marketplace. We look forward to adding even more to our platform in the coming months.”

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GamersFirst inks deal with A2M, Canada’s largest independent game developer

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

K2’s service, GamersFirst announced yesterday that they’ve signed a joint development deal with A2M, Canada’s largest independent game developer.

GamersFirst and A2M say that they’ll be partnering on a yet to be announced social gaming title.  The new game has a projected launch date of late 2009, and continues GamersFirst’s pledge to expand it’s industry presence into the development of unique and original titles.

K2’s GamersFirst is a free-to-play gaming portal that provides gamers with engaging and compelling titles.  Their mission is simple: to become the leading publisher of free-to-play games and provider of the largest and most active network of communities in the global online games market.  No small feat given today’s increasingly competitive market.  Partnering with Canada’s largest independent and highly respected game developer is certainly a step in the right direction for K2.

“GamersFirst is continuing its growth with the development of our own IP,”stated Joshua Hong, CEO and Founder, K2 Network/GamersFirst. “Being able to develop these new games assures that our gamers will have input as to what they like to see and allows us to put GamersFirst.”

A2M has been developing game content since 1992, has developed over 40 titles across every gaming genre, and has partnered with heavy hitters including Activision Blizzard, Disney, Electronic Arts, LucasArt, Sony, Vivendi Universal, and Warner Bros.

“This new partnership allows us to express our gameplay know-how to social online gaming,” said Remi Racine, President and Executive Producer, A2M. “As an independent game developer, we have the freedom to create highly imaginary concepts and, working with our partners, put it in the hands of game fans. Our creativity, combined with our ability to answer the needs of expanding markets, will make the upcoming MMO projects key milestones.”

GamersFirst currently provides services for 23 million registered users in more than 160 coutries around the world.

Free on tap at GamersFirst?

For more info on K2 visit them at: http://www.k2network.net
For more info on GamersFirst visit them at: http://www.GamersFirst.com
For more info on A2M visit them at: http://www.a2m.com

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If you build it they will come

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

New European gaming portal, Key To Play believes that an active conversation with customers and meeting their needs, rather than turning a profit is the key to success.

Key to Play creative director Toni Garcia recently spoke with Rob Purchese of gamesindustry.biz regarding this simple, yet effective strategy.  Garcia believes that high quality portals are the future of online gaming, and that Key to Play can deliver high quality games to set themselves apart from other portals.

“We are gamers, all of us. The point is: we don’t want to make money. We want to make a big, quality portal. Money’s not our priority at the moment,” Garcia explained. “We want to make things that people, if they like our service, will pay for – because we need to live! At the end of the day this is a business, but it’s not our priority. That’s the difference.”

“Maybe other portals are gamers but they don’t care as much for their gamers because they only want them to pay. That’s why we decided to go ahead with Key To Play, because in the future people will only play portals offering good service,” he added.

First up on Key to Play’s offerings list will be Pristontale 2, the successor to the South Korean 2003 Best Game of the Year, Prisontale.  With 4 years of development work, support provided by Epic Games and powered by the Unreal Engine, Prisontale 2; not a shabby choice.  If high quality free-to-play’s are really going to set Key to Play apart from its competitors, Prisontale 2 is a rock solid choice.

Key to Play is planning on monetization through microtransactions via in game items and equipment.  Garcia sees free-to-play/microtransactions as a much more valid model than yesterday’s subscription basis as it gives players the freedom to test run a product and decide for themselves if they want to drops a few coins here and there to upgrade their equipment.  Hopefully, Key to Play will also follow the growing trend of providing only temporary benefits and/or cosmetic upgrades and not providing an unfair game balance.
While not letting the cat out of the bag, Key to Play promises another MMO from Japan as it’s second offering.  Garcia stresses that online worlds are/will not be the sole focus for Key to Play, as the next title COULD be a first person shooter, or maybe even a casual title.

“The main thing is to look for good games, it doesn’t matter where they come from,” he said. “If you do things well then at the end of the day the money will come.”

Here’s to hoping that Key to Play’s wide eyed enthusiasm (and hopefully well stocked bank account) will carry over to meet players high expectations.

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