Posts Tagged ‘multiplayer’

Playcast Media taps JWT to beef up cloud gaming portal

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

While OnLive and Gaikai have received their own fair amount of attention, it seems as though another player is making a go and the hearts and minds of eager gamers. Announced yesterday, Israel/UK/Los Angeles based cloud gaming service Playcast Media has recently appointed JWT London to develop its new social gaming portal.

A marketing communications brand, JWT’s client list reads like a who’s who, including Bayer, HSBC, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Nokia, Rolex, and Shell, to name a few. JWT’s new Innovation Lab, a part of the Experience unit will be leading the development of said portal.

The newly formed Innovation Lab is headed by Miguel Andres Clavera, and is tasked with developing a new social gaming platform that will enhance the experience of playing casual games on Playcast’s platform. Playcast is striving to set themselves apart from the competition, starting out with a revolutionary 3D user interface. This 3D interface allows gamers to play multiplayer games as well as connect to their favorite social networks on any PC or TV without the need of a console.

“We provide a media experience which combines the qualities of video games and TV with online streaming and social media. JWT is one of only a handful of creative teams who are able to blend these qualities into an organic user experience with a global application for our European and Asian partners,” comments Playcast CEO Guy de Beer.

Already live in Europe, Playcast’s cloud gaming service isn’t just a game or two here and there, but rather, they’ve struck a number of strategic deals with top level companies including Activision, THQ, Capcom, Atari, Codemasters, and a host of others.

Guy Hayward, Chief Executive at JWT UK Group, said: “It’s an honor to be working with the leading cloud gaming company. This proves that JWT’s focus on technology and its role in people’s lives is transforming the type of work we do. JWT has a history of building brands for the long term; we look forward to doing the same with Playcast.”

The upgraded and enhanced Playcast experience is slated for a launch later this year, and will offer a radically different experience than gamers are used to from traditional PC or gaming consoles.

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Parabellum closed beta now open for registration

Monday, May 4th, 2009

You might remember back in September we talked about Acony’s upcoming free-to-play first person shooter, Parabellum.  Powered by the Unreal Engine 3, this highly anticipated title stole the hearts and minds of gamers at the Austin Game Developers Convention.

parabellum_betaAccording to the official description from Acony, Parabellum will be a hybrid of the best elements of a First Person Shooter and a Massive Multiplayer Online game.  Parabellum will also introduce the first interactive non-linear multiplayer campaigns in addition to an advanced character and weapon development system.

Set in the future, 2018 to be exact, players take part in privatized global military force actions (not unlike what’s been unfolding on Fox’s 24 this season), where ex-soldiers, mercenaries, and adventurers can make untold fortunes.  Players will choose an alliance, either the CTN; those committed to keeping anarchy at bay, or the Syndicate, rebels hell bent on destruction and chaos.  Overseeing, or perhaps rather encouraging both organizations, the C.I.N. provides contracts to both groups depending on the pending job.  An interesting feature of Parabellum will include consequence decisions, meaning that outcomes from one mission will affect the outcome and procedure from the next mission.  Players will not fight level after level of unrelated content, but rather fight their way through entire cities.  Given the nature of the game and these missions, players are free to choose their own routes through these cities, as well as construct routes that will lead the opposing force into traps.

Taking cues from the MMO world, Parabellum characters gain experience and evolve throughout the experience.  As more and more missions are complete, player’s characters will unlock new weapons, weapon mods and attachments, body armor, accessories and appearance.  Acony is touting over 10,000 different possible combinations, a feat yet unheard of in any MMO-FPS.

Distributed in the US by K2, a quick reminder of some additional game customizations:

  • Player uploaded battle music
  • Turning off in game advertising
  • Clan logos
  • And a whole lot more ‘undisclosed’ content

On a final note, while Parabellum will be free to play, there’s a host of available items made possible via microtransactions.  However, the good folks at Acony take what they’re building here very seriously, and realize that pwnage should not depend on the size of a player’s wallet.  That’s why they’ve specifically designed the game to measure victory based on skill and wit.  None of the weapons or equipment in the game require players to pay for with real money.

So get the gettin’s while the gettins hot.  Acony is now accepting applications for their closed beta at http://parabellum.xg1.net/.  Note: you will have to create an account before applying for the beta.  Fair’s fair.

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IGA Worldwide lands exclusive Cross Fire in-game advertising contract

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

G4BOX Inc. and Wicked Interactive Ltd. announced yesterday that the ink is officially dry on an exclusive in-game advertising deal with IGA Worldwide for their hit free-to-play first person shooter Cross Fire.

The counterstrike-esque multiplayer first person shooter allows for up to 16 players to simultaneously battle online.  Objective based missions and scenarios take place across a wide range of real world realistic locations and arenas.  Not simply a point and shoot, Cross Fire also offers up a healthy selection of features and game modes including an exclusive ‘ghost match’ mode, a persistent stat-tracking and ranking system, integrated clan and in-game friends systems, and character customizations and realistic military weaponry.

“The Cross Fire beta launch has proven to be a tremendous success. The scale of the community building around the game has been astonishing and is still growing rapidly,” said Howard He, CEO of G4BOX Inc. “We are delighted to partner with G4BOX on Cross Fire. Its success has allowed us to partner with in-game advertising pioneer, IGA Worldwide, to pursue opportunities in this exciting and ground-breaking advertising environment,” added Garvin Yeung, CEO of Wicked Interactive Ltd.

Utilizing IGA Worldwide’s proprietary Radial 4.0 advertising SDK, Cross Fire will now offer brands and agencies the opportunity to display, update and geo-target their ads to a holy grail: the 18-34, tech savvy, male demographic.

Ed Bartlett, Vice President Europe for IGA Worldwide, said “Having pioneered ad-supported free-to-play premium games over the last three years, we are very excited to extend this model to Cross Fire, which has all of the necessary features for another huge success story in this category. IGA prides itself on a qualitative approach to ad inventory, and alongside contextual in-game billboards, users can also expect a sponsored tournament and leaderboards as well as subsidized branded content including new levels and arenas.”

Given that only a month and a half back IGA Worldwide sent out the ‘we need more money, or a buyer’ message, IGA Worldwide has been making signing a number of deals and agreements.  Perhaps there’s something a bit more going on in the background that we’re privy to?  Has IGA found a new investor?  Are they simply trying to pump the value, prepping for a sale?  Or…are they just doing a great job, doing what they do?  Which ultimately leads us to, what the heck WAS that plea for help all about?  Either way, things seem to be looking up for one of the leading in-game advertising providers.  I guess we’ll simply have to wait and see exactly where they’re headed with these exciting announcements.

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Free-to-play Empire of Sports in ‘Private Launch’

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Sports MMO’s seem to be one of the newest and fastest growing trends in the virtual world, and developers F4 and Infront are soon to be tossing their entry onto the playing field.  Officially billing itself as a non MMO, Empire of Sports is an errr… non- massive, multiplayer online game focused on and around, you guessed it, any and all things sports.

Players start their non-mmo adventure as a rookie, and level up skills through a variety of entry-level sports: Soccer, Tennis, Basketball, Skiing, and Bobsledding.  You may also choose to participate in a wide variety of training exercises.  Word on the street is that Empire of Sports has a few goodies still up its sleeve and plans on introducing Track and Field events into the game in the near future.

An interesting and ‘real world’ touch to the experience gaining process is that each sport has a number of skills attached to it.  Training exercises can be done in single player mode that increases your general skills (think balance, reaction time, muscle structure) and you can practice specific skills to increase your ability in individual sports.  In other words, it’s a whole lot like being a real world athlete – you can go to the gym to pump some iron, thereby increasing your overall athleticism, or head off to the green ‘bounce back’ wall and work on developing that killer backhand.

As you train and gain experience in particular sports, you gain a competitive advantage over opponents.  You may also purchase in game equipment to give you some extra pwnage power.  Items can be acquired in three different ways: some are earned as a reward for winning a particular tournament or match, some are purchased with ‘won’ in game currency, while the others, and perhaps most important, can be purchased via an in game mall with microtransactions.  According to F4 and Infront, the microtransaction gear is not meant to provide über status in the game, and should not provide an unfair balance to the competitive non-MMO.  A nice balance considering the game should attract a wide variety of players, some with massive amounts of time on their hands, while others would still like to have some nice gear, but don’t have hours and hours on their hands to win the appropriate cash and/or tournament(s).

As with 99.44 percent of all (non) MMO’s, Empire of Sports supports guilds, aiding in quickly and easily finding others that have a similar play and/or time schedule.

Empire of Sports is currently in ‘Private Launch’ at the moment, which basically means you’ll need to fork over an email address to get playing….but other than that, you’re in like Flynn.  Empire of Sports is free-to-play with microtransactions supporting the continued development and support.

Give them a visit at www.empireofsports.com

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