Posts Tagged ‘Warcraft’
Friday, May 15th, 2009
We all knew that Frogster’s fantasy world based free-to-play Runes of Magic was going to be a hit with gamers around the world, but I’m not quite sure anyone could have predicted the explosive growth that the Berlin based publisher has recently announced: over 1 million registered users. Now, a 1 million registered user landmark is always impressive, but also take into account this has been accomplished in less than two months since the official release. OMGZ!
Announced on the US Runes of Magic site, European and North American users have achieved this number. But it doesn’t stop there, as Russian and Korean language versions have already been announced. Wait, putting a quality free-to-play in the hands of Koreans? Be prepared for some truly explosive numbers the minute this goes live via Frogster Asia. The Russian version will be offered up through a partnership with Game Factory Interactive. “We are convinced that with the up-coming offering of additional language versions we will achieve further strong growth in Europe,” stated Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH.
Sounds like Frogster might be able to kick off their shoes and relax for a minute, no? Well obviously they’re out to prove that old saying that ‘no moss gathers on a rolling stone’, as they’ve also announced at this week’s LOGIN conference in Seattle that they’re now making getting started with Runes of Magic even faster via a streaming version with BitRaider in North America. The BitRaider client will allow players to being playing the game within minutes, rather than hours, as users can download only the portions of the game that are needed to begin. Once up and running, the remaining pieces of the Runes of Magic puzzle will be downloaded in the background.
“The biggest barrier to even wider adoption of free-to-play online games is the time it takes from when you start downloading the game, to when you get in and play,” said Lars Koschin, CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “We understand that people want to be able to get into a game as quickly as possible, and that is why we are working with BitRaider to make Runes of Magic the first free-to-play title to use the technology. We believe that by reducing the download and installation process to less than 5 minutes on most systems, we’ll see a rapid increase in players coming to the game”
I’ll fully admit, I’m about the throw some kerosene on a burning debate here, but to those that have had their doubts about the success or even sustainability of free-to-play MMO’s in the North American and/or European markets, I say: stick a fork in it. Frogster has clearly started out of the gate running at 1000 miles per hour, and clearly shows no signs of slowing. World of Warcraft may be the world’s most successful MMO, but based on a ‘buy the box, and pay the subscription model’. Runes of Magic is completely free to download and play, and if they can keep the pace up on this growth, I’d venture a guess to say that they could very well give Nexon, and their genre defining MapleStory a run for their money.
Congrats to the folks at Frogster and Runewalker, keep up the fantastic work!
Tags: 1 million, Andreas Weidenhaupt, BitRaider, explosive growth, free to play online games, Frogster, frogster interactive pictures, korean language, Lars Koschin, LOGIN, maplestory, runes of magic, russian version, Warcraft
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
SOE exec John Smedley gives a thumbs up to future Sony MMO developments to be available on PlayStation consoles.
The giant elephant in the room, other wise know as Blizzard, which has been dominating the MMORPG scene since World of Warcraft’s launch 4 years ago, could begin to feel some heat from the Sony side of life. Sony is looking to successfully position full blown MMO’s on the PlayStation console. Smedley and company are looking to see which profile of gamer would be willing to pay for subscriptions, or better yet, micro-transactions for Sony’s upcoming free-to-play games including Sony’s much anticipated upcoming Free Realms.
“We’re actually one of two companies in the world that’s ever done a console MMO. We had EverQuest Online Adventures for the PS2 – still operating. It and Final Fantasy XI are the only actual MMOs,” says Smedley.
“We introduced a trading card game to our EverQuest and EQ2 players and they got the idea of microtransactions very quickly,” explained Smedley. “We put it in there in a way that wasn’t harmful to gameplay and it actually gave them a benefit, so that’s how we’re going to convert existing players. Getting a console player to pay for a subscription, I think that’s an interesting question.”
Smedley also predicts that the underlying technology that is now in place to allow for simultaneous console and PC launches of new games will introduce an entirely new group of gamers to console play.
“We have advantages that others simply don’t being in the Sony family. For us, the opportunity that we see on the PS3, and potentially the PSP, is something that we can’t pass up on…. I would say that we would be one of the early adopters on [bringing MMOs to consoles], and we plan on becoming one of the dominant players in the MMO space on consoles. We see that marketing coming; we think it’s there now, so we want to get a good market share there.”
Maybe Smedely is correct. Personally, I’m more of a PC player, but have often been intrigued by the merging of PC play with console convenience. I’ve played a few of my favorite PC games with an Xbox 360 control mod, and have to say, the living room comfort sure does beat endless hours at the desk. If Sony is successfully able to port an MMO to a console (targeting and casting controls aside), AND get console players used to the idea of microtransactions, this could have the potential to unlock a number of possibilities not only for Sony, but for the industry as a whole.
Tags: Blizzard, EverQuest, everquest online adventures, final fantasy xi, Free, free realms, free to play, john smedley, micro transactions, MMORPG, MMOs, PlayStation, PSP, soe, trading card game, Warcraft
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
Sunday, September 21st, 2008
It looks like THQ is wasting no time in getting the new Shanghai office into the game. They’ve recently announced a joint venture in cooperation with ICE Entertainment to bring Dragonica to the North American market in 2009.
Dragonica will be a cartoony, sticky sweet, side scrolling game that is free-to-play and supported by pay-for-content micro-transactions. The game was developed by Korean design house Barunson Interactive Co. Dragonica has spent sever years in the development shop, and is finally ready for it’s coming out party. With 3D rendering, new cartoon characters and scenery modeling, Dragonica promised to raise the bar on traditional side scrolling games. The game mixes elements of action and arcade, and creates various skills to enhance play. ICE realized the potential of Dragonica, and has the exclusive rights to operate Dragonica in China.
ICE’s CEO Sun Tai is the former CTO of Chinese major player, The9, a leading operator of Chinese online games including World of Warcraft. This joint venture will combine ICE’s online operating expertise and THQ’s product development and retail experience to create a new platform for the North American market.
“We are extremely excited to be working with ICE Entertainment to bring this free-to-play, micro-transaction-based online game to the robust yet largely untapped market for online casual gaming in North America,” said Doug Clemmer, president of THQ’s casual gaming subsidiary. “We are even more pleased to be building a strong and mutually beneficial relationship, which we hope will lead to additional opportunities to deliver online gaming content globally.”
“We are looking forward to combining THQ’s extensive marketing and retail expertise with our advanced technology and proven online game operating know-how to deliver a great new casual gaming experience for North American consumers,” said Sun Tao, chief executive officer, ICE Entertainment. “We also look forward to working with THQ more closely to develop new games and explore future publishing opportunities in both markets.”
Current estimates of the North American casual game market peg it at approximately $2.2 billion by 2013 (DFC Intelligence). In 2007, China’s online games market clocked in at a whopping $1.7 billion, and reached 42 million gamers. According to Niko Partners, this market is expected to balloon to $4.2 billion by 2010.
Tags: advanced technology, american consumers, barunson, cartoon characters, China, CTO, Doug Clemmer, gaming content, micro transactions, North America, North American, Shanghai, shanghai office, thq, Warcraft, World of Warcraft
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
Monday, June 30th, 2008
Apparently Blizzard has had enough with the (probable) massive amounts of ‘Hey, my account has been hacked’ emails that they deal with each day/month/year. To combat this, Blizzard is stepping up security by offering an optional lightweight and Waterproof Authenticator device that is meant to attach to a keychain.
The device is linked to your account and generates a Keychain Token style code that changes after a predetermined time period. After inputting your normal login details, you would then be prompted to enter the alphanumeric code that is displayed on your Authenticator.
This authenticator is not required, but rather an optional security feature available from Blizzard. The device was premiered at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Event, and will be available shortly on Blizzard’s online store for the whopping price of $6.50. Not a hefty price to pay to ensure that your top gear isn’t ending up at some vendor and you left standing naked in the middle of Ogrimmar wondering wtf? In addition, wouldn’t the Blizzard Authenticator be a welcome addition to your boring keyring? Not quite the ultimate fan badge, but definitely an eye catcher.
“It’s important to us that World of Warcraft offers a safe and enjoyable game environment,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “One aspect of that is helping players avoid account compromise, so we’re pleased to make this additional layer of security available to them.”
Read the official release at: http://www.blizzard.com/security-token
Tags: alphanumeric code, authenticator, Blizzard, blizzard entertainment, CEO, Entertainment, game environment, keychain, keyring, login details, mike morhaime, Ogrimmar, security, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Worldwide, worldwide event
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
While we all wait with baited breath for the new World of Warcraft expansion pack: The Wrath of the Lich King to drop upon us like a beam of light sent from the heavens above, what are you doing to prepare?
Details about the new expansion pack are being released in minor chunks here and there, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say that we’re all excited about the new Epic class: Death Knight.
From what I’ve read thus far, there’s a lot of peeps out there that are already making plans as to which class and race they’re going to set their Death Knight up as and how the heck they’re planning on (smartly) playing this new character.
Rizelle of Gurubashi is already on the ball and getting ready for the arrival. In a thread titled ‘I’m already playing my Death Knight’ over at the wow forums, she posts a few interesting tidbits to keep in mind:
- Farmed enough materials to powerlevel Engineering/First Aid/Cooking to 350, and farmed a few stacks of each precious ore (silver, gold, truesilver) to smelt for Mining levels (even though i’ll probably have to do some back mining anyway).
- Farmed up quite a bit of rep items to turn in upon hitting Outland. So far i’m up to 300x Unidentified Plant Parts, 150 Arakkoa Feathers, 80 Firewing Signets.
Smart thinking. I think a lot of us hit 70, max skills and professions, and then just want to start building up our purple gear sets. Sound familiar? Yeah, me too. So for a different bit of play strategy, why not take some queues from Rizelle, and start your farming today?
Is YOUR Death Knight prepared? If not…get started today…as there’ll be nothing more satisfying than having one of the first level 80 Death Knights on the block. As a side note…be prepared for the barrage of ‘Can you Tank our group’ whispers you’ll be receiving.
Tags: Arakkoa, arakkoa feathers, Cooking, death knight, death knights, Engineering, Farmed, Gurubashi, Mining, new world of warcraft expansion, new world of warcraft expansion pack, outland, powerlevel, Rizelle, Signets, truesilver, Warcraft, world of warcraft expansion pack, Wrath, wrath of the lich king
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
“Hello welcome to our website: www.wespam4gold.com, our prices are the absolute cheapest” - Blah blah blah, shut up, stop spamming me, and get the (&%# out of the way of the mailbox.
Yeah, we all know them, we all (or at least 99.44%) of us hate them. The gold spammer. That annoying player that create character names with one fell swoop of the keyboard ‘fghjkbvcqwert’ – lvl 1 spammer that has nothing to do than set a canned message, and piss the rest of us off.
Well it seems like some pissed off Warcraft players have found a way to deal with wqyuire; by means of a napalm death to via Fire Nova Totem. Of course this method is not acceptable to Blizz (aka ‘The Man’), and removed the thread from it’s forums, but yay for Google. Thanks to their caching feature, it can be viewed here.
Basically, it breaks down like so: A shammy can drop a Fire Nova totem near a level 1 bot, and log off just before the totem detonates. By logging off, this makes the totem unaligned, and can therefore damage either faction.
Even a level 70 totem doesn’t do that much damage to the average player, but it WILL however scorch a level one gold spammer that’s just standing around the bank and/or auction house. And since this is a bot just programmed to stand there and make announcements, no one is monitoring it, therefore, no one there to resurrect it.
If you need more gold in game, go farming, or talk to one of our friendly players just like you that have items or gold to sell. Let’s leave the spam on the frypan, and players in game.
Tags: amp, Auction, auction house, blah, Blizz, canned message, character names, Death, faction, farming, frypan, game, gold, google, keyboard, message, napalm, napalm death, Nova, Nova Totem, Orc, pissed off, Player, shammy, spam, spambot, spammer, swoop, top, totem, US, Warcraft, warcraft players, yay
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Some exciting new news surfaced over the weekend about the upcoming Lich King expansion set for Warcraft.
Most notably, it seems as though Blizzard is learning and evolving. In the original game, players were required to organize 40 person raids to receive high-level end game content. Needless to say, this became a rather challenging proposition and areas like Naxxramas went largely untouched.
With the Burning Crusade, large raid groups were cut down to a 25 person max, but again, this is still difficult to manage at times. Blizzard is taking cues from the games most popular raid, Karazhan. Kara seems to hit the sweet spot with most players by providing excellent loot, a decent yet not impossible level of organization (10 players), and can be cleared in around 2 hours (depending on players skill level of course).
Blizz is taking this knowledge and applying it to the new Lich King.
- All dungeons will have a 10 and 25 person version available
- Versions of the raids are NOT dependent upon each other
- 25 person raids will have improved (on tier higher) loot
- NO KEYS! No more running around to get key fragments and attunements
- 10 person and 25 person dungeons are on separate timers. Meaning: if you’ve already run the dungeon with a group of 10, and find 15 more people to run it with your group, you’re golden
- 5 person raids are designed to take no longer than 1 hour to complete
- A new token system will be introduced, similar to the Badge of Justice system
We also got hit with a few tidbits about the new hero character class: Death Knights
- Every race is able to start a Death Knight
- Death Knights start at level 55 and there’s no longer a prerequisite to get one. In other words, if you’ve got a level 55 character, you can make 1 Death Knight per account per realm.
- Mounted Combat! You’ll now have the ability to fight while mounted. Don’t forget about the ability to take a buddy with you (some Wrath mounts have the ability to bring a passenger along), AND use them in the old world.
All in all, it looks like a juicy in expansion, with some well thought out (and heard) requests from players around the world.
Tags: Blizz, Blizzard, Burning, content, Crusade, Death, dungeon, expansion, hero, hour, Kara, Karazhan, KEYS, King, Knight, Knights, level, Lich, loot, Naxxramas, race, raid, realm, tier, Versions, Warcraft, world
Posted in industry news | No Comments »
Announced on the US Runes of Magic site, European and North American users have achieved this number. But it doesn’t stop there, as Russian and Korean language versions have already been announced. Wait, putting a quality free-to-play in the hands of Koreans? Be prepared for some truly explosive numbers the minute this goes live via Frogster Asia. The Russian version will be offered up through a partnership with Game Factory Interactive. “We are convinced that with the up-coming offering of additional language versions we will achieve further strong growth in Europe,” stated Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=814a0292-87ff-4238-abd1-fa74055b1832)
