Summer is universally known as a slow time for gamers. Most of the anticipated titles skip the warm season and generally come out when the weather gets colder, just in time for the holidays. However this year, Electronic Arts has decided to change up the theory “when games should be released.”
Barring no major setbacks or delays, EA is set to release both the reboot of the Medal of Honor game, which is set in modern times and Realtime World’s ambitious title APB (All Points Bulletin) will be released this summer. The publisher expects to release both games between July through September; however no exact date was announced.
The company also announced vague dates for a couple other important games as well. From October to December, Crysis 2, Criterion’s (Burnout) first take on Need for Speed and EA’s MMA game will all be launched. Following December and ending in March, Dead Space 2, a sequel to Dragon Age, an unnamed Epic Games shooter, along with a unannounced action title, are all scheduled to ship.
I love videogames, I love them to death. But honestly, I could never spend what I considered an insane amount of money on a object that is not real. But apparently there are people out there, that are willing to shell out huge sums of money to pixelated objects. Don’t believe me? Well, just take “Buzz Eric Lightyear” for example. The guy plays a free MMORPG game called Entropia Universe, where players are supposed to colonize a untamed planet named Calypso. While the game is free to download, the title uses its own currency called Project Entropia Dollars, or PED for short.
One way people get PEDs is by actually using their own money, and one $1 USD equals to $10 PED. While you might think the title sounds like a snore, and you believe there is no way the developer, MindArk, makes any kind of cash off the title — you would be wrong. So far, according to them, the turnover has been $3.6 Billion PEDs, or $360 Million USD — aka real money.
Because there is a lot of cash being made off the MMO, some players have to be spending a crap-load, which brings me back to this “Buzz Eric Lightyear” guy. According to reports, he recently just dropped $330,000 of real money to purchase his own virtual space station, that orbits Planet Calypso.
Now before you make fun of him, which I already have and I’m sure you will too, make sure you understand that his newly acquired space station will actually be a virtual business, and he’ll even make real money in the end. Apparently, anyone can hang out in this station and while they are there, they can hunt and shop. Since”Lightyear” owns the business, he has the ability to set the tax rates of everything, which in the end turns into REAL cash in his REAL pocket.
Everyone says you should make money off of something you enjoy, so I guess you could say he just took the phrase to the extreme.
The LA Times is reporting that Activision has already picked a third development team to create another Call of Duty game. Right now, Infinity Ward has just released the sixth installment of the famous first-person shooter and Treyarch, who has developed two COD’s of their own, is set to bring another game into the series sometime in 2010.
According to a source, this third team is looking into avenues to bring a new experience to the Call of Duty universe and even considering a massively multiplayer online game. Which kind of makes sense when you think about the revenue Activision has personally seen since they merged with Bilzzard, who receives millions of dollars per-month, thanks to the monthly subscription in order to play the popular World of Warcraft game.
Now, I understand Activision is a company who is known for milking franchises, just look at the Guitar Hero series. In 2009 alone, we have seen a total of NINE “Hero” titles, counting every device they have been available on. I understand why they did it, I think the publisher felt the genre is nothing more than a fad, and while some people disagree — it made sense. If the company is proven to be correct in the future, they wanted to capitalize as much as they could, and not let the competition be extremely profitable in the years to come. It was almost like they would rather kill the popularity of the rhythm genre, instead of a rival company like Electronic Arts to be profitable over the next ten years because of their Rock Band franchise. It sounds like their thinking is to bust out as many installments as they can, and have people become sick of music titles, so the other companies won’t profit from their own games. That way, Activision becomes the leader of the music genre.
However, I don’t understand this new move, besides being profitable for the short term. We can now accept the Call of Duty franchise as a house-hold name; Modern Warfare 2 has officially solidified that. But the first-person shooter genre is not going anywhere. Unlike Guitar Hero, FPSs have been around for almost 20 years. If it has lasted this long, and the genre has seen thousands of titles, some good and some bad, its not some fad. So the only thing they would destroy is the “Call of Duty” name, and the series could become stale relatively fast, if we see a couple every year.
I understand it’s only a third team and as of now, they don’t have nine different Call of Duty’s planned for 2010; however, I wouldn’t put it past the publisher to do something like that in just a few years.
It should be noted that key leaders of Infinity Ward used to work for 2015, and they were the team behind Medal of Honor: Allied Assault — which was a title very similar to the original World War II Call of Duty games. If those same guys feel their hard work to develop one of the top franchises in gaming today, then don’t be surprised if they wanted to leave Activision because they feel their work is nothing more than a company trying to milk it.
Apparently, Sony sent out the first batch of MAG beta keys. While checking out my email a littler earlier, I noticed the company sent me one. While I was excited to see the invite in my inbox, I was a tad disappointed to find out how Sony and Zipper plan to run it.
According the same email, beta participants can only play the game during specific times. It reads, “The MAG Beta is only available during a limited hours. Please log in during the times listed below to participate.” Players will only be allowed to play Monday through Friday10:00 AM-1:00 PM and 5:00 PM-8:00 PM, all times a Pacific Standard Time. Not only do the times really suck, but not having it for the weekend is extremely inconvenient for the lucky users.
Thankfully, the message also said they need beta invitees to really help with Sony’s showing at Gamescom. The hours have been expended for this week only. Starting this Wednesday, gamers who have the beta will be allowed to play against attendees of the expo on the showfloor in Germany.
Hopefully overtime, Sony will indefinitely expand the hours as time passes.
If you were hoping to see Zipper Interactive’s ship its 256-online shooter before the Christmas season, you can stop doing that. MAG is officially dated for January 26, 2010, thanks to a quick blurb over at the official PlayStation blog. Originally, Sony said MAG would see the light of day sometime in the fall of this year. But thanks the endless amount of first-person shooters and the art of perfecting a game, it looks like the company thought a little delay wouldn’t hurt the game.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for FPS fans of the PS3. Even if you were looking forward to MAG, chances are you can’t wait for Modern Warfare 2. Now, with the minor push back, you can play the hell out of Infinity Ward’s epic sequel and when you’re sick of that — move over to MAG.
When I woke up this morning, I was surprised to see an email from Sony saying that I was invited to register for the 256-player online game MAGbeta. The keywords in the sentence was “invited to register” and NOT invited to play the beta. To clarify, if you received the same email or wishing you did, it doesn’t me you’re accepted to play the beta, but your given the ability to fill out an application and from there, it’s up to Sony.
After I signed up, a message appeared that read, “if you do not receive an invite for the first wave you may still be invited in a following MAG Public Beta wave.” Thankfully, this is going to be an ongoing process.
During the registration process, there were a bunch of questions that asked some of the obvious like, how many hours of a week of gaming do you play, and it even included some technical ones. The last question was least favorite. You had to write an essay about why you should be chosen in the beta. Do you actually think someone over at Sony reads every single one?
There’s no official word why certain people were chosen to apply and others weren’t. An educated guess would be the people who are part of the Gamers Advisory Panel for Sony, are the lucky ones to have a chance to play the beta first.
A French fan site for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, has given a a broad release date for the much anticipated massively-multiplayer online game. According to what they call ‘a reliable source,’ the website is dating BioWare’s next epic adventure for sometime in September of 2010. Basically if this ends up being correct, we’ll be playing The Old Republic in about a years time.
Obviously both LucasArts and BioWare have yet to confirm anything and they haven’t commented on the rumor. September of 2010 does seem like a legitimate number, but that’s kind of the problem. Could this source pick a believable date or is the company really planning to release that month?
Hopefully more concrete evidence will be revealed as GamesCon gets closer.
Blizzard and Pepsi have teamed up to promote Mountain Dew, by using the World of Warcraft game. Up top is the first commercial to air on television and it is highly unrealistic. Seriously, how many girls who look like that, drink Mtn. Dew and/or play World of Warcraft? I’ll give you the answer; zero. Both products are known to make people fat.
And oh, I guess humans don’t really turn into a WoW avatar, so that might not be practical too. Although, I think the chances of turning into a Orc at your local grocery store is higher than seeing to hot women buying Mtn. Dew and play WoW.
If you want to see a real gamer who plays WoW and drinks the soda, check out a video we embedded after the jump. (more…)
Proof:World of Warcraft would be 100 percent more adorable if it included Sackboy. Or would this be called a level 80 Blood SACKelf Warlock? You know what? I honestly don’t care…
Anyway, it’s damn cute, right?
The credit goes to maggiewang and her co-worker. Now, if only I could make something as cool as this, then my life would be complete.
A couple of years ago now, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) announced a stealth/massively multiplayer online shooter called The Agency. If you don’t know, SOE is reasonable for other MMOs like the former ultra-popular EverQuest series — you know, the original crack game before WoW.
The Agency was first announced in 2007, but pretty much since that time, the game has been nonexistent and ultimately I didn’t care about the title as time passed. Not because I think it’s going to be atrocious, but when a company doesn’t seem to care to release information about their product after two-years, I stop being interested.
Today, SOE has released another trailer for the action title and it shows absolutely no gameplay, which doesn’t help me care more about the game. Actually, I’m a little disappointed even more so, because it looks a tad generic. From the writing to the pre-rendered graphics to the acting, it reminds me of a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon.
See what I mean in the video above.
If The Agency is ever released, it will be available for the PlayStation 3 and PC.
Sony Online Entertainment announced awhile back that both The Agency and DC Universe Online are going to be released on the PC and PlayStation 3. Both games are MMO’s, but each one will be completely different. The Agency is a ambitious MMO espionage game, while DC Universe is going to be a MMORPG, but include our favorite DC Super Heroes/Villains.
However, they both have one thing in common, the two games will be available in stores next year. That’s right, both titles have been pushed until 2010. While no date was ever set in stone, SOE did give us the impression that we could have seen the MMOs this year, but not anymore. The news comes straight from SOE’s president John Smedley mouth, who spoke about the delay during his keynote session at GDC.
Curt Schilling — Love him or hate him, you have to respect the man. Not only is he one of the greatest playoff players in his era, the guy did one of the guttiest things in the postseason. With his flesh cut open and blood dripping down his sock, the man pitched a brilliant game and helped the Boston Red Sox overcome a 0-3 deficit against their rivals the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. He eventually would reprised a similar role in the 2004 World Series and the Sox would go on and win the championship for the first time in 86 years. Today, the pitcher announced his retirement after great 20 seasons.
Now, you might be wondering, did /gamer just change into a sports blog? The answer is no. We mentioned Curt because he might appear to be a jock on the outside, he’s a total geek on the inside. The guy loves EverQuest, and not just a little — like a crap load. He loves gaming so much, he decided to start up a video game development company called 38 Studios (his baseball number was 38). Because of his retirement, Schilling will now be working full-time for the first time on his first massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Copernicus.
He’ll be speaking at Gamesbeat 09 in San Francisco with Adam Sessler, co-host of X-Play on G4. Hopefully, we can see some gameplay footage of his game soon, I would like to see what the former athlete has planned.
Sony is finally starting to show off the PlayStation 3’s potential. Killzone 2 has received praise for its ultra-realistic graphics and exciting gameplay. MLB: The Show could easily be the best baseball game and perhaps the sports game of the year. Now PS3 owners are now anxiously waiting for even more hits — and Sony has them coming, but the question is; when will they arrive in stores.
One of these titles is Zipper Interactive’s high-profile game MAG. The massively multiplayer online shooting was first announced at last year’s E3. But since its unveiling, it has been a blur of when we should expect to get out hands on it. For some reason, Sony has been going back and forth using the terms “this year” and “fiscal year.” If your wondering if there is a difference; the answer is yes — and its a HUGE difference (depending how you look at it). This year would obviously mean by the end of 2009, while fiscal (for Sony) means anywhere from April 2009 to March 2010.
Scott Rohde who is Sony’s Vice President of Product Development, might have given us a little insight of when MAG should be available. While talking about the quality of the PS3’s lineup for 2009, he mentioned the shooter.
“I think what we try to do is come up with original concepts, and even twists on some existing genres, like what we’re doing with MAG for later this year”
Because we are still in March, 2009-2010’s fiscal year for Sony has yet to start. Meaning, MAG should debut by the end of 2009. Unless of course, Sony sends the PR dogs out and they correct Mr Rohde, which is always possible. Until then, expect to be playing the shooter sometime later this year.
A few days ago, Waner Bros. recently announced another Watchmen game, but this time it was headed to the iPhone. The title, which is called ‘Justice is Coming‘, was promised to be an MMO RPG. The studio did not give a release date, however, they said sometime in early March. I guess early March meant the day the film was to hit theaters, because you can download it now on the App-Store.
The game is on sale right now for .99 cents, but in the description, it is promised to be a ‘introductory price’ and will be more expensive in the future. Although we haven’t played it, some early reviews came out thanks to the App-Store review system.
Right now the game is getting a decent rating score of 3/5 starts. While many people praise the game for its graphics, a lot complain because it keeps on crashing their phone. Just read what AmberCrystal wrote:
“This game looks to be freakin’ awesome. But …
I’ve had many app crashes (it suddenly exits), which is frustrating.”
She’s not the only one complaining about the issue, Sifu is having a similar problem:
“While the game looks good, if you are lucky enough to get logged on you frequently get kicked off.”
So, most people seem to enjoy it, however, most get kicked off and hurts their experience with the title. Although, Rtwingdude looks like he loves it, he just wrote, “OMG OMG!
In the entertainment industry, this should be the official Watchmen week. With the highly-anticipated film being released this Friday, and the video game debuting this week, any true Watchmen fan should be in heaven. Apparently, the Watchmen game ‘The End is Nigh,’ will not be the only video game title to be sold this year. According to Warner Bros. A new Watchmen game called: Watchmen: Justice is Coming will be available exclusively for the Apple iPhone and iTouch.
Justice is Coming is described as an MMO adventure fighting game and looks to use the new in-game engine named, the ‘Last Legion’s cloudMMO. ‘ The engine is promised to give players the ability to not only play online on the go with the phone, but also let the environments to change frequently, as well as enable voice chat for the players.
The main story will take place sometime in the 1970s — about a decade before the focal point of the films plot. That probably means it will not follow the graphic novel nor movie and will tell its own story.
Players will be able to create his or hers own avatar and will control the look and skills of their own character. They will then proceed to to interact with other owners of the game, using 3G or WiFi.
According to the official website, we should see ‘Watchmen: Justice is Coming’ in Apple’s App Store sometime this month — early March to be exact. No price or monthly subscriptions have been announced.
