City of Heroes Going Free-To-Play Late 2011

Paragon Studios’ superpowered flagship MMO City of Heroes is surfing the ever-growing trendwave of paid online titles moving into the free-to-play market. The developer has announced City of Heroes Freedom, a free version of the seven-year-old game which will launch later this year. The MMO will follow an increasingly popular model, giving free players access to a partial list of areas and features available to paid subscribers — however, in an unusual twist, free users will be able to pick and choose exactly which features and areas they want to access.

Premium subscribers get access to the whole kit and caboodle, as well as special rewards they’ll be able to choose from every month. These include new costumes, consumables and power sets, almost ensuring their supernatural superiority over their free-to-play counterparts. Basically, they’ll be the Justice League to the free players’ Alpha Flight.

Continue reading City of Heroes going free-to-play later this year

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Need For Speed: World Now Free To Play

Here’s the official announcement from EA Games….

The Need for Speed World team is pleased to announce we are removing the Level 10 cap starting today and making the game completely Free to Play.

We’ve listened to the comments from our community and we’ve decided to make a change. Previously, gamers who didn’t buy the Starter Pack were unable to progress past Level 10. Beginning today, anyone will be able to race all the way through to Level 50 and will have full access to the entire World, all Events and Game Modes, both present and future.

In the next weeks and months we have some great new features coming including new cars, deep performance customization, a new world region and a co-op pursuit mode. With such cool content we wanted to make sure everyone has the chance to experience the complete game from Level 1 to Level 50. For more info about these new features click here.

Our VIP gamers who bought the Starter Pack before today (Sept 8th) will soon be receiving a little present from us in the form of three free 7-day car rental vouchers for the BMW M3 GTR, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and the Audi R8 4.2 FSI Quattro. We wanted a way to say “Thank you” to our most ardent fans and cool, fast cars seemed to be the best way. We’ll be emailing codes to all the qualified gamers shortly. Thank you again for all your support and passion.

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APB Shutting Down For Good

Realtime Worlds community officer Ben Bateman just popped on the APB official forums to present this sad bit of news: The game is shutting down for good. In his statement, Bateman says, "APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end."

Apparently the servers are still up for the time being, so if you’ve got the game, you’re encouraged to hop in and pour one out for Realtime Worlds’ gangsta-sim. We’ve just got one question: what happens to all of those "Realtime Points" consumers have purchased with their real-world money?

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Will Battlestar Galactica Online Work As A Browser-Based MMO?

Hey, look, a Battlestar Galactica MMO!

Leading [MMO publisher Bigpoint's] product slate for 2010 will be Battlestar Galactica Online, a tactical space combat and adventure MMOG based upon Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica series. The game, inspired by one of the most popular science fiction series in television history, will launch worldwide exclusively this fall on Syfy.com for a 30 day period. The Unity co-developed MMOG will offer state of the art graphics that can be played directly in an Internet browser.

I’m allergic to the word “browser” appearing anywhere in the same paragraph as “MMO” or even “game”, but that’s usually because it indicates some cutesy free-to-play thing that’s big in Korea, or else a social gaming pyramid scheme.

Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be case with Battlestar Galactica Online. The game is being developed by a Norwegian studio called Artplant that, as near as I can tell, isn’t yet guilty of any particularly bad online games. In fact, checking their website, they don’t seem to be guilty of many games at all. But they seem to have the right idea. Read more

Diablo Creator To Lead Marvel MMO Development

We’re not ones to assume that past performance is a definitive indicator of future output, especially in the games industry (Voltition goes from Saint’s Row to the radical Red Faction: Guerrilla? Who saw that coming?). But we can’t help but be encouraged by the news that former Blizzard North boss and Diablo creator David Brevik has joined Gazillion to lead development on the Marvel Universe MMO.

We’re more excited about the hire because we hope it indicates the title’s gameplay direction. A more action-influenced MMO take on the world of Marvel sounds like it’s been bitten by radioactive awesome.

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Marvel Comics Comes Back To The MMO Biz

There are some businesses and organizations that seem to be not only surviving the economic downturn, but even thriving: Liquor stores, movie theaters, libraries, and now online video games.

According to an announcement Tuesday, Marvel Comics is teaming up with a small and relatively unknown multiplayer online (MMO) game developer called Gazillion Entertainment to create a virtual universe featuring Marvel characters.

The joint venture will first produce a low-level online game aimed at children using Marvel’s Super Hero Squad. The more sophisticated online game Marvel Universe does not have a specific release date, but will probably appear in late 2010 or early 2011.

Enormous Fan Base

Although an earlier Marvel-based online game never took flight, both Marvel and Gazillion think the comic publisher’s enormous fan base will help make Marvel Universe a hit.

“Despite the tough economy, the video-game industry continues to grow, and MMO games for mass audiences represent the next big opportunity for the upcoming decade,” said Rob Hutter, president and CEO of Gazillion. “This is particularly the case for established global-entertainment brands like Marvel, which possess hundreds of millions of touch points with fans worldwide. The next step is exceptionally high-quality MMO entertainment, and that’s our mission at Gazillion.”

The comic-book company currently has more than 5,000 characters, including such iconic figures as Wolverine, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and Captain America. A number of those characters have been the basis of successful films, making the prospect of cross-marketing even more alluring.

Despite its relatively short track record, Gazillion will be partnering with a number of major creative companies to assist in the creation of Marvel Universe, including Apple, Pixar Animation, Blizzard Entertainment, and Microsoft Game Studios. Four separate studios will be involved in the product development and launch.

Strong Growth in Games

Marvel and Gazillion hope to tap into what is already a…

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Warhammer Online Now Offers Free 10-Day Trial

Have you been meaning to try Warhammer Online, but don’t necessarily want to pay for a month’s worth of play time? Luckily for you the game now offers a free 10-day trial for new players.

“A call to arms has been issued! With the new free trial we are making it possible for everyone to experience non-stop Realm vs. Realm combat wrapped up in a next generation MMO,” said Mythic Entertainment general manager Mark Jacobs.

“What started out as a great game has only gotten better as the team has added an incredible amount of content with our first live expansion. For gamers that have yet to experience the glory of WAR, there is no better time to join the battle!”

Prospective players of the 10-day free trial are also invited to join the game’s current “Bitter Rivals” event, which will allow players early access to the planned Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer character classes, should they decide to spring for a full, paid subscription after the trial ends.

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Star Trek: Online Releases New Art

New screenshots for the Star Trek: Online MMORPG have appeared online.
As reported by IGN.com (UK), four new screenshots are available for the Star Trek: Online MMORPG, including a ship approaching a reddish planet, a cargo-type ship in space passing a doughnut-shaped rock, a planet-side scene complete with falling snow and an interior workspace.

To see the screenshots, head here.

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Age of Conan Launched in Russia and Poland

GamingShogun has word that Age Of Conan is still trying to hang in there and survive…

Struggling MMO Age of Conan has launched in Russia and Poland, according to a press release put out today. The game has experienced several setbacks since its rocky launch last year, but Funcom is determined to turn it around. 1C and CD Projekt are handling the game”s publishing and local community relations in those regions.Official Release:Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan has launched in Russia, and Poland.

As the game gets ready for full service in two new languages, Funcom has seen a clear trend towards strengthened feedback from the current player community, which praises the many improvements to the game.

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Video – DC Universe Online Trailer

Here’s the trailer to DC Universe Online. The graphics look pretty good. The question is whether the game play will pass the test. The video shows your standard DC Heroes: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, running around fighting bad guys and breaking things.

I would have like to have seen more player created heroes in the trailer as well… Read more

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