One of the things I’d been pondering lately is what MMOs we haven’t heard a lot about lately.  Games like WoW, EQ2, Vanguard, PoTBs, Warhammer, TR and AoC are always in the press.  One of the games I’m interested in that I have not heard about anytime recently is Fallen Earth, the post-apocalyptic game from Icarus Studios.  Well, earlier this week there was an update on their forums by Moonshadow, the Community Manager.  The update goes over, at a high level, what the state of Fallen Earth is at the moment and answers a few community questions:

To give y’all an idea of where things stand in terms of progress on Fallen Earth: currently there are around seventy towns or major encounter areas that have been laid out with around fifty that are functionally complete in terms of content (not polished, mind you, just functional); there are currently almost three thousand missions implemented; and our database has around seventy-five hundred items. We’ve gotten a lot done, but we still have a lot left to do. This is a deadline week for us, so things are bit more hectic than normal. This week we’re working on New Flagstaff, Thorne’s Bluff, Last Stop, Dieseltown, Docuer’s Court, and Aesterly

That seems like it could be really cool - finally a stealth skill that can have real impact on how your character is perceived (or not, as the case may be).  I loved the Fallout series and Wasteland back in the day, so I have high hopes that Fallen Earth can bring back some of that radiation-soaked goodness.  I was just so glad to see any kind of update on the game as it had been quite awhile since I’d heard or seen anything of substance.  Hopefully information about the game will ramp up a bit more in the first half of 2008. 

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As seen over at TTH:

Prepare to dial in because you’ll be traveling via Stargate in a year!

There’s no need to adjust your computer monitor, you’ve read the headline correctly. Stargate Worlds, the upcoming sci-fi MMORPG being developed by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and based off of the long-running television series Stargate SG-1, will be hitting your computers in the fourth quarter of 2008. The news was slipped to us by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment’s senior marketing manager, Kevin Balentine, as he discussed how the development of the game was progressing. Here’s what Kevin had to say:

“We’ve got a playable version of the game inside of our building. I’m not prepared to release our beta schedule yet, but I can say that we’re going to be releasing the game in the fourth quarter of next year. You can do the math and figure out when our beta program will be.”

If you haven’t check out the game much yet, you can head on over to their site and take a look around.  I personally loved the movie but have never really watched the t.v. series.  But from what I do know, I think SGW would have tons of options for what they could do with their world.  Endless stargates to an ever increasing number of worlds? Wow.  Looking forward to hearing more about this title and their beta program.

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Six years??  Can that be right?  Wow…I guess my life is already starting to flash before my eyes.  Yep, I got into this game when it launched in 2001 and played it for almost two years.  Great, great game and I have many fond memories of my adventures there.  I actually wished I had played it longer, but at the time Horizons was calling my name and I was in their beta (Ugh…that was a dumb move in retrospect).

DAoC Producer Chris Rabideau posted some words of appreciation to the fans at the Camelot Herald:

Hello all, It’s been six truly wonderful years since Dark Age of Camelot first opened its servers to the hungry Realm versus Realm masses; six years of high intensity melee combat and countless magical explosions on the battlefields of the Frontiers; six years of the deadliest and most compelling siege warfare ever seen in any live MMO to date. Six years and still counting…

(stuff about the game)

I realize this post is more of a Producer’s Letter and less a celebration of DAoC’s 6^th anniversary.  However, I hope my message conveys the facts that Dark Age of Camelot, after six fantastic years, still has a tremendous following, and still receives a tremendous amount of developer support.  We are committed to this game and we will continue to work hard to ensure that Dark Age of Camelot remains a truly fun and enjoyable gameplay experience.

 From all of us here at EA Mythic, we thank you for six wonderful years, and we hope to see you around for many, many more. 

Chris Rabideau, Producer, Dark Age of Camelot, EA Mythic, October 10, 2007

Finally, I can’t let the sixth anniversary go by without giving a shout out to my old DAoC guild, Silver Daggers.  Good bunch of folks.  Happy Anniversary DAoC!

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Spotted this over at Broken Toys just now.  The source material can be found here. 

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. — the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.

BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare Corp. is currently developing the highly anticipated Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November, and is in the early development stages of a massively multiplayer online game. Pandemic Studios is redefining open-world games with its upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™ and Saboteur™, in addition to several unannounced projects.

Just….wow.  Didn’t see this coming at all.  I love Bioware, so I just hope that getting acquired by EA doesn’t muck up things.  I can only hope that this means better games and leveraging talent and assets to create top notch MMOs.  Time will tell.  Add this to the “2007 has been an interesting year for MMOs” list.

EDIT - an update from GameDaily

Following the announcement, execs from the respective companies held a conference call, and EA confirmed that of the ten franchises, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Mercenaries, Saboteur, and Neverwinter Nights were definitely included in the deal. And while Microsoft is publishing Mass Effect exclusively on Xbox 360 this holiday, the future of Mass Effect lies in EA’s hands; as such it wouldn’t be surprising to see the highly anticipated franchise end up on PS3 or other platforms as well. EA also noted that the highly touted dialog engine created for Mass Effect could be put to use in other titles. GameDaily BIZ contacted Microsoft for comment on Mass Effect but the company declined to comment.

Another interesting point from a business standpoint is that Riccitiello, the former head of Elevation Partners prior to rejoining EA, admitted that he had a residual interest in the company. Because of this conflict of interest EA deliberately had an independent board supervise the takeover of BioWare/Pandemic. EA also said that they expect to break even on the investment by 2009 and they expect to start making money on the deal by 2010.

The games from BioWare/Pandemic will likely be spread out over several years through 2011, EA said. In addition, both BioWare and Pandemic have a number of games planned for Nintendo’s Wii and DS.

And even more interesting stuff from Joystiq:

Says EA CEO John Riccitiello, “We bring a lot to the table … we simplify the process of courting publishers, basically taking it to zero.” He adds that EA, being the publishing giant that it is, can “reach places where [BioWare and Pandemic] don’t get to so we can build their properties bigger.” As for what EA itself gets out of the deal, the exec noted matter of factly that EA is “not in the open world action-adventure business. These guys are the leaders … this strengthens us where we need to be stronger.”

Added EA CFO Warren Jenson, “We are getting a very well cost managed developer into the organization.”

Of course, much of the worry over the purchase resides in the feeling that these two specialized devs would suffer by being absorbed into some kind of homogeneous blob; however, according to EA, the reality will be “quite the opposite.”

“Both of these are strong studios with rich cultures,” said Riccitiello. “Inside our label structure they will maintain their autonomy … and will reap the benefits of EA’s scale and structure.” He clarified that EA will also be able to “better monetize” titles from both studios, while allowing them to be “treated separately.”

Finally, in looking to the future, EA notes that it plans to release 10 titles from the studios “fairly evenly” over the next 4 years, with BioWare’s highly secretive MMO project getting a release “more towards the back end” of this schedule, most likely in 2011.

O.k.  So this last piece from Joystiq makes it sound a lot better, so I can only hope this holds true.  Seems that EA is looking to strengthen it’s line up with proven leaders, and companies that are already well run.  Sounds like they are hoping to leverage their size, scope and marketing to get titles out to a larger audience and monetize those products in a larger way.  Although for Bioware, they have enough name brand recognition in the gaming world that I’m not sure how much more EA can do there.  Anything Bioware produces is already fairly well known, marketed well and bought instantly by tons of gamers.

On the Bioware MMO - sure I can wait til 2011.  Heck, by 2011 who knows what the landscape will look like if 2007 is indicative of years to come.  I’m just glad to know that it’s still on the table and not being canceled at this point.  I hope it remains a priority for the studio.

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Well here is the official word we’ve been waiting for regarding Gods and Heroes:

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears…

Loyal and faithful community members and Beta testers, thank you for your support, help, and understanding during the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising development process.

The development team established some very lofty and ambitious goals when the initial work was started on Gods & Heroes. Recently, we took a step back to evaluate the competitive landscape, the game’s current state, and the overall goals for our organization. And while we are truly proud of and pleased with what we have created in Gods & Heroes, we also realize that achieving the level of quality and polish that we are committed to will take a significant investment.

The Perpetual team is faced with a unique challenge of simultaneously developing both Gods & Heroes and Star Trek Online in addition to growing our Online Game Platform business. After assessing all of Perpetual’s opportunities, we have made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold.

I want to express my overwhelming gratitude to the community, engineers, designers, artists, animators, and the game services team for the support and effort that has gone into Gods & Heroes.

Moving forward, we’re shifting our collective focus, resources and development efforts to Perpetual’s Platform Services division and Star Trek Online, thereby ensuring that the game lives up to the high level of expectation set by the dedicated Star Trek fan base.

Again, I would personally like to thank all of the Gods & Heroes supporters who have been with us from the beginning. Hopefully, your continued support will be as valuable to our future endeavors as it was with Gods & Heroes..

Vade in pace,
Chris McKibbin

 As I told a friend earlier this evening, I’m not really sad (or shocked per se) to see this happen to G&H.  I had seen enough of the game to know that it didn’t really interest me on any particular level.  So from that perspective, it’s not a big loss to me personally.  However, what does concern me is the people that will certainly lose their jobs as a result of this.  I hope they migrate a lot of their talent over to STO. 

What greater impact does this have, will this have, on the genre?  It’s hard to tell.  Did Perpetual just spread itself too thin - did they shoot for the moon and later realize they could only get into low orbit?  Did the money just run out?  Was the game fundamentally not good enough to compete in the market?  Maybe it was a mix of all of the above, or maybe none.  I don’t work there so I can’t say for sure.  But it seems to me that something like this will make an already skittish (cautious) MMO genre become even more so. 

It’s a crapshoot in many ways, and a very expensive one at that.  Even if you think you’re taking a calculated, educated risk developing one of these things, there are a lot of moving parts and people who expect an ROI.  At the end of the day someone made the call to pull the plug on G&H, and I can only assume it was the right call.  I never like to see an MMO perish, but I don’t think I’ll be personally shedding many tears for G&H.  RIP.

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Put this squarely in the “rumor”  “seems likely” category for now even though there’s been no official confirmation as of yet.  I spotted this just now via Virgin Worlds, which linked to the “news” at The Escapist.   Here’s what is being said:

We’ve received word from an anonymous source that Perpetual Entertainment, developers of Gods and Heroes and Star Trek Online, will dissolve in the near future.

The remnants of the company have been acquired by a major independent game developer, which will purchase Star Trek Online and Perpetual’s game platform assets. It’s unknown whether Gods and Heroes will be purchased, but the leadership has already offered certain members of the team a position in the new company, working on the Star Trek Online team. The majority of the Gods and Heroes team will be laid off, so the game’s future doesn’t seem bright.

Phone calls to Perpetual were not immediately returned.

So, if this is true, it sounds like G&H might cease to exist, while STO might live on but be a long ways out.  If this is true, my thoughts are with all the devs who may be laid off. 

So Warhammer Online announces a 2 month beta shutdown (and quite possibly a delayed release as well), Tabula Rasa pushed back it’s release two weeks, AoC was already pushed back, Spellborn has been pushed back and now it seems that G&H might be extinct.  It’s been an interesting 2007 indeed - heck let’s throw in the VG debacle just for old times sake.

Will certainly update here to either confirm this is true and give more info, or to retract this if it turns out to be false.

EDIT:  More info from WarCry:

Perpetual Entertainment has indefinitely delayed (essentially canceled) Gods and Heroes. The company will continue work on their development platform and Star Trek Online, and continue its operations in the same San Francisco studio under the same management. Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, though, is no more.

Our source tells us that the majority of the Gods and Heroes development team has been let go as part of the move, which comes only a few weeks after they had downsized and pushed back the release date. The Star Trek Online team, those who worked on the Perpetual Platform (which was recently licensed to BioWare) and a small number of people from the Gods and Heroes team will be remain with the company.

WarCry will bring you more details as the story unfolds.

Update 8:28 PM EST: We originally reported that Perpetual Entertainment had been acquired by another firm, but according to further sources at Perpetual this not in fact the case. It will continue on as described above with new investors.

More from TTH:

The industry types are buzzing like bees about this one.

Inside sources are reporting that Perpetual Entertainment, makers of the upcoming MMOGs Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising and Star Trek Online are being bought out by an undisclosed studio. WarCry is reporting that according to their sources it may not be a complete buy-out, but rumors are flying like crazy and nothing will be positive until an official announcement goes out.

Other sources indicate that the company involved in the acquisition/investment is likely to be Foundation 9 Entertainment (http://www.f9e.com/), although this is unconfirmed at this time.

Keep an eye on Ten Ton Hammer for further news as the situation develops!

Well that’s starting to sound a bit more “official”, but again, nothing has been directly released by Perpetual at this time that I’m aware of.  Again, my thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by the layoff.  I’ve had to lay off people before and it’s not a fun thing to do, at all.  Seems that G&H is definitely gone and who knows how this will impact the timeframe for STO, although really they weren’t getting into real “production” until 2008 anyhow.

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Well it appears that the Warhammer Online beta servers will be closing on October 10.  They will be closed for approximately two months and re-open in early December.  This announcement was made by Senior Producer Jeff Hickman on the official beta forums. 

There apparently has been no concrete reason given for the closure, other than the usual “to make the game better” reason.  Jeff Hickman specifically lauded the RvR gameplay that has been seen thus far, but I wonder if they feel they need to make some kind of major change to how that system works.  Maybe they want to add in some “sekret sauce” features?

This news doesn’t scare me, but it does raise my eyebrows a bit.  I just wonder if there is some kind of major re-design they need to do to some mechanic within the game, or if they merely want some uninterrupted time to make a final push for their release build.  As far as I know, this is a first.  I’ve never known a company to shut down their beta for a few months and then re-open.  Push back a release date maybe, but I just don’t recall something like this before.

As I find out more information, I’ll try to update here as well.  Now I guess I really will have to find something else to do this fall other than anticpate getting into beta.

EDIT:  The Warhammer Alliance site had a brief blurb on their front page:

In the post Jeff says this pause in external testing will serve as an opportunity to refine and polish the games core mechanics as well as introduce game systems previously unavailable to testers. This preliminary announcement on the beta boards will very likely be followed by a public announcement on the War Herald.

There isn’t anything on the WAR Herald yet, nor some of the other War news sites.  I’m wondering if this post by Jeff Hickman just hit the beta boards this morning.  I’m sure by this evening there may be more information, and I’m hoping for an official announcement today as well. 

 2nd EDIT:  The official announcement has been posted on the Warhammer Herald site by James Nichols:

Greetings all!

Recently, all WAR Beta participants received a letter stating our plan to end this phase of the closed beta test this Wednesday, October 10th. We periodically close Beta, our last closure being in March of this year, to focus on major improvements and polish. The next phase of Beta will reopen in early December with plenty of new and improved content, art and systems for our beta-testers.

We are very proud to have reached this point in development. Beta has been going very well and the testing community is extremely active. Excitement around the game continues to grow and the team is looking forward to enhancing many features already in the game as well as continuing to add new features to an already great game.

Based on player feedback, our own observations and our current schedule, we have set the following major development goals:

• Improve open field skirmishes and battlefield objectives with major enhancements.
• Provide players with even more options to customize their character both through their abilities and visual appearance.
• Continue to enhance Public Quests and the PQ System.
• Prepare the elves for their release into the world!

When the beta reopens, we look forward to welcoming back all of our current testers, as well as many new faces. Shortly after re-opening the doors, we will be inviting the first wave of guilds into the beta to really get things rolling.

Thank you!
- The Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Team

Well it appears this was a good thing after all.  I’m glad to see the focus on open field skirmishes and battlefield objectives.  World RvR was so great in DAoC that I was hoping it wouldn’t completely be overshadowed by instanced RvR in War.  I also like the sound of increased options for character customization.  Character creation and customization is very important to many people, so I’m glad to hear them say they’ll be spending some further time on that.

Now all we have to do is hold out until December and hope for an invite. 

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I wouldn’t call myself a hard-core Trekkie, but I’ve watched my fair share of Star Trek over the years.  I love ST:TNG and own all the seasons on DVD.  I also own all of Voyager (I was never into DS9 much).  As far as the original, I loved the movies they were in but was never a huge fan of the original tv series.  So there you go - I’ve laid out my Trek cred for what’s it worth on the table.

I do have enough Klingon blood running through my veins that I’m excited about what Star Trek Online could be someday.  I honestly haven’t heard a heck of a lot about this title except that it’s in development, but that’s mostly because 2008 will really be the year they ramp up into real production.  So there hasn’t been a lot to say about it yet, but a recent article by MPOGD.com gives us more insight into what developer Perpetual is up to.  They were fortunate enough to interview Daron Stinnett, Executive Producer of Star Trek Online.  Through this interview I learned several things about what they have planned for the game such as:

1.  Star Trek will have defined classes called “professions” - science, tactical, engineering, security, etc. as broad categories which can branch into more specific roles.

2.  Everyone will get a ship, starting out with a shuttle and working your way up.  You won’t, however, be flying the Enterprise.

3.  The largest ships and also space stations will be the equivalent of player run cities, having all the services you’d expect in a typical MMO city.

4.  Player models have a unique, stylized look to them that apparently is pretty appealing, differntiating different races quickly based on body type, etc.

5.  There will be seven playable races.

6.  Group size will likely be the typical 5-6 people, with larger groups for raids (called Armadas).  There will also be guilds (called Fleets).

7.  PvP?  Yep - consensual PvP in the Holodecks (where things like arena and specific matches can be fought) as well as world PvP.  There will also be special free-for-all PvP servers set up.

8.  The game will take place 25 years past Star Trek:  Nemesis.  So it’s the future of the Trek Universe, after Picard’s time.

9.  Holodecks (can and probably will) serve as portals to missions in any conceivable era of time, much like the show.  So in a way you almost have the Star-Gate-esque thing going on there.

So there are a few choice pieces of information for those of you, like me, who had not heard a lot of detail about this game yet.  How will this game ultimately turn out?  Time will tell, but it’s got definite brand recognition and a huge following.  I’ll be very interested to hear more detail on specific game mechanics as time goes on.  Live long and prosper.

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Well there was a tidbit today concerning the DC comics MMO that SOE will be developing.  Both this title and Cryptic’s Marvel Universe sound very interesting.  Will it be an inevitable battle of the titans?

What about a rivalry with their counterparts at Cryptic Studios who are hard at work on Marvel Universe Online for the PC and Xbox 360? One company is backed by Sony (Playstation 3) and DC Comics. The other is backed by Microsoft (Xbox 360) and Marvel Comics. Clearly, there are going to be some comparisons.

Marvel vs. DC.  Microsoft vs. Sony.  XBox vs. Playstation.  Can’t ask for better than that!  I grew up reading comics, mostly Marvel titles, so that’s where my allegiance mainly lies in the comic realm.  Although I have always enjoyed Superman and Batman in both films and comics as well.  I guess I just like more stuff in the Marvel Universe, and have spent more time reading those books, than the DC Universe. 

From the MMO perspective, I had a blast in City of Heroes when it first launched and think Cryptic did a great job of capturing the feel of the genre.  Their character creation was second to none, and the super powers were genuinely a blast (pun intended) to mess around with.  The downfall of that game for me was the repetitive grind through the same three warehouse/cave layouts, fighting essentially the same bad guys for tens of levels, just in bigger groups.  So I’m a little wary of Cryptic and Marvel, but I’m more excited I think.  SOE and DC?  Hrm…I do have faith that SOE can make an incredible game, and I’m sure they will with the DC universe and Jim Lee on board.

Given that we know next to nothing about these games at present, my excitement level either way is premature.  But I can’t help myself from imagining some of the possiblities.  I did find it interesting (not surprising, mind you) that half of the interview was devoted to talking about how DC may not be the first because they want to be the best, take their time, Sony is committed to releasing a finished game, etc. etc.  I know Darren made the call early this year with the whole “polish” thing, but man, it’s starting to get a bit old.  I think we all get it and always have - quality matters!!

I’m really hoping that one or both of these games can succeed in the market in a big way, as I think CoH was as step in the right direction but not nearly enough.  I’m ready for a little more meat on the bones of the superhero genre MMO. 

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Ultima Online, one of the original “big three” MMOs, is squarely embedded in our gaming history now and has become a classic of the genre.  With the 10th anniversary approaching, and the recent launch of The Kingdom Reborn, EA has announced that there will be several events to celebrate both milestones:

Redwood City, CA, September 25, 2007 - Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), the world’s leading interactive entertainment company, today celebrated the 10th anniversary of the classic massively-multiplayer online game (MMO), Ultima Online(TM). Launched on September 25, 1997, Ultima Online broke new ground in the multiplayer game space and ushered in the modern MMO era. Anniversary celebrations include special in-game activities and rewards, plus a new amnesty program that invites former players back to experience the major game update, Ultima Online Kingdom Reborn, for free.

“Ultima Online has thrived for 10 years and achieved the status of an MMO classic, thanks in large part to the devoted player community,” said Mark Jacobs, VP and general manager, EA Mythic. “We are very excited to celebrate this special anniversary with players.”

In celebration of the 10th anniversary, EA is kicking off the “Return to Brittania” campaign, an amnesty program that welcomes former players to discover the gameplay and graphics upgrades implemented in Kingdom Reborn. Past subscribers in good standing will be able to play for free through October 9, 2007 by visiting www.uo.com/kingdomreborn/gamefiles, downloading Ultima Online Kingdom Reborn and logging in using their former account name and password.

During the in-game 10th anniversary celebration, players will be able to take part in a monster hunt with special prizes including an ankh pendant necklace, map of Brittania, Ultima Online commemorative sculpture and virtue armor set. Additionally, all players will receive 10 décor tokens and a wand of fireworks in their characters’ inventory.

You can visit their 10th Anniversary page here. 

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