MMO updates

MMO updates

Guild Wars 2 - No stand-alone expansions

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 01:33 AM PDT


(Source) Guild Wars developer ArenaNet is taking a new approach to game add-ons. While there were two stand-alone, continent-adding retail expansion packs released for its predecessor, Guild Wars 2 will be having none of that.

"At this time we don't plan to continue with the standalone expansion model," lead designer Eric Flannum told GamerZines in no unclear terms.

"We felt that this model split our player base unnecessarily and also caused us to focus development effort on things that were redundant with the original release of the game such as tutorial areas and duplicates of already existing skills."

That of course doesn't mean there won't new new content released for the MMO. In fact, expect "the kinds of things" included in the first game to pop up on the sequel's in-game store. Flannum didn't get more specific than that for now though.

A closed beta for the game will be launching in the second half of the year. No launch dates just yet.

Soccer legend Maradona suing The9

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 12:33 AM PDT


According to foreign reports, soccer legend Diego Maradona is set to sue Chinese MMO company The9 and Internet company Sina for a sum of USD 3 million. This case allegedly stemmed from The9 using Maradona's photos as a promotional tool and naming him as the spokesperson for its web soccer game, Winning Goal. The9 claimed that they did pay a fee to a supposed agent for Maradona, only to be conned and a police report has been filed against the bogus agent. Below are some of the images used.

NCsoft Korea to stop 2 games in July

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 12:20 AM PDT


NCsoft Korea today announced the closure of 2 titles under their stable, with them being action MMORPG Dragonica Korea and MMOFPS Point Blank Korea. Both games will cease services on 13th July next month. It seems like NCsoft Korea is having a tough time managing Free to Play games in their country. A point to note as well, Dragonica's developer was bought over by Gravity, hence this might be one of the reasons as well. As it seems, Dragonica's popularity is much higher overseas.

ChoiRock Games fire Berkanix team

Posted: 13 Jun 2011 11:52 PM PDT


Korean MMO developer and publisher, ChoiRock Games (originally Sonov) fired the entire Berkanix team from the company earlier today. Letters of retrenchment were sent to over 100 staff, meaning all off them will be leaving the company. This comes as the company aims to re-establish business plans, strategies and some corporate stuff. A pity I would say, as Berkanix looks like a gem in the rough.


The game is not canceled, but will be on hold in Korea for the time being as a new team is being formed. It is rare to see such a big scale retrenchment even in the Korean MMO industry. Revealed in July 2009, Berkanix is developed using the Unreal 3 Engine for the past 5 years costing billions of Korean won. The trailers below are made using in-game footage. More info about the game here.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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