Huxley

NHN USA, or ijji.com, has been the company responsible for publishing Huxley: The Dystopia internationally, but the people in charge have announced that they're passing it back to developer Webzen.

Webzen will be self-publishing Huxley, but it's not as much of a change at it might seem at first glance. NHN USA and Webzen are separate divisions of the same company, NHN Corporation, and the two divisions will continue partnering with one another to publish other projects.

If you've purchased G Coin Cards, don't worry about losing out: "G Coin Cards branded with Huxley imaging will remain valid as long as they're purchased through an authorized retailer."

NHN USA's official statement will appear on ijji.com today.

Yes, we know, that title sounded like a complete oxymoron. How can a closed beta be open to everybody? It just doesn't make any sense!

We understand your confusion, but it's best not to question it. Fileplanet is giving out Huxley: The Dystopia closed beta keys to all account holders now, not just their subscribers. A couple quick button presses is now all it takes to find yourself braving the lunar apocalypse with all of your friends!

A small note of instruction: if you get your beta key from Fileplanet, you will have to still make an ijji.com account for the closed beta test. You can do that right over at the Huxley closed beta page without much fuss at all. Now go forth and kick those Sapiens all the way back to the early days of evolution.

Update: As so many commenters have pointed out, this offer is only available for the US and Canada. European gamers, it appears, are locked out of this promotion being offered by Fileplanet.

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Huxley: The Dystopia is the re-monikered MMOFPS from Webzen that will be published in the West by NHN USA and ijji. Huxley clearly puts more emphasis on FPS than MMO although elements of the latter are certainly there, and Massively had a chance to see a bit of what the game can offer at GDC 2009. Shortly afterwards, they launched a teaser site counting down to... something. We admit, we must've looked away from that countdown for too long because the teaser site changed today, adding video footage, forums, screenshots, character descriptions and backstory info.

The main thing we'd like to mention to our readers is that Huxley: The Dystopia is currently taking closed beta signups. The signup period is May 6 - May 20, and the first round of closed beta testing will last from June 3 - June 14. If you've been looking forward to fragging in Huxley, head on over to the Beta Test Registration page at ijji, and check out all the new info about the game they've added to the site.

Huxley: The Dystopia is one of the new breed of games about to hit the massively multiplayer online world -- a hybrid first person shooter and sci-fi MMO, built on Unreal Engine 3. Massively took a good look at Huxley at GDC 2009, which we (naturally) feel is a solid starting point to catch up with what this game is shaping up to be, given its long hiatus between the early announcements and its re-appearance in the games journalism sphere.

So what will come of this splicing of FPS and MMO? We're not sure how well-received titles like Huxley: The Dystopia and Global Agenda will be, but it'll certainly be interesting to see what these games will add to our online gameplay options. In the meantime, Huxley: The Dystopia has launched a teaser web site with a countdown clock showing just under 30 days. We don't believe this is an actual launch countdown, but it's expected that more game info will be revealed at that time. If you're devouring everything you can about this particular game, you'll want to have a look at the Huxley teaser site and its front page video showing off more of the game.

[Via IGN]

Quests and PvP

You can pick up quests in the city. Those are either story quests or instanced quests where you can either go solo or group up to wipe the map of enemy NPCs. Huxley's cities are large and while a player can navigate on foot, it's much faster to take a hoverbike, or travel by tram or train. The quests themselves often bring a player outside of the city (via train) or beneath the city, where they need to fight against the hybrids in the sewers.

While the game's quests can either be handled solo or in squads, players can also advance in Huxley through PvP. "With PvP you earn experience points as with quests, but you also earn rank points which let you level up your rank, such as private, sergeant, lieutenant, and beyond. The benefit of higher rank is access to the most powerful S-type weapons and bragging rights. People see the symbol next to your name and see what rank you are," like a title system, says Hong.

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Huxley: The Dystopia is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) in development at NHN USA. We haven't heard much about the title since mid-2008, so we were happy that NHN USA was willing to sit down with us at GDC 2009. We spoke with Andy Hong, Huxley's Project Manager, who showed us some of the basic concepts behind the game.

Huxley is a persistent world built upon Unreal Engine 3 foundations and is a game that differs from many of the MMOs we cover at Massively. Like other titles entering the market such as Global Agenda, Huxley is a marriage of the twitch combat of a first person shooter with classes, skills, trading, banking, and player housing we associate with MMOs. "At the core of the gameplay in Huxley, at its heart, it's an FPS," says Hong. But the depth of the rest of Huxley's gameplay, not limited to its quest and crafting systems, makes it a title quite unlike any pure FPS.

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Over at The Vault, they've put up an exhaustive list of all the MMO titles you should have your eye on throughout the new year. While they sort of term it as thought it's a big list of games coming out this year, we think they know it's unlikely all of those games are going to be released in the next twelve months. With that in mind, if you aren't sure what games you should have on your radar (and you haven't clicked our handy "upcoming MMOs" widget above), this massive list will bring you up to date.

Here at Massively, of course, we've been doing our own level best to keep you updated on a lot of these titles, be they AAA superhero games like Champions Online or DC Universe Online. We've talked fervently about Star Wars: The Old Republic, and given you the skinny on under-the-radar titles like Aion, FreeRealms, and Jumpgate Evolution. We've even walked away from our precious fantasy to talk about games like APB or The Agency. The Vault's list is a great one to run down - check it out to see what game you should be obsessing over today!

Webzen published a press release today announcing the start of Huxley's open beta test phase in South Korea. No word yet on when gamers in other regions will be able to participate. There have been hints that Webzen is backing away from the North American market, but today's press release reiterates the company's dedication to releasing Huxley "in markets around the world." This comes after an announcement that portal NHN will be distributing the game in North America and Europe, so we're pretty sure things are good.

The press release is full of not-quite-true statements that Huxley is the very first game to combine the FPS and MMO genres. PlanetSide and Neocron come to mind right away, and there have probably been others. Still, we're watching Huxley with curiosity. Its production values are sky high (just look at the recent cinematic trailer) and its Unreal Engine-powered graphics are impressive. Webzen plans to release the game in Korea in 2009, so we'll be waiting a while yet.

[Via Big Download]

It's not a bad thing that Huxley gameplay looks a lot like Unreal Tournament III, but it is a bit disconcerting for anyone interested in the MMOFPS in regards towards its possible uniqueness. The fact that what we're seeing in this video amounts to a standard deathmatch is probably the biggest reason for the comparison. While we professed our enjoyment of Huxley's recently released cinematic trailer, neither that nor this look into the game have told us why Huxley is any different than the many other FPS and MMO games currently proliferating across the market.

Don't get us wrong, though. We're always interested in different experiences here at Massively, so you can expect us to be playing Huxley whenever it manages to wash up on our shores. We're just hoping that the experience amounts to more than running around beautifully rendered worlds shooting things up, because that can be found elsewhere.

[via Rock, Paper Shotgun]

We have to concede, we were not terribly impressed when we got wind of some of Huxley's non-combat areas as long as four months go. Chalk it up to the editing, we suppose, but the ten consecutive minutes of clomping around a barren cityscape left us barely able to keep our heads up. We were much more impressed with the recent cinematic trailer for the game, but it did little in the way of explaining how Huxley was going to change the way we play MMOs.

Well a new video has surfaced with better editing, the removal of that incessant clomping sound of walking on pavement, and some looks at non-static NPCs, shops, and the games' train system. We realize that Huxley's success probably hinges more on whether the FPS action is up to current standards, but for MMO junkies like ourselves, the little things like shops and quest hubs can have a much greater influence on whether we choose to play the game or not. Check out the new video after the jump.

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[Via Blues News]

There's been a recent personnel change to China's leading distributor of online gaming. The9 Limited has recently appointed Mr. George Lai as Chief Financial Officer after the resignation of Mr. Tony Tse, due to personal and family reasons. Mr. Lai brings several years of experience to the table, having worked previously at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu since 2000.

The9 Limited operates licensed MMORPGs for Chinese players, including World of Warcraft, Hellgate: London, Ragnarok Online 2, Huxley and many more. The9 Limited is also developing various proprietary games of their own including Warriors of Fate Online and Fantastic Melody Online.

The rumors of Webzen's North American demise have been greatly exaggerated. News on the inter-streets is that Webzen has found a PC-version publisher for their MMOFPS game Huxley in gaming portal heavyweight NHN USA, which is a subsidiary of the Korean NHN. There still isn't any mention of the 360 version, however. This is a pretty big deal for Webzen as it means that Huxley will be sold through the incredibly huge ijji.com videogame portal. That's the same portal through which over six million people play tons of games including Gunbound, Gunz, Drift City and Soldier Front.

You may or may not know about ijji.com, but trust us when we say it's a pretty big win for Webzen. Originally announced when Hoover build the dam, Huxley has been in the works for a long, long time. Which is the main reason we've all been questioning its US release solidity. All joking aside, the real question we should be asking is whether or not NA and European players will even like the game. Some of us here at Massively haven't been decidedly impressed by anything so far. Only time will tell.