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Camelot Unchained secures an additional $3 million in funding [Updated]

Jef Reahard — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, Sandbox, Crafting, Crowdfunding, Camelot Unchained, Subscription

Last night, Camelot Unchained surpassed its $2 million Kickstarter goal, but if you've been following the Kickstarter for the last month, you know that reaching $2 million means a lot more than reaching $2 million. As originally promised when the Kickstarter launched, the game will now receive an additional $3 million in funding, $2 million of which comes from City State co-founder and MMO industry veteran Mark Jacobs. The remainder comes courtesy of unnamed investors.

"The last 30 days have been an incredible journey," Jacobs said via press release. "We believed there's an audience for a highly focused game like ours, which has now been proven. What we didn't expect was how our community would come together so quickly and avidly. Not only is our average pledge off the chart, our backers have been just as intensely supportive in other ways, from providing immense amounts of helpful feedback to translating information into four languages (German, French, Japanese and Korean), and more."

Camelot Unchained will use a proprietary engine optimized for large-scale battles and already battle-tested to the tune of 200-plus frames per second while displaying 1,000 simultaneous characters rendered with 12,000 polygons. The three-faction PvP-focused fantasy MMO also boasts a building-block crafting system that will allow players to construct individual cells and larger segments before assembling them "in nearly limitless ways."

[Source: City State press release]

[Update: We've clarified that the additional funding was promised as a Kickstarter goal from the start.]

Camelot Unchained secures an additional $3 million in funding [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 02 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon's payment systems go kaput, taking Kickstarter with it

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous, Crowdfunding, Camelot Unchained

Were you planning to be the brave soul to bring Camelot Unchained's Kickstarter project to its goal? You might have missed your chance. Amazon Payments, the system which Kickstarter uses to accept pledges from browsers, started having trouble earlier today, meaning that several Kickstarter projects have run into trouble attracting more pledges or processing pledges for otherwise successful funding. That's bad news for anyone looking to make the last few dollars on a project before the project ticks over the last deadline.

There's currently no ETA on service restoration; quite notably, the payment service is currently the only Amazon service listed as having difficulties. Camelot Unchained is put into a particular pickle with this development, as the project is still more than $200,000 away from its goal with less than two days remaining. Hopefully the service errors will be cleared up before several projects start to feel the sting.

[Thanks to Mark for the tip!]

Amazon's payment systems go kaput, taking Kickstarter with it originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively Exclusive: Hailan Rising's devs on PvP, death, and player loot tables

Shawn Schuster — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, Interviews, MMO Industry, New Titles, Free-to-Play, Interviews (Massively's)

Hailan Rising is more than halfway through its Kickstarter campaign with quite a long trek still to go for funding, but we took a good look at the game's description and really liked what we saw. It's a game that is labeling itself as "DAoC meets CoD" and being developed by some important industry vets.

But as with any Kickstarter project, there are always questions. We see what's being promised with the game, but we want to know more. So we gathered together a few of our biggest concerns for the Reloaded Productions team to see what this thing is all about. As Kickstarter projects are still a dime a dozen these days, we want to know what sets the team's game apart from the rest. Follow along after the cut for our interview with Adam Smith and Jess Mulligan from Reloaded Productions.

Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Hailan Rising's devs on PvP, death, and player loot tables

Massively Exclusive: Hailan Rising's devs on PvP, death, and player loot tables originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MechWarrior Online: The story of how one MMO got crowd-funded without Kickstarter

Elisabeth Cardy — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, MechWarrior Online

Kickstarter is kind of A Thing now. Oodles of companies are turning to it for all their crowd-funding needs, to varying levels of success. MechWarrior Online has distinguished itself by raising over $5 million in crowd-funding without touching Kickstarter.

If not Kickstarter, where could all that money have come from? Fans, of course! MWO has the advantage of belonging to an existing franchise with fans, and those fans bought over 70,000 of the game's Founder's packages. The Founder's program allowed fans to buy in at any of three price levels ($30, $60, and $120) with varying perks at each level.

Nick Foster, CEO of Infinite Game Publishing's parent company 7G Entertainment, explained some of the rationale behind this approach to funding. "The product will be a lot better for players because of the crowdfunding. It's allowed us to maintain a higher level of ongoing development in the product than if we were waiting for momentum to build immediately after going live. In the next few months, we'll be able to release a lot more features."

MWO hit open beta today, which means you have the perfect opportunity to see for yourself whether they put fans' funds to good use. To read more about MWO's road to funding, check out Gamasutra's full article.

MechWarrior Online: The story of how one MMO got crowd-funded without Kickstarter originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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World of Midgard opens up Kickstarter campaign

Eliot Lefebvre — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Mobile

All right, so you've probably seen your fair share of Kickstarters for MMORPGs by now. Including ones aiming at being an old-school revival. And you've seen a lot of them offering to let you play on both mobile devices and on your desktop...

Wait, that part is kind of new. And if it appeals to you, you should probably take a look at World of Midgard's new Kickstarter project. The game is currently running in a beta state, but the development team wants to move forward and complete the game in a suitable fashion. That means a need for money, and that's why the game is opening the doors to crowdsourcing.

The project offers an exclusive mount for players who donate just up to the $15 level, with increasingly extravagant rewards for those who offer more. If it sounds like your cup of tea, take a look at the project and consider sending a few dollars along to help development.

World of Midgard opens up Kickstarter campaign originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Soapbox: The trouble with Kickstarter

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, Culture, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

It was right around the time that the Shadowrun Online Kickstarter went live that I started to wonder whether Kickstarter was doing some nasty things to the development practices of MMOs.

This isn't a commentary on Shadowrun Online itself, exactly. The game asked for players to put up $500,000 to fund development, and while that's an awful lot of money to ask from the pockets of fans, it still doesn't qualify as being high-budget by the standards of the industry. But in some ways, it's the apotheosis of something that started with several other games being funded on Kickstarter -- this sense that Kickstarter is the path of the future, that it's the ultimate litmus test of whether or not your MMO is worth developing and a great way to draw in venture capitalists for more funding.

I'm not convinced that this is a good thing for the health of MMO development. You can look at it as a way for strange niche titles to get their funding without convincing outside sources that it's worth the effort, but as we're ramping up to seeing the fruits of these projects (or lack thereof), I'm wondering whether it just allows ideas to get further along before they self-destruct.

Continue reading The Soapbox: The trouble with Kickstarter

The Soapbox: The trouble with Kickstarter originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shadowrun Online fundraiser comes down to the wire [Update]

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Video, Free-to-Play, Humor

There's this thing called Kickstarter. It's OK if you have never heard of it; it's not like it's sweeping the internet or anything. Anyway, Cliffhanger Productions is relying on Kickstarter to help fund Shadowrun Online, and with just hours to go until the final bell, the project is several thousand dollars short of its $500,000 goal.

If it hits $500,000 by 4:00 p.m. EDT today, the project will be fully funded, but if not, Cliffhanger stands to lose a substantial investment in the title. We thought we should mention this for those of you who are Shadowrun fans and would like to see this project succeed. The dev team has added the special offer of the game's soundtrack to those who pitch in $9 or more in these final hours.

To help you make up your mind, Cliffhanger has posted a character creation video that shows off some of the possibilities for making your Shadowrun Online avatar. We've posted the video after the break.

[Update: Shadowrun Online made its $500,000 and then some with plenty of time to spare!]

Continue reading Shadowrun Online fundraiser comes down to the wire [Update]

Shadowrun Online fundraiser comes down to the wire [Update] originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP secures $20 million in funding for DUST 514

MJ Guthrie — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, MMOFPS, DUST 514, Sandbox

With DUST 514's closed beta just around the corner and an anticipated 2012 release, folks are sure to be hearing more about the shooter that's a ground companion to EVE Online's space game. And to help get the word out, CCP has secured $20 million in funding in the form of convertible bonds raised from Icelandic institutional investors.

Chief Marketing Officer David Reid noted funding will go toward marketing the game's launch. That doesn't mean players will see a one-time blitz of promotional advertising; Reid pointed out CCP is able to focus on a more long-term marketing campaign. The funds will also go toward preparing for an IPO. Although the company does not have immediate plans to go public, Reid states that the money allows the company to lay some of the preparatory groundwork so it would be ready if and when the time was right to actually go public.

CCP secures $20 million in funding for DUST 514 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shadowrun Online changes business models during Kickstarter push

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Business Models, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play

There's little debate over whether or not free-to-play is a viable business model, but there are some legitimate concerns over its implementation when mixed with PvP. That's a concern that's been raised by Shadowrun Online fans as the game pushes for Kickstarter funding, and it's one that the developers have addressed in an update on the game's business model. Rather than following a straight free-to-play model, the game will be moving forward under a model more reminiscent of Guild Wars.

At launch, the game will retail for $39.99 (Kickstarter backers will be able to get the game at the $25 donation level), with a new "campaign" launched every three or four months at $14.99. Cliffhanger Productions isn't fully replacing the free-to-play model, as both the campaign option and the free-to-play option will be launched on separate servers to support both business models. It's a far-reaching change based on community feedback, and it should be interesting for fans to see how this affects overall donations to the ongoing funding campaign.

Shadowrun Online changes business models during Kickstarter push originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Richard Garriott's Portalarium raises $7 million in funding

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser, Casual, Miscellaneous

Richard Garriott designed Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa, and he has also been to outer space. This has apparently convinced several investors that funding his new company Portalarium is a sound decision, as it was recently announced that Portalarium has secured roughly $7 million in investment capital.

The money is being pushed into the final stages of development on the company's first title, Ultimate Collector, which is slated for release later this summer on Facebook, mobile, and browser-based platforms. Some of the funds are also earmarked for development on the company's second game, alternately known as both Ultimate RPG and New Britannia, which does not yet have a release window.

The chief investment firm was London-based m8 Capital, but several other sources also contribued to the groundswell of support, including Richard Garriott himself. Last month, the company announced that it will be working through the Zynga Platform Partners program to publish Ultimate Collector.

Richard Garriott's Portalarium raises $7 million in funding originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gambitious launching itself as a game-focused crowdsourcing center

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Legal, Miscellaneous

Crowdsourcing is becoming the new trend, with Kickstarter projects serving as the new hotness for getting a game start-up funded. So it's not hard to understand why Gambitious is promoting itself as an alternative to Kickstarter, specifically as a means to fund game development via crowdsourced projects. Gambitious has more to it than just the idea being a game-focused alternative to the Kickstarter giant, however; it includes an option for investors and backers to take part in equity funding.

Traditionally, Kickstarter backers receive only a few bonuses for funding a project, and if that project goes on to wild success after the initial funding, the backers are left out. Equity funding allows people to play a more traditional venture capitalist role, investing money in return for dividends on successful projects. While this option is available only in Europe at the moment due to legal issues, it's a new take on funding a game, and depending on future developments, Gambitious might make a name for itself in the indie gaming market.

Gambitious launching itself as a game-focused crowdsourcing center originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Repopulation seeks Kickstarter funding

Eliot Lefebvre — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, News Items, Promotions, Sandbox

Sandbox fans are probably feeling the pinch on their wallets of late with the surge of Kickstarter projects. The Repopulation is joining the trend with a project that's just kicked off to secure funding for further development. That means incentive rewards, stretch goals, and of course, new information about the game as it moves through development. The funding goal is set at a fairly modest $25,000 and includes several noteworthy incentives for backers.

In the lower tiers of funding, players can enjoy such benefits as extra cash in the game when it goes live, early access to the game, and special tokens to unlock unique rewards. Players who have plenty of money to donate can move on up to having character names attached to game objects and custom-generated content. It's a nice set of rewards, and if you're interested in the game's future, you've got plenty of time before the Kickstarter closes.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

The Repopulation seeks Kickstarter funding originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 03 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Embers of Caerus reaches Kickstarter funding goal with 22 days to go

MJ Guthrie — Mon, 28 May 2012 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Sandbox

Just a few days ago we reported that Forsaken Studios was launching a Kickstarter campaign for Embers of Caerus and set a goal of $25,000. After hitting 92% of its goal in only five days (including one confirmed $10,000 donation), developers released a video update thanking all supporters, large and small.

The update also offers more tidbits of information, including the addition of a jobs page to the official site for those aspiring to work on Embers of Caerus and a reward matrix that better spells out what donors will receive for their contributions. Technical Directer Dave Belcher also gives some insights into why the game supports harsher death penalties and will not consider going free-to-play.

Now that the game has officially reached its Kickstarter goal this morning, we can't wait to see what else the Forsaken Studios team will offer up in the game's development as it still has over 22 days to go for its funding! Will it reach $100k? $300k? One meeeellion dollars? We'll certainly keep our eyes on its progress.

[Thanks to everyone for the tip!]

Embers of Caerus reaches Kickstarter funding goal with 22 days to go originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 28 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Massively: Artists I actually dislike edition

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO Industry, Opinion, Humor, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous

For whatever reason, Rob Liefeld has become a mini-meme on my more meta columns of the week. He's a bad artist, yes, but as I've mentioned in the past, I don't actively dislike him. There are many people far more deserving of dislike. Case in point: Pat Lee. I'm not going to explain in depth right here, but suffice to say that the man has history of hobbies like not paying his employees and taking credit for the work of others. And he's not a very good artist.

So let's move on from that meme, shall we? Great.

Of course, if I'm talking about mini-memes on Ask Massively, that must mean that it's time for this week's installment, yes? Yes. And this week, we're talking about the now almost ubiquitous case of the Kickstarter project. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of Ask Massively, leave it in the comments below or mail it to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.

Continue reading Ask Massively: Artists I actually dislike edition

Ask Massively: Artists I actually dislike edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 24 May 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pathfinder Online's technology demo gets soundly kickstarted

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Sandbox

Two days ago, we announced that Pathfinder Online was starting a Kickstarter project to fund a technology demo for the game. Yesterday, the project went live. Today, the project has already hit its $50,000 goal and exceeded it, meaning that the game's demo will most definitely be funded when June 8th rolls around. There are still another 29 days left in the project, so if you're interested in the game, there's still more time for you to throw in your support.

But maybe you're one of the backers already. If you're still eager for more information on the game, the weekly developer blog has gone live, discussing the rationale behind the Kickstarter project and some of the future steps of the game's production. You can also take a peek at details behind the upcoming tabletop book available for backers, which might help motivate you to donate if you haven't already.

[Thanks to Nick for the tip!]

Pathfinder Online's technology demo gets soundly kickstarted originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 May 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Storybricks starts Kickstarter campaign, welcomes aboard animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous, Sandbox

Build-your-own-MMO toolset Storybricks is getting a major second wind today as the company's announced that it's brought on board legendary animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman to assist in animation and character design. The two are well-known in both the film and video game industry for their work on The Secret of NIMH and Dragon's Lair (among many other projects).

"We intend to bring our experience in animation and character design to help provide appealing, believable, thinking characters to Storybricks' founding partners' vision for gaming," Goldman said. The two join a dream team of advisors for the project that includes Richard Bartle, Liz Danforth, and Chris Avellone.

Storybricks is also tapping the Kickstarter well to help fund the project. The team hopes to raise $250,000 in pledges by June 1st. "Though we have found the right people who share our mad (or perhaps inspired) vision of role-playing and storytelling in computer RPGs, we haven't been able to find enough people willing to write us a check," the team explains on the page. Sponsors can get copies of the game, beta keys, and even digital versions of themselves inserted into the final version.

[Source: Storybricks press release]

Storybricks starts Kickstarter campaign, welcomes aboard animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Embers of Caerus dev blog talks sieging, Kickstarter

Jef Reahard — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Dev Diaries, Sandbox

Embers of Caerus has been flying under the radar of late (even for an indie sandbox title). Happily, the dev team has broken the silence with a new 20-minute video featuring Forsaken Studios technical director and co-founder Dave Belcher.

Belcher has a lot to say, the main gist of which is that work on EoC is going quite well. That said, funding is an issue as it is for most indie projects, so Belcher and his team have decided to try their hand at Kickstarter. "We're not a greedy bunch, the main thing is making the game and everything else is secondary," Belcher explains. To that end, look for an EoC Kickstarter page over the next few weeks.

In terms of gameplay and systems, Belcher spends a spot of time discussing siege warfare. He does offer a disclaimer in terms of the early nature of a high-level design, but he also describes sieging as "one of our key, killer features," so chances are good that you'll see it in EoC's eventual prototype. Head past the break for the full video.

[Thanks to Sam for the tip!]

Continue reading Embers of Caerus dev blog talks sieging, Kickstarter

Embers of Caerus dev blog talks sieging, Kickstarter originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIFT revenues reached $100 million in 2011, Trion secures new funding

Jef Reahard — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items, RIFT

How successful is RIFT? That's hard to say without knowing how much it cost, but it's safe to assume that Trion executives are smiling after the game generated $100 million in revenue in only 10 months.

CEO Lars Buttler told Reuters that the company is still considering an initial public stock offering, and it has also secured an additional $85 million in funding as it readies RIFT for the South Korean and Chinese gaming markets later this year. Trion is also developing an MMO shooter called Defiance and an MMORTS known as End of Nations.

RIFT revenues reached $100 million in 2011, Trion secures new funding originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond meets fundraising goals, updates FAQ

Jef Reahard — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:00:00 EST

Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond has taken several small steps over the course of its short lifetime, but can it make one giant leap to a full-fledged release product? It's off to a decent start, judging by its Kickstarter fundraising tally.

The devs have issued a press release proclaiming the success story and are drafting a FAQ document designed to get more information out there to potential investors (and eventually, players). The latest version of the FAQ is viewable on the official website, and we've included a few highlights for you here:

The game is a follow-up to Moonbase Alpha (released in 2010)
Project Whitecard and Wisdom Tools are the developers per a "Space Act Agreement" with NASA
The target audience will be the 5-24 age and the gaming and science enthusiast markets
The game will be available for iOS and Windows PC; other platforms are being considered
Unreal Engine 3 is being used to develop the game
A beta is planned for December 2012

Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond meets fundraising goals, updates FAQ originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Richard Garriott's Portalarium project gets more funding

Jef Reahard — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Browser, Casual, Miscellaneous

Portalarium, the social networking startup founded by Richard "Lord British" Garriott, is picking up a bit of momentum thanks to a round of new funding. London-based m8 has contributed an undisclosed amount of capital to Garriott's Austin, Texas studio, which thus far has published two Facebook gambling games (Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack).

Total funding for Portalarium stands at $3.6 million, and the company plans to release CenterPort sometime in 2012. CenterPort is a graphically advanced social networking app that "will be the virtual world social hub for the OpenLife ecosystem, a broad yet fully integrated meta-community," according to the studio's website.

Garriott, most famous for the seminal Ultima series (which for MMO gamers peaked with Ultima Online in 1997), launched Portalarium in September 2009.

Richard Garriott's Portalarium project gets more funding originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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38 Studios estimates it will take 50 to 100 million to finish Copernicus, Schilling looking for investors

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items

Curt Schilling is out on the field again -- the investing field, that is. The former baseball star turned game developer is looking for more investors to back 38 Studios and their first game, the title codenamed Copernicus. The company's estimates for their game requires 50 to 100 million more in funding for the staff, all with their tentative December 2010 launch in mind.

Keep in mind, of course, that 38 Studios has acquired Maryland developer Big Huge Games, the company known for Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, and Xbox Arcade's version of Catan. That acquisition doubled the company's headcount and has possibly driven operating costs into the 15 to 20 million a year range, according to the Boston Globe.

So far Schilling hasn't had any luck with potential investors. However, as he said to the Boston Globe, "I'm not going to complain about the economy. It's like pitching on a rainy day. The other guy has to pitch in it, too."

[Via Cuppycake]

38 Studios estimates it will take 50 to 100 million to finish Copernicus, Schilling looking for investors originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All-star team gets funding for Ohai MMO

Shawn Schuster — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, MMO Industry, New Titles, Browser, Casual, Virtual Worlds

What do you get when you mix former SOE developers, a Flash-based virtual goods environment and about 6 million dollars in capital funding? You get Ohai, a new project in development from such industry vets as Scott Hartsman, Blake Commagere and Don Neufeld.

Last fall, the folks at Ohai raised an undisclosed amount of financing (rumored to be $6 million) from August Capital and Rustic Canyon Partners for their new Flash-based MMO. Very little is known about the game, aside from tidbits here and there. Susan Wu, the company's CEO, recently told Virtual Worlds News that it will be a virtual goods focused business, and they're steering clear of the word "casual", in lieu of the much more appropriate term "accessible". Oh, and they're looking to spend a bit of that cash on some talented artists and programmers.

All-star team gets funding for Ohai MMO originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Korean government to pour $200 billion into gaming industry

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry

As Western game developers are losing money and closing down more games than ever before, the Korean government is taking a drastically different approach. According to a recent report, the Korean government plans to invest $200 billion USD into their gaming industry in an attempt to boost the country into the top spot for game development.

Although this incentive will reach across all gaming genres, Korea is well-known for its involvement with MMOs. NCsoft, which is among one of the largest MMO publishers, is headquartered in Korea and could potentially aim to benefit from such funding. This proposal plans to fund the gaming industry through 2012 and hopes to expand its game exports to around 5 trillion won (around $3.3 trillion USD) per year.

Korean government to pour $200 billion into gaming industry originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over $100 million invested in Trion and its unusual distribution platform

Samuel Axon — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Business Models, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items

Trion announced that it has managed to get another $70 million in invested funds, bringing the total amount to over $100 million. For reference: that's somewhere in the ballpark of the development cost Grand Theft Auto IV, and about half of what Blizzard has spent on World of Warcraft since its 2004 launch.

Trion is the company co-founded by EA alum Lars Buttler and Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, which announced that it'll be making a game in concert with The Sci-Fi Channel, as well as a fantasy console MMO we know little about.

We've talked a bit about Trion's plans and business model before, but here's a refresher: it is creating development tools for making games that will run completely server-side. The graphics will be drawn on the client, but everything else -- physics, game logic, etc., will occur on the server and be downloaded to the user's computer. This serves two important functions. It greatly reduces the minimum hardware specifications for games and it makes piracy extremely difficult. We're not going to say yet that it makes piracy impossible, because, well, "life finds a way."

Over $100 million invested in Trion and its unusual distribution platform originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big Fish Games snags $83 million for expansion

Shawn Schuster — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, Free-to-Play, Browser

In what is touted as the the largest investment of venture capital for a U.S. online gaming company, Big Fish Games has recently secured $83.3 million in funding from VC firms Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Salmon River Capital. This is all in addition to the $8.7 million they received in 2005, making this developer one of the most heavily-funded out there.

You may remember in November of last year when Big Fish acquired MMO developer Thinglefin which was founded by Jeremy Friesen and Ryan O'Rourke, formerly of Monolith and Sony Online Entertainment. These industry vets have previously worked on The Matrix Online and Asheron's Call. This new MMO from Thinglefin is described as a free-to-play, browser-based MMO, and is currently still in development.

Big Fish Games snags $83 million for expansion originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Grockit gets funding to teach us all a little something

Akela Talamasca — Sat, 31 May 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Real-Life, Game Mechanics, New Titles, News Items, Academic, Education

The question is, however, what? According to TechCrunch, former online exam prep site Grockit has recently raised $8 million in funding, bringing the total funding amount up to $10.7 million. Calling itself an MMOLG, or massively multiplayer online learning game, Grockit purports to bring users together to learn from each other. But what exactly does that mean?

Considering its origins as an exam prep company, we could guess that people will connect with one another to discuss specific tests, maybe with sample questions. There might be collaborative tools that allow users to show each other their thinking processes. At the very least, there ought to be animations where avatars will be able to pass each other notes while taking the test. Whatever's being planned, it's apparently worth $10.7 million to somebody.

Grockit gets funding to teach us all a little something originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 31 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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