Massively

NCSoft sells over 300,000 Aion pre-orders

Brooke Pilley — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Interviews, News items

There's an interesting interview with Véronique Lallier -- NCSoft's managing director of publishing -- over at GamesIndustry.biz that reveals Aion has sold over 300,000 pre-orders so far. Not too shabby if you ask us. The interview also covers a lot of what's been going on over the past year with NC West, NCSoft's 'umbrella' for their western subsidiaries.

The main goal of NC West is to give the company a stronger foothold in European and North American markets. Now based out of Seattle, employees can be closer to their players and be more responsive to their needs. Stepping back from their original strategy of making casual games, the Seattle studio is also focused on making more triple-A MMOs for the West. What's on the horizon for NCSoft? Apparently, we can expect to hear more about Guild Wars 2 next year and their Korean studio is working on Blade & Soul, which they claim has even better graphics than Aion. There are a number of unannounced titles as well.

We should have the results of our own Aion interview with NCSoft out shortly, so make sure to stay tuned for that.

NCSoft sells over 300,000 Aion pre-orders originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Champions Online open beta and early start schedule revealed

Kyle Horner — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, New titles, News items, Champions Online

Cryptic Studios has announced the open beta and head start schedule for Champions Online. It's actually a very nice setup. Here's the rundown:

August 16th: closed beta servers wiped.
August 17th: open beta begins, servers taken down nightly from 1am-3am PDT.
August 24th: servers shut down at 10am PDT and wiped for early start.
August 28th: early start begins, allowing GameStop and Best Buy pre-orders to play before the Sept. 1st launch.

Players involved with the early start can defeat special enemies who drop unique items only available until September 1st. Cryptic hasn't said what these items are going to be, so we're in the dark until the early start begins -- or they decide to share that information early.

We're definitely (unfortunately?) going through GameStop for the early start, as some of us will be in Seattle at PAX during launch and don't want to miss out on powering up our superheroes beforehand. Plus, we're pretty impatient when it comes to our MMOs. It just goes with the job, really.

Update: Best Buy customers will also receive early start access. Our apologies!

Champions Online open beta and early start schedule revealed originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aion launch party contest details revealed

Kyle Horner — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Aion, Contests, New titles, News items

Do you plan on participating in the Aion beta this weekend? If not, you may want to reconsider, because NCsoft is offering a pretty amazing contest for those of you who decide to play. Here's the rub: North American players who log into the Aion closed beta this weekend (July 2nd to July 6th) and obtain level 3 are entered to win a trip to Seattle for themselves and a friend. This trip culminates at the Aion launch party at the Seattle Space Needle, where they'll also get to attend the PAX 2009 expo.

Pretty cool, right? We're sure that many of you would kill to get a chance to play Aion at all, let alone be entered into this contest. So make sure you get to at least level 3 if you're playing this weekend. You may as well if you're already going to play at all, right? And if you really want that beta key now -- but haven't had the luck to nab one -- preorder customers are given access to every beta event. You can find the page for preordering yourself a copy right here.

Aion launch party contest details revealed originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jaeho Lee moving to Seattle, not running NC West from Korea

William Dobson — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, News items

When the news came out last week that Jaeho Lee, former chief financial officer for NCsoft, would be taking over as CEO of NCsoft West, a lot of people (including press) assumed that he would be calling the shots from Korea -- after all, NCsoft had said that the change was about "global management" and working together across business units. However, we are now being told that Lee will make the journey to Seattle to join the NCsoft West team. In response to the earlier reports of NCsoft shifting leadership of its Western division to Korea, a rep had this to say to Gamasutra:

"Jaeho Lee is moving to Seattle, so nothing has shifted except him. A similar change of personnel happened in our Japan office, so this was a strategic move on the part of our headquarters in Seoul to streamline global management."

The rep also mentioned that Lee ran other departments such as marketing and production while in his position as chief financial officer.

Jaeho Lee moving to Seattle, not running NC West from Korea originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Old Republic's Threat of Peace issue #3 roils with opposite of peace

Kyle Horner — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Lore, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

And so the plot moistens. We say moisten because much like a moist and delectable cake, the third issue of Star Wars: The Old Republic's Threat of Peace webcomic is filled with sweet, sweet filling -- otherwise known as lightsaber battles and political intrigue.

Between these weekly free comic updates and the newly revealed (and immaculately voiced) historical timeline, we're likely to overdose on this MMO even before we get our hands on it. Speaking of which... when do you suppose that'll be BioWare? We heard PAX was a pretty great place to let people try out cool games. And you know, the people of Seattle are almost cousins to Canadians!

Check out the third issue right here, and while you're enjoying that we'll continue to keep our eyes trained for any other updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The Old Republic's Threat of Peace issue #3 roils with opposite of peace originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aion's European community team makes the leap across the pond

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Culture, MMO industry, News items

Going along with the continuous restructuring of NCsoft West, the European Aion community team has recently been invited to take the long swim across the Atlantic Ocean and join US community manager Liv in Seattle, forming a unified Aion community team.

Sebastian "Ayase" Streiffert, the United Kingdom community manager, and Martin "Amboss" Rabl, the German community manager will be flying to the United States, while Loic "Atreid" Claveau, the French community manager, has declined the position in favor of moving to the marketing department in Brighton.

Ayase, Amboss, and Atreid have all written blog posts reflecting on their individual decisions, and they can be read over at the Aion Europe community site. Amboss's and Atreid's posts have been written in their native languages, but it's nothing that a web translator can't handle. (And by handle I mean rip to shreds, but at least give you the general idea.)

Welcome to the United States, Ayase and Amboss!

Aion's European community team makes the leap across the pond originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft Seattle hiring for console programmers

Shawn Schuster — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, MMO industry

What layoffs? In the wake of the recent "structural changes" from NCsoft, it appears they're now entering a strong wave of hiring, according to Gamasutra and the job section of their PlayNC.com website. Yet, it's not so much the fact that they're hiring, it's the fact that one of their many positions include a Programmer/Engineer for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Speculation has arisen that this may be related to something ArenaNet is doing, although it's important to note that NCsoft makes the distinction between Bellevue, Washington, where ArenaNet is located and Seattle, Washington, where NCsoft West's headquarters are located.

But if you want to actually talk about ArenaNet jobs, we can certainly do that. Currently, they're hiring for 14 positions, including Web Development, Programmers and Artists. If you think you have what it takes, head on over to their jobs board and see what they have for you. We look forward to hearing more about what NCsoft and ArenaNet have in store.

[Thanks Nirolak!]

NCsoft Seattle hiring for console programmers originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epic Games China reforms as Titan Studios, developing MMO

James Egan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:30:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, New titles, News items

When most of us hear talk of the company "Epic Games", the first thing that comes to mind is Gears of War or the Unreal series of titles. While Epic Games had a Shanghai games studio for outsourcing purposes, it's now evolved into Titan Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary based in Seattle. Through Titan Studios, it seems Epic Games is turning their attention to MMOGs, following up their work on the PS3 title Fat Princess.

As to what's going on within the Titan Studios walls, GameSpot's Tom Magrino reports that "an undefined number of unannounced projects are in the works at the studio, one of which is a massively multiplayer online game." Needless to say, that bit of information has piqued our interest, and we'll keep our eyes open at Massively for more about the Titan Studios MMO project in the future.

Epic Games China reforms as Titan Studios, developing MMO originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pirates of the Burning Sea is movin' on up

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Historical, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry

In the newest dev diary for Pirates of the Burning Sea, we get quite an update regarding the state of the game as well as what the future may hold. There's word of the PotBS team's recent studio upgrade in Seattle, which will directly influence productivity in the game's development. There's also the addition of new employees and of course the revamp to the avatar combat system that we mentioned last week.

This revamp is the Flying Labs team's largest concern right now, as they say they've been planning to go back and re-examine the sword fighting from day one. Since ship combat got it's own rebuild, the avatar system will go through a similar re-balance to account for the new system. After this revamp is complete, they will focus on new features such as the in-progress skirmish and player-governed ports. This has inspired them to take on a whole new enthusiasm for an aggressive advertising campaign, so you can expect to see much more from PotBS in the near future.

Pirates of the Burning Sea is movin' on up originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Reid sets the record straight on NC West: Part 2

Adrian Bott — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, MMO industry

Massively: Great. So it's actually more towards NC West as sort of a general umbrella under which these specific studios can have their own names, and really carve out their own places within the company?

David Reid: Absolutely. Think about it this way: the reorganization and the establishment of NC West is more of an acknowledgement that we as a company can be doing better on the publishing side, in terms of taking these great products that these veteran leadership studios have been able to crank out, and turn them into much bigger phenomena. Right?

I mean, we've had great success with City of Heroes, we've had great success with Guild Wars, but we think it can be bigger. What we're not doing is changing the studio organization, other than the studios all now report in to Jeff Strain, who has moved on from the day to day management of ArenaNet - Michael O'Brien is now the studio head there, and is leading the Guild Wars 2 team and other projects there - but Jeff serves as a manager across the studio organization.

**"... we've had great success with City of Heroes, we've had great success with Guild Wars, but we think it can be bigger."**

And in parallel, what I get to do for Jeff and those studios is make sure that we do the best we can to deliver triple-A world class launches across our Western territories, and make sure that the marketing, the sales, the customer support - all the elements that great developers look to great publishers to do - are being done here. There's going to be some common platforms and things on the technology side, and a common team that helps serve the business, but nothing really changes on the product development side.

Massively: Okay. So you're saying nothing much is going to change on the product development side, but to that end it seems like as part of the NC West conglomeration, there are some folks moving around. There's a little more... we guess you could say refinement in what people are doing in a couple of these different studios. Could you talk generally about what we're seeing, as far as people moving on to new positions, people moving on from Austin to Seattle, those sorts of things?

David Reid: I should say one thing: that the decision about moving out NC West in the way we're doing it is, while there's no real change happening at the studio level, there is this ratification of 'NCsoft is going to be in the triple-A MMO space day in and day out', right?

We've done some interesting things and had some success with smaller titles, things like Dungeon Runners and Exteel are doing well for us, but the company by and large is the company that Lineage built, and this reorganization is a ratification of getting back to that business and going all-in on the Lineages, Guild Wars, Aions, City of Heroes, Tabula Rasas, Blade and Souls, those sorts of games are what NCsoft is going to be doing day in, day out here in the West.

Now, there's a specific question you asked there about how does this impact certain people. We are planning to - we're in the process of now porting the internal people that we would like to relocate to Seattle, and have offered a healthy number of folks a relocation up to Seattle to be part of what is principally a publishing headquarters. And so that's where the bulk of the North American and global leadership for marketing, for sales, for PR, aspects like that, we're thinking will be headquartered in Seattle.

Seattle for us was the logical place to go because of the relationship with Seoul, and Seattle just happens to be the place where you get the best number of non-stop flights to Seoul and to our West Coast studios, and to our UK office, out of Seattle versus any other city on the West Coast. And so we are also relocating what is now our Eastern games studio, the folks that are our North American and European producer team, for bringing games like Aion and Lineage and Blade and Soul into the Western market. Those folks are moving to Seattle, as well as the publishing headquarters.

Continue to Part 3

David Reid sets the record straight on NC West: Part 2 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guide to the PAX 08 MMO afterparties

Shawn Schuster — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, Contests, Culture, Events, real-world, Guides, MMO industry, Hands-on

This Friday marks the kickoff of the Penny Arcade Expo 2008 in Seattle, Washington. If you're going, you may already have your schedule planned out with which panels you'll attend, which booths you're stopping by and which contests you're going to enter.

However, you may be overlooking the most important part of this entire weekend: the parties! That's right, a few of your favorite developers are throwing their own afterparties where players can mingle with the game developers, community teams and other fans of the game. Leave it to us to compile a comprehensive list of these parties for you all to enjoy. Check after the cut for a detailed list of these top MMO developer parties.

Continue reading Guide to the PAX 08 MMO afterparties

Guide to the PAX 08 MMO afterparties originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PAX 2008 event schedule released

Shawn Schuster — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry

Gaming convention season is upon us and perhaps one of the largest of these is the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington. This being the fifth annual PAX, the turnout promises to already crush the numbers from the previous years combined. In anticipation of the event, every bit of news concerning the attendees and panel information is welcomed with open arms... and giddy screaming.

Yesterday, the PAX folks released their tentative schedule of events in pdf format on their forums. This includes the usual general gaming panels, but also a few interesting ones for MMOs. There's a panel with ArenaNet on three years of Guild Wars, one on NCsoft, one on the MMO and Virtual World business, and many more. Check out the forum announcement containing the pdf link and good luck with the planning!

PAX 2008 event schedule released originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turbine announces player gathering at PAX

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, Asheron's Call, Lord of the Rings Online, Contests, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry

Now that the Penny Arcade Expo is right around the corner, we're hearing more and more about these after parties held by game developers. First there was the news of ArenaNet's party at Gameworks Seattle, right across the street from the Washington Convention Center, and now we get news of Turbine holding a party at the same location, the night before.

The Turbine party will be from 7pm - 9pm local time on Friday, August 29th, 2008. Those in attendance will include Asheron's Call Producer Crowley, LotRO Executive Producer Nigellian, LotRO: Mines of Moria Producer Eldrad, the enigmatic Marketroid, Community Team members Patience and Frelorn, and more!

Gallery: Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Gallery

Turbine announces player gathering at PAX originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft's upcoming summer tour around the Globe

Matt Warner — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Real life, Aion, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dungeon Runners, Contests, Events, real-world, Tabula Rasa, Exteel, Free-to-play

NCsoft is taking a whirlwind summer tour across the Globe. First stop is in San Diego, California at Comic-Con where games, geeks, and comics will collide on July 23-27. The NCsoft booth (#5920) will feature game stations set up for attendees to play CoX, Exteel, Tabula Rasa and other NCsoft games. Also City of Heroes fanzine artist, Dave Hamann will be present to draw character sketches.

In Europe, during July 29-31 Aion: Tower of Eternity will be playable to western journalists. This will be the first time in a year since the last firsthand look took place. NCsoft Europe is hosting the event at their Brighton England, locale and this is a select press event. However, one of the biggest gaming events is taking place August 20-24 in Leipzig, Germany. NCsoft is headed there and will be present at the Leipzig Games Convention in a big way. Attendants there will find a special surprise in Hall 3 Booth B20, Aion will be setup on several demo kiosks for the public to play, the first time outside South Korea.

Continue reading NCsoft's upcoming summer tour around the Globe

NCsoft's upcoming summer tour around the Globe originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ArenaNet to host 2nd annual PAX afterparty

Shawn Schuster — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Real life, Aion, City of Heroes, Dungeon Runners, Guild Wars, Contests, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Tabula Rasa, Exteel

Once again, NCsoft and ArenaNet will be making an appearance at Seattle's Penny Arcade Expo this year. The NCsoft booth (#642) will be packed full goodies during the weekend of August 29th through the 31st, and they will be showing off some of their new and old favorites, including Exteel, Dungeon Runners, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa and the brand new Aion.

As they did last year, ArenaNet will be holding contests where participants can win valuable prizes. Developers will also be on hand to meet and greet with the players. Possibly the most exciting news is the fact that ArenaNet will hold another after-party at the Game Works across the street from the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, as they did last year. This is your chance to meet the folks at ArenaNet in a more casual setting and even challenge a few to an arcade game or two!

ArenaNet to host 2nd annual PAX afterparty originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PotBS: Seattle launch party

Jonathan Northwood — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Galleries, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage

A little more than five years ago, Flying Lab Software began nudging their pirate ship into the treacherous shoals of software development. As they navigated through the vagaries of deadlines and beta tests, constantly circled by the ever-present threat of player ennui, they made their way into the Bay of Beta Testing, and users got their first glimpses of a new, immersive world. As of yesterday, Pirates of the Burning Sea is live, and now everyone has the opportunity to participate in a battle royale between the naval forces of France, Britain, Spain, and the hordes of pirates that roamed the Caribbean in this version of 1720.

Massively had the opportunity to attend the Flying Lab PotBS launch party in Seattle, and also had the opportunity to sit down with some of the movers and shakers who brought you this phenomenal title. What does all of this mean? It means we managed to get some more information about future patches and expansion plans. Now that we're back home, we can tell you what the developers, the producers, and the CEO of the company told us. So get a firm grip on your tricorns and batten down your hatches, you swabs, the seas are fierce ahead.

Gallery: PotBS Seattle Launch Party Gallery

Continue reading PotBS: Seattle launch party

PotBS: Seattle launch party originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mythos buzz and beta invites

Mike Schramm — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:15:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, New titles, PvE, Mythos, Free-to-play

Both Tobold and West Karana are buzzing about Mythos, the free-to-play hack and slash RPG from Flagship Studios subsidiary Flagship Seattle. It's supposed to be good, clean, monster-killing fun Diablo style, with random customizable dungeons (as in, ask for a solo dungeon and you got it, or ask for a group dungeon for your level, and you got it) and lots of fun spec choices and loot. I've played a bit of Dungeon Runners, and enjoyed it, but as fun as it is, it still sticks a little too closely to MMO conventions, and it seems like Mythos just might be the simple hack-and-slash refresher to the growing ever-more-complicated MMO genre.

Unfortunately, the game is still in invite-only beta, but as we reported the other day, invites are getting spread around pretty fast, so your chance to check it out should be coming around soon. In the meantime, Flagship is accepting signups on their site. As we said before, it's not clear how the microtransactions they plan will work, but from everything we've heard about it, the free-to-play part of Mythos is more than worth a look.

Update: Bildo claims in our comments that he's the one that turned everyone onto Mythos, and he's got a good writeup, too. Plus, he's apparently getting more beta invites soon, so we make nice!

Mythos buzz and beta invites originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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