Warhammer Online Feels Free-To-Play Wrath

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BioWare has announced a Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. This free-to-play game will focus on competitive player-versus-player combat, with up to 18 players involved in the same battle.

“We’re thrilled to expand our audience and deliver BioWare’s first Play4Free title with Wrath of Heroes,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-founder, BioWare and General Manager, BioWare Label. “PvP combat is without a doubt one of the most compelling experiences online. We’ve distilled down the essentials of that conflict — and delivered it with force.”

“We’re excited to continue to work with BioWare to bring a fresh take on the Warhammer Online experience to existing fans and new players everywhere,” said Andy Jones, Head of Legal and Licensing at Games Workshop PLC. “We believe this fantastic extension to Warhammer Online demonstrates the studios commitment to bringing the unique and defining PvP elements from Warhammer Online to a whole new audience with a level of quality and authenticity that will continue to delight our established fans.”

Find out more about the closed beta at www.wrathofheroes.com {link no longer active}.

Age Of Empires Online Represents Shift In Gaming Industry

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Free-to-play is becoming a popular way to distribute games in the PC space, as the release of Age of Empires Online is demonstrating. To Chris Taylor, chief executive and creative director at Gas Powered Games, it will be the next big thing in the PC space.

“This game is in the big leagues,” said Chris Taylor, chief executive and creative director at Gas Powered Games. “If you’re wondering where PC gaming is going next, this is where it’s going. It’s a huge shift.”

The game’s download of 2GB is free and it includes Greek or Egyptian civilization. Saving your city permanently, unlocking new civilizations or getting certain decorative buildings will cost some money.

The capital city that you can retain can become bigger and can be visited by your friends. Importantly, you can get gear and craft products from the cities, sell those items on market and also purchase items from other players’ stores.

“We think of it as an MMO with real-time strategy,” said Danan Davis, executive producer of the game. “It’s going to be easy to get into, but hard to master. We keep adding layers of depth, but you can play at the level that suits you. There are many ways to customize it.”

“I’m glad we arrived here, since it’s a long time since our industry has been this exciting,” Taylor said. “We think this game will be one of the best value propositions out there in free-to-play games.”

Source: VentureBeat

Google+: Social Game Makers Likes Potential

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Facebook almost stumbled into success with gaming, but Google is taking a more deliberate route with Google+. The company has been reaching out to developers to try and make their social platform a success.

Social developer Kabam released two titles for the Google+ in Edgeworld and Dragons of Atlantis. Ted Simon, Kabam’s vice president of brand marketing and communications, said the decision was easy because they had to rework very little code and the invitation from Google was flattering.

While Kabam would like to eventually have a single universe for its social games, right now Google+ users and Facebook users can’t see each other. Simon did note that the terms which Google+ only takes 5 percent of revenue compared to 30 percent are Facebook are much more favorable.

“We believe a new kind of platform is possible — one that is collaborative in nature, and disrupts the existing ecosystem,” said Punit Soni, a product manager for Google+. “That has been the core focus of our effort and that’s where I see the most disruption to the ecosystem.”

“Free-to-play games on social networks and other digital platforms are poised to significantly disrupt the $50 billion games industry in a manner akin to the impact iTunes had on music and Netflix on the video rental business,” added Simon. “The introduction of another major player in the social gaming arena is likely to accelerate the disruption patters.”

In a coup, Google+ landed Angry Birds before Facebook. “Competition and cooperation are such a natural part of gaming that we think it’s going to work really well, both on Google+ and other platforms,” said a Rovio spokesperson. “We’re still exploring how we can add these social aspects to other versions of the game, but rest assured they’re coming!”

Source: AdWeek

PS3 Down To $249

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Sony has announced that the PS3 will be available for $249 with the $160 GB model. The 320 GB model will be $299, with a bundle including InFamous 2 and a 30-day PlayStation Plus membership included at certain retailers.

“The new price will make the PS3 more accessible than ever before, so there’s never been a better time to join PlayStation Nation,” said Tretton. “We know that while future-proof technology is important to you, content is still king — that’s why we continue to focus on bringing you exclusive “must have” titles that are unmatched by anything else on the market. With games like Resistance 3, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and one of my personal favorites, Uncharted 3, all on the horizon, there’s a lot of great entertainment in store for you.”

Epic Games Concentrating On Five Smaller Titles

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Epic Games president Mike Capps revealed at Gamescom that his studio is working on five games. Given the risk involved with AAA titles nowadays, Capps said it would not be anything like a sequel to Gears of War.

“At Epic we didn’t multiply the studio size by five when we started working on these multiple projects, so you can make some assumptions about the size of those projects,” Capps said, noting the success of Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade influencing the decision.

“Everyone knows the middle class is disappearing from the console business. Gears of War, I hope will do really well, but a pretty good game doesn’t make its money back any more. A game like Homefront sells a couple of million copies and they close the studio, right,” he added. “That’s not enough any more. That’s pretty depressing. You don’t want to see what happens to an industry where it’s Call of Duty, Halo and Gears and no-one else has enough money to make any games any more. That’s not a fun industry,” Capps continued. “I can’t bet my entire company every time I make a game, that’s a really dangerous business.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Crytek Not Looking Into PS Vita

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Heavy Iron Studios recently struck out at the PS Vita as not financially viable in today’s market. Crytek is concurring with this sentiment, saying that tablets are replacing gaming-only portable devices.

“While it’s a nice achievement from Sony in the first step it’s not something we would take into consideration in the short term,” said Crytek managing director Avni Yerli. “I can see that the multifunctions that devices like tablets offer is a big advantage of them. And I think people want one mobile device that can do multiple things. Considering this, I think those handhelds are lacking in that area and they are losing ground, actually. I think they have to be more innovative.”

Explaining why Crytek isn’t making anything for PS Vita, he said, “In the first place anything new and exciting gets our attention, regardless of what it is. But then the second step is does it fit to what we want to do? Will our people like to work on this? It’s all very important. The team must pick it up as well, or a dedicated team we think can pick it up. But ultimately it must make sense in the context of Crytek. And then sometimes we say ‘OK, that’s a nice piece of technology but it doesn’t fit’ so we leave it. It’s a matter of whether it fits basically, with the strategy of Crytek.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Wii-Design Coming Soon: Reports

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Reports are that Nintendo will be launching a new Wii redesign during Fall 2011. The console is designed to sit flat, not vertically like the old Wii, and it is no longer compatible with GameCube games or controllers.

The new Wii.

The new console will come with a Wii Remote Plus, a Nunchuk and copies of Wii Sports and Wii Party. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, which isn’t surprising since Nintendo hasn’t officially announced the device as of this writing.

Source: Eurogamer {link no longer active}

Gears Of War’s ‘Natural Ceiling’ For Sales, Due To Sci-Fi

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Epic design chief Cliff Bleszinski has stated before that Gears of War is not likely to hit sales numbers that Call of Duty is likely to. Gears of War 3 executive producer Rod Fergusson agrees with the sentiment, and explained why the ceiling is there.

“I just think Gears has a natural ceiling”, he said. “I don’t know what that ceiling is but people come to Gears of War because we have our chainsaw assault rifle, but I think it also keeps people away in some respects. As many people as there are that come to shoot monsters, I think there’s people that don’t necessarily want a sci-fi experience and having monsters there. I think there are some barriers there but it’s also what makes us unique and what draws people in.”

Source: CVG {link no longer active}

Portal 2 Music Video Winners

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Valve recently ran a video contest for Portal 2, and received 320 entries using the song Exile Vilify by The National which debuted in the game. The debate over who won was so hot at Valve they asked the band that created the song to pick out the grand prize winner… which features a sock puppet the other two videos are included below.