Rift For Free

Trion has confirmed that Rift will get its own free-to-play option as part of patch 1.7. Gamers will be able to play the first 20 levels for free without playtime restrictions, similar to what World of Warcraft offers players for free.

“In the past ten months, Rift has evolved at a breakneck pace, through seven massive updates that set new expectations for live MMOs, in features, in content, and in service,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer of Rift and Trion’s CCO. “We think a Lite edition with no time limit is the best way for players to see what an amazing experience Rift continues to be.”

PS Vita In The Five Buck Box

Taco Bell is running a contest right now for instant winners for the PS Vita. This ad for the contest features virtual characters from Little Deviants, Modnation Racers: Road Trip, MLB: The Show and LittleBigPlanet.

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Enter The Underworld

On the official website for Underworld: Awakening, fans can play an interactive game {link no longer active} called “Escape From the Facility” based on the story of the film. Using a keyboard, fans must navigate Selene from her laboratory prison through the facility and infiltrate the perilous Lycan hideout to find the first hybrid child. Also on the website, fans can navigate through and score points while they learn more about the history of Underworld while watching an interactive Video+ trailer {link no longer active}. On Facebook, the “Character Bloodline” app {link no longer active} shows the two family trees of the film and how they are connected, both Vampire and Lycan. Fans that click on a character will see a hi-res image of the character and be able to read some background story of the character.

Nintendo’s Miyamoto Says A Hit Title Key To Company’s Success

Shigeru Miyamoto is the creator of Mario, the Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and Wii Fit, so he can lay claim to creating some of the most notable franchises in the history of video games. With Nintendo’s recent financial woes, he believes the solution to the problem will be new hit titles.

“Developing big hit titles must be the solution,” said Miyamoto to investors. “I am acting with the understanding that one big hit title can change multiple phases of a situation in the entertainment business, and I feel that finding such one big hit is my basic job.”

Wii U Hardware Still In Flux, Says Team Ninja

Team Ninja has said that they are looking to take advantage of the Wii U’s tablet and will look to us it for Ninja Gaiden 3 in a similar manner that they did with Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword.  They also confirmed that the hardware is still in development.

“They asked us what we would want from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they have definitely listened and making changes,” said Team Ninja’s Yosuke Hayashi. “The hardware is still changing constantly.”

Source: Eurogamer

Bigpoint Reaches 250 Million Users

Bigpoint has announced that it has reached over 250 million registered users worldwide. The free-to-play and social game specialist has signed up over 250,000 users per title for games like Battlestar Galactica, Drakensang Online, Farmerama and Dark Orbit.

“Since 2002, we’ve striven to bring high-quality games and experiences to the widest possible audience,” said Heiko Hubertz, CEO and Founder, Bigpoint. “With players hailing from every corner of the globe, today’s milestone underscores our success – and we’re not done. We’ll continue to challenge the notion of what online games are and can be.”

Facebook Changes Game Discovery, Activity Feed And Live Ticker

Facebook has announced that has announce a new way to engage and discover games in the News Feed. Additionally There will also be changes to how links are changed on the homepage and how the activity feed and live ticker were changed.

“After launching games stories in mobile feed, we are now bringing this feature to Facebook.com,” said Facebook development director Matt Wyndowe. “Gamers and non-gamers alike will see stories that list games their friends are playing the most. These stories are designed to bring new users and significant re-engagement to games by encouraging users to discover games their friends are playing. We will continue to refine the design of these stories based on performance.”

“All users now have the option to have their games activity appear on timeline,” he continued. “We recently launched a new Timeline unit that deeply integrates a user’s top game activity over a given period of time into their timeline. This unit highlights the games users play the most, as well as top scores and achievements, allowing for quick re-engagement for the user and discovery among friends.”

Facebook is also trying out a new link to game and app requests that will increase their visibility. The company is also testing out a new games-only feed with friends’ game activity on the Apps and Games dashboard, where the “Friend Activity” sub-menu sits directly beneath the “Apps and Games” bookmark.

“As we work to optimize the canvas experience, we’ve found the live ticker alongside games and apps has not been a substantial driver of traffic. As a result, we are experimenting with removing the current version of the ticker on games and apps pages, and are exploring other ways to improve and simplify the games experience. We will continue to show the bookmarks on games and apps pages, which drive significant traffic and re-engagement,” said Wyndowe, who added. “On February 1st, we will remove all App Profile Pages. If you haven’t already, follow our instructions to migrate your Likes and vanity URL to an existing Facebook page. We continue to work on additional features to drive greater discovery and engagement with games and apps. Please provide your thoughts and feedback in the comment below.”

Source: developers.facebook.com