NetDevil has officially replaced their placeholder pages with the full Jumpgate Evolution website. The site features your usual mix of in-game media and game information.
As an ex-Jumpgate player from way back, and now Eve-Online subscriber, it’ll be very interesting to see how the experience between the two compare against each other.
“My name is Jean-Claude Van Damme… and I am a mage.”
“Hand-to-hand combat for me: it’s over!”
“Now I can cast powerful spells!”
“Just try messing with me… I’ll turn you into a sheep.”
“A sheep!”
“…Because we all are a bit like sheep, you know…”
“I am Jean-Claude Van Damme, I am a mage.
“And you?”
“What’s your game?”
French TV advertisement for World of Warcraft, I’d say it’s one of the better, but Mr. T might say otherwise…
If you enjoy the videos please show your support for “The Guild” and visit their home page. Felicia has stated they’re currently working on funding for another 3 episodes, so there’s plenty more cheese hoarding to come!
Amid the SEC report, the staff leaks of their design discussions, and rumors of an unknown media company aquiring the company, Perpetual has been calling in damage control with their Devs playing down the move to a “casual” game and the micro-transaction payment scheme as no more than ongoing discussions by the team.
Panicked fans were soothed on the Startrek-Online.net forums by STO Executive Producer Dan Stinnet with the following post:
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to step in and give everyone a quick update given all the rumors circulating. We are now in the process of finding a formal publisher for STO, which involves conversations with a variety of parties. We have been working on our business model for some time and once we establish a publisher, we will work with our new partner to communicate exactly what we are building - something I know all of you have been waiting a long time for.
There was also a report about PE liquidating our assets. That report relates to a transaction that took place a while back. And while I can’t go into details right now, I want to assure the community that the entire Star Trek team is still here working hard and eagerly anticipating our chance to finally share our big plans.
Thanks, and hang-tight.
- Daron
Regarding the rumored plans of a micro-transaction system:
You guys are very charitable - thanks for the support. And I mean that. There are some really nasty and incorrect rumors circulating right now and while the support is obviously not unanimous, I was expecting much more piling-on in this thread than is the case.
I personally think that MMOs need to be a better deal. Paying $200/year is a good deal for some but I don’t think that is sustainable for the category and certainly rules out a lot of people who don’t have the time to get enough value out of that expense. So we are discussing this issue internally. Unfortunately that discussion leaked and the characterization is incorrect. It’s also unfortunate that we have not yet come to conclusion internally so it is hard to present the real story since we are in the process of figuring it out.
But I do want to reassure everyone that STO is still going, it is still a triple-A game, and we are thinking hard about how to make our efforts even more appealing with a lower barrier to entry than is the norm.
__________________
Daron Stinnett
Executive Producer || Star Trek Online
We all know that $15 subscription aren’t an ideal value for all players. Given alternatives, especially with past experience playing the old pay-by-the-hour games of Compuserve and GEnie showed you could make hundreds of dollars, if not thousands by just exploiting a small percentage of your userbase with the proper monetization. Besides, what corporate Ferengi would ever limit their business to a flat fee all you can eat approach?
As for calling the yet to be released title a “triple-A game” Daron, we think that’s best left to the players to judge, unlike the tragedy of a MMO we dare not name. The IP you licensed is Triple-A, whether it’ll avoid the Star Trek curse and make it as a Triple-A game? We’ll see.. forgive us as sci-fi fans and MMO gamers if we take seeing such an important IP flushed down the drain again so seriously… There are no second chances for this property, and everything is riding on Perpetual to do it right.
Elsewhere, possibly spurred on by the rumors to show something other than artist renderings, the latest STO Dev Blog has released the first ever screenshot of their MMO’s interface as seen from the 3rd person spaceship mode.
The standard MMO interface bar and chat dialog system in STO will be the common element for ease of use across the entirety of the game for all ground based and space based interactions. As far as the old LCARS interface goes, you’d barely notice it was in the game at this point beyond a few small touches here and there.
With a cartoony screenshot in-hand of the stylized STO interface it does re-inforce the rumors of a casual World of Warcraft playstyle seriously puting into question any possibility of a rich and deep Star Trek MMORPG.
For the World of Warcraft diehards needing that mobile edge so you’re never more than a click away from your rep grinding (or the restroom on those extra long raids..) Dell is now offering two custom versions of the XPS M1730 featuring exclusive World of Warcraft designs. Both come with your pick of either Horde or Alliance logos on the LCD lid, hinge cover, and faction honor badges displayed on the speaker grills (illuminated).
So how much will this epic loot set you back? Try about $4,499.00 for a starter system with a 2.2Ghz 7500 Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, and SLI Nvidia 8700 graphics card (AGEIA PhysX Mobile Technology Built-in).
Or go nuts with upgrades like a Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 2.8Ghz, 4GB Ram, 2x 64GB Solid State Drives in Raid 0, Blue-ray/DVD/CD Burner, Intel a/g/n Wireless, Bluetooth, 4 year warranty, all for the bargain price of $8398.00. Did we forget to mention it includes Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate Edition?
Also included:
Officially they’ll go on sale starting Dec 11th, but nothing is stopping you (short of $4499) from owning this marvel of geekdom by pre-ordering it now.
It’s official! The Pirates of the Burning Sea NDA has been dropped as of 12/3/07 by Flagship Studios for their upcoming MMO. Stay tuned as we’ll be giving our own jaded gamer perspective on this unique Pirate MMO.
In the meantime several avid bloggers have already broke the news with Tobold’s highly detailed review of the games systems, and Potshot’s initial impressions. Keen of Keen & Graev’s Gaming Blog has also posted his impression of the game.
All in all we’re finding many of our fellow bloggers experience to mirror that of the DR staff experience after beta testing PotBS over the last several months.
Vivendi and Activision have struck a $18.9 Billion deal to merge as Activision Blizzard. The combined company will nearly equal Electronic Arts in size, and combine disparate franchises such as Guitar Hero and WoW under the same corporate entity.
As for the details the press release it’s pretty dry material for the express purpose of making stockholders see lots of dollar signs. Plus given Blizzard’s value in this deal, it clearly has them calling the shots and terms in the merger allowing them to remain an independent division. Nor can investors ignore the obvious synergies in both companies given that Southpark created a show for each companies top games, World of Warcraft, and Guitar Hero, with outside confirmation like that, you can’t go wrong.
That and there’s going to be a lot of executives at both companies patting themselves on the backs over this one given the million dollar plus bonuses they’ll likely be recieving once the merger is approved.
From Blizzard.com
Blizzard to Join Forces With Activision
We’re pleased to announce that along with the other companies that make up Vivendi Games, we are merging with Activision to form a new global entertainment organization called Activision Blizzard (pending shareholder and regulatory approval). Similar to our previous arrangement, Blizzard Entertainment will now operate as a division of this new organization.There will be no changes to our games, our websites, our personnel, or our day-to-day operations as a result of the deal. However, this combining of resources will benefit all of the companies involved and will further strengthen Blizzard’s ability to continue delivering high-quality content for our players around the world for many years to come. To learn more about this exciting new development, please read our
If anything the team at Blizzard deserves a congratulations for their tremendous ride over the last several years and totally unexpected success with World of Warcraft, something that was likely the sole reason this deal was possible.
As for a Guitar Hero MMO? Stranger things have happened…
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