GamersVue

Warcry reports that Star Trek Online has been cancelled. Well, not officially cancelled, but the company that used to be called Perpetual and used to have the license to make Star Trek Online had to give back the license. Some other company could now restart developing the game, but they won’t get any existing code from Perpetual.

Scott Jennings calls it an impossible license. But apparently the reasons for Perpetual giving up the license are less about design possibilities, and more about financial possibilities. Perpetual already cancelled Gods & Heroes which was already in the beta and had pre-order boxes shipped to retailers. And they did some clever legal and financial engineering, including creating a new company, P2 Entertainment, and transferring all their assets including the Star Trek Online license to that new entity. People who were owed money by the old Perpetual sued them over that move. Investors had to write off their investments, as the old Perpetual went bankrupt.

For us players all that just means that we won’t see a Star Trek Online game before 2015, if ever.

[Edit: Rumors have it that the new STO developer will be Cryptic Studios.]

[Via Tobolds]

[1/18/07 Update]

P2 Entertainment To Lay Off Star Trek Online Dev Team Today

Dana Massey posted on 17 Jan 2008 3:11 pm

P2 Entertainment will officially lay off members of the Star Trek Online development team this afternoon, according to multiple sources at the company. The news comes as no surprise after reports earlier this week that they had suspended development.

In cooperation with P2, Cryptic Studios interviewed members of the Star Trek Online development team at Cryptic’s Los Gatos office Tuesday for positions on unannounced projects. They had no comment on reports that they would take on the game and license.

P2 did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

[Via WarCry]

[06/13/08 Update]

[Play.tm] is reporting that Cryptic Studios (makers of City of Heros) has a new MMO in the works and will be announced to the public on July 27th. It’s still pure rumor that Cryptic Studios picked up the Star Trek MMO license after Perpetual had to sell it (read above).   However, things are looking up for a possible Star Trek MMO.

According to a leak from LucasArts and the [Total Video Games] web site an (EX?) LucasArts employee has stated that the long rumoured BioWare project will be none other then Knights of the Old Republic created as an MMO.

The Sci-Fi channel will [build an MMO] for people to play.  The players will then influence the writers for a TV show based on the game to tell the stories behind the game.   They’ve already got 30 million dollars from investors for this little project.

David Howe, president of the Sci-Fi, talks about this new idea:

“A television show that is on once a week isn’t enough. The fans today want the experience to go beyond that,” Howe said. “For example, we can tell them that there will be an alien invasion at a certain place in the game, at a certain time, and to be there with all their friends and be ready. The outcome depends on them. And then that battle will be part of the universe in the show.”

Now the MMORPG ‘Horizons’ (Now called [Istaria]) had a 10 million dollar budget.  30 million now isn’t squat in the MMO field.   We’ve all seen the piss poor Sci-Fi ‘remakes’ of movies and shows with only a few real hits (thank God for Eureka!)
and now they want to make an MMO?  And WTF does “The Fans today want the experience to go beyond that”..  maybe.. only if the product is good!  BattleStar Galactica lends itself well to something like this.. ‘Ghost Hunters’ does not.

It’s a good idea, but with out someone that really knows the field inside and out that now only can provide a GOOD game to players but also get enough feed back from the game to allow the writers to do something with the data.. it’s just going to bomb.  hard core.  and people will be left wondering what the hell happened…  Hmm.. Wonder if Sci-Fi is hiring.

[Eurogamer] had an interview with J. Allen Brack to chat about the good, the bad and the ugly with the upcoming WoW expansion.   One thing of interest was the comment:

“Will we need a graphical update from the ground up at some point? Yep, probably.”

He also went on to say:

“That’s actually something we talk about every expansion, I’m positive we’ll talk about it next expansion.”

However it must be pointed out that graphic overhauls don’t always work. People will either not like the new client and/or find out the old client gave faster frame rates than the new one.

“A lot of people continued to play with the original client, because it was faster, or they preferred it, or were just used to it or whatever,” he said. “And so for me as a game developer, the idea that we would spend so much time and energy on something and have people go, ‘meh, that’s not really for me,’ that’s not very exciting.”

Where as I’ve not seen much news on this yet (I’m sure it’s coming) some people whom pre-ordered Age of Conan in order to get into pre- open beta have been, pretty much, told to go to hell.

It’s seems Funcom “over booked” the pre- open Beta. Some some unlucky people have been told:  ‘Well sorry you paid up to $100  $150 [Amazon] for a pre-order with access to beta, but we’re not giving it to you.  da-da-dadada-daaaaaa’

It’s BS like this that give companies a bad name, and more back lash is sure to come as the Internet picks up the story.

[Via StarGate Worlds Forums]

[StrategyFreaks.com], pay site, that shows morons that can’t play a game how to cheat at it, and listed what looks to be a metric butt ton of cheats for the new Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.   Including but not limited to, casting spells though walls and making your toon fly.. 

Now why am I telling you this?  Not because I want you to be a moron and cheat at your game, but because the Conan is due to be released in less then a week.  If there’s problems like this STILL in game.. holy mother of all that’s good and pure.. Conan is fart a level 23 gas cloud and kill all it’s users.

Now I’m all for time helpers (like a really would like a program to help me craft in EQ2. because it’s BORING AS HELL to craft in that game).. but cheats like making your toon fly?  Dude.. PLAY your game, don’t cheat at it.

“We believe that the potential of online is much greater than the performance we’ve seen in the last several years,” the exec admitted. “And to realise that potential, we have to catch up in terms of technological infrastructure and breadth of content and interconnectedness between what we do in the virtual world and what we’re doing in other businesses in terms of e-commerce, in terms of events, in terms of advertising, in terms of social networking.”

Press Release:
AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2006—NCsoft® Corporation (KSE:036570.KS), the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announced today its latest partnership with a new company in Austin. Spacetime Studios™, composed of a core team with previous leadership roles on successful franchises such as Privateer, Wing Commander and Star Wars Galaxies, will publish its next game under the NCsoft brand.
Collectively the Spacetime group has shipped 14 previous titles, two of which have been million-unit sellers.  [PogoWolf:  I guess 2 out of 14 isn't bad...]

“Having the Spacetime team on board is a great step forward for NCsoft,” said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. “This group has a proven track record in creating games in the space genre. They’ve also been successful in developing massively multiplayer games and we believe that’s a winning combination and a perfect fit for the NCsoft lineup of products.”

“Spacetime and NCsoft is a great match,” said Gary Gattis, Spacetime Studios co-founder. “They are a top-notch publisher that really cares about their developers and the quality of their games. NCsoft has shown us strong support and a willingness to provide a great balance of direction and freedom to develop a game that we have been dreaming of doing for years.”

About NCsoft
NCsoft’s North American business is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company launched two massively multiplayer titles on the same day in 2004: Lineage® II and City of Heroes®, and 2005 released the highly anticipated, Guild Wars® and City of Villains™. NCsoft expects to launch more massively multiplayer titles in 2006. More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

About Spacetime Studios
Spacetime Studios is an independent game development company located in Austin, Texas. They have just begun a next-generation, AAA-scale MMO with an original IP. The company’s focus is on making a killer, top-of-the-line competitive game, with the technology, design and art creativity needed to make it happen. Spacetime Studios is an experienced, extremely successful team of veterans in the genre, with 14 shipped titles under their belts, two of which are million-plus sellers. More information about the studio can be found at http://www.spacetimestudios.com.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage, Guild Wars and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes and City of Villains are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. Spacetime Studios, the Spacetime Studios logo, and all associated artwork and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Spacetime Studios, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Related Resources:
News: NScosft Signs Blackstar Chronicles
Game: Blackstar Chronicles (PC)

Well now, according to EQ2 players there’s going to be some big changes happening with the new patch (released to the test server a few days ago). 

as per the [Eq2Players web site]:

There are a great many changes coming with Game Update 45! There’s interesting changes coming for some casting and healing classes (Coercers and Priest classes, mainly), new world events, ways to get achievement experience from quests far under your level, bank additions, tradeskill revamps, and even a little more breathing room for the bigger encounters you may come across in your adventures! You had better get ready, there’s a good chance that regardless of what you do across Norrath, you’ll be affected by this Game Update in a very positive way!

• Coercers will see a great amount of changes in this Game Update to help in possessing the essences of others as well as many other changes to your abilities! The “possession” spells of Coercers will see changes to harness your pet’s essence for better control. In other magical news, Thought stones, Essences of Anguish and Nil Crystals are finally obsolete! Thanks to the respective magical guilds of Qeynos and Freeport, Coercers and Necromancers and Warlocks will no longer have to deal with spell components. There’s far more then this that’s mentioned here for our casting friends, so if you’re a caster and your class hasn’t been mentioned yet, you may yet see some changes too!

• Priest classes, you’re nowhere near left out of this Update! Cures for Inquisitors and Templars will see a huge change to help stem the feeling of “whack-a-mole” when you’re dealing with diseases, physical ailments, magical afflictions and elemental scourges. Coming with Update 45, all four of the priest single-target cure spells will be funneled to one all-purpose cure that’ll deal with what’s afflicting you (or whomever you’re helping). Again, this change only affects those of the priestly classes, so magical cures from casters won’t see this change.
• Have you ever been so overloaded with your hard-earned prizes (or tradeskilled items) that you didn’t know what to do with them? Well, with Game Update 45, you’ll have 4 (yes, that’s right… FOUR!) more bank slots to work with! For those that choose to play on PvE (Player versus Environment) servers, you will get to use these as four extra bank slots as well as see your shared alternate-alignment bank slots too, so you can then exchange items from not only characters within your same alignment, but of opposing alignments! For those that are counting, that does indeed result in 8 new bank slots! If that’s not enough for you, how about sharing coin too… that’s right, you’ll be able to even exchange coin from one character to another, even across alignment! If you’re exiled at the time being, you’ll not be able to exchange items nor coin between characters until you choose an alignment. For our PvP (Player versus Player) enabled server adventurers, you’ll still be unable to share items and cash to your differing aligned friends (and foes) since shared banks are still alignment based, but you’ll have 4 additional bank slots over what you have presently and another 4 more shared slots (for a total of eight shared bank slots per alignment)!
• If you’re one of those adventures that likes to hoard quests and cling to them through your adventures until they “gray out“, first you need to admit you have a problem… and then complete them for achievement experience! Yes, you heard right, with Game Update 45, you’ll be able to get benefit from those older quests (quests that are over level 10) to add to your achievement point total! It’s time for some quest Spring Cleaning!
• By decree of the weaponsmiths across Norrath, there has been a total overhaul to weaponcrafting! With Game Update 45, you’ll see a change to all crafted weapons from the ground up. Too, you’ll have more choices to further “imbue” or to add “bless” procs!
• Coming soon, corpses and chests from our more powerful creatures will stick around for 20 minutes before vanishing into the ether. If you give it your all in your fight and that last swing of your weapon ends the life of the creature you’re fighting, you’ll have a little more breathing room to get back there to claim your prize!

This is only a glimpse of what’s coming with Game Update 45! If you want to read more about it, check the test update notes to see what may be coming to an update near you! Until then… get ready, because it’s on its way!

Pirates of the Burning Sea developer Flying Lab Software has confirmed that it will be shutting down seven of its eleven servers and will be transferring all players on to the remaining four.

Read more:  [Computers and Video Games]

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Yeah.. sounds like another MMO is about to walk the plank.