Have a Dollar? Buy Tabula Rasa!

Thinking of buying a new game but frightened by the high prices? No worries, you can grab Richard Garriot’s Tabula Rasa for a mere $1 USD. Yes, that is not a typo. The failed MMO has been spotted with a less-than-bargain bin price at Amazon. Hey, you might not get a dollar worth’s gameplay, but atleast the boxart is cool…..

Hellgate: London Getting Axed Febuary 2009

After all the controversies, the much hyped MMO Hellgate: London will be closing it’s doors in Febuary 2009.

The writing has been on the wall for some time, and now it’s official: Hellgate: London will be taken offline as of February 1, 2009. As has been the case since Flagship Studios’ collapse was revealed this July, Namco Bandai will continue to operate the game free of charge through January 31.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Announced

Remember that Star Wars announcement thingy? Well, it’s finally here and if you were expecting KOTOR3, you might wanna take a rain check. The brand new Star Wars game will not be a single player experience - rather, it’ll be a story driven MMO. Sadface. Full info and media after the jump. Read more

Blizzard: New MMO In Development

In a recent interview with wired.com Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime hinted to a new MMO in development. No, it’s not another WoW, rather “It’s gonna be different”. He says:

We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released.

Perhaps a new franchise?

KOTOR MMO Annoucement on October 21st?

Or perhaps KOTOR3?

If you’re looking forward to October 21st as much as we are, you should know that you’re specifically looking forward to 2pm Pacific time on that august date. What’s happening then? Well, we’re only going to find out (finally, for-reals) what BioWare and LucasArts have been working on all this time. At Massively, as you might imagine, we’re feeling pretty confident that it’s going to be an MMO set in the Knights of the Old Republic-timeframe of the Star Wars franchise. We’re even willing to put money on the title being Star Wars: The Old Republic.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Hitting Stores November 13th

The highly anticipated World of Warcraft expansion will be hitting store shelves on November 13th.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft®: Wrath of the Lich KingTM, the second expansion for its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), will arrive in stores on November 13 in North America, Europe, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Russia, and November 14 in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The expansion will be available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18. Details regarding the launch of Wrath of the Lich King in mainland China will be announced at a later date.

Read more

Hellgate: London Is Not Dead….Yet

Flagship may have lost the IP, but their overhyped MMO is still very much alive. Namco Bandai games have made an “official” annoucement by the means of a forum post:

Hello Hellgaters,

I know everyone is looking for an announcement, and we’d love to make one — but right now, many things are in flux and we don’t have all the information yet. As soon as we do, we’ll post here on the forums, on the website, and anywhere else we can find you.

In the short term, please do not worry. The game is up, the servers are not going away in the short term and any major changes to status will be communicated in advance.

I’d like to ask for your patience as we try to figure it all out and chart a new course. We value your community, your commitment, and your passion for Hellgate and we will make sure that any solution that we architect will support all of you as best as we are able.

Thanks again. We hope to have a real announcement shortly.

__________________
Zack “Ozuri” Karlsson
Sr. Director, Business Development
NAMCO BANDAI Games America, Inc.

Hellgate: London - the game itself, continues to live along. For how long, that’s anybody’s guess. But with salty responses like these, it looks as if Hellgate: London already has one foot in the grave.

KOTOR 3 MMO In-development

Everyone wants a piece of the MMO pie. Afterall, nowadays, it’s the most profitable genre on PCs. If everyone else is doing it, why must EA be left behind? BioWare is now developing a KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) MMO. yay.

We’ve got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development,” said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. “And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about — in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it.

Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online?  “Yes,” he said.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures 400,000 copies sold

 

Funcom’s much hyped and anticipated MMORPGs has became one of the fastest selling PC titles of all of time — with 400,000 copies sold in the last few days. Full PR below:

Press Release:

Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan is one of the fastest selling PC games of all time. More than 400.000 gamers have entered Hyboria over the last few days, with almost half coming from the North American market. This amazing figure for a PC game shows that the positive pre-order trend has transferred into actual sales, and people from all over the world are now flocking to the most savage, sexy and brutal MMO ever created. Read more

SAGA Available For FREE From FileFront.com

Either SAGA is doing really bad or the developers are really nice people. Eitherway, FileFront.com is giving away 50,000 retail copies of SAGA (worth $19.95) for free.

For the first time in FileFront history, the Ziff Davis site is offering a full copy of a released game: SAGA, the world’s first collectible MMO RTS. Players have until May 11th to secure one of 50,000 Retail Keys available at http://www.filefront.com. SAGA can normally be purchased for $19.95 from the official SAGA website and at many hobby stores across America.

SAGA uses an innovative collectible revenue model first implemented by the THQ studio Genetic Anomalies in 1997 and now seen in over 120 online collectible games, such as the upcoming EA collectible RTS BattleForge.

SAGA has no subscription fees. Players pay as little or as much as they decide, by purchasing ‘booster packs’ of random troops and spells, which are traded and customized to create the strategic army of choice for each player.

SAGA can be played for free; however, the unregistered free version disables many of the features that players find most attractive in a collectible game. Using the Retail Key from http://www.filefront.com unlocks trading, guilds, espionage and PvP combat.

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