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June 3rd, 2009, 20:12 Posted By: wraggster
E3'09: Both consoles will ‘perform to their limits’, though the PC edition will ‘outperform’ all
Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has told MCV's sister mag Develop that there will be little discernable difference between the Xbox 360 and PS3 editions of Crysis 2, though the PC version will push ahead of the pack.
Many believe that the engine can push the PS3 and Xbox 360 to their limits, and thus, reveal the high-end differences in hardware power between each.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34606/Cryt...on-360-and-PS3
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June 3rd, 2009, 17:16 Posted By: wraggster
On a roll of late, aren't we AMD? Just when you thought the fun was slowing over in Taiwan, in flies this: the world's first official DirectX 11-friendly GPU demonstration. We also learned that DX 11 (and presumably, AMD cards to push it) will debut prior to the dawn of 2010, but outside of that, most everything else is being kept under wraps. Indeed, the demo was mostly to show that things were still on track and for the chip maker to assure us all that it will "deliver DirectX 11 first." Alright, AMD -- now you've something to prove.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/a...irectx-11-gpu/
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June 3rd, 2009, 17:14 Posted By: wraggster
Having just wrestled the word "netbook" free from the legal grasp of Psion, Microsoft now wants to change the name of these low-cost slabs of white plastic riding Intel's Atom processor. Oh joy. Apparently unhappy with the choices of netbook, smartbook, MID (NVIDIA's defintion, not Intel's), thin-and-light, and ultra-portable, Microsoft's preference is, are you ready, "low cost small notebook PC." Man, that flows like a sonnet. The new name proposed by Steven Guggenheimer, general manager of Microsoft's Application Platform & Development Marketing Division, is meant to reflect netbooks that do more than Internet browsing. What Steve-o doesn't say is that by creating a new product division above netbooks, Microsoft can require beefier versions of its Windows OS installed for higher profits on higher margins -- especially now that they've dropped the three application limit from its entry-level Windows 7 Starter Edition. Hey Microsoft, if it's all the same to you, we're just fine with the term netbook thankyouverymuch. Given the near-universal positive press heaped on Windows 7 thus far, you'll be raking in the cash starting October 22nd, no need to shake us down, ok?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/m...th-other-5-ch/
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June 2nd, 2009, 22:05 Posted By: wraggster
Riot Games, an independent developer and publisher of premium online video games, has set a release window for the highly anticipated online multiplayer session-based game League of Legends: Clash of Fates. Riot's genre defining upcoming title League of Legends: Clash of Fates will be available in September for Windows PC via download at www.leagueoflegends.com and at retail outlets nationwide through Riot's retail campaign partner THQ Inc. GOA will publish the game in Europe simultaneously.
"League of Legends will bring gamers competitive battle-arena style gameplay that builds upon and expands on innovative gameplay concepts that were pioneered in DotA-Allstars, one of the most popular mods of all time," Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO, Riot Games, said. "With a strong community following itching to jump right into the fray, we're looking forward to providing gamers with epic combat and dramatic, strategic battles for years to come."
Added Wim Stocks, senior vice president of strategic partnerships for THQ, League of Legends' retail campaign partner, "We are excited to work with the high caliber team at Riot Games on such an innovative and genre bending experience as League of Legends."
League of Legends combines elements of role-playing and strategy genres with addictive battle action that brings accessible, replayable, competitive gameplay into a whimsical universe that deepens with the player's commitment. During each online multiplayer play session, gamers will choose one of dozens of unique Champions wielding diverse skills and abilities, and engage in fast-paced team-oriented combat to bring their foes to ruin. Champions will gain levels, items and abilities that enable them to slay their opponents and augment the strength of their allies by battling with enemy minions, foul beasts, deadly turrets and enemy Champions. Players also advance their Summoner's rank and power to gain new abilities and items, assisting their Champions in battle. League of Legends will be constantly evolving and updated with new features, Champions, maps and additional content as suggested by the community.
The League of Legends development team is made up of seasoned industry professionals with credits that include PC & console blockbusters, as well as part of the team that created the popular Warcraft 3 mod DotA-Allstars.
For more information on League of Legends: Clash of Fates and to sign up for the closed beta, visit www.leagueoflegends.com
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June 2nd, 2009, 22:04 Posted By: wraggster
TurnOut Ventures Limited, a joint venture between Turner Entertainment Holdings Asia Pacific Limited and Outblaze Investments Limited, today announced a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) based on the iconic Tom and Jerry television characters. Set to launch in the second quarter of 2010, the MMOG will open the door to the world of the eponymous cat and mouse duo.
Players will create and control their own cat and mouse characters in the wacky cartoon world where they will embark on quests, customize their cat and mouse avatars, engage in classic Tom and Jerry antics in both 'Player versus Environment' (PvE) and 'Player versus Player' (PvP) modes, and interact with other players using a variety of social tools.
The Tom and Jerry MMOG is being developed by Typhoon Games (www.TyphoonGames.com), the developer behind Hello Kitty Online and Ben 10 Omniverse. The MMOG is built on the Unity game engine, which makes the game compatible for both PC and Mac platforms when it launches in Asian markets in 2010.
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/989/989437p1.html
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June 2nd, 2009, 22:03 Posted By: wraggster
Trion World Network, Inc. (Trion), the publisher and developer of server-based video games, today revealed details of its first title, the highly anticipated fantasy Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) Heroes of Telara. Officially unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2009, Heroes of Telara will immerse players in an extraordinary, evolving world on the brink of disaster. Amidst an era of devastating conflict, Telara calls for heroes to battle the hordes of chaos, conquer wild territories, and bring hope to a struggling civilization.
"With Heroes of Telara, Trion proudly presents the first in a series of revolutionary video games on the Trion platform," said Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion. "Trion is showcasing what server-based gaming can really give us: fun, beautiful, fully dynamic, massively social, 'live' video games."
With server-based gaming, Heroes of Telara™ can trigger extraordinary events challenging the player to overcome obstacles and embrace the role of hero. Using a unique class system that allows the players to play every character class in the game and choose a class specialty, or "subclass," the hero will be well equipped to overcome these challenges. Combining this with an easy-to-learn combat system, players will be prepared to stand against the most powerful foes and hordes of enemies.
"We've built a spectacular world that's completely alive and designed everything around the concept of players becoming heroes," said Russ Brown, vice president, Channel One, Trion. "The 'right hero for the right time' is what this game is all about. And with our server-based Trion platform, we can launch massive events and epic encounters at will to challenge the player to step up and become the hero the world needs. It is our promise and mission to deliver awesome kick-ass gameplay in Heroes of Telara."
Heroes of Telara will also allow large populations of users to play together to truly deliver massively social online gaming. Heroes of Telara has been crafted from its inception to allow players to take full advantage of their adventuring time with friends and to make new alliances with other players. Heroes of Telara removes many of the technical and design barriers common in MMORPGs, allowing players to more easily share their adventures in the game with anyone, regardless of rank or skill level.
"What we're showing at E3 will genuinely demonstrate our vision for the future of MMO gaming," said Brown. "We're creating beautiful, sweeping landscapes with epic conflict that deliver fun in a new way, every day."
Heroes of Telara will be the first massively social MMORPG that will challenge the player to choose their strategy, master their fate, and become the right hero at the right time.
Trion will be located at Suite #405, Concourse Hall, Los Angeles Convention Center, June 2-4, 2009.
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June 2nd, 2009, 22:01 Posted By: wraggster
At Ubisoft's E3 press conference, James Cameron spoke at length about the collaborative effort to create both the Avatar game and movie. Taking place in the 22nd century on Pandora, an Earthlike moon, Avatar tells of a war between humans and the Navi. Humans can't breathe the air on Pandora, but there's a hope that creating a human/Navi hybrid could solve this problem.
Avatar is a 3D game...in 3D, just like the feature film. The main character in the film is Jake Sully, a wounded marine who's come to Pandora for a second chance at valor. Paralyzed in combat, Jake inhabits an Avatar, which is basically a surrogate for him to explore the moon's surface.
The game may not use the same character, as its storyline does not follow the film. With the game shipping before the movie, it's likely that Avatar the videogame, will be a prequel.
Most videogames based of films are, to put it kindly, not exceptional. Cameron doesn't want that to happen with Avatar. And so development began 2 ½ years ago and has moved along in parallel with the film. Cameron gave Ubisoft the authority to create a new story, to explore new areas of Pandora, and add new weapons and vehicles. The game and movie shared a number of assets, which should create two very similar-looking worlds.
In the game, players can choose whether to play as a human or a Navi. You won't be locked into this choice though, with the ability to switch between sides at the start of each level.
The game and movie are said to reveal a fantasy world unlike anything we've seen before. Unfortunately, we'll have to take Cameron's word for it, because the game wasn't shown during the press conference. According to Cameron, Avatar is on display behind closed doors at Ubisoft's booth. Expect a full report on the first major stereoscopic videogame later this week.
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/989/989149p1.html
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June 2nd, 2009, 21:52 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today
features
Create any Sims you can imagine! Design your ultimate Sim by choosing up to five traits and numerous body characteristics in the Create-a-Sim feature. Customize your Sims body type, facial features, hair styles, and more.
Control your Sims’ destinies. From a rock star or world leader to an expert thief, you choose whether or not to pursue the Lifetime Wish of your Sim.
Customize everything! You are the designer! From clothing to houses, customize patterns, colors, or create any house you can imagine.
Be the Director of your Sims’ movies! Never before have you been able to make your own movie with a cast, a set, soundtrack, a story and editing without leaving the game.
Connect, Share and Shop! Register with The Sims 3 online community and receive a second town, as well as 1,000 SimPoints to be used at The Sims 3 Store.
* This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.
description
Create lifelike Sims with a unique personality and take them anywhere in the neighborhood. The powerful Create-a-Sim tool allows you to create Sims that are more realistic than ever. Select from dozens of personality traits such as brave, artistic, kleptomaniac, clumsy, paranoid and romantic. With Create-a-Sim, you can create a limitless number of truly unique Sims.
The Sims 3 allows for infinite possibilities to design the interior and exterior of your Sims’ surroundings using the Create-a-style feature. Enjoy the challenge of short and long-term goals and then reap the rewards! Based on personality traits, skills and career choices, your Sims have Wishes that provide constant fun challenges and so many things to do and achieve. You have the ultimate freedom to choose whether to fulfill their destiny, giving them lifetime happiness and rewards or not!
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3em0.html
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June 2nd, 2009, 20:46 Posted By: wraggster
Vendor unveils its version of the Radeon 4890 GPU
Gigabyte has launched its version of ATI's Radeon 4890, the memorably named GV-R489-1GH-B.
The new graphics card makes the most of ATI's core, utilising the advanced GDDR5 memory technology, TeraScale graphics engine, dynamic geometry acceleration, quad mode ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support and PowerPlay to deliver a strong performance.
The TeraScale graphics engine allows the GPU to deliver over one TeraFLOPS of processing power and the gigabyte of GDDR5 memory to handle twice the amount of memory per pin as GDDR3 at the same clock speed.
Gigabyte claims that these applications, combined with the 24x custom filter anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, will give a true-tolife graphic quality and enable users to set graphic setting to maximum for even the most demanding software.
POWER PROCESSING
ATI's Stream technology allows the parallel processing for functions such as physics engines, AI and ray tracing, and can handle demanding tasks such as video transcoding with relative ease. Meanwhile, the inclusion of DirectX 10.1 graphic support enables the GPU to handle the latest in graphical effects.
The PowerPlay technology increases efficiency by varying power output depending on what's required and conserving it when it's not needed, offering a greener solution to the GPU sector.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/31715...adeon-platform
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June 2nd, 2009, 20:46 Posted By: wraggster
PC game digital distribution company Metaboli is to release EA's The Sims 3 three hours ahead of the official release.
The offer means fans of the hugely popular Will Wright series who purchase the title through the Gameplanet download-to-own service can be among the first to receive the game. Metaboli will make The Sims 3 available at 9pm on June 4th, and has open a dedicated website to handle demand.
The Metaboli release will also give customers a number of special extras, including £12 worth of SimPoints for use in the Sims 3 Store, an exclusive poster and a unique cover.
“The Sims 3 has been the subject of numerous pre-orders on our platforms and this is undoubtedly one of the most attractive packages we’ve ever offered” said Jérôme Gayet, vice president of marketing and product of Metaboli.
http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/286...ad-pre-release
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June 2nd, 2009, 20:41 Posted By: wraggster
We knew good and well the next iteration of Windows would be generally available this fall, but now we've a date to circle in our datebooks: October 22nd. Yep, the fourth Thursday in the tenth month of this year will mark the first date in which you -- the general consumer -- can purchase Win7, which gives you plenty of time to figure out which of the 94 variants will suit you best. Have fun!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/02/w...-october-22nd/
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June 2nd, 2009, 17:05 Posted By: wraggster
With two weeks to go before The Sims 3 is due to appear in the weekly US PC charts, The Sims 2: Double Deluxe Deluxe (a bundle of the original game and two expansion packs) has already unseated World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King from the number one spot.
For the week ended May 23, NPD place Lich King at number two, followed by the original World of Warcraft at number three and expansion bundle World of Warcraft: Battle Chest at number four.
EA's Spore moves up one place to number five, as Sega's Empire: Total War drops three places to number six. Compilation Fallout 3 is up one place to number seven and Left 4 Dead is down three places to number eight.
Reel Deal Slots Adventure!, by publisher Phantom EFX, re-enters the top ten at number nine - although the semi-budget priced game was originally released in April 2009. Rounding out the charts at number ten is expansion pack The Sims 2: Apartment Life.
1. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. World of Warcraft
4. World of WarCraft: Battle Chest
5. Spore
6. Empire: Total War
7. Fallout Trilogy
8. Left 4 Dead
9. Reel Deal Slots Adventure!
10. The Sims 2: Apartment Life
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s-sequel-looms
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June 2nd, 2009, 16:43 Posted By: wraggster
SanDisk, the company famous for making device-specific SD cards that are actually just regular SD cards with stupidly high prices tags, is back again -- and this time, things are just too offensive to laugh off. Designed to provide "extra storage" to netbooks with a multicard reader, these Netbook SDHC cards are priced at $39.99 for 8GB and $79.99 for 16GB. Isn't this kind of stuff criminal in some countries?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/02/s...ly-overcharge/
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June 2nd, 2009, 01:37 Posted By: wraggster
Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed in an investor webcast that StarCraft II has been planned for release later this year. "We're targeting an end of year release this year for StarCraft II," said Morhaime. "But as always, we won't release it until it meets our standards and the expectations of our players."
With the beta opening this summer, it looks like there will be more than enough StarCraft for fans to sink their Zerg-like talons into.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/01/st...an-09-release/
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June 2nd, 2009, 01:36 Posted By: wraggster
BioWare's Ray Muzyka has revealed Star Wars The Old Republic will be "the first ever fully-voiced massively multiplayer online game".
Speaking at EA's E3 press conference, Muzyka said every class and character in SWTOR "will have his, her or its own unique voice".
"We think this changes everything for MMOs," he added. "We believe this could be one of the largest voiceover projects in the history of games - and maybe the rest of entertainment."
Muzyka went on to say that every class in SWTOR will have its own unique story. "So if you play as a bounty hunter in the Empire, then as a trooper in the Republic class, the experience will be different," he explained.
A trailer with a spooky voiceover was then shown. "Our time has come. For 300 years we prepared we grew stronger, while you rested in your cradle of power, believing your people were safe and protected," said the spooky voice. Meanwhile, a Sith Lord and his mate were slicing their way into a Republic building, lightsabering everyone in their path.
"You were trusted to lead the republic but you were deceived," The voiceover continued. "Finally, we have returned." An epic battle between a big group of Jedi knights and a bundle of Sith lords ensued, with red, green and blue lightsabers flying all over the place. The Sith Lord ended up striding out and leaving the building burning behind him, cloak flapping in the breeze. But do you get to play as Jar-Jar Binks?
Star Wars: The Old Republic is yet to be given a release date.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/e3...lly-voiced-mmo
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June 1st, 2009, 19:30 Posted By: wraggster
There are apparently an awful, awful lot of people out there with shoe boxes full of spare SATA drives. Somebody is buying all these new HDD docks, and while most surpass the previous editions by adding support for another obscure format of memory card, Brando's latest seems like an actually useful update, adding HDMI and component ports through which it can output video at either 1080i or the always popular 576p. Standard resolutions may not be its strong point, and sadly there's no mention of which video codecs it can unravel, but it does at least support the major flavors of audio files (MP3, WMA, AAC, etc.) and of course will read memory cards and thumb drives to boot. No, a bare drive may not look particularly appealing while rattling away on your entertainment center, and at $69 you're not far from the price of a Windows Media extender or the like, but don't let such practical concerns dissuade you from adding this unique focal point to your home theater.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/b...-into-the-mix/
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June 1st, 2009, 19:15 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today:
The Pitt allows you to travel to the post-apocalyptic remains of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and become embroiled in a conflict between slaves and their Raider masters.
Explore a sprawling settlement ravaged by time, neglect, nuclear radiation, and moral degradation. The Pitt is filled with morally grey choices, shady NPCs, new enemies, new weapons, and much more.
The Pitt opens with a desperate radio message, and a meeting with its sender, an escaped slave named Wernher.
Wernher claims that the leader of “The Pitt” has created a cure for mutations… and he needs you to go in and retrieve it.
From there, the player can proceed in a number of ways, in true Fallout 3 style. Do you fight your way in, or disguise yourself as a slave? Ally with the slaves, or join their Raider overlords?
The Pitt is very morally ambiguous – there’s no real right or wrong, just choices to be made, sides to be chosen, and a mystery that could send shockwaves throughout the entire Wasteland.
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3ctc.html
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June 1st, 2009, 17:43 Posted By: wraggster
The Starcraft II beta starting this summer is a sign of things to come. A release date is a sign of we things come to all of us. We don't have a release date.
Though, we do have Blizzard's Mike Morhaime saying that Starcraft II will be release in 2009 as long as it "meets our standards and the expectations of our players".
Blizzard has high standards and so do Starcraft players. We hope they're able to see eye-to-eye this year. If not, hey, we'll wait. Better late than rushed.
http://kotaku.com/5273724/starcraft-...t-this-year-if
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June 1st, 2009, 17:22 Posted By: wraggster
ATI Radeon E4690 offers improved graphics capability
AMD has unveiled its new ATI Radeon E4690 GPU, which it claims offer three times the performance of previous ATI embedded chips.
According to Cool Computing, the new GPU will allow users to decode and play multiple HD videos, and includes support for DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0.
“The ATI Radeon E4690 sets a new bar for embedded graphics performance,” said AMD’s director of embedded graphics Richard Jaenicke.
“Blazingly fast graphics and HD video capabilities enhance the appeal of applications − such as arcade, casino, digital signage and more. With the industry’s only embedded graphics chip that offers DirectX 10.1 and UVD 2.0 support, the ATI Radeon E4690 enables competitive advantages for AMD’s embedded customers.”
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/31703...ed-performance
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June 1st, 2009, 17:19 Posted By: wraggster
"How do you beat World of Warcraft?" is a question I've heard asked plenty of times in the past four years. It's the wrong question. Other developers and publishers have been asking the right questions all this time - questions like "what can we learn from the success of World of Warcraft?" and "how do we co-exist with World of Warcraft?"
Many companies have tried to clone the success of Blizzard's game, with extremely limited success. Others have attempted to appeal to the hardcore audience who, some argue, are marginalised by the mass-appeal of WoW - a generally doomed endeavour, since that audience may be noisy online but it's actually extremely small in size and not hugely lucrative. Others still have tried genuinely new approaches, but have failed to learn WoW's vital lessons about accessibility and progression, and have paid the price.
Sony Online Entertainment is one of the companies which has struggled to get the questions right. From being the largest operator of massively multiplayer games in the western world, thanks to the success of the Everquest franchise, SOE has seen its fortunes decline as Blizzard's star has risen. Everquest maintains a legacy audience, but new launches such as Vanguard have badly misjudged the marketplace and failed to attract significant subscriber numbers.
This week, however, SOE is the darling of the online gaming world, thanks to the launch of its much-trumpeted free to play MMOG, Free Realms. Just a month after its arrival, Free Realms has signed up two million users - and that's on the PC client alone, with the PS3 version still in the pipeline.
Free Realms is exactly the kind of departure from the WoW formula which is likely to succeed in the market. It's aimed at a different market segment, with a focus on appealing to young teenagers - and particularly girls, who make up a third of the player base at present. It's built on a radically different business model, with the game being free to play but expandable with the purchase of in-game items or upgrades. Those purchases are supported by the sale of Station Cash cards at a widespread retail network of big brand names like Blockbuster, Best Buy and 7-Eleven.
Yet this departure from the norms of the MMOG world is tempered with a clear understanding of the things which make games like WoW appealing and addictive. Free Realms, from the first glance, is accessible, entertaining, and takes care not to overwhelm the player with stats. Its interface is simple to navigate and its character archetypes are fun and easy to comprehend even for newcomers to the fantasy genre.
To a certain extent, of course, there's a sense of foreboding about Free Realms' early success. We've seen the same huge claims a couple of times recently, most notably in the cases of Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, both of which trumpeted vast early subscriber numbers which then rapidly reduced in subsequent months. The caveat on Free Realms' success is that there's no way of telling how many of those two million players will continue to return to the game in the months to come,.
However, even with that in mind, Free Realms is one of the most interesting efforts yet at breaking MMO gaming out of the niche it presently occupies. World of Warcraft widened that niche significantly, but it's the companies working at the edges of the genre which are doing the most to bring massively multiplayer, interconnected and online social gaming to the wider audience.
That spectrum of gaming extends from Facebook games at one end (many of them are, by any definition, social and extensively multiplayer games) through to hardcore MMOs at the other end. World of Warcraft sits at the hardcore end of the spectrum, albeit rather closer to the centre than any of its kin. Free Realms plonks itself down squarely in the middle; if I were writing the marketing pitch for it, I'd describe it as bridging the gap between WoW and Facebook. If it can attract players from both sides of that divide, it'll be a huge, long-term success.
Even if it can't quite achieve that lofty goal, it clearly signposts one of the directions which this market needs to take. Potential markets for games exist across the spectrum of online socialisation. The core ingredient which makes WoW appealing to its players, the simple magic of playing in a world populated with other people - even if you're not directly playing with those other people - can be applied to a huge range of games, and appeals to almost every audience.
Appealing those audiences, however, is going to require a change in approach and perspective for many game developers. One of the greatest accomplishments of World of Warcraft is just how stable and bug-free the game is - running happily even on fairly old hardware. No buggy or demanding game will ever conquer a more lightweight audience, where attention spans wander as soon as a technical challenge appears. (For the same reason, old conventions like separate servers or "shards" need to go out the window; no casual player will tolerate such an artificial separation from their friends and acquaintances in the same game environment.)
Even WoW, however, demands that users download big patches - and even the straightforward process of installation may be enough to drive users away at the most casual end of the spectrum, where browser-based games that require no installation or patching are likely to dominate. The challenge for developers will be to deliver compelling experiences, bug-free, using the thinnest clients possible - a fairly radical departure from the client-heavy experiences game developers have been creating for the past few decades.
The early enthusiasm for Free Realms provides evidence, if any more were needed, that there is an audience out there keen to engage with this kind of massively multiplayer experience. If game creators can tap into that audience as effectively as Blizzard has targeted the more hardcore gamer market, then even the most optimistic of projections for the growth of the MMO market may turn out to be conservative.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...mmos-massive_3
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