First Proper Details On Warhammer 40K MMO

Let me say that this game will be an RPG. That needs to be said, because when someone thinks of a Warhammer 40,000 MMO there is definitely some question as to the style of play: will it be an FPS, an RTS, or some other genre altogether? Relic has the RTS angle covered with the awesome Dawn of War series - we are making an RPG.

Smedley - MMOs To Sell PS3s

John Smedley loves his massively-multiplayer online games, and well he should, being a co-founder of Verant Interactive and now President of Sony Online Entertainment. Is he taking this love a bit too far in suggesting that one day MMOs will be a reason to buy a PlayStation 3?

I think MMOs are going to be a real strong selling point for the PS3 long term — there's going to be some great ones on the PS3. You're not going to find "The Agency" on the [Xbox] 360.

Game development is hot here [The Seattle Times via CVG]

Talking Club Penguin, Disney, and 'Emergent Play'

New Age of Conan Videos Show Braless Demons

Chinese MMOs Go After Tibetans ... Er, 'Drug Smugglers'

Americans Now Spend $1 Billion A Year On Game Subscriptions

CCP's EVE Online fans have a "surprise gift" in store for current subscribers who log in after May 6th, to celebrate the game's five-year anniversary. Ooh, what is it?

The MMO biz is a capricious one, and most online games tend toward a naturally short lifecycle. Five years is a big deal for EVE, which distinguishes itself through both its aim to develop a realistic player "society" and its sophisticated in-game economy - they were the first MMO I'm aware of to hire a real-world professional economist in Dr. Eyjo Guðmundsson to manage it, and since then other virtual worlds and online games, such as Gaia Online, have followed suit. Many critics, like the PC gaming mavens of Rock Paper Shotgun, believe the industry can learn a lot from EVE.

Full release follows the jump, in which CCP has delineated what it considers EVE's "milestones" over its five-year run.

Silverlode Interactive's SAGA is a PC MMO RTS that allows you to develop and maintain your own city and build your army using an innovative booster pack system, similar to that found in collectible card games. There's a free version available at the SAGA website, but in order to participate in trading, guilds, or PVP combat you have to buy the retail version for $19.95...unless you head over to FileFront between now and May 11th to sign up for one of 50,000 retail keys, which gives you access to the full game for free. It really is an interesting game, and with the whole shebang being free to play, relying on booster pack sales for revenue, you've got nothing to lose but some hard drive space.

SAGA Installer At FileFront [FileFront]

In the latest LEGO Universe update the Colorado-based developers spill the beans on the upcoming LEGO massively multiplayer online game's economy and storyline.

LEGO Universe design director Brian Booker says that the game will have an "overarching epic storyline about the origins of LEGO Universe and the minifigs that inhabit it."

I can't tell everything about the game just yet, but maybe I can give you some hints... Aside from just playing games or trading and socializing, the story allows minifigs to team up—and that's when the real adventuring begins. If the teams of little LEGO people are successful in their endeavors, they'll uncover new zones where they can have new and different experiences...

Booker also walks us through the games economy which isn't, it turns out, based on studs.

EA Kills EA Land, The Sims Online

Just two months ago, EA Land was announced to be the new home of struggling MMO The Sims Online. The good part of that news was that TSO would now be free, hosted at EA Land and was promised to have a host of new features, including user created custom content, web services and social networking tools.

Today, the EA Land blog revealed that it would be shutting down on August 1, ending The Sims Online forever.

The whys weren't given, but speculation from commenters and CNet is that EA wanted to kill The Sims Online without having to kill "The Sims Online." The closure of EA Land—who again?—is far more palatable, brand-wise. Details on outstanding subscriptions can be found at the official EA Land blog.

EA-Land Drawing To A Close [EA Land]
'EA Land' closing just weeks after debut [CNet - thanks DaveKap!]

Subscription Based GTA "Very Doable, Very Compelling"

What is love? Is it an emotion? A chemical reaction? According to developer Eskil Steenburg, Love is a first person not so massively multi player online procedural adventure game, which is a real mouthful. At it's heart it is an online roleplaying game with low system requirements, randomly generated monsters, and a graphical style purposefully meant to look like concept art. Dig deeper and you'll find an entire world at your fingertips. While we;ve previously mentioned the game here and here, the folks at PC Gamer recently had a chance to demo the game and were blown away.

The technology behind Love means that the game is editable like nothing we've seen before. Eskil points his mouse at a wall and clicks - then stretches the terrain back and forth, terraforming at will. Then he fires a gun at the side of a wall and it's blown away - digging a cave into the side of a cliff. He then trots through this tunnel, dropping into pastures on the far side.

Crackdown Devs Wrest Control Of APB From The Koreans

And by "the Koreans" we mean the fine folks at publishing outfit Webzen, which until now was the planned publisher of Realtime Worlds' cops and robbers MMO APB, planned for a PC (and possible PlayStation 3 and almost definite Xbox 360) release. You may recall that the Crackdown developer was on the receiving end of a $50 million cash infusion, the majority of it we assume was spent on frozen haggis, but which some was surely earmarked to get the game out of hock from the Korean distributor.

Realtime Worlds now holds distribution rights to APB—which, by the way, looked nothing short of fabulous at GDC—which founder David Jones says "can ensure that gamers around the globe experience the revolutionary gameplay we envisioned." Jones also spoke of a "having direct, personal relationships with our players" due to the change. We can only presume that the Scottish method of microtransacting does not necessarily jibe with the Korean style, but we hope that whatever the reason, the game will be better for it. Press release follows.

Realtime Worlds Seriously Considering APB For PS3

Realtime Worlds' Grand Theft Autoesque MMO APB (All Points Bulletin) has already been announced to be in development for both the Xbox 360 and PC. But with $50 million in their pocket, Realtime Worlds is considering all of their options. And that includes Sony's PlayStation 3. Studio Manager Colin MacDonald explained:

Yes, we'll be looking seriously at [APB on PS3], but that doesn't mean it's going ahead, and it doesn't mean it's not going ahead.

7 Of 11 Pirates Of The Burning Sea Servers Shut Down

Jumpgate Evolution: The First Fifteen

How long do you play a game before you decide if you like it?

An hour, two, a day? Try 15 minutes.

The first fifteen is all the time a developer gets to convince a gamer that what they're playing is worth the price of admission, or so believes NetDevil's Scott Brown.

Following in the footsteps of the masters of the MMO, Blizzard, NetDevil is breaking away from the norm of game development for their latest pet project, Jumpgate: Evolution. Instead of trying to sketch out a complete world and then going back and filling in the details, giving the game its luster and heart in a soul-killing, deadline-pushing crunch, NetDevil is crafting their space flight massively multiplayer game one gleaming section at a time.

The team, which recently topped ten people, recently wrapped up their initial goal: Building out and polishing the game's first 15 minutes of play.

It may not sound like much, but in a year's time the team had to create the user interface, settle on the look of the game, and work out the games network and artificial intelligence.

They also had to give gamers a way to create their character, ships to fly, enemies to fight and places to go.

Guy In Avatar Costume Gets Shoved By Dangerous Japanese Dude

Marc Ownes' Wearable Simulator [BBTV]

"We are huge fans of other MMO shooter games," said YJ Jin, Producer of Manga Fighter. "But we're tired of gory, violent and gruesome games. With Manga Fighter, we've created something fun - yet non-violent - so that gamers of all ages can jump in and have a great time."