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With the impending demise of Star Wars Galaxies and perhaps the dawning realization that the best games it has to offer are free-to-play, Sony Online Entertainment ditches the Station Pass in favor of SOE All Access, allowing players to access nine online games starting at $19.99 a month. More »
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Sony Online Entertainment is bringing its massively multiplayer online catalogue to Steam as of today. Now you can MMO without ever having to leave the house to pick up one of those antiquated "boxes." More »
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Sony Online Entertainment loves Halloween, and they never fail to do the spooktacular holiday up right, even in games that I didn't think anyone was still playing. The Matrix Online, for example. Not only are people still playing, but they get Halloween goodies, as do the folks playing Everquest, Vanguard, Star Wars Galaxies, and even the Legends of Norrath trading card game. Nice, but what about the poor PlanetSide fans? We know...oh oh, but do they know it's Halloween? More »
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A PC game having a bad launch isn't as rare an occurrence as it should be, especially in these days of readily available internet patches, so it takes something special to be called a truly botched PC game launch. 1UP takes a look at five of the worst first days ever in their feature, "Top 5 Botched PC Game Launches." For the most part they've chosen the ones you'd expect. Hellgate: London, with its greedy payment system and near character wipe in Asia; Vanguard, which just plain wasn't finished when they launched it, and of course Half-Life 2, which completely ate the newly launched Steam service's servers. I can think of a few they missed - Anarchy Online, which lost most of its subscriber base thanks to a buggy launch, only to evolve into a damn fine care once half their audience had stopped caring, or Dungeon Lords, which was the only PC game I have EVER returned. Hit the link to see their full list, and be sure to add your own in the handy dandy comment section. More »
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MMO fanatics now have a decision to make. Attend BlizzCon in Anaheim, California the first weekend of August or travel to Las Vegas, Nevada for the SOE Fan Faire. More »
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Well that was fast. Thanks to the hawk-eyes of colleague of mine CyanBane, we now have official word from SOE President John Smedley on the acquisition of all Sigil Games Online assets by Sony Online Entertainment. In his post he explains that they will be bringing over 50 Sigil employees to help maintain and grow Vanguard, with Brad McQuaid remaining on as a creative advisor for the game. Dave Gilbertson will manage the Sigil Carlsbad office and the game itself. More »
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Walking the razor-thin line between rumored and confirmed, word is circulating that most of the employees at Sigil Games are now seeking new employment. Sigil is of course the development studio behind the critically slammed and admittedly unfinished MMORPG, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. According to a post at F13.net, at 4:30pm yesterday employees were told to meet outside, at which point their employment was terminated. The post further explains that they were told some of them could be picked up by Sony Online Entertainment, who co-published and handled marketing for the game. More »
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Hot on the heels of a modestly successful launch despite overall bugginess, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is getting their first major content update this coming Tuesday, featuring new monsters, new weapons, two new adventuring areas, and "Nine dungeons with revamped art and/or lighting." That last bit confuses me a little. The game has been out what, a month now, and they're already revamping dungeons and lighting? Shouldn't that read "Finally finished those nine dungeons"? More »
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If you've ever played a pen and paper RPG or read a D&D based fantasy novel, odds are you've seen Keith Parkinson's work. One of the greatest fantasy artists of our times, Parkinson also did covers for many computer games, including Everquest and its first three expansions, and was a founding member of Vanguard creator Sigil Games. Sadly Keith passed away in 2005 due to Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. In his honor, Sony Online Entertainment has now announced "The Masters of Fantasy Art - A Tribute to Keith Parkinson", an exhibition that will be featured at Art Institutes in five major U.S. cities between now and the end of July, starting in San Francisco. More »
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Just a week after announcing the open beta for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, SOE and Sigil have set a release date. The game will be released on January 30th across North America and Europe, with retail prices of $49.99 and $89.99 for the regular and limited editions respectively. Players who opt to preorder the game will receive beta access, a three day head start once the game goes live, and a special in-game scroll that allows players to sprint for longer periods of time. More »
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The open beta Sigil's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes begins today, with the beta client up on FilePlanet as we speak, though only available to subscribers and preorder folks for the first week. With the beginning of this final phase of testing the NDA has also been lifted and tongues are wagging, including my own. I've been in the closed beta for the past several weeks now, having spent more than enough time to give you some basic impressions of the game. More »
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With the New Year just around the corner, MMO players are going to need a new calendar to monitor how many days they can safely go without sleep before succumbing to death's icy embrace. MMO Portal has exactly what they need in the form of their 2007 MMORPG calendar, featuring art from a different game every month, signed by members of their respective dev teams. It'll cost you $14.95, and 100% of all proceeds go towards the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=224158&view=rss&microfeed=true Msoft Marketing wrapped up their Xbox 360 and Windows gaming Marketing Summit on Friday. The last day sounded like it was the best of all. The participants broke up into groups and got to see some pretty cool game demos including ones for Gears of War, Too Human, Crackdown, Vanguard, Rise of Legends, Flight Sim X, N3, Blue Dragon, some Xbox Live Arcade games and the 360's soon to be released HD-DVD add-on. More »
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