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Aion collector's edition announced, spec'd
In the ramp-up for the US release of its latest MMO, Aion, on September 1, NCsoft has taken the shrinkwrap off the game's $70 limited collector's edition and -- what's this? -- there's a pretty cool looking figure inside. Okay, it's a "hand-painted Asmodian Daeva." Still looks cool.
Pre-ordering the set will also get you some exclusive in-game items, which range from the ominous sounding Black Cloud Wings to the yawn-inspiring, single use "colored dye." To counter the latter's lameness, you'll be able to blast the included soundtrack CD whilst performing one of the two pre-order exclusive emotes: the "Aion Boogie." In the game, of course.
If the LCE's too pricey, the regular ol' edition comes in a steel case. And ... that's all. Still: steel.
Pre-ordering the set will also get you some exclusive in-game items, which range from the ominous sounding Black Cloud Wings to the yawn-inspiring, single use "colored dye." To counter the latter's lameness, you'll be able to blast the included soundtrack CD whilst performing one of the two pre-order exclusive emotes: the "Aion Boogie." In the game, of course.
If the LCE's too pricey, the regular ol' edition comes in a steel case. And ... that's all. Still: steel.
NCsoft has solid Q1 sales, profits thanks to Aion
NCsoft's CFO, Jaeho Lee, was happy that Aion's launch did not affect the performance of the Lineage series in Korea. Now we wait to see how the rest of the globe embraces Aion. The MMO is prepped to launch in China during Q2, with other major markets set for the second half of the year.
Garriott hits NCsoft with $27 million lawsuit
Tabula Rasa's absentee landlord (well, before it burned to the ground), Richard Garriott, is suing NCsoft for $27 million, according to a Texas court filing. GamePolitics has the documents detailing how Garriott was laid off from NCsoft while he was still in quarantine from his space trip. However, due to the characterization of his termination as "voluntary," he apparently missed out on millions in stock options, which is what the suit is all about.
The official word -- up until this point -- was that Garriott left NCsoft late last year after ... let's see, as Garriott put it at the time, his trip into space "sparked" some new interests for him to pursue. Hopefully the lawsuit will shake out more behind-the-scenes NCsoft drama and Tabula Rasa embarrassment nobody was willing to discuss openly.
Update: The figure is $27 million according to the court documents. Thanks, @leighalexander.
Source -- Garriott suing NCsoft for $24 million [Kotaku]
Source -- Garriott sues NCsoft for $24 million [GI.biz]
Source -- Garriott sues NCsoft for million in stock options [GamePolitics]
Guild Wars franchise sells 6 million copies
Enjoy the party, Guild Wars fans. Hopefully, it will ease the wait for Guild Wars 2.
NCsoft games get Steamed
So, is it too soon for a Tabula Rasa joke?
[Via Massively]
Company plans to sue Blizzard over virtual world patent
Call us crazy, but the concept of virtual worlds has been around for decades. Our kindred at WoW Insider point out, and we're inclined to agree, that there are many examples of prior art that essentially invalidate the patent anyway. WoW Insider cites the term 'cyberspace' as coined by William Gibson and used in his 1984 novel Neuromancer. One might even argue that the internet itself qualifies.
On top of that, NCsoft itself has yet to be served with notice of the suit. We're not legal experts, but we'd say Blizzard and the creators of, oh, every other MMO are safe. If Worlds.com is eager to find another genre to sue, allow us to suggest first-person shooters. There are lots of people playing those online too.
[Via WoW Insider]
Apocalypse Soon: Tabula Rasa going out with a bang
Players were warned in an in-character message on the Tabula Rasa site that should their defenses crumble during the Bane's final onslaught, humanity will turn to its ominous-sounding "last resort weapon," which will ensure the complete destruction of both sides of the conflict. The missive's reasoning was concise -- "if it is truly our destiny to be destroyed," it explains, "we are taking them all with us." Tabula Rasa may have not made a flashy arrival onto the MMO scene, but it sounds like NCsoft is making sure it has one hell of a departure.
Craft your own City of Heroes adventures with free 'Mission Architect'
click to super-hero size
While Cryptic Studios has its hands full with Champions Online, NCsoft is still very much supporting the developer's earlier superhero MMO effort, City of Heroes. The next major evolution of the five-year-old (and still counting) game is the Mission Architect expansion, a free update hitting in March.
The update introduces a fictional corporation, Architect Entertainment, into the game world -- it's here where players will craft "virtual" missions for their characters and others. Using an intuitive editor, players can build entire story arcs featuring custom dialog, goals and even NPC friends & foes. Up to three of these missions can be published for public play, rating and feedback. NCsoft will be promoting "Developer's Choice" missions and incentivizing creativity via rewards for players with particularly popular designs.
According to NCsoft, it will be possible for COH players to take a character from level one all the way to 50 all within these player-generated missions, since they'll provide loot and XP just like anything crafted by the dev. An "Architect Edition" of COH which includes the update and exclusive in-game items will also be available in stores next month. Given that we were able to build out a solid (albeit short) scenario in less than 30 minutes, we can't wait to see what the community's able to come up with once the Mission Architect is out in the wild.
Hit Massively.com for more details and an hour-long audio walkthrough by senior game designer Joe Morrissey.
The update introduces a fictional corporation, Architect Entertainment, into the game world -- it's here where players will craft "virtual" missions for their characters and others. Using an intuitive editor, players can build entire story arcs featuring custom dialog, goals and even NPC friends & foes. Up to three of these missions can be published for public play, rating and feedback. NCsoft will be promoting "Developer's Choice" missions and incentivizing creativity via rewards for players with particularly popular designs.
According to NCsoft, it will be possible for COH players to take a character from level one all the way to 50 all within these player-generated missions, since they'll provide loot and XP just like anything crafted by the dev. An "Architect Edition" of COH which includes the update and exclusive in-game items will also be available in stores next month. Given that we were able to build out a solid (albeit short) scenario in less than 30 minutes, we can't wait to see what the community's able to come up with once the Mission Architect is out in the wild.
Hit Massively.com for more details and an hour-long audio walkthrough by senior game designer Joe Morrissey.
Gallery: City of Heroes: Architect Edition
Guild Wars 2 release window pushed back to 2010 - 2011
Though they did just suffer a few layoffs and are apparently skipping out of E3, NCsoft isn't exactly economically plagued -- their latest title, Aion, sold like hotcakes in Korea during Q4, bringing in a hefty year-end chunk of change. So, if it's not for financial reasons, what's causing this major delay? Is the Guild Wars 2 dev team taking time off to work on their needlepoint? Are they training for the winter olympics? Are they following in the footsteps of their former colleague and becoming idiosyncratic millionaire cosmonauts? We may never know.
Axe does 55 damage as NCsoft downsizes UK operation
Korean MMO house NCsoft has made more cuts to its global operations, laying off 55 staffers at its UK-based NC West operation. GamesIndustry.biz reports that those let go were from five departments eliminated at the location, including community support, quality assurance, IT, creative services and localization.
The site reports that the remaining staff will handle customer support, sales and marketing. NCsoft carried out a similar downsizing of its Austin, TX studio last August.
The site reports that the remaining staff will handle customer support, sales and marketing. NCsoft carried out a similar downsizing of its Austin, TX studio last August.
Tabula Rasa adds mech suits in final weeks of operation
If you've been intrigued by Tabula Rasa, but couldn't be hassled to, you know, purchase it, it's free to play now. Just don't get too attached -- the game's servers are going down on February 28, at which point Garriott's final project with NCSoft will have an ironic, though extremely appropriate moniker.
[Via EuroGamer]
E3 2009 exhibitor list revealed, Activision-Blizzard attending
by Alexander Sliwinski { Feb 2nd 2009 at 11:30AM } 
One of the few noticeable names not attending the reinvigorated trade show is NCsoft, who we've contacted for a statement.
Although E3 is still not open to the public, eligibility to attend is more lax than the last two years. If you're curious about going, it'll take two pieces of "industry identification," such as a "company credit card, paycheck stub or W-2 form." Best of luck to all the GameStop associates wanting to attend.
Update: Word from NCsoft: "While NCsoft has been a member of the ESA in the past, we are not currently an ESA member and do not expect to attend E3 this year. We will continue to evaluate how E3 fits into NCsoft's plans each year." As to "why?" The company didn't answer that.
Telling stories: The next hurdle for story telling
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.
What's next for in-game story telling? In this, our final segment looking at video game narratives, our collective of industry professionals offer insight into what they believe is the next big challenge facing the evolution of story telling in the games we play.
What's next for in-game story telling? In this, our final segment looking at video game narratives, our collective of industry professionals offer insight into what they believe is the next big challenge facing the evolution of story telling in the games we play.
Telling stories: The games that got it right
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.
It's rare that story tellers get all of the pieces of their narrative to fit together exactly right in any medium. But in this industry, where story shares a balance with gameplay and endings often get the short end of the development stick, weaving a complete and compelling tale must be a daunting task. Now, gifts unwrapped and bellies full, our panel of industry personalities sound off on those games that they feel were up to the challenge, delivering storytelling experiences above and beyond their peers.
It's rare that story tellers get all of the pieces of their narrative to fit together exactly right in any medium. But in this industry, where story shares a balance with gameplay and endings often get the short end of the development stick, weaving a complete and compelling tale must be a daunting task. Now, gifts unwrapped and bellies full, our panel of industry personalities sound off on those games that they feel were up to the challenge, delivering storytelling experiences above and beyond their peers.
Telling stories: How much is that ending in the window?
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.
Epic Games' Michael Capps recently caused quite an uproar among gamers with his suggestion to offer the conclusion to games as premium DLC rather than as part of the core experience. As the latest in our continuing week-long feature, we asked our panel of industry personalities what they thought of the proposal. Interestingly, much of the group was noticibly more tight-lipped in their responses than when answering other questions.
Epic Games' Michael Capps recently caused quite an uproar among gamers with his suggestion to offer the conclusion to games as premium DLC rather than as part of the core experience. As the latest in our continuing week-long feature, we asked our panel of industry personalities what they thought of the proposal. Interestingly, much of the group was noticibly more tight-lipped in their responses than when answering other questions.
