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Looks like everyone’s going MMO these days. That’s where the money comes pouring in, I suppose, even though we never get to see any here apart from the Korean ones. (That’s right, there’s not many WoW freaks here!) Close on the heels of the recently announced Elder Scrolls MMO, Montreal-based audio solution provider Audiokinetic have announced that are providing the Wwise audio tools that will be used in BioWare’s as-of-yet unannounced MMO - the first project from the new BioWare Austin studio.
In an official press release, Gordon Walton, Co-Studio Direction, BioWare Austin have praised the award-winning Wwise tools, which debuted with the ill-fated Shadowrun and has gone on to win many accolades and nominations across several game development awards. Powered by Perpetual server technology (Star Trek: Online) and the Simultronics HeroEngine, there is no word on what IP the MMO will actually be based on, even though rumors circulated all over the Internet around the time that EA bought BioWare that it would be set in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic universe.
However, while everyone is hungry for another Star Wars MMO after Galaxies went belly up, let’s not forget the fact that BioWare has a rich IP harem from which to draw inspiration for an MMO from - including great franchises such as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, the upcoming Dragon Age as well as the Xbox 360 blockbuster of the year, Mass Effect.
Bah, but what do I care? MMOs never end up here anyway. I’ll take my single player RPG, please, with a side order of fries. Thank you.
As if the news of Blizzard’s online MMORPG WoW and its expansion The Burning Crusade comprising 54 percent of the nearly $1 billion revenue that online gaming in the United States has generated in the past year wasn’t enough, it seems the masters of finger-crack are ready to stun the world once more with a new title. Lingering rumour mills suggested this could be a sequel to the ubquitously popular Starcraft, which was fuelled even further when analysts pointed out the game being unveiled at the Worldwide Invitational on May 19 in Korea (here, learning how to play Starcraft usually comes second to learning how to walk apparently). Realists called the news to be bogus and instead predicted this to be the ground for the announcement of the console version of its best-selling online game.
The truth? Both are wrong. First came the the news that Blizzard Entertainment was looking for a lead tools programmer, lead technical artist and lead engine programmer, the purpose for recruitment being work on a new MMO game that would utilize new technologies and techniques (which fuelled the Starcraft 2 rumour fire). However, just a few days ago, Blizzard announced that it would be working on a brand-new title and that too for the PC. The Starcraft sequel hopes remained simply that; to quote a rep:
“We have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don’t have anything new to announce in that regard at present.”
As for what exactly is in store for Blizzard fans on May 19 is any addict’s (very wild and excessively hopeful) guess.
War might never change, but it looks like the Fallout torch has jumped hands from Interplay over to those of the Oblivion giant, Bethesda SoftWorks. After years of waiting for Fallout 3, and having many a person quit his day job to go stand outside Interplay’s offices and complain, it looks like the game may finally see the light of day.
GamesIndustry.biz picked up an SEC filing that showed Bethesda picking up the Fallout rights from Interplay for a cool $5.75 million, which basically allows them to develop multiple (now I know I am not the only one drooling about Fallout 4 and 5…) sequels to the franchise, in addition to licensing out the MMO rights back (yeah, you heard that right) to Interplay. Is it just me or am I the only one that can laugh at this and the Baikonur Cosmodrome rent control?
But wait, it gets even better for the poor guys at Interplay. Not only do they have to pay Bethesda for the MMO license, but they’ll have to share their sales and subscription fees, as well as make sure they get a whopping $30 million in funding within two years, as well as make sure that development wraps up within four years, or else they’ll lose it all. They could have just taken their pants down for Bethesda and bent over, that would have probably been a lot easier and probably a lot more enjoyable than watching the love of your life come back to stab you in the back.
But what do we care, right? I mean, I do feel a tad sad when much-loved game development companies shut their doors forever, but as long as someone else picks up the flag and runs with it, I don’t have anything to complain about. Unless it happens to be EA and System Shock… But hey, look at the bright side, this way, it’d most probably end up on the next-gen consoles as well!