Games Industry Wire

NCsoft Corporation say they saw sales of $78.6 million in the second quarter of 2008, a seven percent increase over the previous year, though their operating profit, pre-tax profit and net income all dropped, 25%, 31%, 42%, respectively, according to the South Korean company’s second quarter financials released last night.
The news comes during a week of rumblings that NCsoft’s Austin office may be on the verge of laying off staff or closing, a rumor that NCsoft vehemently denies.
Lineage and Lineage II both saw a drop in sales compared to last quarter as did Guild Wars, while City of Heroes and …read more

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IGG has announced that a new “Leo” Server will be added into Wonderland Online.

Wonderland Online officials will be launching a new US server named “LEO” after the weekly server maintenance on August 5th EDT (GMT-4). The new server has 3 server branches and its name will be at the top of the Server List. Therefore, players can have more server options when entering the game and the population stress on Aries server will be relieved.

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“World of Kung Fu” (WoKF), the martial arts online game from VestGame Entertainment has emerged from a successful open beta testing period and is now officially launched. A second server has been added to accommodate the new influx of players. The released version contains a multitude of new maps, quests, and enhancements to gameplay.
“The launch of World of Kung Fu into Western markets represents the culmination of many months of strenuous effort, and is a real milestone for VestGame. It’s great to see so many new players enjoying the fruits of our labor”, said Jonathan Seidenfeld, VestGame’s Director of Business …read more

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IGG has announced that they will be starting the open beta for the Wonderland Online European Server.
In order to offer players better service, IGG will be launching the European Server open beta and releasing new servers soon. Players will then have the option of choosing a server close to their country when playing Wonderland Online. In the future, IGG will also be releasing more servers for different areas so that players can fully enjoy Wonderland Online.

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Wow! It looks like the rumors were true, after all. Cryptic, creator of all things superhero MMO related, is indeed developing Star Trek Online or more sexily known as just “STO”.
Cryptic Studios™, a leading developer and publisher of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), announced today that it has secured the global rights to develop and publish Star Trek® Online, a massively multiplayer online game based on the legendary Star Trek franchise, from CBS Consumer Products.
Cryptic will unveil the first Star Trek Online gameplay footage as well as details about this highly anticipated MMO at the annual Star Trek Convention …read more

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It looks like that there is still life in Flagship Studios’ ill fated Hellgate: London as North American publisher Namco-Bandai may be stepping in to rescue it. An intriguing post appeared on Hellgate’s official forums from Namco-Bandai’s senior director of business development, Zack Karlsson, stating:

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Flagship Studios has also put its other MMO, Mythos, on indefinite hold following reports that the company has laid off most of it’s staff and has shut down Hellgate London.

We regretfully announce that on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 11:59 CST the world of Uld known as Mythos will be going on hiatus. On behalf of all of the Devs and Community team we want to thank you to everyone for their support and assistance with Mythos Alpha and Beta testing and we hope to see you soon.
I loved Mythos much more than Hellgate and if some developers/publisher would pick …read more

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EA confirms KOTOR MMO is in the works! Should World of Warcraft be worried?
In an interview at E3 2008, Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello said that EA is working on the next version of Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic, and it will most certainly have a massively multiplayer online component to it.
“We’ve got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development,” said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. “And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about — in partnership with Lucas, …read more

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2K Games has announced that it will be the North American and international publisher for Cryptic Studios’ newest MMO, Champions Online for the Xbox 360 and PC. Champions Online is scheduled for release in spring of 2009.
“2K Games is excited to work with such a talented group as Cryptic Studios,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Given their stellar pedigree and amazing grasp of the MMO genre, we are confident that Champions Online will deliver an innovative and exciting action MMO experience to gamers.”
If Cryptic has learned a thing or two since COH/COV launched, then we may just be in …read more

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Eidos and Funcom have announced that their blockbuster MMO Age of Conan continues to dominate the PC sales charts in all markets where the game is available. Over the last few weeks the game has remained the overall #1 PC game in most European markets, whilst also performing tremendously well on several all-format charts. In the US, Age of Conan impressively conquered the #1 PC spot for the first two weeks of available NPD data. Due to the amazing interest surrounding the game, more than 700,000 gamers have now signed up for an Age of Conan account. In the second …read more

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