After a meeting with EA, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says that the company has high hopes for BioWare's upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic and believes it can reach two million subscribers.
Without a doubt, SWTOR is one of the most anticipated titles of 2011, and EA has stated that the game is its largest development project ever. According to Bhatia, at least one million subscribers will be needed for EA to break even.
One million subscribers is certainly possible, especially with a high-profile developer like BioWare working on a wildly popular franchise like Star Wars. But, as recent MMORPGs Age of Conan and Warhammer Online can attest to, it's a lot easier to get one million subscribers than it is to keep them.
It looks like EA might be dropping a not-so-subtle hint about the release date of the next Dragon Age game.
A card in the packaging of the Dragon Age: Awakening expansion contains the hint - a bloody dragon logo with the date 2-01-2011 (check it out).
While there's no official word from EA yet, it's safe to say that something is coming on Feb. 1st that Dragon Age fans will want to clear their calendars for.
UPDATE: After suffering a second attack, Ubisoft's servers are up again, according to a tweet they made in the wee hours last night that says, "Login servers were partially reestablished at 10pm CET and fully restored at 1am CET. The attack affected only those trying to login."
Ubisoft's new, controversial DRM system has already had it's first setback. According to a massive post on Ubisoft's European forums, some PC owners were unable to play Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 this weekend because of an attack on the company's authentication servers that left them inaccessible for almost seven hours.
Blizzard has updated the Diablo III website with all new information on the game's Wizard class.
The site now features animated models of both the female and male Wizard, who looks like he's not afraid to rock some funky headgear. There is also new concept art, screen shots, and movies that show off some of the gameplay and cinematics, including the above trailer.
Turbine, Inc. announced today that its free-to-play MMORPG Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited has attracted over one million players since its launch in September 2009.
The massive influx of new players has been across all of the various consumer plans available. DDO allows players to download and play for free, purchase adventure packs, items, and account services a la carte from the DDO Store, or to subscribe to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content.
THQ has released the PC specs for their upcoming post-apocalyptic shooter Metro 2033. There are three sets of specs - minimum, recommended, and optimum - along with a set of specs for gamers looking to utilize NVIDIA 3D Vision. Check them out and see if your computer makes the cut!
There's a saying that behind every fat girl is a thin girl and a lot of chocolate... and a sharpened battle axe. Following last week's big reveal of Diablo 3's female monk comes a sneak peek at the female version of the barbarian, who looks like she could break me in two for that crack about her weight.
Check out Blizzard's Diablo 3 Barbarian page for a little background info on this ferocious warrior who proudly upholds the tradition of the metal bikini top.
There's good news and bad news for Alan Wake fans this week. The good news is that the game has finally been given a release date of May 18, 2010. The bad news is that Microsoft has confirmed that it will not be coming to the PC.
Speaking to Strategy Informer, Microsoft explains the reasoning behind the decision:
Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realized that the most compelling way to experience "Alan Wake" was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive. Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform.
Obsidian Entertainment's new action/RPG, Alpha Protocol, has been pushed back to Summer 2010.
This is not the first time the espionage game has been delayed. Originally given a January 2009 release window, the title was pushed back a few months later to October 2009. Then, in late September, when retail listings began to surface with a June 2010 release date, SEGA confirmed that the game had been pushed back to the spring.
Matthew Hickman, Assistant Producer at SEGA, gave the following statement to MTV Multiplayer about why the game has been delayed yet again.
We had a few reasons for doing it. One: We wanted to position it better, give it a lot of time. The main reason: We really wanted to polish the game up, make it everything Obsidian planned it to be, and give the consumer a very polished game.
So, it looks like Alpha Protocol will now be out in the summer. For now.
After suffering a delay, BioWare is now offering its latest DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, Return to Ostagar, on its official website.
The new content costs 400 Microsoft Points or 400 BioWare Points. Right now, Return to Ostagar is only available on the PC and Xbox 360. The PS3 version will be released at a later date for $4.99.
HanbitSoft has announced that they've acquired the publishing rights to the action/RPG Hellgate: London and plan on relaunching it in the future.
Originally made by Flagship Studios in 2007, the online version of the game was indefinitely suspended when the studio closed its doors. Now that HanbitSoft owns the rights, they plan on rolling out a launch of the game, now called Hellgate: Resurrection, overseas in 2010. The launch will start in China, Taiwan, and South East Asia followed by North America, Europe, and Japan.
That sound you hear is the sound of thousands of Star Wars fans groaning in dismay.
Bioware has confirmed on their forums that they are looking at a Spring 2011 release for their first MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. The confirmation comes after an EA CEO mentioned during a conference call that they were planning to ship a "major MMO" around that time.
Although it's sad we won't see the game for another year, Bioware is promising lots of exciting SWTOR updates throughout 2010, including the game's first round of beta testing.
Right on the heels of news that the Return to Ostagar DLC for Dragon Age: Origins has been delayed on all platforms comes the announcement that the game's first expansion, Awakening, will be released in March 2010.
The Awakening expansion pack will introduce players to the land of Amaranthine and an all-new, epic storyline that delves into the secrets of the darkspawn and how they survived after the defeat of the Archdemon.
Dragon Age: Awakening, Final Fantasy XIII
