iPad World

Club Penguin is no hybrid chocolate bar.

It’s a browser MMO about cartoon penguins and their snowy online world of mini-games and igloo decorating. It’s a giant; a business boasting 150 million registered accounts and 10 to 15 million active monthly users. And a portion of those pay £5 every month.

Lane Merrifield created it for his children.

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“Games have to make money.”

Uncharted 3 developer Naughty Dog has spoken up in defense of the game’s online pass, insisting it’s a fair price to pay for the game’s multiplayer content.

Speaking in an interview with The Sixth Axis, game director Justin Richmond argued that the developer has invested a great deal of time and resources into the game’s multiplayer and deserves to be be financially rewarded by customers picking up the game second-hand.

“We give literally thousands of hours of content in our online stuff and on top of that we give you not just competitive, but an entire co-op experience … Continue Reading

Catching up with Tim Willits at the Eurogamer Expo.

On the year of id Software’s 20th anniversary in the games business, the legendary Texas-based outfit is finally ready to unleash its latest game – the potentially incredible Rage, which fuses a fresh spin on the traditional id-style FPS action with vehicles and a massive open world.

While it’s been many years since the last tentpole id title was released, the company’s legacy and influence has persisted. Having defined the core multiplayer deathmatch experience in 1993′s Doom and dictated the development of cutting-edge 3D rendering up until the release of the current-gen consoles, … Continue Reading

South Korean MMOs hacked.

Kim Jong-il is in part funded by gold farmers, according to a new report.

The North Korean leader ordered a team of hackers, based in northern China, to break into the servers of South Korean massively multiplayer online games Lineage and Dungeon and Fighter to allow “factories” of dozens of unmanned computers to play non-stop.

Gathered virtual gold was then sold for real world cash on third party websites to gamers. The gold farmers were each required to send at least $500 a month back to the Pyongyang government, the police said.

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Games lose value, PS3 trade-ins rise.

The second-hand price of some of the PlayStation 3′s most popular online games has fallen sharply since PlayStation Network went down last month, so says a new report.

According to independent price tracking blog Video Game Price Charts, the resale value of the ten most popular online titles on the PlayStation 3 has dropped by an average of 7.4 per cent in the US since PSN first went down on 20th April.

In comparison, the same ten titles saw a small 0.7 per cent increase on Xbox 360.

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“It’s necessary for games, period.”

Online pass isn’t just right for upcoming fighting game Mortal Kombat, it’s right for all games.

That’s the stark assessment of NetherRealm boss Ed Boon, who insisted to Eurogamer that its inclusion in Mortal Kombat – a first for a fighting game – will not restrict the game’s online community.

“It’s necessary for games, period,” he said.

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Insufficient “social potential”, says Zynga

Facebook resource management sim FarmVille is one of the world’s most popular online video games. Xbox 360′s Live set-up is is one of the world’s most popular online video game networks. Surely then, putting the two together makes perfect sense? Not so, says the game’s developer Zynga.

During a chat with IndustryGamers, Zynga’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds explained that Xbox Live was just too small a pond for the developer to bother with.

“The thing that seems to make social gaming and networking magical is the fact that all my friends are potentially there and they might … Continue Reading

Are you still playing EURO 2008 online?

EA has outlined plans to turn off online support for a raft of its games over the next few months.

The cull begins on 11th January, when EA will shut down the online service for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360 and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king for Xbox 360.

“Our licensing deal with Middle-earth Enterprises has expired, forcing us to shutdown the online services for The Lord of the Rings games,” EA wrote on its website.

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Most apocalyptic.

Developers and fans of hardcore, sandbox online games like EVE or Ultima Online – emergent, changing worlds born from dog-eat-dog player interaction – like to dismiss the more populist virtual worlds, like World of Warcraft’s, as “theme parks”.

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Why can’t you be nice to each other?

The biggest problem facing the games industry today is mean-spirited, ill-informed gamers spewing bile on internet message boards, according to NBA Jam’s creative director Trey Smith.

Smith told MTV’s Multiplayer blog, “I think one of the biggest problems right now is the actions and attitude of some of the gamers out there. You know who they are.

“If they spent less time spewing ignorant hate on the boards and in online games, and more time rallying behind the great games they love and helping to build a thriving community that welcomes everyone that shows … Continue Reading