Warhammer Online one year anniversary festivities revealed

Written on August 19, 2009 at 5:26 pm, by James Fudge

Mythic Entertainment is preparing for a number of activities to celebrate the upcoming one year anniversary of its MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The celebration kicks-off on August 31 with the introduction of a special new live event - The Wild Hunt, and continues during the entire month of September with special weekend-only scenarios, a month-long 20 percent Experience/Renown bonus, special in-game items for all players, veteran rewards, and much more.

These activities, events and goodies include new content to share like the Wild Hunt live event, special versions of popular scenarios (special weekend-only events taking place September 11-14, September 18-21, September 25-28), a 20 percent experience and renowned bonus, plus, special rare drops, veteran rewards, fireworks, Halfling pies, and exploding stout. Who doesn’t love pie and ale?

The Wild Hunt live event, which takes place from August 31 - September 7, 2009, will pit the forces of Order and Destruction against the ultimate quarry in the new instanced dungeon, The Hunter’s Vale. For more information about the Wild Hunt live event, visit herald.warhammeronline.com.

UO: Stygian Abyss Web Site

Written on September 10, 2008 at 6:25 pm, by James Fudge

The Gargoyles are coming and they are playable. Mythic Entertainment and EA have launched the official web site for the upcoming Ultima Online expansion, Stygian Abyss. Like Ultima VI, the Stygian Abyss revolves the emergence of the gargoyle lands and the gargoyle as a playable character in the long-running MMO for EA. It is simply amazing to me that Ultima Online is still running strong after all these years. I wish that EA had that kind of dedication to the series on which it is based.

In the Stygian Abyss expansion players can use the playable Gargoyle race, new spells, new weapons and armor, a brand new high level dungeon, and a variety of new high level monsters. First details on some of these new things as well as new screenshots and art form the expansion can be found at www.uo.com/stygianabyss.

But the most interesting details available on the site are about the new playable race. Gargoyles are the first race to have the power of flight (which makes them move faster and gain access to secret areas), a new power called Berserk (grants speed and power at the cost of defenses), master artisan skills (can imbue, enhance, and unravel magical items), deadly aim (which gives a bonus to missile weapons), and a deep understanding of Mysticism magic. Sounds interesting.

Ultima Online:Stygian Abyss is scheduled to be released in 2009.

Warhammer Online Pricing, Release Date

Written on August 6, 2008 at 2:13 pm, by James Fudge

We have been waiting for a release date and pricing for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and today EA has finally delivered the details. EA Mythic’s MMO will be released and launched on September 17 of this year, with a pricing in line with almost every other top-tier MMOs on the planet. A monthly subscription will cost $14.99 USD, while a three-month subscription will go for $41.97 and a six-month subscription will cost you $77.94

EA also announced that the first run of the Warhammer Online Collector’s Edition have been pre-sold in North America. Pre-orders for the regular retail package are still available and offers consumers some nice extras including access to the open beta, access to the Head Star program (which lets you get into the world before the game officially launches), two bonus in-game items from select retail partners and the Universal Fighting System Battle Deck (an exclusive collectible card game from Fantasy Flight Games available at select retailers).

Pre-order partners include Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, Direct2Drive, EAStore.com, EB Canada, EB Games, Fry’s, Futureshop, GameCrazy, GameStop, GoGamer.com, and Walmart.com. The European pre-order program is scheduled to begin in late August. For more information about the North American pre-order program, visit www.warhammeronline.com/preorder,

Warhammer Guild Beta Goes Live

Written on July 11, 2008 at 3:07 pm, by James Fudge

A couple of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning news bits to report today, in case you haven’t been keeping up on this MMO’s latest developments. The first is minor but important: EA Mythic has dropped the “EA” off its name, in a move that gives the company back its identity as the developer of Dark Age of Camelot. Mythic head Mark Jacobs said in an interview with MMORPG.com that the name change does not mean a change in its relationship with its parent company.

“I think that this is a wonderful example of how things at EA are changing,” said Jacobs. “Both John [Riccitiello] and Frank [Gibeau] have spoken multiple times about city states, more freedom, that sort of thing, and I think this is an obvious example.”

But this move has a lot more meaning than just a superficial name change. It means that Mythic has a say in how it is handled by EA and gives it at least the appearance of autonomy. (Source: gi.biz)

Speaking of Warhammer Online, EA and “Mythic Entertainment” announced that the Guild Beta for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has begun. Over 10,000 guilds applied to take part in this phase of the beta, but only a select few have been let in initially. The Guild Beta is the last phase of Mythic’s closed beta test.

Guilds will help test WAR’s recently added Guild and Heraldry features, as well as Public Quests, new dungeons, Scenarios, user interface updates and more as the MMORPG advances towards its launch this fall.

War in Asia

Written on January 31, 2008 at 12:00 am, by James Fudge

Electronic Arts issued a press release today announcing a partnership with Taiwan-based GigaMedia Ltd (NASDAQ:GIGM) to launch and operate Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Based on Games Workshop’s Warhammer fantasy universe, the online game is being developed by Mythic EA, the same studio behind Dark Age of Camelot.

For its end of the deal, GigaMedia will provide marketing, community management, technical support and customer service functions. Further details on the game’’s launch in those regions will be announced in the months ahead. This is the second deal between GigaMedia and EA Asia — the companies are already in a partnership to operate NBA Street Online in the same territories.