Modern Warfare 2 sanitized for Russia

Atlantica Online expanding to Thailand, Russia

Ndoors Interactive’s free-to-play MMORPG, Atlantica Online has entered into closed beta in Thailand. The game will be published by top Asian online game provider Asiasoft, who did a massive localization process on the game prior to the beta’s launch. Additionally, Ndoors has finalized a publishing agreement with Enova, a publishing company in Russia, to bring Atlantica Online to the Russian market. Russia will be next in entering closed beta, as Thailand has recently ended the closed beta phase and has entered open beta. Atlantica Online has successfully expanded from Korea into North America, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, and recently kicked off its European expansion in Germany.

Atlantica Online is a strategic turn-based MMORPG that combines combat with character/party development and city/country management. Players take on the quest to destroy the Oriharukon, a powerful energy source from the lost civilization of Atlantis that survived and is now endangering humanity. For more information on Atlantica Online, check out www.playatlantica.com/ao.

EA Mobile inks distribution deal with Namco Bandai Networks Europe

EA Mobile and Namco Bandai Networks Europe have inked a distribution agreement granting EA’s mobile division the rights to publish existing and upcoming Namco Bandai titles across Europe, Russia, India, Latin America, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The deal will not impact Namco Bandai’s North American distribution or its iPhone activities, both of which will continue to be handled by Namco Networks America.

The agreement starts on November 1st when Namco Bandai’s mobile content becomes available to consumers through EA Mobile’s mobile distribution channels. Management of Namco Bandai’s content in existing channels will also switch to EA Mobile. Namco Bandai will continue to own distribution in direct channels such as smartphone application stores and through its own direct online store. The agreement will see new games, including Ridge Racer Drift and Time Crisis Elite as well as existing titles becoming available to a much wider base of consumers, says EA.

1C Preps Empire: Time of Troubles for 2009

1C Company and Lesta Studio are working on Empire: Time of Troubles, a turn-based, historical strategy game which covers the events of 1350-1650 taking place in Russia, Poland and the Great Lithuanian Princedom. Players will command one of 26 factions in a large-scale historical campaign , building and assigning labor forces in cities, researching and utilizing technology, and utilizing more than 150 types of military units.

The game also promises political, economic and role playing systems, gameplay that highlights the importance of war and diplomacy , and dozens of famous historical personalities and hundreds of game characters, each with their own unique specialties including rulers, commanders, priests, alchemists and spies.

More details on this game can be found at www.1cpublishing.eu. The game is scheduled for release sometime in 2009.

The Rundown: Feb. 5, 2009

The weekend is almost here, can you feel it? Besides some free time and some quality time with your favorite games, this weekend also brings the added benefit of the New York Comic-Con. If you’re in the New York City area this weekend, you might want to take the time to check it out because a lot of games will be on display and playable on the show floor this year.. but I digress.. lots of news after the break.

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To Russia With Love: Age of Conan

Funcom, like Blizzard, has its eye on the Russian MMO market. The company announced that it has teamed up with 1C Company to bring Age of Conan to Russian speaking territories. Under a freshly signed service partnership agreement, 1C Company will fully localize voice and text within the game, and operate local customer service, communities, websites and in-game support for Age of Conan in Russian. Funcom will still handle all the backend services, technology, server infrastructure and development of the game. A dedicated Russian realm will also be created.

The Russian version of Age of Conan is set to be rolled out in the fourth quarter.

World of Warcaft Coming to Russia

Blizzard Entertainment will soon be bringing World of Warcraft to Russian speaking nations worldwide. The company announced today that the Russian-language version of World of Warcraft will be available on the August 6th.

On that date, European players will be able to purchase a version of the game and its expansion, The Burning Crusade, fully localized for Russia, and begin playing on dedicated realms with the benefit of a Russian-language customer-support team. This will be the fifth European-language version of World of Warcraft, joining English, French, German, and Spanish versions.

The Russian version of World of Warcraft will be available for Windows® XP/Vista and Mac® OS X 10.3.9 or higher. The retail DVD boxed version will include a one-month subscription to the game, while the retail CD boxed version will be available at a lower price and will include a 14-day subscription.

Russian players will have the option to subscribe to a dedicated Russian account, which has a reduced subscription-rate structure for the Russian market priced in rubles, and which allows players to access and create characters on Russian realms only. The available subscription options are a month-to-month plan for 359 rubles per month, a three-month plan for 329 rubles per month, and a six-month plan for 299 rubles per month.