Funcom’ Age of Conan incentives for returning players

Funcom announced today that it plans to repeat its re-evaluation campaign that went live earlier this year for its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The campaign encourages former subscribers to come back to the game and play free of charge for two weeks. As an additional incentive for players to come back and play for free, they will also receive a double experience boost throughout their free period. Those who decide to continue playing beyond their free period will also get access to the beta test for The Secret World, a free copy of the expansion and more.

Players who return and choose to continue subscribing to the game after their free period will get some other rewards as well. Details about that can be found after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Free Realms hits 3 millionth user mark

Sony Online Entertainment announced that more than three million unique users have registered for Free Realms,since its launch on April 28, 2009. Recently awarded recognition by Guinness World Records for conducting the first concert to take place simultaneously in the real world and a virtual space during E3 in Los Angeles last week, Free Realms continues to prove that free-to-play games are serious business.

To celebrate the rapidly growing community of players, SOE will grant its first three million Free Realms registrants the “3M Pet Party Pack,” filled with goodies for use with their virtual pets, both cats and dogs. From the in-game Marketplace, players can choose from more than 20 different types of dogs and cats to train, feed, groom and dress up. Players have until Friday June 19, 2009 (11:59 PM PDT) to redeem the “3M Pet Party Pack”.

Free Realms also features 14 other fun jobs to master, as well as the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks sold wherever you buy trading cards.

Runes of Magic Hits 1 Million Subscriber Mark

Frogster America’s free-to-play MMO, Runes of Magic, has reached the million registered user mark in Europe and the United States. The growth represents user growth of around 150,000 players per month, according to Frogster. No doubt the company is delighted by this number considering that many recent brand name high profile MMO’s have failed to come even close to that. If anything it validates that a good free-to-play has the ability to draw in a lot of players.

Frogster plans to release at least two additional localized versions of the game this year. In addition to this, the previously announced Korean version will be published by Frogster Asia, and a Russian version will be published in a cooperative partnership with Game Factory Interactive.

You can learn more about Runes of Magic and start playing by visiting us.runesofmagic.com.

Is Xbox Live Homophobic?

Is Xbox Live homophobic or is the banhammer being wielded too liberally in the name of keeping everything inoffensive and family safe? Those who have been banned or suspended for having “gay” in their name or listing their sexual orientation in their profile say that the Xbox Live service is downright insensitive and homophobic.

According to a story on Consumerist, one player who mentioned that she was a lesbian found herself in hot water with Microsoft, despite the fact that she complained about being harassed in games for being a lesbian.

Read the rest of this entry »

PlayStation Network: 20 Million Strong..

..and growing. Sony’s PlayStation Network has hit 20 million registered user mark, the company announced today. The PlayStation Network went live on November 11, 2006 giving users free access to online multiplayer, downloadable content, multimedia content and some social networking features. Meanwhile, in a kitchen across town an Xbox Live player felt a tear roll down his face, caressing a space in his wallet where some money used to be.

A lot has changed in the two years since launch; PSN is available in 55 countries and over 600 PS3 titles support some kind of multiplayer functionality via the service. On the digital distribution front, the PlayStation Store currently has 14,500 pieces of digital content including full games, demos, trailers and add-ons, along with 5900 movies and television shows available for purchase. Sony also recently launched PlayStation Home, its graphical 3D world space where players can interact with other PSN users, customize their own personal space and show off their game trophies with others.

While the PlayStation Network may have a long way to go before it catches Xbox Live, Sony is doing everything that it can to make the service more attractive to all kinds of users. From exclusive downloadable content like Flower and Noby Noby Boy, to online only titles like Metal Gear Online and War Hawk, the network continues to grow, learn and reposition where it needs to. One area where Sony is undeniably beating both Nintendo and Microsoft is the PSN model - online play for free. You can’t get that on Xbox Live and you won’t find it on Wii any time soon.

World of Warcaft Owns 11 Million of You

Oh this one’s a big shock.. Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft has hit yet another subscriber milestone today. The company announced that its popular massively multiplayer role-playing game for the PC and Mac, now enjoys 11 million players worldwide. This number was driven up by a roll out of the game in new regions including Russia and Latin Americas. In addition to North America and Europe, the game is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Argentina, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

This milestone was reached as the beta test for Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft’s second expansion, nears completion. Wrath of the Lich King will launch in several regions around the world starting on November 13.No doubt the new expansion will bring past subscribers back into the fold prior to its official launch.

Warhammer Online: 500,000 Strong

Mythic Entertainment announced that in the first week since launch over 500,000 new players have registered for its fantasy MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, in North America, Europe and the Oceanic territories.

“In just one week we have a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG,” said Mark Jacobs, co-founder and general manager of Mythic Entertainment.

I do not mean to bag on WAR, but that number seems mighty underwhelming. Age of Conan garnered 400,000 subscribers - a number that dramatically declined in the weeks that followed. No doubt WAR will have a better retention rate than AOC, but many expected it would have had a much stronger showing that it has managed. Mind you, 500,000 is a solid and respectable number, but EA has to really get behind this game and promote as hard - if not harder than - Blizzard has pushed World of Warcraft.