Daybreak Game Company, the H1Z1 and PlanetSide 2 mob formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment, have laid off an unconfirmed number of staff. It's the second wave of layoffs at Daybreak this year, and a real tough time to be laid off. It's the usual "optimising our structure" sort of reason. Daybreak say they'll continue to run their current and are working on new games too.
]]>Oh! One newsbit we missed over Horacemas is the changes afoot at Turbine. The MMORPG specialists announced that they're closing down Asheron's Call, after seventeen years, and its sequel. Meanwhile, the teams behind Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online have started their own new studio, Standing Stone Games, and taken the games with them. That leaves the remains of Turbine making... a Batman mobile game? Standing Stone plan to continue working on DDO and LotRO as before, though they've now teamed up with Daybreak Games Company (the former Sony Online Entertainment lot) to publish 'em.
]]>I am once again reminded of the existence of a game by the announcement of an expansion. Dungeons & Dragons Online's shift to free-to-play years ago has given it enough success to keep quietly humming along, with the second expansion in seven years launching in the Summer. The Shadowfell Conspiracy is a content update, with new adventure packs (missions), monsters, and companions. It'll also bring "Iconic Heroes", ready-made level 15 characters for those who view grind with haughty disdain. You pay to not play! A teaser trailer for all the new content is beneath these words and some more words.
]]>Something felt wrong when I glanced over the announcement of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Menace of the Underdark. I dismissed it as just another expansion pack for a free-to-play MMO, but that felt wrong. Digging around uncovered what was troubling me: DDO has never had an expansion pack. It was released in 2006 and went free-to-play three years later, but even then it's been a low priority thanks to server sizes and Turbine's Lord Of The Rings Online Tolkien all the people. Because of that, the list of additional content is rather chunky. It'll be out on June 25th, but you can pre-order now.
]]>Whilst we were down in the RPS dungeon, thrashing kobolds for copper pieces, we stumbled upon a group of MMO developers coming the other way through the Underdark. Sitting down by the light of our magic auras, we made a nice cup of elf-leaf and talked to Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer on Dungeons & Dragons Online (married to Kate Paiz, the executive producer on Lord Of The Rings Online) and Adam Mersky, Communications Director of Turbine. These bold adventurers in online gaming had much to report about about DDO's history, the first DDO expansion, and the mysterious emanations coming from upcoming releases.
]]>Turbine (now part of Warner Bros, so essentially run by Bugs Bunny) has just announced the long overdue first expansion to Dungeons & Dragons: Online, Menace of the Underdark, six years after the game was first released. We've got more details below, excerpted from the coming Sunday's MMOnitor, but here's the stuff really worth noting: they're introducing a new class, new epic classes and moving the setting to The Forgotten Realms – where nearly all of the D&D books have been set, and which is richer in fiction than Craig's lovelife. More details and an interview after the jump.
]]>Turbine might be challenging their publisher Atari to a bout of fisticuffs about the fate and funding of Dungeons & Dragons Online, but such conflict has not delayed the re-release of said formerly underpopulated MMO as a free-to-play affair. Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, as it's now known, can be had for the princely sum of no-pennies from here. There is, of course, a catch. Two in fact, but one of them might be my fault.
]]>Something is rotten in the state of pretend online roleplaying universes. Atari, or at least what's left of it these days, remains license holder for most videogamilial adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons properties, most notably Forgotten Realms titles including Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. They also publish the Turbine-developed Dungeons & Dragons Online, which is shortly to be relaunched as the free-to-play DDO Unlimited. Only Turbine reckon Atari's gearing up for betrayal...
]]>Have we ever posted about Dungeons & Dragons Online before? It's not an MMO that ever seems to make the headlines and, let's be honest, most of us either thought it was already closed or was living on borrowed time. In a fairly audacious move, it's instead gone free to play - rebranded as DDO Unlimited, and pitching itself as "the world’s first free-to-play MMO to offer the quality graphics and robust features previously only available in premium subscription based games." Hmm. Is that strictly true? Grrrrubish as they were, didn't the likes of RF Online and Archlord have that? Of course, it's precisely because DDO is not rubbish that makes this surprise move so tantalising...
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