October is meant to be a spooky month, but it's been positively terrifying for free-to-play MMO studios - the latest victim is Trion Worlds, the team behind decent enough fantasy RPG Rift and the recently rebooted shoot n' looter Defiance 2050, among others. According to reports from Gamasutra and Polygon, the studio has been bought out by German mobile publisher Gamigo, and the layoffs are massive, hitting the majority of Trion's 200+ employees. A skeleton crew of around 25 are all that's left to maintain the studio's stable of games.
]]>Trion Worlds, the crew most notable for MMOs Defiance and Trove, have turned their attention to the small scale. Well, comparatively anyway. The studio's been working on a new free-to-play, team-based, turn-based tactical combat team called Atlas Reactor [official site], an amalgamation of XCOM tactics with Overwatch aesthetic, from the look of it. Check it out for yourself after the jump.
]]>OK, upon second viewing, Rift and Defiance developer Trion's Trove looks more like Cube World than it does Minecraft. A lot like Cube World. Kind of eerily so. But I suppose it can't be avoided now that the MMO genre's been bitten by the voxel bug and-- actually, wait, yes it can. EverQuest Next is voxel-based too. Hmmmm. Oh well, enough making block mountains out of block molehills. The truest measure of any game - visual similarities to genre heavy hitters or not - is in how it plays, and while Trion has a framework in place for Trove, that part will largely be up to you.
]]>They said it would happen in the ancient texts of May 2013, and lo, it has come to pass. RIFT, the previously not free MMO is now a free MMO. And they promise "no trials, no tricks and no traps."
]]>At this rate, Trion Worlds might soon be forced to change its name to Trion Islands, or maybe Trion Small Yet Charming Spanish Getaway Vacation Villa. After the Rift team got hit by a major round of layoffs late last year, Defiance's band of trigger finger scratchers has taken a possibly even bigger hit. While the exact number is unconfirmed, many reports place the total at around 100, which is a worrisomely not-small portion of the entire company. For its part, Trion has confirmed the unfortunate turn of events, but it's been illusive otherwise. The company's statement is after the break, in addition to a few further details.
]]>If past me - Nathan the Younger, EverQuest fiend extraordinaire - knew that I/we would eventually be complaining about having access to too many free MMOs, he'd probably shake his head in shame and see if there was still time to have a traumatic experience that'd turn him into a dystopic totalitarian dictator. But here I am - kind, vaguely humble, and only prone to conquering the most formidable of grilled cheese sandwiches - and now Rift's shedding its subscription in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Truth be told, I kind of assumed it had already flipped the switch. Hm. Well, anyway, explanatory "don't worry guys seriously no buying power never mind that everyone always says this" trailer after the break.
]]>Rift's big expansion, Storm Legion, is now available to play. You can tell because there's a launch trailer posted beneath my words. Storm Legion, it seems, contains a catalogue of giant demons and evil magical robot things, as well as fancy boats, fancy cloaks, fancy mounts, and fancy fancies. I quite fancy it, to be honest, but I've been wearing my anti-timesink harness for the past year, and so far it has deflected the nightmare gravitational pull of MMOs.
But what about you lot? Anyone still playing Rift? Anyone going back to fight these giant beasties?
]]>I'd be lying if I suggest that I am posting this for any other reason than the demon. He's a large demon (not pictured, but damn, look at that dude!), and he's not happy. Apparently he's miffed because he overslept. I know how that feels. And so that's the premise of the Storm Legion pre-order trailer, which you can see below. You might also be able to infer that the Rift expansion is now available for the pre-purchasing masses, who will no doubt be aroused to learn that they will not only secure themselves a fight with Ol' Sleepy, but they also get early access to "Exodus of the Storm Queen", which is one of the new dungeons in which exotic and unlikely beasts are waiting to be clubbed for their loot. You also get an "exclusive cape." Presumably a digital one. If it were a real cape, all silky and flowing, then they might have been on to something. I'd wear it whenever RPS had an exclusive. Like today! Yes.
Anyway. Storm Legion is out on November 13th.
]]>If there's a surefire way to improve your fantasy MMO, it must surely be to add one continent of techno-magical robots, and one continent of bony mega-fiends, consequently tripling the size of your playable world. That, by pure chance, is exactly what Rift is doing with Storm Legion, which seems imminent, but does not yet have a release date. There's been some game footage released, along with the developers blathering about their creation, which you can see below. As well as raising the level cap, and expanding the character creation stuff, they've made some incredible-looking locations and populated them with intricate dimension-skipping hyperbosses. And I have to admit it looks pretty dreamy. I can see why so many people have stuck with Rift, especially when stuff like this is in the pipeline. Go take a look.
]]>Goodness. Rift's PvP may not have managed to set the world on fire straight out of the box, but now it seems to be upgrading from a wet match to a full-sized flamethrower. In short, Conquest pits three new cross-dimensional factions against each other in open world battles where "everyone can contribute." Even crafters "play a vital role," apparently. So basically, pick a side, venture over to Stillmoor, and join the impressively multifaceted three-way fray. Somewhere along the way, points get captured and everyone dies. Yeah, it sounds kind of Guild-Wars-y, but it's still quite a sizable shift in philosophy for a free update to an MMO that's been around for more than a year.
]]>Trion have introduced a taste of a future to their Rift client (at least if you are on a 5mbps+ connection) which streams the client as you play. You can still download patches and apply as normal, but if your connection is fast enough and you don't want to have to wait, the option is now there. They explain: "Streaming Client allows you the option to launch the game from the patcher without having to wait for the full data download to complete. You'll be able to start playing within a few minutes even after a large update, and the game will download the necessary data in the background while you play." There's even an in-game patchometer which states the progress, and tells you whether you aren't seeing characters and objects because they're slow to load.
]]>What do you give the man who owns everything but is missing the first 20 levels of Rift? Trion Worlds the makers of the rather good MMO Rift, have the answer for you: Rift Lite gives you unrestricted access to the game's first 20 levels for free. I actually do own everything, so I'm now furious that they've undermined my achievement.
]]>Here's a 2011 trend I'd hoped had wound down by now: the hacking of games, game services and game websites. Seems Trion Worlds, makers of Rift, suffered an incursion lately, with hackers finding their way into a database containing "user names, encrypted passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, billing addresses, and the first and last four digits and expiration dates of customer credit cards." Aieee!
However, Trion have declared that "There is no evidence, and we have no reason to believe, that full credit card information was accessed or compromised in any way." Phew?
]]>"NEW: INSTANT ADVENTURE! Just add a handful of players and taste piping hot fantasy action, just like momma used to make." Something like that. Well, actually Trion Worlds don't really explain it like that, as you can see in their dev diary, below. They do, however, explain that the new Action On Demand stuff will allow you to drop in and drop out seamlessly, without causing your group any issues in their progress: "The new “Instant Adventure” button teleports players to Stillmoor or Shimmersand where challenges scaled to party size await. One minute you could be purging a nest of cultists with a small group … the next you’re fighting alongside dozens of players in a massive raid against the Blood Storm’s mightiest forces." Sounds like there's some clever maths involved! (Don't forget to read Dan's huge interview with the Rift team.)
]]>In the latest of our series of interviews with MMO creators, big and little, we go back to last year's best MMO, Rift. We saw it as a mechanically-experimental game that had stuck to a safe fantasy MMO formula. Our three interviewees are Chief Creative Officer Scott Hartsman, design Producer Hal Hanlin and Producer Adam Gershowitz. Let's see how they see themselves now...
]]>When did we last write about Trion's MMO Rift? Oh, May. Just two months after it launched, then. Whoopsie. Well, fortunately Trion have put out a video showing how the game's grown over the last seven months. It's jolly dramatic, and conveys both that Rift is holding its own against the big-boy competition, and that for all the talk of freeform progression in other respects it's holding fast to genre convention. I.e. "bored of WoW? Come hither, come hither" is the presumed message.
]]>For a week, anyway. There's a 7-day trial up on the main Rift site, which allows you to play the dimension-bleeding fantasy MMO for no pennies. I've still not got around to dabbling, but I understand from Dan's review, and also from a few of you lot who are playing, that it's one of the more interesting takes on the MMO business of late (despite some issues with the big public events...)
]]>By the sounds of things, fantasy MMORPG Rift is the most competent game to try and encroach on World of Warcraft's turf in quite some time. Our man Dan Gril was certainly impressed, and the view from the top of Mount Metacritic is impressive enough. The latest trailer, showcasing the Rogue class and the game's create-your-own-class mechanics in general can be seen after the jump. You know, in case you were thinking about going rogue. Ha! Ah. Ahh.
]]>Rift's updates have begun, and with 1.1 comes the "dynamic event" River Of Souls, which is some kind of invasion by "the plane of death", aka the undead faction. There's a video to illustate the goings on (below) it's all a bit dramatic, with giants, and an skeletal dragon, and some woman talking about weak flesh. Exciting stuff.
Not sure about that voice acting, though. Hmm. Anyone playing Rift? Come on, hands up.
]]>Trion Worlds' MMO Rift is alive and online, so we sent intrepid, moustachioed reporter Dan Gril into its midsts to tell us all. How does the self-confessed combination of their favourite elements of MMOs come together? Is it fun? Such answers are yours to be had, as Mr Griliopoulos tells us Wot He Thinks.
]]>Rift is out today, and to mark the occasion we dispatched mad-bearded reporter Dan Griliopoulos to speak to Rift's Dynamic Content Lead (best job title, ever), Will Cook, to find out what we're calling "information". Find out why they're not opting for free-to-play, how Rift will compete in Blizzard's playground, and how the game may help John not be a rubbish healer.
]]>That is the most short words we have ever had in the headline bar. Thanks, Rift! Also: yes, there's a 6-day open beta, which you can secure a place for by signing up in advance at this internet web address link. Trion Worlds say of the event: "A tireless and unending horde, invaders from the planes continue their assault on Telara. The final (beta) battle is at hand and the fate of the planet depends on the courage and strength of Telara’s champions. Become one of the Ascended and fight for a world that’s on the brink of losing all hope." There are also NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 video cards to be won by defeating dungeon bosses. Details here.
]]>Unlikely commercial crossover of the month goes to Valve and Trion Worlds, who have set up a deal whereby people who pre-order the forthcoming fantasy MMO Rift will get exclusive melee weapons in Team Fortress 2: a "Sharpened Volcano Fragment" for the pyro and the "Sun-on-a-stick" for the Scout. There's also a new TF2 achievement being added to the game, called "Riftwalker", which you can earn to unlock a hat based on a frightening looking head-garment (pictured) that appears in Rift.
]]>How classy? Well, each of the upcoming MMORPG's four classes, Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Mage, has eight sub-classes called "Souls", from which you pick three. So you won't just be a Warrior, but a Reaver-Beastmaster-Warlord, capable of switching your powers out for that of a Riftblade-Void Knight-Beastmaster (or anything else) at the touch of a button. With hundreds and hundreds of different class combinations, Rift is most definitely a classy creation. Look, there's a new video proving as much after the jump.
]]>Trion Worlds' new, hopeful MMO, Rift, has a launch date. Two, in fact. For North America the launch is 1st March, and for the Magical Land Behind Time Of Eurostate it's March 4th. There's a bunch of blather here about all the options and preorder things, and these basically amount of a headstart from Feb 24th, if you like to be the kind of person who zooms ahead, laughing, alone.
There's also a glitzy new trailer with players talking about their experiences, and I've posted it below.
]]>Last Friday, on the way to break in my new copy of Cosmic Encounter, I was able to rendezvous with Trion Worlds to have a quick look at their upcoming massively multiplayer game, Rift, previously Rift: Planes of Telara. No inventive payment plans or mould-busting design to discuss here- RIFT is a straight-up MMORPG that was described to me as the "fully fledged MMO that gamers have been waiting for." Have you been waiting, readers? Because Rift does have a fair bit going for it.
]]>A video introducing Sanctum, one of the capital cities in Rift, can be found below. It is, in case you were wondering, a fantasy MMO, and this is very definitely the seat of power for the good guys. This quick overview of Sanctum and its monumental architecture leaves little doubt about that. More usefully, Trion Worlds have also sent over some beta keys. As usual our subscribers got first dibs on them, but I've got a few left if you lot are interested. You can mail us here to apply for them, and be aware that they'll soon run out.
]]>I guess we start a new tag, then. Rift no longer has its generic fantasy subtitle, and has been pruned down to just the one word. Which is interesting, since I was poking fun at that last time we mentioned the game. What is perhaps a little more significant in the life of this dimension-shifting MMO is that the beta sign ups are now open, for a closed beta dated 3rd December. Rift got plenty of good feedback at GamesCom recently, and I suspect it's one to watch even if you are only vaguely interested in the online world business.
I've posted the most recent trailer below. It's rather pretty, even if the combat seems a little... flat. Go take a look.
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