Turbine Unviels New Logo: Turbine Entertainment is celebrating their 10 year anniversary. To go along with that, they are reinventhing themselves, and rebranding their image with an all new logo unvieled today, which goes into effect immediately, per this press release: In celebration of the start of its 10th year, Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. unveiled today the company's new logo and corporate branding as part of its strategic commitment to position the company as the premier provider of online subscription entertainment. As the new company logo, Turbine has adopted a clean white turbine fan, hovering on a black background above the word "turbine" and surrounded by a reverse box. The branding is designed to reflect Turbine's core values: teamwork, communication and passion. The new logo and corporate branding take effect immediately. Happy Birthday Turbine! Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

DAoC Frontiers Update: Dark Age of Camelot's new expansion New Frontiers has been updated with the teaser of Siege Engines coming to game with their Keeps section. The Tease: The largest change in siege warfare in New Frontiers is that the walls of a keep can be besieged and broken down. While walls are far more difficult to breach than doors, collapsing a section of wall is possible. Defenders will have to defend all parts of the keep, not just the doors. This is looking pretty good for Realm vs. Realm warfare. Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

GameTable Online Launchs Game! GameTable Online has launched their new online magazine, Game! Game! will cover all branches of the gaming hobby: board games, miniatures, role games, new releases, and above all news and community events. Game! promises 12 pages per issue, but delivers 24 pages for issue #1. At the helm as Editor is long-time gamer George Phillies. Electronic distribution will be operated by GameTable Online. Visit GameTable Online now to get the first edition of Game! free! Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

Guild Wars Professions: Guild Wars has announced a new section on their website dedicated to professions within game. The first five professions listed are the Mesmer, Ranger, Monk, Warrior, and Necromancer. Included in the first professions are descriptions of the professions and three skills, which show the respective school they are tied to. More is promised to come. Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

Mojo Games Launched Thesa Online! I must of slept through this one. The worst part is these guys are like five or six blocks from my office. Mojo Games, has launched Thesa Online.The Intro: The Earth shook, the Winds tore, and the Seas raged for days. At the end of this, those who were still left looked out on a world transformed by the catastrophe. New, strange and deadly creatures roamed to wilderness. New islands and continents rose above the waves. On the continent of Thesawooros, many ancient treasures have been brought to the surface. It is for these prizes that the warriors and mages, priests and rogues, will engage in deadly combat with hellish monsters as well as rival guilds. Some can be found buried in deep catacombs. Others are guarded by vicious creatures. Still other rare prizes are hoarded by the Lords of Thesa and are given out to adventurers as rewards for skill and valor. Contests will be held; bounties, placed. In addition to special game items, we are developing other systems of rewarding players. We've already demonstrated this by offering low introductory subscription rates and distributing free promotional game codes (please ask to your site manager or Mojo customer center, you can get a promotion gift code for Free Play). This is just a reflection of Mojo Games International, Inc's continued dedication to its customers. Check em. Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

UO Housing Decay Active: Ultima Online announced that housing decay is now active. Those who have not been within their virtual homes for the past 90 days, will have reason to cry. Your homes are probably gone. You need to log in, and refresh your homes now, or they can, and will vanish. Housing campers have probably already picked your items clean, and placed a new house which you will be booted out of. Edit: Actually, this is old news and occured last week. They are offering a free 15 day trial though for former subscribers, with Age of Shadows free for download. Catch is, your account must be in good standing. Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

Wish Beta Ends With Dev Chat: Mutable Realms announced that beta for their game Wish is about to end. Following the closure of this round of beta will be a developer chat with Mutable Realms' President Marc Laukien, Wish Producer James C. Moffet IV, Lead Software Designer Matthew Newhook, and World and Live Content Designer Dana Massey. They will answer fan questions for two hours outside the in-game city of Barleydale. Mutable Realms' partner for conducting the Beta Test, the Themis Group, will moderate this event. Ofcourse, you need to be a current beta tester, and within game to partake of the party. Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

WoW Beta Registration live! Beta Registration for World of Warcraft has gone live. Now until February 4th, residents of Canada, Korea, and the US can submit their applications for a chance to help test one of the most anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing games of 2004. From the announcement: Testers will NOT be selected on a first-come, first-served basis; all applicants will receive equal consideration regardless of when during the signup period their application was submitted. Take time when completing the online forms, and double-check that all the information is correct. We won't be able to update your application after you submit it, and multiple entries from the same household will result in complete disqualification. Sign Up Now! Posted January 28 2004 by Div Devlin

Eve Online Milestones: CCP has updated the Eve Online website with news of their milestone accomplishments. On the 25th they peaked with the most users on, within game simultaneously with 6,644 players. On a Single server. As EVE Online is not sharded, this is probably a world record for highest number of players together, at the same time, in the same persistent world. That's pretty cool. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

Horizons State of the Game: Horizons has pubslished their second address for the "State of the Game" In it, Steve Snow the Producer touches upon ten points that the team is currently working on. The Number One issue: Fix any problems that come up. Check it. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

Mythica Demonologist The Mythica website by Microsoft is showcasing the Demonologist in a team letter from Gene Kohler who works with super models. Super Character Models, that is. Included are numerous screenshots to go along with his gaming bio. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

PotBS Delayed! Pirates of the Burning Sea has been delayed. Now that we've reached Alpha, we've been updating our milestone schedule for the rest of the project. Playing the Alpha has been a lot of fun -- in particular, combat is shaping up great -- but it's also made us more aware of areas that we believe need more work. As a result, we're moving our expected ship date to Q4 2004 and expanding our programming and art staff to tackle the next milestone. While we'd like to ship sooner than that, we don't want to rush the initial release. This extra time will help us ensure the stability of the game, make it more fun, and improve the quality of certain features. Bummer. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment State of the Game: Realms of Torment has issued a "State of the Game" on their message boards. In it the team outlines what is currently being worked on and what to expect in the near future within game. A number of features yet to be implement, as well as a detailed listing of items already done.Alliance system is scheduled to be finished on 29 of Jan 2004. After that the crafting system will be implemented. Estimated production time is 1 month. Simultaneously the magic and melee systems will be balanced.Check it. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

Ultima X: Odyssey Screenshots: Ultima X: Odyssey has released their Insider Newsletter for Janurary. Included within are two new screenshots, which can be found on the UX:O site in the newsletters section, showcasing the the undead twist on the Gargoyle Mage and Warrior. Check Em! While there, make sure to sign-up for the newsletter, and get the scoop before we post it. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

URU Contest: To start off the new year, URU: Ages Beyond Myst is kicking it off with a Community Contest, for "Sound and Light," in which the winner will be awarded a Kenwood HTB-306 Home Theater in a Box, and there are prizes from Sound Blaster and NVIDIA also, as well as copies of the latest Peter Gabriel CD. We want to see your drawings and visual creations, and hear the music! Find out more about the contest here. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft Beta: The wait is almost over. World of Warcraft will begin beta registration tommorrow for would be rhapsodic testers to register and sign-up, hoping for the chance to get into one of the most awaited titles in MMO history from Blizzard! At 6:00 pm PST on Wednesday, January 28th, the signup period for the World of Warcraft Beta Test will officially begin. We will provide a link to the beta-test application right here in the news section at that time. Testers are not going to be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, so you will be able to submit an application and receive equal consideration anytime during the signup period, which will end on Wednesday, February 4th at 6:00 pm PST. Please note that multiple submissions from the same household will result in complete disqualification. For this initial phase of the World of Warcraft beta test, we will only be able to accept applications from Canada, Korea, and the US. The test for Europe and other countries around the world will happen later this year. Please do not contact us for further information regarding the beta test; we will be posting an FAQ in the days ahead. That is, if the servers don't crash from 500,000 gamers all trying to register at the same time. Watch this page! Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

Community Interviews: Dragon Empires EGCore does Peter Tyson. Dungeons and Dragons Warcry does unnamed members from Turbine. Posted January 27 2004 by Div Devlin

Silent Storm Giveaway Winner! Still have not found a copy of Silent Storm, one of the most enjoyable WWII games to date by Encore? Well we've got what you need! Thanks to Encore, were giving away one more copy of the game to a random winner. It's easy to win, and you will probably have the copy in your hand before the stores have it. If you are in the United States, just send an email to div@gamerifts.com with your postal information, and tell us what significant event happened on this day in WWII history, and one winner will have a copy of the game on the way before the US Post Office closes today. Good Luck! UPDATE: One Entry Per Person. WINNER: Not even a day and over 20 entries for our give-away of Silent Storm in which one random winner told us what happened on this day in history during WW2. Congrats to Eric, from College Park, MD who is having his copy sent to him even as you read this! (The contest is over!) Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Caeron 3000 Concept Art: Magique Productions, Ltd. sent over news that they have updated the Caeron 3000 site with new concept art for the Andraeus Battleship. The areas include a typical corridor, the bridge, and engineering sections. These pictures are designed to give you some idea of what it will be like to have your character inside one of these mammoth fighting machines. Future pics will include crews quarters, landing bays, and other areas of the ship. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

IGE Aquires Yantis: Press Release from Themis Group announced that their latest client IGE has purchased Yantis, known for selling virtual items within MMO Games for the rumored tune of $10,000,000. Internet Gaming Entertainment, Ltd.("IGE") (www.ige.com), the worldwide leader in the market for buying and selling virtual property used in multiplayer online games, announced that it has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Yantis Enterprises, Inc. (www.mysupersales.com). And this violates just about every MMO games EULA. Go Figure. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Beta Update Two: The City of Heroes beta test is well underway and things are progressing in leaps and bounds! Get the latest info from Jeremy Gaffney, CoH 3rd Party Executive Producer, himself on what’s been tested, what’s been changed or improved, and how the game is shaping up so far in his feature, "The Gaffer Report." Also be sure to check out the geography section in which they show off the Skyway City, where you can learn about it's fall from grace. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Dark Age of Camelot New Frontiers: Mythic Entertainment has launched the New Frontiers website for Dark Age of Camelot. Included is an overview for the free expansion and the new geography of the new RvR Realms. (Thanks Chernevog) Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Dark and Light Team Interview: The Dark and Light wesbite has been updated with an interview of the Art Director, Vincent Pélisson. He explains his tasks and provides some exclusive screenshots in which he talks about. In other DnL news, they have planned a Dev chat with Vincent Pourieux set for Tuesday (27th of January) at 06:00PM(18:00) GMT on irc.jeux.fr #darkandlight channel. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Dominus Online Returns: Dominus Online, the MMO in development for PvP'ers by Regulator Studios, which was comprised of members from The Regulators online guild has returned. But under new manangement? Dominus Online is now being developed by Digital Melt Studios, who are also working on several other titles for mobile/wireless gaming. Wonder if Regulator Studios sold DO for $10 million? The website is slowly being populated with info. Check it. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires News: Dragon Empires has changed their release date from Spring of this year, to late fall according to their FAQ update. Beta is expected to go live next month, per this snippet in the weekly newsletter: Current plans are that in around two weeks we will start Beta0.5 where we will be testing new server code. Throughout this phase 3,200 testers will be invited to join the beta program. We have introduced this phase to ensure that, going forward, we have as stable a code base and beta as possible. You can't build a house without good foundations after all! Once the Beta0.5 code has proven itself we will quickly start adding in the features needed in Beta1 and future beta phases. Last up is a new fiction piece in the "Letters from Gadsolme" section. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Champions of Norrath Sweepstakes: To celebrate the 2004 launch of Champions of Norrath, Sony is holding a sweepstakes in which winners can get the "Babes of Norrath" calendar with some awesome artwork, and a limited edition bobble head doll. The bobble head doll is of an EverQuest babe. No purchase needed, but you must be a Station Member. Check it. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Middle Earth Online Dwarf Class: Middle-Earth Online has announced the latest class to make it's way into the game, the first for the d0rf. Read about the "Warrior." Stout Warriors in heavy armor guard the high mountain halls and deep cavern furnaces of the Dwarves. They are stubborn, fearless, and well-versed in the battle-lore of many wars of vengeance. Like Gimli, Dwarf Warriors make steadfast friends and implacable foes. Also, a new dev diary from "Superscooper" is up, in which he shares the triumphs and tribulations of creating art for MEO. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Mythica Shows Asgard: Mythica from Microsoft has released the Plane of Asgard, the exclusive play house of Gods and Immortals. Included is an overview of the realm, along with the Factions and Followers, a look at the Landscape and Lodging, and the Fauna and Foes. Even better, is the contest for those who subscribe to the Mythica Newsletter, as this week is an exclusive contest in which 200 lucky winners will be awarded the exclusive "Prevent Ragnorak T-Shirts" that were created by Phil Foglio for Gen Con. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

PotBS Job, Ships and Diary! The Pirates of the Burning Sea site has the newest ship up, The Schooner. An overview, concept art, and screenshots of how the ship appears in game. Know a progammer looking for work? Flying Lab is looking for one to help work on the game. Requirements. The first part of a two part series is up by Robespierre on how the macro system will work in game. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

PlanetSide Team Letter: PlanetSide has a new team letter up. Shawn Lord, a designer who moved to the PlanetSide team last Novemeber after completing work on the EQ expansion "Lost Dungeons of Norrath," discusses his involvment with video games, skate boarding, and the military. For good laugh, be sure to check out the latest player submitted screenshots taken from inside the game. Some of them are true classics, which, if you play PlanetSide, have no doubt found yourself in similar situations. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Savage Eden Offers Free Play: Savage Eden: The Battle for Laghaim announced that they will be offering Free Play for their post-apoc MMO Game during an indefinite period. All you have to do is sign-up download the game. Those who already registered and paid, are getting a credit. You can't go wrong with this. Learn More. Be sure to get into the game before Teusday, as Midnight to Midnight you can particpate in their event "Bloody Tuesday" will feature a double lime event, in which monsters will be making you richer! Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Star Wars: Galaxies Jedi Changes! Star Wars: Galaxies has announced in their Friday Feature that they will be making significant changes to the Jedi system within game. After numerous players have destoryed character templates in the hunt to become a Jedi and unlock the force sensitive character slot, the rules are going to change. Perma death will be replaced with stat loss as well and a questing system will be added. Nothing as of yet on the space expansion which was to follow six months after release. Check it. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Time of Defiance NA Publisher: Nicely Crafted has secured a North American publisher for Time of Defiance, their upcoming MMO/RTS space game. From the Press Release: Publisher Strategy First and developer Nicely Crafted Entertainment are pleased to announce they have signed a deal to bring the MMO RTS Time of Defiance to North American retail shelves in April, 2004. "Nicely Crafted is interested in bringing strong strategy games to the PC market and so are we," says Don McFatridge, President of Strategy First. "The future is online and Strategy First and Nicely Crafted plan to move there together." Time of Defiance is an online-only massively multiplayer real-time strategy game set across the huge landscape of the shattered world of Nespanona. Fight for conquest of the islands and mine their mineral wealth to expand your empire. Every other empire you encounter is another human playing online and will remember the deals you didn't deliver on and the promises you broke. Treachery, propaganda and trade are just as important as your fighting strategy. Have you got what it takes to create an unstoppable empire in your quest to take control of Nespanona? Check out the official site to learn more. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Ulitima Online Focus Groups: Ultima Online is looking for willing bodies to take part in focus groups in San Fransico to talk about what they would like in the next version of the game. Those who participate get paid too. Read on: Are you a current or former Ultima Online subscriber? Do you live in the San Francisco area? Do you want to tell the Origin team what they should do with the next Ultima Online project? Now’s your chance! Origin, through a contracted research firm, will be conducting focus groups on Feb. 4 and 5 in Sunnyvale, CA (near San Francisco and San Jose). There will be six groups, with 10 to 12 people in each. The groups, about 90 minutes each, will discuss what they like and don’t like about UO. They will also be asked to comment on new ideas. Participants will be paid $100, and they will have to sign a legally binding non-disclosure agreement. That means they won’t be allowed to discuss anything they see or hear during the group sessions under penalty of law. If you are interested in participating, call Nichols Research at 1-408-773-8200, ext. 2020, or email erecruiting@nicholsresearch.com. Mention "Project #C3032" when you contact them. It’s important that we get current AND former players, so if you’ve stopped playing UO, please contact us anyway. See you in Sunnyvale! Too far to travel. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Wish Homepage Goners: Mutable Realms announced they have removed the official "Wish" webpage for their upcoming Ultra MMO game, in an effort to prepare for it's relaunch in the very near future. The first phase of beta is set to end on the 31st, so if you have not had a chance to help test, be sure to send in an application. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

World of War Invades Blizzard: The folks over at fansite World of War.net invaded the Blizzard studio for World of Warcraft and have begun placing recaps of their adventures within, as they check out the development of the game. Pictures and goodies included. Check it. Posted January 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Sony Outsourcing? Rumor has it that Sony Online Entertainment, is moving customer service offshore. No official comments available, because we did not contact anyone to verify this. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Time! It's all about time! As you may of noticed were off to a slow start this year, and that's due to work. Every January is a bad time of the year for this site, as gaming is a hobby, and to support the gaming habit, we have a real job. None of that 9-to-5 stuff either, as I work 6-to-6. It looks like the calendar has cleared up and were really back to reporting on the news you've come to expect. We have several reviews to kick up, and new content coming soon, which may or may not of been seen elsewhere. Make sure to take our advertising partners Survey, to get in on some cool prizes as I'm told it's ending, within the next couple of days! Check out our review of last year and all the significant events which took place in gaming, what a year it was! For the past two weeks we've been working behind the scenes to add a new format to the site, we initially started it last year as a project in development, and now were almost ready to kick it up live with a "Audio Format" on web radio. We miss Fears, Battle Vortex Audio; Paligaps, XGR Radio, and we have to give nods to Unknown Players short lived call-in radio. Tell us what you would like to hear from RadioGameRifts, when we make our launch! Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Astonia 3 Marketing Agreement: Intent Software, the Germany-based developer of online games, has signed an agreement with MESDAQ-listed MOL AccessPortal to market and distribute their successful Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), Astonia 3. MOL AccessPortal will start marketing Astonia 3 internationally when it launches its new global portal MOL International in March 2004. MOL International will be rolled out in stages to MOL AccessPortal's international network of over 14,000 cybercafes covering 180 countries worldwide. "We are exited about the opportunity to work with MOL AccessPortal. We are looking forward to introducing Astonia 3 to a large number of new players by using the marketing and distribution channels of MOL and their internet payment system MOLePoints," said Intent Software's managing director Alex von der Geest. Astonia 3 (www.astonia.com) is a Fantasy-MMORPG that can be downloaded for free. After the free 28-days trial period, players can choose from a variety of different subscription plans. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns: Five For One! JOLT Hiring Game Masters for MMO Jolt Online Gaming, one of the largest EU game publishers, founded in 1999 is looking for committed gamers to fill full time Lead Game Master positions for an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Marvel Games Division Marvel Enterprises, Inc. announced that Ames Kirshen has been appointed as Manager Of Game Development, a new position at Marvel. Mr. Kirshen, who has over six years of experience in the production and management of video game projects, will lead a small group to oversee the development of all licensed video games based on Marvel characters, including the creative content, along with other members of Marvel's Publishing division. Of the games they announced, which has been circulating now for years is "Marvel Superheroes Online." (Thanks Zal) Themis Inks Deal with Aardwork Software Aardwork Software Ltd, the publishers of GameShadow, the industry's first proactive PC games patching solution, announced the signing of a deal with Themis Group, an international provider of marketing, management, and customer support services to the interactive entertainment industry. Under the terms of the agreement, Themis will create and implement a marketing campaign for Aardwork's GameShadow. There Inc., Making U.S. Army MMO Game There Inc., is currently developing a MMO game for the United States Army to, "to train soldiers well beyond the goals of war gaming," according to this story. There, Inc. is being paid $6 million to develop the game, which may not have a commercial release. (Thanks HomeLanFed) Warner Bros. Game Division You may have seen in the past on this site, and several others, Warner Bros. pimping their games which ties into upcoming movie releases. Well, thats about to go mainstream as Warner Bros. announced their full Game Division. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will continue the studio's work building deals with developers and licensing content, and will also house a division called Warner Bros. Games that will develop and distribute titles under its own brand name. Check that full article here. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

More Powers for City of Heroes: What's a hero without incredible, stunning powers? Thats the question posed on the City of Heroes website as they begin highlighting various powers available to the heroes of Paragon City. Check out the details, along with some nifty screenshots, here. More powers on the way—so stay tuned! Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Community Chat: Pirates of the Burning Sea, Gamer.No does Taylor Danes. Realms of Torment MOG Hell does Dan Antonescu. Thesa Online Warcry does Gwen Han. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Lineage II Beta Registration! NCSoft is preparing for the final leg of bringing Lineage II to North America, with a new fresh look for the games website. With the sleek look is also the registration page to sign-up for beta! Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Middle-Earth Online Kills Timesinks! One thing everyone hates about the current crop of MMO games are the damn time-sinks! Over at Middle-Earth Online is a new feature update which deals with "Time Based Advancement." One of the many ways to advance in Middle-Earth Online is the unique Time Based Advancement feature, which lets you make the most of the time you can't be in the game. Continue to advance your character's stats even when you're signed off. Check it. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment Guild List: Been wondering where all your favorite MMO guilds that you either love, or hate are heading? They are heading over to Realms of Torment which released their list of known guilds that will be or have shown interest in becoming part of the game upon launch. Huge list of top guild names are heading over. Be sure to get your guild listed! Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Launches in EU: Shadowbane, has made is launch in Europe! Announced on the "Chronicle of Strife," Ubi Soft has packaged the game in a 'Gold Edition' which also offers the 'Rise of Chaos' expansion. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Star Wars: Galaxies Account Reactivations! Is the announcement from Sony and Lucas Arts announcing a trail period for those who have left Star Wars: Galaxies. Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided is better than ever and we are reactivating your former account so you can try out all the new features and content FREE for 14 days! This FREE reactivation period will begin Tuesday, January 20, 2004 and will end Monday, February 2, 2004, after which you will need to resubscribe in order to keep your account activated. Just log into your old account; it will be automatically reactivated during this offer period. We look forward to seeing you again! May the force be with you! Can't go wrong with that. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Ultima X: Odyssey Shopkeepers! Whats one to do with all the hard earned gold they are going to aquire in Ultima X: Odyssey is the question posed in this feature covering Shopkeepers within game. On each vendor, you'll find a large and unique assortment of items, spanning all level ranges (from 1 to 100). The items are generated randomly, each with its own magic properties. Some items may be only moderately powerful, while others may be simply amazing - you'll never know what you'll find until you look! Check It. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Warhammer Online Newsletter: Want to get the inside scoop on what's going on in Warhammer Online? Climax and Games Workshop has announced their official newsletter which you can now sign up for! The newsletter itself will contain all the latest news on the game as well as a few exclusive items just for lucky readers. The first newsletter will be sent out at the end of this month so make sure you don't miss out! Sign up! Be sure to check out GameBunny who has two new exclusive screen-shots up and running. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Last Chance to Make a Wish: Mutable Realms via Themis Group announced that this is the last chance to make a Wish, in Wish the upcoming MMO game in development, for those who have yet to get into the current stage of beta before it closes down and heads back into more stages of development. The news: Just over 1,000 spots remain available for gamers who'd like to participate in the end of Beta One celebrations. "The active testers in this phase of Beta will automatically be included in all future rounds of testing," said Marc Laukien, President of Mutable Realms. "Still building up to our goal of 5,000 simultaneous users this month and with all the event activities, it's the perfect time to apply." The first round of Beta was originally scheduled to run until the end of February, but is now planned to close at the end of January with a final load test of 5,000 simultaneous users during the Story Arc. Thereafter, the Wish team will refocus on development, taking into consideration the highly valuable feedback provided by the first round of testers. Sign up here. Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft Release Date: Not even into Beta and already a preliminary release date, doh! To get your dissapointment running already, Vivendi sent out a preliminary release date list to IGN, which has World of Warcraft listed for release in June '04. Everyone knows not to expect that, right? Posted January 20 2004 by Div Devlin

Caeron 3000 News: Magique Productions is looking for a few good souls who love gaming and are interested in learning everything about Caeron 3000 to start up fansites for the game. Now in development the online version is going to take the paper format to an all new market of gamers. Ultimately they hope to 'choose' such gaming sites as MMO worlds, RPG Planet, and other major gaming sites to represent C3K. If interested, send an e-mail off to and tell them your interested. We just may compete with you! Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns: Bioware continues to grow as they released their statistics for the year soaring to 1.5 million users world wide based on the popularity Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ (published by LucasArts) and the Neverwinter Nights™ franchise (published by Atari), as well as the recent announcement of BioWare's upcoming martial arts action-RPG, Jade Empire™ (www.jade-empire.com, to be published by Microsoft in late 2004). From the press release: 2003 saw tremendous growth of the BioWare community, with membership numbers more than doubling during the year to over 1.5 million user accounts as of December 2003. BioWare had one of its most productive years ever, finishing development on four titles in 2003: Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ for Microsoft’s Xbox, Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide™ for PC, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ for PC, and Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark™ for PC. All four titles were outstanding critical and commercial successes, with Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ already winning numerous Game of the Year and RPG of the Year awards. Fans of these games flocked to the BioWare Community Site (www.bioware.com) to learn more about the titles, receive technical support, and interact with like-minded fans on the official message boards. NwN rocks, what do you expect! Rumor has it that There the Sim style MMO game has layed-off forty percent of their staff. Last September the CEO of There Inc., Tom Melcher left his post with Steve Victorino appointed as the new CEO. Themis Group announced they have partnered with Internet Gaming Entertainment Ltd. ("IGE"), the worldwide leader in the market for buying and selling virtual property online. Themis Group was hired on to develop and implement a worldwide marketing campaign for IGE's portfolio of MMORPG services. We think this deserves an interview! J, the Damned Vulpine has an article about Themis promoting macroers on his site for Wish. Even more Themis Group news is the announcement they made, regarding the MMO gaming industry becoming a $1.3 Billion revenue source for 2004. Per their press release: "That represents impressive growth from 2002's total revenue of an estimated $766 million in subscriptions, advertising and sponsored content," remarked Themis Group CEO and co-founder Alex Macris. "It's clear that the online gaming portion of the industry continues to experience surging growth, especially in the area of subscription-based games. In calendar 2004 alone, we expect to see over $1.1 billion in total subscription revenues for persistent worlds, such as EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies and Final Fantasy Online." To attain copies of the information gathered purchase them here. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes in CGW: City of Heroes has made their debut in Computer Gaming World. The latest issue gives City of Heroes three pages of preview goodness in their February 2004 issue. Great screenshots, a very nice overview and one very impressed editorial crew makes this one of the best previews so far. RPGVault also has a producer diary with Brian Clayton, which delves into the goals of beta one. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Community News: Morthiki over at PKer.org sends word that he is running a Guild Database for those of you interested in learning about the competetion is, if you are a PK. It's a great way to keep tabs on your favorite enemies as well. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Newsletter: To kick in the new year, Dragon Empires released their latest newsletter. Within it are links to a new letter from Gadsolme as well as the first picture of the Empire of the Lady and Slums, that can be found in the DE Gallery on the official site. Peter Tyson, the Community Relations Rep is in New York this week, so if you are a local, be sure to hook up with him and show him some good times in the big apple! Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Dransik Becomes Ashen Empires: Dransik the game formerly developed by Asylum Soft which was aquired by TKO Software has changed the game, and the name. Now known as "Ashen Empires" the game is designed to better reflect the back-story of the world. The re-branding of the licensed game is to leave behind the legacy of Dransik and to build a positive experience in the new world of Ashen Empires, which is now in an open and free public beta. The changes to the website so far are looking good. This was unexpected to say the least. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Fung Wan Online Goes Beta: Looking for a PvP game that is deserving of a chance? Late last onth FungWan Online launched into open beta, from EdenII, based on the comics from maestro, Ma Wing Shing. The game is set in ancient China, where players are given the chance to live out fantasies in the virtual world of their favourite comic book heroes. Check it and tell us what you think. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Horizons State of the Game: It's been over a month since Horizons made it's launch, and the folks at Artifact have been really-really-really quiet. Steve Snow, the Executive Producer promises to change that, as he unveils the games first "State of the Game Address" since going live. It’s been brought to our attention, by very many customers and potential customers, that we need to start letting everyone know where we are going with Horizons in a much more public format than we have used in the past. There is more. Also, they newest in game event has been listed, titled "A New Enemy Emerges" it's offering up clues about a new threat coming to Istaria. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Jumpgate Player Base Grows: Netdevil announced on their message boards for Jumpgate that the player base has grown for the past two months thanks to everyones word-of-mouth for the game. Netdevil is rather proud and thanked the player base for their tireless efforts, while the developers promise to remain hard at work on fixing bugs, and adding features to the game. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Maximum Torque 3d Game: Based on the movie "Torque" coming out soon from Warner Brothers, Warner Bro. Online announced the launch of "Maximum Torque," an eye-popping online videogame that lets players step into the heart-pounding action of the high-speed action adventure film. A free download that can be easily played on a Mac or PC through a standard Internet browser, is currently available. Check it out. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Middle-Earth Online Dev Diary: Middle-Earth Online has posted up a new dev diary, this one from the MEO Team dealing with anonymity within game and balancing it with just enough realism. Balancing realism and fun game-play is one of the greatest challenges in game development. The right amount of realism can immerse players in the game experience, and give them a more enjoyable experience. On the other hand, too much realism can quickly become boring. After all, who wants to play a simulation of the same boring things we play games to escape? Our job as developers is to factor in both concerns and achieve a balance that is fun and immerse. This month we're proud to announce a feature for MEO that we think achieves this balance perfectly. Check it. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

PotBS: 3rd Rate Ship of the Line! Pirates of the Burning Sea concludes their ship section with the final installment of the series with the "3rd Rate Ship of the Line." The smallest of the sailing vessels armed with 74 guns, this ship is bad-ass on the waters. To go along with the article are eleven new images which consist of diagrams, concept art, and in game screenies. a href="http://www.flyinglab.com/pirates/catalog/ship.php?type=thirdrate" target="_new">Check it. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Purge: Jihad Now Available! If you have been waiting for the latest expansion to Purge, wait no more. Purge: Jihad released yesterday and is now available for download. Purge Jihad reintroduces to gameplay the concepts of an alignment Deity, Altar, and Mass Blesses. Purge Jihad also makes large improvements over its predecessor by adding another original new concept: a Prayer System. With the release of Purge Jihad, Purge support will be discontinued. Purge Jihad is a free upgrade for current retail Purge owners. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment Ear Candy? Realms of Torment pulled a switch and instead of eye-popping candy goodness, sent out some ear candy! In the way of in game tunes. Now you can listen to a few of the tracks currently being made for the game. Six tracks in all: Main Theme Menu Loop The Abyss The Battle is Over The Celtic Theme Atmosphere-Loneliness Cool. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Savage Eden Launch Events: iEntertainment is kicking the month off with a number of events to celebrate the launch of Savage Eden: The Battle for Laghaim. During the course of the month be sure to check in for these events: Bloody New Years: Let the Carnage Begin: Mid January, double money drop for monster kills, takes place in all zones of SE. X2 Exp: End of January, all monsters in all zones will be worth double experience points.Bloom Booster: Early February, Item drop event, Collect powerful petals that increase attacking power. Dragon Raid: Date Undisclosed, slay GM conjured dragons roaming the land of Laglam Can't say I know any other games doing something like this during launch! Check em. Posted January 12 2004 by Div Devlin

New Year, New Start! Welcome to 2004, what a year eh! Hope your holidays were a good one and for those who were looking to get cool uber toys, we hope you got them. I need to give shout out’s to a ton of people. Everyone who internally helps out with this site, whom with out them we would not have anything for you to keep coming back here to read. My brothers and sisters in the Shadow Alliance; my cousins over in the Spirit Lurkers, my nieces and nephews over at the Soldiers of Light, those guys who kill for sport over at KAAOS, and everyone’s favorite baddies, the Undead Lords. Then there is everyone who sent in hate mail because we shut the site (this site) down for two weeks. We appreciate the sentiment you share, we should’ve warned you that you would not get your daily fix from us; we know this site is just as much yours as ours. You don’t need to tell us, “You shut my damn site down, where do I get news from!” We know. Of course, how could we forget all the developers and publishers who create the games we play! Sure, it’s a love/hate relationship, but we still play, we still enjoy covering the news on them, and we continue to shove our money at them as fast as they can give us new toys in game. Cheer’s to everyone we piss off with our style of reporting, we really-really do respect you! Last year was a time of interesting change within the MMO community, and this year is sure to be even bigger and better than last year. Journey back with us now as we look back on the events of 2003, with a recap of the first four months of the year! Check it! Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Dave Rickey Gone From Wish: Less than a year on the job, Dave "MahrinSkel" Rickey has moved on from Mutable Realms as the Lead Designer for their upcoming UMMO game Wish. From the Press Release (Well it is the entire release, it was short): January 3rd, 2004 - Today it was announced that Dave Rickey, Game Designer for the Ultra-Massive Online Game "Wish" from Mutable Realms, had completed his design work and was leaving to pursue other opportunities. "It's been gratifying to work with the excellent team here at Mutable Realms, and I anticipate a great future for the project," said Rickey. "It's always hard to say goodbye, but the project is well in hand now, and I anticipate it will set a new standard in the market for online games." "I would like to thank Dave for his excellent contributions to our project," said Marc Laukien, President of Mutable Realms. "We wish Dave all the best for his future career, and are certain that he will not only successfully contribute to new projects, but advance our industry as a whole." Dave Rickey has been known to be the MMO gaming bad boy, could there be more to this than is being said? Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Warhammer Online Screenies: The folks from Warhammer Online sent us two new screenies, which yet again rock.   Also, GameBunny has a ton of d0rf details up ya just have to check out. Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

EverQuest is Love: According to this article which appeared in USA Weekend back in November, if you are looking for love. Forget about dating services or ramming your shopping cart into the hottie in aisle four. Just play EverQuest! Divorced and with a son, Heather Smith never thought she'd find Prince Charming. She seldom dated, avoided Internet matchmaking services and wasn't enamored of the local bar scene. What the 35-year-old insurance claims assistant from DeForest, Wis., couldn't have realized was that happiness was just a few keystrokes (and another universe) away. Or that her knight in shining armor was actually a level-62 Paladin named Soltari. Check it. Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft Alpha Leaked: I guess there is a reason ya don't disappoint your fan base right before the holidays. As Ritual (KAAOS) alerted us right before shutting down for the holidays, World of Warcraft announced that beta was not going to happen before the end of 2003. Some fans were pretty pissed, and we hear tell that Blizzard has been fighting a battle ever since, as some disenchanted players found out how to access the Alpha Client and have been posting download links everywhere. (Those posts keep getting deleted from the Blizzard boards as we hear). Rutro. Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Community Chats: Asheron's Call Warcry does Jason Quimby, former Games Systems Engineer during the creation of AC and later AC: DM. They follow having already done Jason Booth. Ninth Domain Warcry does Chris L'Etoile and John Watson. Wish J, that damned Vulpine has started a new solo fansite for the UMMOG, Wish. He does Mark Laukien twice. Ultima X: Odyssey EGCore does Johnathan "Calandryll" Hannah. URU: Ages Beyond Myst Just Adventure does Rand Miller. Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Guild Wars Artwork: ArenaNet has kicked off the new year for Guild Wars with new screenshots from the game inside their gallery. Nine shots in total showing off some of the creatures which can be found, including a dragon as well as some of the buildings and landsacpes. I think I dated this gal once. When I was drunk. She had long gnarly teeth! They also inform that all new info will be inside the Feb. issue of PC Gamer which hits the stands Jan. 13th Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Middle Earth Online Newsletter: VUGames has sent out the latest newsletter for those eagerly awaiting more on Middle Earth Online. Included is a Trivia Challange, which made me feel teh st00pid. New image which is thumbnailed, and concept art which is a depiction of the Orc Sauron Idolof. Be sure to check out the latest dev diary from Mile Raiter. Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment Movie: A new movie is out from inside the beta for Realms of Torment. showcasing the Abyssal engine in motion. The demo shows off the landscape and animations. In the mood to talk? About Realms of Torment with others of a like mind? Well, the official chat room has opened for you to do just that on the official site. Check it. Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Ultima X: Odyssey Newsletter EA has sent out the latest edition of their newsletter for Ultima X: Odyssey which Karmastorm insists is going to r0xxers my b0xxers. I tend to agree with him. In the letter they tell us that beta is coming soon and point us here, which is still empty. Also is a sneak peak at the concept for the Satyr. Posted January 5 2004 by Div Devlin