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On This Day In Gaming History...
| 1999, "Ultima Online: 2" information reprinted on Dr.TwisTer site, Origin threatens lawsuit. |
| 2003, Mutable Realms and Vault Network come to informal agreement for fan site Wish Vault to host the official message boards for the upcoming Ultra MMO game, "Wish." |
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The 2003 Yearly Round-up
Last year was a time of a lot of changes, as we saw new games announced, old games awaiting launch and some faces within the industry change places. While we waited for games to come out, they were not that pretty at launch after a number of delays. Here are the significant events of last year within the MOG community.
The 2003 Yearly Round-up -Div Devlin
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May
- NetDevil and Themis Group announce the selling of “Commissioned Pilots” within the JumpGate game.
- Gordon "Tyrant" Walton announces his return to the MMO market after a short vacation as he joins Sony Online in Austin on an un-named project.
- Microsoft officially launches the website for Mythica, their game in development.
- Mythic Entertainment announces their second retail expansion for Dark Age of Camelot, titled the "Trials of Atlantis" with an underwater theme.
- Eve Online: The Second Genesis developed by CCP and published by Simon and Schuster goes retail in North America.
- Toon Town the MMO for kids by Disney announces they have gone gold with a retail release set for June.
- Infrogramse officially changes their name to Atari to increase their profile and brand awareness.
- Vivendi Universal officially announces their partnership with Turbine Games to develop Middle Earth Online.
- SEGA Europe officially announces they will publish Warhammer Online from Games Workshop being developed by Climax.
- Rumors once again begin to circulate that a developer has been signed to create Marvel Superheroes Online being published by Sony Online.
- Warner Bros. Studios and Ubi Soft announce they will co-publish "The Matrix Online" in development by Monolith, set to launch in 2004 based on the movies.
- Atari and Turbine announce the development of Dungeons and Dragons Online for Wizards of the Coast.
- Tecmo becomes the first game company in the history of the E3Expo to be shut down as crowds swelled over "Dead or Alive" bikini-babes causing a fire hazard.
- Sony Online announces their "All Access Pass" for $21.99US per month giving players a flat rate to play EverQuest, Lords of EverQuest, PlanetSide, and EverQuest 2. Star Wars: Galaxies is strangely omitted from the lineup.
- Ubi Softs servers for Shadowbane crash and burn with players unable to log into the game for over 10 hours, soon after the largest beta guild within game quits enmass.
- Sony Online announces that PlanetSide servers are officially live and the game has gone retail.
- EA announces their price increase for Ultima Online subscribers going from $9.99 per month to $12.99 per month. Many players scream, "I quit" as they have more than three accounts.
- The ultimate event takes place within Shadowbane, as the game client is hacked and hundreds of players are griefed on Ubi servers. Players who fall victim state that it was the most enjoyable aspect of the game. Ubi and Wolfpack begin a crusade to ban players associated with exploits. The entire guild of "Invictus" and "Rolling 30's" given das boot.
- Helbreath falls to hackers as they dupe items within game and run rampant exploiting. Helbreath releases the names of the player's game names banned for exploiting. They are the first game to do so.
June
- Rubies of Eventide from CyberWarrior re-launches with a fresh new look using a new graphics engine for the game.
- MOG Magazine, the first print rag dedicated to Massive Online Games, declares itself dead by IMGS after numerous publishing problems. Issue Number 2 never releases to print.
- Square Enix and PlayOnline officially launch the website for "Final Fantasy XI."
- SEGA officially joins the MMO Game Market with their game, "Legacy Online."
- Sony Online officially announces their release date for Star Wars: Galaxies raising the industry subscription price for players to $14.95 per month.
- Ubi's in game economy for Shadowbane officially FUBAR after rampant gold dupes appear across all game servers.
- Sony and Lucas Arts remove the NDA for Star Wars: Galaxies announcing there will be no open beta testing prior to release.
- Artifact Entertainment re-launches the Horizons website, which resembles the World of WarCraft site. Being original is hard.
- CodeMasters announces that the original date for beta has been changed, no new date released.
- Ragnorak Online by Gravity Corp. falls to hackers who gained access to private user information. Hackers release a full list of usernames and passwords to the public.
- Second Life, the sim style game by Linden Labs officially releases commercially.
- Dark Ages of Camelot's newest expansion "Foundations" by Mythic officially releases giving players housing.
- Asheron's Call 2, announces they are shutting down one of their PvP servers and preparing to merge other servers.
- Sony Online announces that EverQuest is finally available for MAC Gamers with the port available in stores.
- Mythic announces they are retiring their PvP server Andred and merging players to the Mordred server for Dark Age of Camelot.
- Sony Online and Lucas Arts officially launch Star Wars: Galaxies. The login server's crash and no one is able to create accounts on opening day.
- Blizzard founders, Erich Schafer, Max Schafer, David Brevik, and Bill Roper all resign to pursue a new start-up.
July
- FunCom announces the official release date for their Anarchy Online expansion Shadowlands.
- SummitSoft Corp. announces they will be the North American publishers for Endless Ages in development by Avaria Corp.
- Sony and Lucas Arts announce "unprecedented success in its first week" for Star Wars: Galaxies with 125,000+ active users as "the single most successful introduction of an MMO to launch." Everyone wonders where Sony and Lucas Arts were during the launch.
- Bryan "Tajima" Walker confirms that he has left EA and Ultima Online.
- Earth and Beyond players start a phone service, in which they charge callers for hints, tips and strategies to the game, sanctioned by EA.
- Mutable Realms and Themis Group announce partnership for "Wish" beta, where Dave "Mahrin Skel" Rickey formerly of Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot is spotted as the Lead Designer.
- NCSoft in Korea officially begins beta testing for Linage II: The Blood Chronicle.
- Codemasters and Norseman Games jointly announce the sale of "The Realms" to Norseman Games.
- Puzzle Pirates from Three Rings Design officially enters into closed Beta.
- Blizzard announces their partnership with Sword & Sorcery to create the d20 WarCraft role-playing game.
- Thailand bans Ragnorak Online due to players becoming addicted to the game.
- Star Wars: Galaxies by Sony and Lucas Arts makes their debut in the number one slot for top selling PC games during the week of release.
- Stuff Magazine, the leading men's mag rag for the average guy announces their move into the gaming market with "Stuff Gamer," due out in December.
- EverQuest expansion, "Lost Dungeons of Norrath" has a major bug while in testing. When players die, they lose all levels above 50 and the servers do not recognize the accounts as having registered expansions. But, the expansion will include an in game gift and in box gift!
- Ubi announces the launch of a test server for Shadowbane, capturing a novel idea.
- 1C and Nikita officially launch the website for their game, Sphere.
- Earth and Beyond officially launches a "Name Change Program" for players at the cost of $19.99US.
- NPCube announces that their beta for Dark and Light has been delayed so they "don't skimp out on the quality."
- Codemasters announces that the first round of invites into Dragon Empires beta have been sent out. No one you know actually got in.
- Turbine announces they will be consolidating Asheron's Call 2 servers from nine worlds to four.
- Themis Group opens beta application forms for Wish, the ultra MMO in development by Mutable Realms.
- Simon and Schuster announce they are cutting 75 jobs from their workforce, with two cuts taking place from the "interactive Division" which published Eve Online.
- Another hit to the Shadowbane game by Ubi when "The Covenant of Swords" guild announces they are departing the game due to numerous issues.
- Thesa Online, a Korean import brought to the U.S. by Mojo Games officially launches in Chicago.
- GenCon officially kicks off in its new home in the "Crossroads of America" as they move from their home of Milwaukee to Indianapolis, Indiana.
- Imaginations FZ LLC, officially launches the website for their Mutant Chronicles game in development.
- Microsoft Games Studio lets 34 employees go from the PC and Xbox division, citing a corporate reorg.
- FunCom announces that their expansion Shadowlands for Anarchy Online goes gold, with an increase to the monthly subscription price.
- Codemasters announces that PvP Combat has begun beta testing for their game Dragon Empires in development.
- Origin Systems and EA announce the hiring of 'Event Moderators' as paid employees to help with events taking place inside Ultima Online.
August
- Ken Karl of Turbine Games leaves the Asheron's Call franchise to pursue other projects within Turbine!
- Rumors circulate that the North American version of Ragnorak Online is hacked yet again!
- Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson, the producer of PlanetSide leaves his role to become a senior designer working on other Sony Products.
- 3DO files for bankruptcy, Microsoft, Turbine and Ubi Soft begin bidding on 3DO assets.
- Ubi Soft announces a 10-day free trial for Shadowbane. The 10-day free trial downloads upon launch do not work.
- ComCast, the largest cable company in the U.S. shows interest in purchasing Vivendi Universal.
- The Camelot Herald, the official news source for Dark Age of Camelot by Mythic revamps their website with a new look. Looks great!
- Eve Online bids farewell to Senior Producer, Mike "Campion" Wallace as Simon and Schuster cuts staff.
- Avaria Corp announces they will be releasing a free booster pack in the 4th quarter for "Endless Ages."
- Square Enix announces the release date for Final Fantasy XI to be in stores come October.
- GameTable Online announces they will publish the paper-based game "Inning-A-Minute" and bring it to their line-up of Classic Online Paper Games.
- In the continuing bidding wars for 3DO assets, it's revealed that both Turbine Games and Ubi Soft are battling for the "Might and Magic" properties.
- Penthouse Magazine files for bankruptcy. Div weeps.
- Linden Labs announces an affiliate program in an attempt to gather more subscribers through a 7-day Free Trial for their game "Second Life." It works.
- Mythic Entertainment signs Kohnke to handle public relations for "Dark Age of Camelot" products.
- CCP, the developers of Eve Online: The Second Genesis, are awarded the "Best Online Development Studio" in Europe.
- FunCom announces that the release date for their expansion Shadowlands for Anarchy Online has been delayed again to "fix last minute bug issues."
- AsylumSofts director of Online Community Relations, GM Cordelia, announces her resignation from the game Dransik.
- Comcast states that they do not plan to bid on the purchase of Vivendi Universal.
- EA announces their "Character Transfer Service" for Earth and Beyond, which allows server transfers. The program is killed a day later to "work a few kinks out."
- In the continued battle for 3DO assets, Ubi Soft outbids Turbine for the "Might and Magic" properties to the tune on $1.3 Million U.S.
- Amy "Cynthe" Sage, Community Relations Manager for Ultima Online leaves the team for a new role within EA, which is not revealed.
- Sony Online announces development of "Core Combat" an expansion for PlanetSide.
- Dransik by AsylumSoft falls prey to a massive economy-crushing bug. Servers are rolled back by eight days to remove all gold.
- Mythic announces they have over 20,000 homes within the Dark Age of Camelot game from the "Foundations" expansion.
- Sony Online announces the promotion of Raph Koster to Chief Creative Officer with the duty of overseeing Sony product growth.
- Sony Online Community Manager "Moorgard" for EverQuest 2 announces the game will not be released until the first quarter of 2004.
- GameSpot begins pre-orders for Ultima X: Odyssey for the price of $49.99 with a release date slated for the first quarter of 2004. Coincidence?
- Eve Online falls victim to denial of service attacks on their network, which affects the game servers.
- Electronic Arts officially announces development of Ultima X: Odyssey, a sister game to Ultima Online. Note, GameSpot advertised sales before EA announced the game.
- A player from Beijing sues Asian publisher Khabal Gaming, when he loses his items in "Red Moon Online."
- Sony Online repackages EverQuest in the "Evolutions" pack, which includes all five expansions and ships it to retail.
- EA begins using the character of Lord British within Ultima Online once more with permission from Richard Garriot.
- Sony Online announces Jason "Pex" Ryan as the new events manager for Star Wars: Galaxies who will oversee the games progressing storyline.
- Dark Age of Camelot's EU publisher GOA falls prey to client side server hacks as service to the players is disrupted.
- K2 Network introduces the first MMO sports game to North America based on Golf.
- Cyper Media announces a partnership with Anikino Inc., to develop an anime series based on the Lineage game setting.
- Lucas Arts announces that Star Wars: Galaxies is the second largest MMO Game in the U.S. with 275,000 registered players.
- Chris "Vosx" Mancil starts the rumor mill running for Shadowbane due to a mispost on the Ubi forums regarding a sever consolidation with new maps and features for the game.
- Lila "Jade Dragonfly" Yee, the Community Relations Manager for Asheron's Call 2 joins the Mythica team in the same role.
- EA officially bids farewell to MotorCity Online and shuts the game servers down.
Next: September, October, November and December!
Back: January, February, March and April!
Discuss:What was your most memorable moment of 2003?
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