Massively^™

Lockpick Entertainment announced today that they have signed an exclusive agreement to distribute their MMORTS game Dreamlords -- the Reawakening in North America. Aeria Games, publishers of Stone Age 2, Dream of Mirror Online and many, many more free-to-play MMOs, will have Dreamlords in beta in July, looking forward to an August release.

Spencer Chi, producer at Aeria Games, called Dreamlords an answer to gamers' demand for a fun MMORTS (massively-multiplayer online real-time strategy) game. Dreamlords players will be able to buy in-game items and equipment with the Aeria Points currency common to all Aeria's games. Interested and want to know more? Then turn back to our extensive coverage of Dreamlord's path to publication.

Despite the best efforts of various MMOFPS titles, MMORPGs continue to be the genre du jour within the massively multiplayer sphere. Whether it's because other variants are less viable or simply because the conventional designs make for an easier pitch when searching for seed funding or publishing deals remains to be seen.

One auspiciously under-explored genre so far has been the MMORTS, the fusion of old-school real-time strategy and the massively multiplayer. Part of the reason this genre hasn't seen more action, we think, is because the technical and design challenges inherent are somewhat daunting. In a recent post, Rock Paper Shotgun's Jim Rossignol takes a look at some upcoming MMORTS titles, including the ambitious Dreamlords releasing this week, and reports on what he finds. This blogger still doesn't totally buy the concept, but the proof will likely be in the pudding.

Dreamlords the Reawakening is the sequel to Lockpick Entertainment's original IP Dreamlords. Known as an MMORTS, this free-to-play title launches on Wednesday, the 18th. From the press release:

"We're really happy to release The Reawakening now and I know that it is highly anticipated from the Dreamlords community. Drawing on experience from the development of our previous game Dreamlords but also through feedback and suggestions from our much devoted community, I'm convinced we've created the game we initially set out to produce last fall," said David Rosén CEO and Executive Producer. "The Reawakening is in every perspective a game by gamers, for gamers and now I can only hope the players will have as much fun playing it as we've had developing it."

Check out the action on Wednesday, and look for a First Impressions soon.

[Thanks, Marcus!]

Dreamlords: The Reawakening has been in closed beta since April, and according to a new press release has entered "public beta". At the time of this writing, the official website has not been updated with any information relating to this update. Do we dare assume that "public beta" means "open beta"?

While at the site, however, notice the latest news regarding the server move on the 9th of June to "prepare for launch". So, we might be in open beta right now, and we might be seeing a full launch of the game fairly soon. We can't take this tension! When we know anything for sure, we'll let you know.

[Thanks, Marcus!]

Dreamlord's highly anticipated sequel The Reawakening has now entered the closed beta stage. What does this mean for us? It means the game is closer to release, of course! Initially the beta test will be open exclusively to the registered users of FilePlanet, but will be made public later next week.

If you're not familiar with Dreamlords: The Reawakening, you may be pleasantly surprised by a few of it's features. The game will not only be free to play, but will also offer upgrades, items and gear that will boost your Dreamlord (for money). The best feature of all? There will be a simplified rule system! Yay! It just wouldn't be a current MMO if it didn't have simplified rules. Sigh.