electronic-arts posts

Mandalorians smack down the Jedi in SWTOR's new timeline update

by Kyle Horner Jul 3rd 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Lore, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

One of the most common questions asked regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic and the easily accessible Jedi is, "Who's going to take on an army of Jedi?" We've long since had the answer tucked away here at Massively, but now BioWare has been kind enough to illustrate it for us in their latest timeline update, which features the fearsome Mandalorians.

The nomadic Mandalorians are strikingly unique and much like the Jedi and Sith in that sense they're not an actual species; yet war is their singular goal in life. Their mantra is that strength is not merely good, it is great, it brings honor through battle. Thus, it's no surprise that Mandalorians are generally opposed to the Jedi and get along better with the power hungry Sith. At this point, the Republic Trooper's coutnerpart is pretty obvious. That powerful Jedi army doesn't seem so intimidating against legions of Sith, Bounty Hunters and bred-for-war Mandies, now does it?

We highly recommend you check out the timeline video. It's not only informative, but quite entertaining if you've got even the slightest amount of interest in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, jedi, lore, lucasarts, mandalorian, mandalorians, mandies, republic, sith, sith-empire, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, timeline

WAR's summer celebration event has begun

by William Dobson Jun 27th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Events, in-game, Warhammer Online

Warhammer Online is celebrating the fourth of July and summer in general by offering some in-game bonuses, and providing some explosive incentives for participating in RvR. WAR's James Nichols announced the event's official opening yesterday, saying, "It's our way of saying thanks, have fun, and enjoy the start of summer with a BANG!" As part of the event, all players can now take advantage of a 10% bonus to experience and renown gain. On top of this, slain enemy players will drop fireworks that can be used to revel in your victory -- we imagine large skirmishes will end with a whole bunch of colorful explosions for the duration of the celebrations.

These bonuses will be in effect for about a week and a half, ending on the 7th of July.

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Tags: 4th-of-july, ea, electronic-arts, experience-bonus, fireworks, fourth-of-july, james-nichols, mythic, mythic-entertainment, renown-bonus, summer, war, warhammer, warhammer-online

Mark Jacobs on his departure from Mythic and EA

by William Dobson Jun 26th 2009 at 8:30AM

Filed under: Dark Age of Camelot, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items

We've had comments and opinions flying in from all over the internet regarding Mark Jacobs' departure from Mythic and EA, but finally we get to hear from the man himself, in a new post with the heading "All Things Must Come to an End" on his personal blog. Much of this post is devoted to thanking and farewelling his former co-workers, and he mentioned that there will be more thanks to come -- there's no doubt he would have built a great many relationships throughout his journey with Mythic and EA.

As for Jacobs' comments on the reasons for him leaving, we don't find it out too much, but he did have have this to say:

Early in May, Electronic Arts let me know that they wanted to make some changes within the Games Label and as a result of those changes I have been out of the office (and out of touch with the team, game, etc.) since that day.

and:

However, if you are looking or expecting me to damn EA or anyone there, you will be sorely disappointed. Over my 23 years of making games professionally I have refrained from attacking the competition, former and/or current partners, other game developers, etc. except on a few very rare instances. I have no intention of breaking with tradition at the present time and I hope my track record in this regard remains unchanged for the rest of my career.

We will be keeping an eye on Jacobs' blog for the additional posts he has promised.

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Tags: bioware, breaking, daoc, dark-age-of-camelot, ea, electronic-arts, mark-jacobs, mythic-entertainment, war, warhammer-online

Mythic employees shocked at Mark Jacobs' departure

by Tracey John Jun 24th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, Massively Interviews

Mythic employees were surprised by their boss' departure, sources told me today.

I spoke with a former employee, who asked to remain anonymous, about what they and their old co-workers thought regarding today's announcement that Mark Jacobs, the vice president and general manager of EA Mythic, will be leaving the company due to a new partnership with BioWare.

"People are shocked and in disbelief about Mark leaving," said the former staffer. "But they're also excited to be working with BioWare. I can't even fathom Mark leaving a company he loved so much, it was his life. Personally, I can't see that this is voluntary in any shape or form."

Tags: bioware, electronic-arts, featured, mark-jacobs, mythic-entertainment

Mythic's Mark Jacobs leaves EA

by Lesley Smith Jun 24th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items

Mark Jacobs, the former General Manager of Mythic Entertainment and Lead Designer of Warhammer Online, has left EA on 23rd June, the company announced today. This comes as part of restructuring plans within EA which includes both Mythic and BioWare and have culminated in the formation of a new, as-yet-unnamed, studio which will focus on RPGs and MMOs.

The new studio will be led by BioWare co-founder and General Manager Ray Muzyka, who will become Group General Manager. BioWare's other co-founder Greg Zeschuk will become Group Creative Officer while Rob Denton will succeed Jacobs as General Manager.

You can certainly expect more from us as this story develops.

[Via The Examiner]

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Tags: bioware, bioware-mmo, breaking, breaking-news, breakingnews, electronic-arts, greg-zeschuk, mark-jacobs, mergers, mythic-entertainment, ray-muzyka, rob-denton

Champions Online is open with its missions, that are open

by Kyle Horner Jun 21st 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: New titles, News items, Champions Online

If you're like us, then you always appreciate it when game developers open up and share their design process. And while this latest Champions Online developer diary on Open Missions may not have the most crunchy pieces of information -- or really any new stuff, for that matter -- it does a great job illustrating how Cryptic formulates their open missions.

You may be more familiar with Warhammer Online's original concept, Public Quests. Although it probably does both games a disservice to compare the two mechanics all too much, because they do different things for different settings.

What's presented here for Champions Online has us very curious to see how creative Cryptic can get with zones that are set underwater and even potentially in space. That's of course assuming there's a moon zone or something -- but why wouldn't there be something that awesome in the game?

Tags: atari, champions, champions-online, cryptic, cryptic-studios, developer-diary, electronic-arts, ign, mythic, war, warhammer-online

SWTOR's Threat of Peace concludes its first chapter

by Kyle Horner Jun 20th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Lore, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

This weekend begets the final chapter for Star Wars: The Old Republic's ongoing Threat of Peace free online webcomic. If you haven't seen many -- or any -- now would be the perfect time to read through the entire series, as the story should feel much more cohesive without being cut off every four pages.

We'd just like to mention that it would be very cool if the Sith Empire droid Espee continues to make regular appearances in forthcoming issues. We love Espee, almost solely because he's a quirky and strangely well meaning Sith Empire droid.

With the end of chapter one, we're curious to see whether future chapters continue with the same schedule and page count. It's also possible that the comic's creator seats could rotate, much like traditional comic books. Nothing has been announced or clairified yet, of course, so this is pure pie-in-the-sky pondering on our part. Still, it'd be nice if BioWare kept things fresh and experimented a little to find out what works best.

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Tags: bioware, droid, ea, electronic-arts, lucas-arts, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, threat-of-peace

2009 online game revenue could reach $11b

by Kyle Horner Jun 16th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items

Analysts really do like to live up to their job titles, because Colin Sebastian went all out at this year's E3 event. But his biggest prediction? This year online games will rake in $11 billion dollars in revenue, out of a global $44 billion in the videogame market. That's a whole heaping ton of cash, and a sizable chunk of the pie, too.

With Free Realms hitting three million players in only two months, it's safe to say that online games are indeed becoming a force to be reckoned. We're kind of in amazement when considering the potential numbers of Star Wars: The Old Republic's first few months after launch.

The next few years are certainly going to be interesting for online games. Hopefully by the end of it all, we'll still be able to walk outside without immediately hissing and burning alive from the sunlight.

Tags: bioware, colin-sebastian, ea, electronic-arts, gamasutra, lucas-arts, soe, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor

The dead rise as Warhammer Online patch 1.3 goes live

by Kyle Horner Jun 16th 2009 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Patches, Warhammer Online, News items

Today is patch day for Warhammer Online players -- huzzah! Bug and balance fixes are of course in full swing, but the big news is the Land of the Dead live event launch. Of course, before getting to any of those juicy new content areas, players will have to participate in the brand new live event: Rise of the Tomb Kings.

This event is the final chapter for Mythic's Call to Arms content expansion and functions as a good intermediary between those initial massive updates and these new ones. So while plenty of content is indeed being added today, there's a lot more on the way in the coming months, too.

We'll be giving you plenty of coverage on the ins and outs of patch 1.3, so keep your eyes peeled for more.

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Tags: call-to-arms, ea, electronic-arts, games-workshop, land-of-the-dead, mythic, war, war-patch-1.3, warhammer, warhammer-online

Pre-download now available for WAR's Game Update 1.3

by William Dobson Jun 12th 2009 at 10:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Warhammer Online

Warhammer Online's Game Update 1.3 (also known as the much anticipated Land of the Dead patch) has been locked in for release on the 16th of June, but if you plan on experiencing the new content the moment that it's available then you might want to consider pre-downloading the patch ahead of time. The pre-patcher file is 867MB's and is said to contain "the bulk of the update", meaning there will probably be a small amount leftover to download on the proper patch day. After opening the executable and installing, the game can be run as normal and the update will automatically activate itself when it's required.

The pre-patcher that we've been given so far will only work for North American and Oceanic game clients, but GOA will be bringing out their own version for European clients early next week. The NA and Oceanic file can be obtained directly from Mythic through this link.

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Tags: ea, ea-mythic, electronic-arts, land-of-the-dead, mythic, mythic-entertainment, pre-download, pre-patcher, war, war-game-update-1.3, warhammer-online

Star Wars: The Old Republic has hundreds of voice actors

by Kyle Horner Jun 9th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Interviews, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Giant Bomb has been pumping out some great videos from E3 2009, but we of course took immediate notice of this interview with two Star Wars: The Old Republic developers from BioWare. Most of the conversation revolves around information we already know, until one of the devs reveals, "we have literally thousands of roles which are voiced in our game, which are done by many, many hundreds of voice actors." We knew there was going to be a lot of people, but, okay we didn't expect that many!

Hundreds.

Much of the Massively crew agreed that Star Wars: The Old Republic's classes would be limited to four or five on each side, due to the fully-voiced announcement. Now we're thinking differently with thousands of roles filled by many hundreds of voice actors. Suddenly, six or seven per side doesn't seem like a far away fever dream.

If you'd like to see how it ends when you ask a BioWare dev about SWTOR's release date, check out the full video after the break.

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Tags: bioware, brad-shoemaker, e3-2009, ea, electronic-arts, giant-bomb, lucas-arts, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, voice-acting

The Digital Continuum: SWTOR turns up the heat, part 2

by Kyle Horner Jun 9th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Opinion, The Digital Continuum, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Tags: baldurs-gate, bioware, dragon-age, ea, electronic-arts, lucas-arts, mass-effect, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-digital-continuum

The Digital Continuum: SWTOR turns up the heat

by Kyle Horner Jun 9th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Opinion, The Digital Continuum, Star Wars: The Old Republic

E3 2009 has come and gone, with it came new information on Star Wars: The Old Republic -- and fresh concerns. To call BioWare ambitious would be an understatement of vast proportions. Every NPC receiving full voice acting ratcheted up my curiosity as much as it did my eyebrows. We may need a new word to describe the depths of this game's ambition.

As if the voice acting news wasn't enough, BioWare revealed a cinematic trailer that reminded me how powerful this property can truly be, in the right hands. The excitement was so immediately potent that it caused some people to cry "over-hyped!" in the few short minutes between the trailer's beginning and ending.

I think it's time to asses the current situation, and maybe ponder a few things about Star Wars and BioWare.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, bioware, bounty-hunter, e3-2009, ea, electronic-arts, featured, funcom, hype, jedi, lucas-arts, mythic, sith, smuggler, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, tobold, trooper, war, warhammer-online

Threat of Peace issue 8 could be dropping hints

by Kyle Horner Jun 7th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Lore, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic's free online comic, Threat of Peace, has reached issue number eight and finally introduced one of those lovable droids. It's safe to say that so far throughout this storyline, many of the prominent characters and their prospective races featured in this comic have the potential to be in-game racial options. Humans, Twi'leks and Wookiees have all been popular thus far, and now it looks like droids may in fact be a possibility. It's positively delightful!

Of course, races that have seen the limelight in Threat of Peace aren't the only signs of things to come. Bounty Hunters and Troopers both received notable attention. Whether or not this sets any kind of reasonable precedent is something we'll leave up to you, however.

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Tags: bioware, bounty-hunter, droid, droids, ea, electronic-arts, human, lucas-arts, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, threat-of-peace, trooper, twilek, wookiee

SWTOR's Trooper development and morale abilities

by Kyle Horner Jun 5th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

BioWare's lead combat designer Damion Schubert discusses creating the Trooper class today over at the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website. It's not too difficult to understand the heart of the Trooper: he's got a huge gun and makes everything in his path explode. The difficult part of the Trooper was making it something that could go toe-to-toe with Sith both in the actual game and in players' minds. It had to be cool, exciting and a whole lot of fun to play.

Of course, as Damion points out at the end of his journal, the Trooper isn't all about massive amounts of firepower. The class packs an assortment of morale-themed party buffs too, which are able to strengthen himself and the party. While this feature was assumed on our part, this is the first we've heard of morale-based class abilities. Consider us curious to find out more in the future.

In case you missed its debut over the weeked, we've embedded the dev video on The Trooper after the jump.

Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic Screenshots

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Tags: bioware, damion-schubert, ea, electronic-arts, galactic-republic, lucas-arts, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, trooper

Massively Features

Featured Games

Events Calendar

Name	Date
Fallen Earth Launch	Q2 2009
Global Agenda Closed Beta	July 2009
CrimeCraft Launch	Aug 25 2009
Champions Online Launch	Sep 1 2009
Cities XL EU Launch	Sep 3 2009
Aion Launch	Sep 22 2009
Earth Eternal Open Beta	Q3 2009