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Round Up: Xfire Milestone, ArchLord Pay Plan, Gurumin PSP
by Jason Dobson [PC, Console/PC]
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September 28, 2006
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Today's round-up includes news of Xfire reaching a new usage milestone, Codemasters abandoning PlayPLUS for its MMO ArchLord, and Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure signed for North America, as well as the latest Game Career Guide updates, Serious Games Source posts, GameSetWatch posts and Gamasutra job postings.
- Representatives of Xfire, recently acquired by MTV parent Viacom, announced that the service's online community has surpassed five million registered users and now supports 630 of the most popular PC games worldwide. Launched in 2004, Xfire is a free product that is supported by advertising, and offers such features as friend tracking, a one-click option to join friends’ games, a server browser, in-game messaging, peer-to-peer file downloading, automated player profiles and voice chat. “Surpassing the five million registered user mark is a huge milestone for Xfire - we have truly become gamers’ online game community of choice,” said Mike Cassidy, CEO of Xfire, Inc. “The future looks even brighter as we continue to grow our stable of features, services and online events, as well as our reach beyond PC gamers to include console gamers as well.”
- Despite announcing in August plans to try a new MMO subscription approach named PlayPLUS in its upcoming PC MMO ArchLord, Codemasters division Codemasters Online Gaming announced that the game will instead follow the traditional standard monthly MMO payment model. The PlayPLUS service would have allowed both a game subscription and in-game item purchases for a monthly fee, and would have been offered with three monthly subscription package options. However, after testing the service and monitoring player feedback while the game was in beta, company representatives have confirmed that the payment option will not be used. ArchLord will instead launch on October 3 with a standard monthly subscription of $14.99. The single monthly subscription will also include free credits for all players to redeem against in-game enhancements. In addition, all players will receive the same amount of credits as part of the single monthly subscription, providing a level playing field for all subscribers.
- Publisher Mastiff (La Pucelle Tactics ) announced that the company will localize Nihon Falcom’s 3D action-RPG, Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure to North America for the PSP in the first quarter of 2007. Developed entirely in house by Nihon Falcom, Gurumin earned a Silver award from Famitsu magazine in Japan. The game features non-linear gameplay, 23 non-player characters, 48 different enemies, and over 90 items to collect. Shinji Yamazaki, president of Nihon Falcom, commented: "All of us at Nihon Falcom are absolutely delighted to see Gurumin released in the US. We’re especially pleased to be working with Mastiff, as we know their localization will capture all the things that make the game great. Gurumin is our first internally developed console game to be released in the US, and we hope that it will bring pleasure to many people there."
- The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include news of oddly compelling game projects from Alan Gordon, a look at UK Dreamcast magazines, and a new blog from popular import game store National Console Support.
- The latest updates on Gamasutra's sister site Serious Games Source include news of Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert delivering a keynote at the upcoming Serious Games Summit D.C.
- Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from Day 1 Studios, iWin, MumboJumbo, and Wideload Games.
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