We’ve continued updating this post at the end as more events unfold, including Unity’s rebuttal and Unreal’s intervention. The original post from 9:55 a.m. EST January 10th is as follows. Bad news today for MMO companies using Improbable’s SpatialOS and Unity. Back in October, the SpatialOS company rolled out a GDK specifically to enable integration with Unity development. But as of today, Improbable says that Unity has updated its licensing terms such that “all existing SpatialOS games using Unity, including production games and in development games of all developers, are now in breach” of those terms. The new terms apparently went into effect December 5th but were confirmed to Improbable by Unity only yesterday, in spite of the fact that the integration “was previously freely possible in their terms, as with other major engines.” “Unity has clarified to us that this change effectively makes it a breach of terms to operate or … [Read more...] about Epic and Improbable pledge $25M to rescue MMO studios affected by Unity’s SpatialOS license suspension
Facebook crossed 8000000000 daily views in their videos as stated by techcrunch
The Stream Team: Crossing black cats’ paths in Conan Exiles
What do Friday the 13th, black cats, and Conan Exiles have in common? They are all awesome! And Massively OP’s MJ loves them all. For this auspicious (and favorite) holiday, MJ is heading back into the exiled lands to cross the paths of all the black cats she can. Tune in live at 9:00 p.m. for this extra lucky stream of… What: Conan ExilesWho: MJ GuthrieWhen: 9:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, July 13th, 2018 Enjoy the show! Having trouble with our live feed or chat? Visit the OPTV channel on Twitch in your browser or on your mobile device. Missed a part of the show? Don’t worry; we’ll post the complete stream here when it’s over, and you can always check out past streams and playlists posted in our videos collection! SHARE THIS ARTICLE … [Read more...] about The Stream Team: Crossing black cats’ paths in Conan Exiles
Todd Howard says ‘Elder Scrolls Online is one of the biggest online games in the world’ as Ubisoft and Bethsoft weigh in on games as a service
Are you all in on games as a service? Are single player-games over, replaced by much more profitable eternally online (and lockbox-ridden) titles? Bethsoft’s Todd Howard doesn’t think so. Speaking to GIbiz, Howard says that in spite of Fallout 76’s controversial online nature, the always-on games-as-a-service motif “doesn’t mark the future.” “Corporately we’ve done a mix; people forget sometimes,” he says. “Elder Scrolls Online is one of the biggest online games in the world, we have Fallout Shelter which we keep updating, and Elder Scrolls: Legends. Anyone who has ever said ‘this is the future and this part of gaming is dead’ has been proven wrong every single time. We like to try it all. For a long time we wanted to try a multiplayer game and we had this idea. We shouldn’t be afraid. We should try it.” Ubisoft, on the other hand, has taken a different tack. The company’s EVP of Creative, Lionel … [Read more...] about Todd Howard says ‘Elder Scrolls Online is one of the biggest online games in the world’ as Ubisoft and Bethsoft weigh in on games as a service
The Death Penalty Mechanic and Loss Aversion in MMO Design
For many years I have been on a mission to unlock the elusive code that made EverQuest so great. There is no single equation that accurately explains the magic of the EQ experience. The brilliant design of that MMORPG released in 1999 is a combination of many ingredients. In every culinary recipe, greatness or mediocrity is but a few degrees of difference of ingredient quantity and of skill of preparation. The same was true of EQ. Some of the best design ingredients of EQ were the following: traditional RPG experience based level advancement system promotion of player freedom via unstructured gameplay with no imposed narratives or story arcs traditional and diverse RPG class system which emphasized class interdependency and required most classes to group which created a deep social experience well tuned PVE combat via melee and spell abilities that rewarded highly skilled players and encouraged emergent gameplay death penalty mechanic which introduced serious consequences into the … [Read more...] about The Death Penalty Mechanic and Loss Aversion in MMO Design
Growth Hacking Tactics For Beginners (How To Use Them To Grow Your Business)
For over five years now, startup activity has experienced massive growth around the world. In fact, a post on the City A.M. blog shows that “a staggering 100 million businesses are launched annually, according to figures from GEM Global Report. It comes to just over three businesses every second, or 11,000 per hour.” However, does that mean that starting a business is easy? Well, I will say that starting a business is easy, but starting a business and making it a success is very difficult. Landing your first paying customer is even more challenging. Interestingly, as many companies are turning into successes, more and more companies with killer services and products are failing on a daily basis. In an article published on LinkedIn Pulse, Kevin Vyavahare showed that “The failure rate for new startups seems to be around 70% to 80% in the first year and only about half of those who survive the first year will remain in business the next five years.” However, no … [Read more...] about Growth Hacking Tactics For Beginners (How To Use Them To Grow Your Business)