Jeff Grubb has announced that he is leaving ArenaNet after ten years with the company. Grubb will exit the company on February 12th and begin working at Amazon Game Studios on February 15th. Grubb joins Eric Flannum, Jon Peters, and Stephen Fowler at Amazon Game Studios.
Black Desert Online: Release Coming March 3, Second CBT Sign Ups Begin Today
Daum has a pair of great news items for fans of the forthcoming game. Black Desert Online is set to be released on March 3rd and players have until February 26th to secure preorders that will expire after that date. In addition, today is the start of the registration period for the second closed beta that will begin on February 18th and end on February 22nd. Explorer and Conqueror package owners will be automatically granted access.
Darkest Dungeon: Short & Long Term Road Maps Revealed
The Darkest Dungeon team is reminding fans that today is the last day to get hold of a copy of the game for the launch price of $19.99. After today, the price will jump to $24.99. In addition, both the long- and short-term road maps have been detailed.
Elder Scrolls Online: Thieves Guild Locations Revealed
The Elder Scrolls Online site has been updated with a first-look at the new locations that will arrive with the Thieves Guild update set to launch later this month. You can find out a bit about such areas as Hew’s Bane, Abah’s Landing, Shark’s Teeth Grotto and others.
General: Ant Simulator – The Sad Tale of Wine, Woman & (Maybe?) Song
While not precisely MMO or RPG related, mismanagement of funds raised through crowd-sourcing is a hot topic. In one of the more inglorious tales of epic malfeasance, Ant Simulator is now dead in the water due to two of three company founders using money raised for restaurants, alcohol and exotic dancers.
General: Assassin’s Creed Identiy ARPG Announced for iOS
Mobile game users with a love of both action-RPGs and the Assassin’s Creed IP will be pleased by today’s announcement of Assassin’s Creed Identity. Players will create and customize their own Assassin’s through a robust storyline and questing.
Project Genom: Progression System Detail in New Blog
The Project Genom forum has a new developer post that lays out the details on character progression in the game so far. Characters have a whopping twelve areas in which progression occurs, each with six skills and even more nodes. Additionally, there are six character organism systems that can be upgraded: Cardiovascular, Musculoskeletal, Respiratory, Nervous, Immune and Digestive systems are all eligible for progression to strengthen characters.
APB: Reloaded: New Game Engine Sneak Peek & a New Loyalty Reward
GamersFirst has updated the APB: Reloaded blog with a first-look video at the way the game will look when the new game engine comes into play in the near future.
Livelock: PAX South – Hands-On
At PAX South, we got a press-only invite to check out Perfect World’s first non-F2P title. Is it worth your dollars?
General: I’m Cautiously Excited About The Division
This weekend Ubisoft opened up the PC beta for the Division. Read on to find out why Rob is excited about what the Division represents and what he thinks of the game’s potential.