Everyone has a fighting chance
In a report by Bloomberg, news broke that Mike Frazzini, head of Amazon Game Studios, has stepped down. According to the report, Frazzini stated he was stepping down to focus on his family. The news comes as AGS’s flagship title New World continues to hemorrhage players, down to an average peak player count of around 27K players according to SteamDB.
Each week, we scour the internet for all things indie MMO-related so you don’t have to. This week, I worked really hard to find all of the good news I could, but I won’t apologize if some bad news found its way in as well. Honestly, though, indie devs need all the attention they can get, and I hope you all find the IMS to be a portal to the indie MMOs you love (or might end up loving). Anyway, let’s quit wasting time and get started with this week’s Indie MMO Spotlight.
It’s no secret that Torchlight Infinite impressed us in the first Closed Beta Test. Despite some fun gameplay there were certainly a number of things that needed work, and the team at XD Entertainment has been listening. They’ve recently posted some updates to skills as well as other areas they intend to address before Closed Beta 2 begins later this year.
Indie MMORPG Profane is back on track after posting their roadmap last week, detailing the numerous Alpha initiatives the team at INSANE intends to fix before the year is over. With that in mind, the team has posted a new teaser, showing off the outfits of the Portinus culture, just one of many from the tropical region of Semisus.
Valheim is enjoying an active community and fully-focused development on the Mistlands update. Iron Gate has a new dev blog that updates just what the team has been upto, along with some peeks at what’s to come.
Amazon is pulling back the curtain on New World’s upcoming new weapon, the Blunderbuss, with a look at both mastery trees and all abilities.
Embers Adrift entered its closed beta earlier this month, and while testing has been ongoing each week since, the first real event has been announced. This Saturday, players can join up with the MMO’s community manager Elloa to explore the MMO together.
Fool’s Defense, a new event or the Dual Universe PTS, will pit the community against the Novaquark team, as they try to take down the Novaquark space station for fun and prizes on April 1st.
The online component of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V is getting a premium membership service on consoles. Called GTA+, the membership provides what the company calls "easy access" to valuable items, such as in-game cash, properties and more.
Microsoft, which agreed to buy Activision Blizzard, has said it will honor that company’s employees’ decisions if they choose to unionize.