SOE to distribute Asheron's Call expansions

[Sobelius]

Not sure if anyone else has already seen this -- is Turbine too low on the radar? -- but last week on their press release page they announced a distribution deal with SOE under SOE's new label.

Interesting announcement.  I wonder if this will create some healthy competition for SOE's other MMORPG titles?

Station Publishing Brings Turbine's MMORPG Games Back to Retail Channel
SAN DIEGO, CA – January 18, 2005 – Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming, today announced the formation of Station Publishing, a new distribution label within the company. Station Publishing will focus on distributing interactive entertainment products licensed from external content providers for the PC and game console market. The first titles due from Station Publishing will be Turbine Entertainment Software's Asheron's Call®: Throne of Destiny™ and Asheron's Call® 2: Legions™.

"Station Publishing is dedicated to growing the overall Sony Online Entertainment product catalog with titles produced outside of our own studios," said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. "This new label gives Sony Online Entertainment the ability to work with talented developers and publishers and to give them access to the high caliber retail and marketing resources that we have developed over the past six years. Turbine's Asheron's Call games are the perfect titles to be the first on this new label.  The AC franchise has attracted hundreds of thousands of players to the online medium over the years, and SOE is very happy to be distributing these high quality products."

 "Having Sony Online Entertainment distributing the titles produced and published by Turbine gives us direct access to the strongest retailers in North America," said Jason Bell, executive vice president, Turbine Entertainment Software.  "We're excited to see our games get onto store shelves and into the hands of our passionate and loyal players."

Throne of Destiny is the third installment in the original 3D massively multiplayer online role playing game series Asheron's Call, first launched to critical acclaim in November 1999.  In the new expansion pack, players will enjoy a graphics upgrade, a new playable race, the Viamontians, and a challenge to experienced gamers with a new high-level play system that rewards players with skill credits.  

Legions is the first follow-up to the graphically ground-breaking MMORPG Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings.  Legions will provide players with an ambitious new storyline complete with an extensive array of new content for hours and hours of additional online adventuring.  The expansion provides players with a new playable race, the mystical Empyreans, a massive new continent shrouded in mystery and an innovative new hero system.

Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny and Asheron's Call 2: Legions are scheduled to hit retail shelves in the first half of 2005.

For more information, visit the company's web site at www.turbinegames.com.

[AlteredOne]

Not sure if anyone else has already seen this -- is Turbine too low on the radar?

Indeed Turbine seems very low on the radar, yet they claim to have *FOUR* major deliverables for 2005:
- AC1 expansion
- AC2 expansion
- Middle Earth Online (not even closed beta yet)
- D&D Online (Also not yet in closed beta)

Likelihood of them releasing all of these this year?  Probably about the same chance that F13 will become a fundamentalist religious site.

[HaemishM]

PRAISE JAY-SUS!

[schild]

Did I mention we're switching to an all Christian Science format next Tuesday?

[Nebu]

Did I mention we're switching to an all Christian Science format next Tuesday?

You can begin each day with one of  these.

[schild]

Christian Science. Not religious right. Get on the ball!

[AlteredOne]

Christian Science. Not religious right. Get on the ball!

Yeah they're the guys who refuse to take medicine, but they have one bad-ass newspaper that somehow seems utterly secular and objective.  Go figure!

[Sobelius]

I have whiplash from how fast this thread spun 540 degrees... :)

[schild]

Turbine is doing what to who where now?

[AlteredOne]

Turbine is doing what to who where now?

Glad you asked!  I think they are using the AC2 engine for both D&D Online and Middle Earth Online.  This may set some sort of record for re-using a several-year-old engine.  Having only seen screen shots of AC2, it is difficult for me to say whether this is a good idea.  Thoughts from our resident AC2 engine crew?

[Nebu]

Well... if you wish to doom any mmog to a certain demise, simply state that you're using anything from AC2.

Edit: Christian Science is an oxymoron.

[HaemishM]

The graphics engine from AC2 was decent, other than the ability to shoot an arrow into a mob from so far away you couldn't actually see the mob.

[AlteredOne]

Well... if you wish to doom any mmog to a certain demise, simply state that you're using anything from AC2.

I know that AC2 has not enjoyed a very illustrious history, but was this the fault of the engine?  The screenshots I've seen look comparable to DAOC's Trials of Atlantis engine, for level of detail and shading.  EQ2's engine seems in another league.  WoW doesn't really count, since it's not trying to set any engine records.  Turbine seems to enjoy going for the realism effect in the MEO and D&D preview screenies.

[Nebu]

I know that AC2 has not enjoyed a very illustrious history, but was this the fault of the engine?  The screenshots I've seen look comparable to DAOC's Trials of Atlantis engine, for level of detail and shading.  EQ2's engine seems in another league.  WoW doesn't really count, since it's not trying to set any engine records.  Turbine seems to enjoy going for the realism effect in the MEO and D&D preview screenies.

Ok, I'll concede.  I couldn't code if my life depended on it. Having admitted that, I'm not really qualified to judge the AC2 engine.  I just remember a plethora of problems with the game and mechanics that it left a bad taste in my mouth.  Perhaps someone with a bit more skill and investment capital could turn it into the next coming.  I am, however, very skeptical.

[Pineapple]

The graphics engine from AC2 was decent, other than the ability to shoot an arrow into a mob from so far away you couldn't actually see the mob.

Hey my tank thingy technically couldnt see the guy I was shooting at in Scorched Earth. There was a mountain or two in the way. But I damn sure made the hit!

www.scorch2000.com if you are bored and miss throwing hail-mary nuclear bombs.

Dont know if it still works, I havent tried in months.

Edit: I guess their server is down. They have source code there apparently.

[Disco Stu]

Ok, I'll concede.  I couldn't code if my life depended on it. Having admitted that, I'm not really qualified to judge the AC2 engine.  I just remember a plethora of problems with the game and mechanics that it left a bad taste in my mouth.  Perhaps someone with a bit more skill and investment capital could turn it into the next coming.  I am, however, very skeptical.

The graphics engine was fine in terms of bugs. Yes the game was shit but that has nothing to do with the graphics. The game wasn't even that buggy (of course the one part that was buggy, the chat system, just happens to be the most important fucking thing in any online game). It was just a shitty design that took none of the good but all of the bad from AC1 and mixed it with the same from EQ. The only cool things I remember were musical instruments and those guys who could throw up walls and turrets.

[Mi_Tes]

Turbine is doing what to who where now?

Glad you asked!  I think they are using the AC2 engine for both D&D Online and Middle Earth Online.  This may set some sort of record for re-using a several-year-old engine.  Having only seen screen shots of AC2, it is difficult for me to say whether this is a good idea.  Thoughts from our resident AC2 engine crew?

Now if they would just use the AC2 engine for something that really matters - AC1 (like they should have done in the first place)!

[stray]

Turbine is recycling some bits and pieces of the AC2 engine for DDO, but most of it is was written from scratch. It's not the same thing.

[Margalis]

Engines become outdated, and the AC2 engine will be outdated. It handled outdoors fairly well. I have no idea how well indoor scenes worked because you couldn't go inside of anything. (A world with no indoors, great idea clowns!)

There was a fair amount of rubber-banding and the character animation didn't match the movement at all, but neither of those are graphic-engine issues.

Actually when I think about it the graphics engine was probably far and away the best aspect of the game. The networking was bad, the chat was horrendously bad, the sound engine had some major issues, the animation sucked, the combat was terrible, the design of basically everything sucked, the crafting sucked..did I leave anything out?

You could probably make a pretty good game using the AC2 graphics engine if that was all you used and you didn't hire any of the same personel...honestly personel make all the difference, not engines.

[HaemishM]

Actually when I think about it the graphics engine was probably far and away the best aspect of the game.

Yes it was. The graphics engine could handle just under EQ2 level polys, I think, and its art direction was a fuckload better than EQ2's. But again, the engine's capabilities really don't mean shit if you have the crayon-crew doing art direction. See Wish and EQ2.

I am surprised that SOE decided to bankroll the distribution of a dying game. But I guess they needed a new revenue stream to stem the blood loss from all their other properties.