The MMO week in a minute (E3 Edition)

Posted Jul 20th 2008 5:00PM by Michael Zenke
Filed under: Features, MMO

Big Download's sister site Massively.com has all the news you'll need about MMOs. Here's the best, brightest, and most interesting stuff from E3 week, all in one convenient place for your MMO minute.

	KOTOR MMO confirmed by Electronic Arts We've had plenty of speculation -- lots and lots of it -- but now we've got confirmation from Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is indeed getting a massively multiplayer online iteration. Portfolio.com has the story.
	Wrath of the Lich King Beta is now open Today is pretty much a landmark day for MMOs. Earlier today an interview with EA executive John confirmed the existence of the KOTOR MMO. That's enough for any two days. Why not add the unveiling of the Closed Beta test for the west's most popular MMO into the mix? That's right, the download instructions for Wrath of the Lich King's Beta client are now up on the official World of Warcraft website. Our sister site WoW Insider is carrying the news, noting that this is just the beginning of the ramp up to full Beta testing.
	Mythos beta is shutting down tonight The woes continue at Flagship Studios. It was just announced that the Mythos beta will shutdown tonight. The official time slotted for its cease of operations is at July 18th, 2008 at 11:59 CST. Community manager Tiggs left the message on the forums which are also due to close at the same time.
	Blizzard victorious in WoW Glider case Virtually Blind is reporting that the WoW Glider case has been resolved in Blizzard's favor. The maker of the epic fantasy MMO has long contended that the MDY developers are infringing on the company's copyright. MDY makes the WoW Glider bot software, possibly the most popular of a series of options that allow an unattended computer to 'play" World of Warcraft.
	E308: DC Universe Online roundup Sony Entertainment Online revealed a metric ton of new information on their upcoming superhero MMO DC Universe Online at E3 this week, and Massively was on hand to pick the spicy brainmeats of Creative Director Chris Cao, SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely, and famed DC artist and Executive Creative Director for the project, Jim Lee.

	E308: Jagex teases sci-fi successor to Runescape, Mechscape Earlier today we spoke with Jagex CEO Geoff Iddison and developer Henrique Olifiers about the future of the company. We'll have more from that discussion later today, but as we talked we noticed something interesting about Mr. Olifiers' business card. His official title, according to the card, is "Head of Mechscape."
	E308: EA announces Rupture expansion, to mesh with Warhammer Online You may recall that EA recently purchased Rupture, a social networking site for gamers. Previously in-development by Shawn Fanning and Co, Fanning is now a proud EA employee.
	Hellgate: London subscriptions suspended Exploring and fighting in post-apocalyptic London used to require a subscription but not anymore. Flagship Studios has announced that active Hellgate: London subscribers will not be billed nor will any new subscriptions be accepted. Normally, this would be welcoming news to players, but it's not because there is a chance that Hellgate: London could shutdown operations.
	LotRO's Book 14 release date announced After several months of preparation, tons of screenshots, videos and more, Lord of the Rings Online's Book 14 has a set release date. According to the official site, the servers will be down on Tuesday, July 22nd from 6AM - 12PM Eastern time for the latest content update, Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion.
	Age of Conan patch notes for the 17th of July The next weekly update for Age of Conan has been deployed, and while it's not the PvP patch, there are a number of things to be happy about this time around. Along with the expected patch notes, Funcom decided to post their reasoning behind the bigger changes in the patch, something which they hope to do every week from now on.
	City of Heroes and Villains united at last NCsoft have finally taken the step of merging City of Heroes and City of Villains into one game universe. All current subscribers who only had access to either CoH or CoV will have access to all the features of both. All copies of City of Heroes or City of Villains sold at retail or online will also grant access to both sides.
	The Digital Continuum: Five KOTOR MMO Jedi counter-measures With the less-than-grandiose announcement that Electronic Arts, BioWare and Lucas Arts are working together on a KOTOR MMO, I've found myself pondering the game that until now was nothing but a rumor. Granted, I already thought about the game quite a lot even before it was the now more official affair.
	E308: SOE President John Smedley talks Free Realms, possible sequels Yesterday at Sony Online Entertainment's E3 headquarters, the Massively team got to see and hear the latest details on SOE's trifecta of new titles: The Agency, DC Universe Online, and Free Realms.
	E308: Erling Ellingsen talks patch timeframes for Age of Conan Earlier today we sat with Age of Conan product manager Erling Ellingsen. Due to the development cycle Conan is in right now, Ellingsen didn't really have anything in particular to show us - but he did have some things to tell us.
	Massively's exclusive tour of LotRO Book 14 As we announced earlier, Massively recently participated in a hands-on play session for Lord of the Rings Online's newest patch, Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion. In this session, we were able to play through some of the exciting new content and document it for you, the faithful readers.

Tags: blizzard, dc-universe-online, dcuo, e3-2008, e308, featured, kotoro, mmo-week-in-a-minute, mythos, world-of-warcraft, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

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