battlestar-galactica-online posts

The BigPoint free-to-play browser-based PC game publisher just announced a huge infusion of money. The company has revealed that it has received $350 million from TA Associates and Summit Partners.

Both companies will now own a controlling interest in BigPoint, thanks in part to the buyout of previous investors. However the company's founder and CEO Heiko Hubertz will keep his shares of BigPoint. The company recently launched a US-based office in San Fransisco and is working on its own game projects including the multiplayer third-person shooter Ruined Online.

So Friday is usually on the slow side for game news, but we have a feeling that will not be the case tomorrow.

• Rumors are hitting the internet that there could be major layoffs at Test Drive Unlimited developer Eden Studios.
• There's more stupid commentary on the threat of violence from games from none other that Jennifer Hart.
• Apparently the team in charge of EVE Online like to do something called Chessboxing.
• EA wants 1 million "likes" on its Battlefield 3 Facebook page so it can release the 12 minute gameplay trailer early.
• Battlestar Galactica Online is now letting players take command of a Battlestar (or a Basestar if you swing Cylon)

As promised the open beta test for the browser-based MMO Battlestar Galactica Online is now available for anyone to try out. The sci-fi themed game from publisher Bigpoint, based on the revamped TV series, is currently available exclusively at the SyFy.com web site for the next six weeks for US players. UK players can also sign on to play the game at their local Syfy.com web site.

Storywise the game takes place at an unknown time during the TV series where both the human fleet and the Cylons fleet are trapped in a sector of space. The goal is for the humans and Cylons to fight each other while also trying to control resources in the sector' star systems. The press release announcing the launch of the open beta has a memorable quote from David Eick, the executive producer of the Battlestar Galactica TV series, who states, "Playing this game is like watching the most highly-adrenalized, nail-biting episodes of the series while chewing on a hunk of uranium." That sounds painful.

If you have been aching to pilot a Colonial Viper, you will soon get your chance. Publisher BigPoint's browser-based free-to-play MMO Battlestar Galactica Online will now officially enter its open beta testing phase on February 8. The game has been in closed beta since early November.

According to a post on the game's official message board, players in Europe will get to sign onto their own server while US players get two of them (one for the Western half and one for the Eastern half of the country). While closed beta testers will get to keep their accounts during open beta, BigPoint "will not support any account, item, resources or cubits transfers."

[Via Massively]

Battlestar Galactica Online is one step closer to its public launch. The browser-based MMO from publisher BigPoint has now entered into closed beta testing, according to a press release today. The beta test for the game based on the critically acclaimed TV series and now has thousands of beta testers picked from Europe and the US.

After completing a tutorial mission and picking either the Cylon or human faction, beta testers are then allowed to explore the game's universe and participate in PvE and PVP battles. Bigpoint will continue to increase the number of the game's closed beta testers ahead of its open beta which is expected to launch in December.

We are hoping, really hoping, that the launch of Battlestar Galactica Online later this year will be a proper adaptation of one of our favorite TV series (that downloadable shooter game from a few years ago ... well, we will try to forget that game ever happened). Publisher Bigpoint has now announced that the browser-based MMO will also include the likenesses of several of the actors who played the major roles in the TV series.

You can see one of them above this post as Edward James Olmos' William Adama checks out the tactical map on the Galactica bridge. Other actors like Tricia Helfer (Cylon Number Six) Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) and Grace Park (Boomer-Cylon Number Eight) will also lend their likenesses to the game but there's no word if the actors will provide voices as well. The show's characters will give players quests in the MMO which is scheduled to launch later this year on the SyFy Channel's official web site.

Based on the hit Syfy series, Battlestar Galactica Online will be a web based multiplayer online game that pits humans against Cylons. One of the first questions a fan might ask is how an online game would play out when we already know what the ending is? The answer, of course, is that this has all happened before and it will happen again. A better question is whether or not the player will be hanging around armies of Sixes and Boomers if playing for the Cylons.

Download HD Battlestar Galactica Online E3 2010 Trailer (22 MB)