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Ruined Online, the previously announced browser-based third person shooter from developer and publisher BigPoint, has announced that "select US players" will begin playing the game today. Players can sign up to play the beta at its official web site.

As we have previously reported, Ruined Online takes place in a devestated version of San Fransisco where players battle each other in multiplayer arenas. Ironically, the game itself is being developed by BigPoint's San Fransisco studio. BigPoint says that a European release is planned for this summer and that Ruined Online will soon be localized into several different languages.

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]

Earlier today we reported that developer Planet Moon Studios had been acquired by BigPoint. As it turns out the press release issued by BigPoint didn't have all of the details of what happened to Planet Moon. GameSpot received a statement from the developer's CEO Aaron Loeb which shed some light on what is going on.

In short, Loeb said that Planet Moon was working on an unnamed project for unnamed companies. However he said, " ... the project went into financial default during the holidays." As a result Planet Moon is owed a lot of money, according to Loeb, and that the company is taking legal action "against several parties." BigPoint has stepped in to give jobs to 37 Planet Moon employees, with the company's blessing, but BigPoint has not actually bought the studio. It's unclear how many people, besides Loeb, officially remain at Planet Moon at this time. It's also unclear if any of the now former Planet Moon employees will return if the company finds the money to continue operations.

A San Fransisco-based studio that started out as a PC game developer has now been acquired by a browser-based PC game publisher. Bigpoint announced today that it has acquired the team of Planet Moon Studios. The studio was formed in 1997 and is best known for the still unique PC action game Giants Citizen Kabuto which came out in 2000.

After releasing Armed and Dangerous in 2003, Planet Moon Studios concentrated on handheld and family console games before today's announcement. The 37 team members will now be merged into Bigpoint's San Fransisco operations which will enter into new office space in February. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Update: As it turns out things are a bit more complicated than we first reported.

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.

Yet another game industry member is pouring cold water on the chances of success of the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic and this time the person is not staying anonymous. IGN reports that Bigpoint's CEO Heiko Hubertz, during a speech at the London Games Conference, claimed that BioWare's MMO would need to have a million subscribers over an extended period of time to just break even. However Hubertz doesn't believe that can be achieved.

Bigpoint, who has been successful in publishing free-to-play browser games and is working on the upcoming Battlestar Galactica MMO title, believes that the monthly subscription model for MMO games is "fundamentally flawed" and that the micro-transaction business model is the only way to go for a successful game in the genre. It's important to point out that at the moment developer BioWare and publisher LucasArts have not yet announced a final business model for Star Wars The Old Republic.

Are you ready for yet another free-to-play online shooter. The folks at Bigpoint hope so. Earlier this month (but not spotted by us until today) the browser-based game maker announced plans for Ruined Online, a third person shooter that will be the first game made by a US-based development team for the Germany-based publisher.

The game is set in a devastated post-apocalypse version of San Fransisco and will allow gamers to pick from several character classes (assassin, medic, samurai, enforcer, crawler and mutant). Gamers will battle in a number of maps using a variety of different weapons. A beta test for Ruined Online, which uses the Unity 3D engine, is currently scheduled for 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)