fury posts

One of the game industry's more interesting publishers (both in games and in their marketing) has decided to give up at least part of their independence. The Austin-based Gamecock Media Group, formed largely by the founders of the original Gathering of Developers, has now been acquired by Southpeak Interactive. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

Officially announced in early 2007, Gamecock generated a lot of attention thanks in part to its over-the-top marketing and promotion, including parties and press events that were different than the norm (including a "funeral" for the old E3 format). The games, however, have so far met with mixed responses from both critics and sales (and one game, the PC MMO title Fury, was an unmitigated disaster as it shut down only a few months after its release). Two upcoming Gamecock titles, Mushroom Men and Legendary, are still due out this fall with Velvet Assassin due out in early 2009. The press release did not mention what will happen to Gamecock's other announced titles (Dungeon Hero, Section 8 and the unnamed action game from Croteam)

The fantasy MMO Fury, the product of the Australian based developer Auran, had tons of hype and even an extensive beta contest where people could win tons of prizes. None of that mattered when the game officially launched in late October (Gamecock handled the US distribution). Riddled with bugs the game failed to attrack an audience and by the end of 2007 Auran had shut down its operations.

Fury itself kept running with a skeleton crew and a few months ago tried to re-launch as Fury League, but it seems like nothing could generate an audience for the game. Now the game's official forums have posted up word that Fury's servers are due to shut down later this week and even the game's web site will go down as well. As the message states, "To all those players who have enjoyed Fury and played countless battles, I am sorry that we could not find a viable business model that would allow you to continue playing. To all those naysayers and doomsdayers, we know that deep down you wanted Fury to succeed. Have fun with your parting wishes :)."

Remember Fury? The fantasy PvP oriented MMO from Auran that has a massive marketing campaign last fall before completing bombing with both critics and players? Well, the development team may have been drastically reduced and the game itself turned into a free-to-play title but Fury is still being updated with new content. Last week the developers announced a new promotional push for Fury with a new PvP league with real money to be given out to players.

Fury League is basically a way for players to earn real money by playing against others in PvP matches. The league has already begun with a qualifying season with $25,000 to be given out in two different competitive ladders later in May. It's also designed as a precursor to the actual launch of Fury League in June. Every game that is played earns a free game ticket for the Fury League launch. So will this new push get more people to play the game? It certainly can't do any worse.

[Via Blue's News]