masthead-studios posts

It's a sci-fi MMO that you may not be familiar with but has been in development for some time. Today developer Masthead Studios revealed that its first major game, Earthrise, will be launched via digital download on February 4. Earthrise takes place in a post-apocalypse far future setting and features sandbox gameplay, PvP support, a detailed crafting system and more. The game will also reside on one server for all players of the game, no matter where they are located.

The game doesn't have a US boxed copy distributor but will be released in retail stores in Europe via Iceberg Interactive. The minimal PC hardware requirements for the game are as follows:

OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7
Free hard drive space: 20 GB
CPU: 2.4+ GHz Single Core Processor
RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800GT+ or ATI Radeon 9800 SE 256-bit
High bandwidth internet connection (DSL, Cable)

Interplay's plans for a Fallout MMO may be taken out of their hands if their latest financial filing is to be believed. Some of you may remember that Interplay sold off the Fallout franchise completely to Bethesda Softworks a few years ago. However that agreement had a clause that gave Interplay the rights to make an MMO based on the post-apocalypse RPG series if certain conditions were met.

In Interplay's annual 10-k report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week they state Bethesda Softworks, " . . . Intends to terminate the trademark license agreement . . . for the development of FALLOUT MMOG." The agreement stated that the game had to be in full scale development by now and that Interplay had to secure funding to continue to develop the game. Just a few days ago, Interplay announced an agreement with Masthead Studios to co-fund and co-develop "Project V: 13" (which most people believe is the code name for the Fallout MMO). That announcement could have been a last-ditch attempt to keep the agreement from being broken. However at the moment it doesn't look good for the future of this project.

[Via No Mutants Allowed]

This gameplay demonstration video for Earthrise uses all real-time in-game footage. Earthrise is a new sci-fi themed MMO currently in development that takes place in a post-apacolyptic earth. The trailer debuted at GDC 2009.

"In the aftermath of a catastrophic third world war, Earth lies in ruin, and mankind is all but extinct. In a small corner of the world a new society has risen in the years following, populated mostly by the clones of those stored in a massive DNA database compiled at the end of the war. A corporate government has created a seemingly Utopian civilization, but its heavy-handed control over society, its resources, and even life itself has forced a substantial opposition. These rival factions accuse the government of crimes against humanity in its rampant willingness to abuse the cloning process to its own gain. It is at this crossroads that players will find themselves: fight as a champion of the new world order, or take up arms with Noir, the shadow government sworn to overthrow the totalitarian rule."

Download HD Earthrise GDC 09 Gameplay Trailer (70 MB)

Gallery: Earthrise

For a few weeks it seemed like Interplay's plans to make an (alleged) Fallout MMO (officially called Project V: 13) by Interplay) were in trouble. Word got out that the game's creative director Jason Anderson had left Interplay to work on a new RPG title for inXile Entertainment. However Interplay made a big announcement late today that shows the game is still under development.

Interplay's announcement was that it had struck a deal with the development team at Masthead Studios to co-fund and co-develop "Project V: 13" using Masthead's own MMO technology and graphics engine. The Bulgaria-based company was formed in 2005 and are currently developing their own original MMO project called Earthrise. That game is scheduled to launch sometime this year. Terms of this new deal with Interplay were not disclosed.

[Via Blue's News]