mythic-entertainment posts

Electronic Arts' latest financial results included word that the publisher plans to once again lay off a number of additional workers. The press release announced that EA plans to lower its staff number by 1,500 employees and shut down a number of unnamed facilities. EA expects to save $100 million a year with this latest cost reduction. The company had already cut 1,100 workers earlier this year.

Gamasutra is already reporting that EA has laid off a number of workers at several of its development studios today including Mythic Entertainment, EA Black Box, EA Tiberon, and EA Redwood Shores. These new round of layoffs were revealed the same day EA bought social networking game publisher Playfish for $300 million.

As far as its financial results, EA brought in $788 million in revenues for its fiscal quarter that ended September 30, compared to the $894 million it received from the same period a year ago. The company had a net loss of $391 million for the quarter compared to a loss of $310 million for the same period a year ago.

Update In a conference call to financial analysts, EA execs have announced they have canceled "over a dozen" game titles, although specific games were not mentioned.

Warhammer Online has been live to the public for over a year now but developer Mythic Entertainment is still refining the fantasy MMO's marketing in terms of bringing new people to the game. Today they announced that they are dumping their 10 day free trial of the game in favor of an "endless" free trial.

What does this mean, exactly? Well instead of having the game not be playable any longer after 10 days without paying for it you can continue to play Warhammer Online in a limited fashioned for as long as you want with the new trial version. You can play a character with any of the careers and take that character up to level 10. You are also limited to some of the tier one locations in the game. It also has the newly launched New User Journey that gives new players more extensive tutorials on how to play the game. Finally the new free trial allows people to start playing after a certain amount is downloaded; the rest of the game's content is streamed in while you play.

After a few months of beta testing, Macintosh owners now officially have another MMO to play. Electronic Arts announced that the Mythic Entertainment-developed fantasy MMO Warhammer Online is now officially released.

The Mac version is free to download for any current player of the PC port from the official Warhammer Online web site. However if you are an all new player it will cost you $19.95 to get the new Mac version from the GameTreeOnline site. That price includes 30 days of free online game time; after that it will be time to break out the monthly fees. The Mac is gaining more and more MMOs; NCsoft recently ported City of Heroes to the Mac as well.

Electronic Arts has now nailed down an exact release date for the Macintosh version of their fantasy MMO Warhammer Online. The Mythic Entertainment-developed game will be released as a native Mac product on October 28 for $19.95. That includes 30 days of free game time on their servers.

EA announced their plans to make a Mac version of the game some time ago and there's still time for folks to check out a beta version of the Mac port that can be played for free for 10 days. If you want our opinions on the Mac conversion based on playing the beta client check out our recent Mac Monday column on the subject.

We've seen these kinds of promotions before and today we have word of year another "Welcome Back" deal for former players of Ultima Online. The 12 year old fantasy MMO from Electronic Arts is now allowing former players in good standing to reactivate their old accounts and play the game for free for a limited time.

Naturally EA wants these folks to check the game out now since they just released the new expansion pack Stygian Abyss earlier this month. Previous players can sign in and play Ultima Online from now until October 17. New players can also still check the game out for free via the standard 14 day trial period.

As previously announced, the latest commercial expansion pack for Electronic Arts' long running MMO Ultima Online has now been released and is available via download on the game's web site. Stygian Abyss, developed by EA's Mythic Entertainment studio, adds a new playable race, the Gargoyle, to the game alongside more quests, monsters and more new features and content for $29.99.

Our sister site Massively has a new chat with the game's producer Calvin Crowner today as he talks about their just released expansion. He avoids being pinned down on whether or not Stygian Abyss will be the last expansion for the MMO or whether an all new Ultima Online title might be coming in the future.

It's not too often that games show up on a cable TV network devoted to food. Yet that's just what's going to happen tonight as the Food Network's Ace of Cakes puts the spotlight on making a cake based on one of Warhammer Online's monsters, the Squig.

Yep, that's the elaborate cake creation in the picture above which was made earlier this year for the Baltimore Games Day Warhammer Online booth by Ace of Cakes' leading man Chef Duff. He's already calling the creation the best cake he has ever made for the show. You can check out the episode tonight at 10 pm ET.

[via email press release]

Remember Dark Age of Camelot? Developer Mythic Entertainment and publisher Electronic Arts certainly want you to reconsider the long running fantasy MMO that launched in 2001 but has perhaps lost some of its luster since the launch of Mythic's other MMO Warhammer Online. This week they are making a big PR push to folks to reconsider the game. EA has now allowed the last two commercial expansions for the game, Darkness Rising and Labyrinth of the Minotaur to now be played for free.

EA has also launched a new 14 day trial version of the game that adds the original title and all five expansions. Finally players who have old accounts of 90 days or older can reactivate that account and play the game for 10 days for free.

Players for the long running Ultima Online MMO have been waiting for years for an all new expansion to the game (not counting the graphical revamp that was released in 2008). Today, Electronic Arts announced that Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss will launch via digital download on September 8 for $29.99

As we have mentioned before the new expansion will add the the Gargoyle playable race to the game along with new quests, locations, monsters and more. Current subscribers will be able to try out the expansion in an open beta beginning on Friday. Also, from the day the expansion launches until September 29 players will be able to get access to a number of special in-game items. These include a "multi-use Alteration Token to transform current characters into Gargoyles, an exclusive gargoyle craftable pet, and decorative Stygian Abyss mob boss statues."

Macintosh gamers have yet another MMO that will soon run natively on their platforms. Mythic Entertainment announcement this morning that a Mac version of their fantasy MMO Warhammer Online will be released for that platform sometime this fall, allowing Mac owners to play the game on the same servers as their PC counterparts.

The Mac port of the game is being handled by TransGaming using their Cider technology to put a "wrapper" around the code so it can run on Intel-based Mac computers. A beta version of the Mac client is already available to download. Current Warhammer Online players will be able to check out the Mac beta client in full but new players are limited to a 10 day free trial.