ndoors-interactive posts

It looks like the free-to-play PC game industry is in the midst of some consolidation. Earlier this week Korean-based Nexon, who develop and publish such games like Combat Arms and Dungeon Fighter Online, announced that it was purchasing NDOORS, another Korean free-to-play games publisher. They are best known here in the US for their fantasy MMO Atlantica Online. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

But Nexon isn't done yet, according to the Venture Beat web site. They are reporting that Nexon is in talks to acquire GameHI, yet another free-to-play game publisher that's best know here for their first person shooter Sudden Attack. There's no word on when this new deal will be complete.

While it's always a good thing to launch a drive to raise money for charity, the devil is in the details. In this case, the details on how the fantasy MMO Atlantica Online tried to raise money for the Child's Play children's hospital charity has caused the organization to refuse the money offered to the group.

According to a story from our sister site Massively, Atlantica Online's publisher NDoors offered a grab bag of rare in-game items for players to purchase for the real world amount of about $40. The publisher stated that 5 percent of those sales would go to Child's Play. However, a number of players felt that small amount (which equals just $2 of the grab bag's total price) was too small compared to the revenue that would be taken by the game's publishers.

After getting emails from players complaining about how the charity drive was run, Child's Play has apparently refused to take any money raised via the Atlantica Online grab bag. The publisher has responded with their own statement where they blame "the negativity of certain players around the nature of the donation." They claim they will find other charities to work with although no specific ones are mentioned.

We have seen a massive amount of free-to-play FPS titles come down the pike lately, from War Rock to Combat Arms to upcoming games like Cross Fire, BlackShot, Quake Live and Battlefield Heroes. Now Korea based NDOORS, best known in the US for their fantasy MMO Atlantica Online, have announced that they have acquired a FPS game developer and plan to release their own new game in the genre.

The developer is Korean-based CrazyBox Entertainment who have experience in making such games in Asia. Their previous title was called Seven Years of War. NDOORS plans to release an all new FPS sometime next summer that will use the technology developed by Crazybox. No other info on the game was released.

[Via email press release]

There are a ton of free-to-play MMOs out there but developer Ndoors Interactive has a rather unique offer to give players who want to try out their fantasy game Atlantica Online. Players in the game who began playing after Oct .11 are eligible to have their in-game character bought by the dev team for a whopping $20 (and that's in real cash).

There are some rules to this deal of course. The offer for these players ends on Nov 30 and your character must have reached and stopped at level 50 in the game (going over level 50 will make your character ineligible). You must have a Paypal account to get the $20 for your character and once you get the money you can no longer use that particular user ID. Don't try to make multiple accounts; the $20 is per person.

Download the Atlantica Online install client at Big Download right now

The upcoming release of the free-to-play fantasy turn-based MMO Atlantica Online is shaping up to be an interesting launch, at least as far as how the development team is promoting it. Today the developers of the game, Korena based NDOORS, announced that the open beta for the title has now launched and in addition to testing the game it intends to give out cash and prizes to people who participate.

One winner could pick up as much as $10,000 in cash if 30,000 players participate in the Free Leagues. Other smaller cash amounts will be given out as well as prizes like a Nintendo Wii, a Sony PSP, and an iPod Nano. In addition with competing in PvP tournaments, players in the open beta can win prizes via random drawings. The game itself is set on Earth but in a parallel world "that takes players on an exciting journey to unravel the hidden secrets of Atlantis."