nexon posts

Nexon's popular free-to-play first person shooter Combat Arms is getting a new level as part of a recent update. The new map is called Oil Rig and as you can see in the above flyby video of the level it's a multi-story based set, where else, on an off shore oil rig.

Also from Nexon comes the first two episodes of Roommates. These mine-sitcoms show two ladies who love to play Combat Arms together in their apartment. Look for jokes about fashion, the French and the Germans in these two episodes. You can check out both of them after the jump

Download Combat Arms Oil Rig Video at Big Download
Download Combat Arms Roommates Part 1 Video at Big Download
Download Combat Arms Roommates Part 2 Video at Big Download

Mercs is a humorous live action series based on Combat Arms, the free-to-play military themed online shooter... with zombies. The series is featured on the Blockparty Blabber Box, a monthly web video series dedicated to keeping fans up to date with their favorite Nexon games. The first episode of Blabberbox, which includes the first couple of Mercs sketches and more, can be seen after the jump. New players can get into the action now by download the Combat Arms client here.

Combat Arms 'Mercs' Live Action Trailer (245 MB)
Download Combat Arms Install Client (1.12 GB)
Check out all Combat Arms downloads

Japan's citizens are still reeling from the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the country last week and of course the nuclear fallout threat from the damaged nuclear reactors remains a huge issue. More and more game publishers are helping out the victims of this natural disaster.

Nexon America has announced that from now until Sunday, it will donate the proceeds from the purchases of many of the in-game items in its free-to-play games like Combat Arms, Dungeon Fighter Online and Vindictus to the Red Cross' Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts.

Also the Mastiff Facebook page has a message from its CEO Bill Swartz announcing that from now until the end of April the publisher will donate $100 for every 100 "likes" the Mastiff Facebook pages gets up to $25,000.

In 2010 Nexon America announced that it would give indie game developers a chance to submit game ideas to the free-to-play publisher. Earlier this year Nexon announced that it had picked two development teams from that first Nexon Imitative program to help develop and publish their games.

This week Nexon announced that it was doing it again with its second Nexon Imitative program. Just like last year the publisher is giving small game development studios a chance to submit their game ideas to Nexon. The publisher will then decide once again which game ideas it wants to publish. The game development teams that are chosen will share from a $1 million development budget provided by Nexon (although Nexon said the two teams that were picked in 2010's Nexon Initiative actually got to share from an even bigger budget).

Nexon says that they are looking for PC game ideas (web based or client -server titles) or PC games that will have cross platform features for other platforms (console or mobile phones). A game that was first developed for another platform that can be ported to the PC can also be submitted. The deadline for entries is April 30.

Vindictus is one of the best free-to-play MMOs we've ever palyed, and its now on episode five of its continual update scheme.These two trailers give a brief look into the new content for those that are interested, and while it's not really a ton of new stuff, it'll please hack and slash players nonetheless. The first trailer, above, covers all of the new features and goodies that are included in the update, such a Heroic Mode and a new level cap. The trailer below shows off the various bosses that players will be forced to fight. It's not just one, end boss, either. There's quite a few.

Download HD Vindictus 'Lost Artifact' Preview Trailer
Download HD Vindictus 'Lost Artifact Raid Boss' Trailer
Check out all Vindictus downloads

Combat Arms trailers are always about two things: new maps or new guns. These three trailers are about the latter. The first one, above, is a trailer for the newly added XM-8. It isn't a modern war shooter without the XM guns, after all. The other two cover two variants of the same sniper rifle. All three trailers are fairly normal and tedious, showing the guns as the player wielding them kills his way across different maps. Standard stuff, nothing to see really.

Download HD Combat Arms 'XM-8' Trailer
Download HD Combat Arms 'TRG-SE' Trailer
Download HD Combat Arms 'TRG-21' Trailer
Check out all Combat Arms downloads

In March 2010, Nexon America announced its plans for The Nexon Initiative where the free-to-play game publisher would take submissions from indie game developers and then pick a few to help develop and publish into games. Now Gamasutra reports that Nexon America has picked two Western-based game developers as a result of The Nexon Initiative.

One of the two developers is London Ontario-based Antic Entertainment which was formed by Fredrick Liliegren, the co-founder and former CEO of Digital Illusions. That team has already released a browser-based vehicle combat game called Junk Battles. The other team is Poland-based One2Tribe, which previously developed the browser based duel-themed multiplayer game The Witcher Versus.

Nexon plans to reveal the games themselves in the near future with one of them representing the company's entry into the social gaming scene. Nexon also said that while The Nexon Initiative previously had a budget of just $1 million to develop the games it picked the publisher will in fact spend much more than $1 million on the two game projects it decided to develop.

The free-to-play game publisher Nexon America continues to gain more revenues for its game line-up. Today the publisher behind games like Combat Arms, Dungeon Fighter Online and Maple Story announced that revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 increased by 42 percent compared to the same time period in 2009. Revenues for the month of December alone went up by 60 percent (the company did not reveal specific revenue numbers nor did it announce any profit numbers).

The company launched its latest free-to-play MMO, Vindictus, during that time period. In 2011 it will launch at least one more game, another fantasy MMO titled Dragon Nest.

[via email press release]

This is a trailer for Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online, and it shows off the awakening (super move) of the Witch class. It's safe to say that there's not much else to it. The art is certainly nice (if you like retro-styled artwork, anyway) and the animation is cool, but it's twelve seconds long, lacks sound, and is without context. In short, it's just a brief visual display.

Download HD Dungeon Fighter Online 'Witch Awakening' Trailer
Check out all Dungeon Fighter Online downloads

Tomorrow is a holiday here in the US which means that news might be slower than usual. However things will pick up later this week, thanks to a couple of press events that are popping up.

• Nexon America has released a nearly 30 minute video with update on all its games as well as comedy bits.
• It had to happen: Someone played Portal's Still Alive song via Minecraft's note blocks.
• Check out footage from the canceled third person action game Hero from the now defunct Midway Games.
• DC Universe Online is getting auction houses in its first big update.
• Check out footage from the upcoming fan-created Sonic 2 HD.