red-5-studios posts

We are still excited about the prospects for Firefall, the upcoming free-to-play multiplayer shooter that's more than a little inspired by Tribes. Today the game's developer Red 5 Studios sent out a new trailer for the game that seems to take place in and around an abandoned pirate sailing ship.

The action is plenty fast and furious in the over 3 minute trailer that showcases some of the game's playable characters like the Assault, Recon and Medic classes. You will be able to experience all this action in the coming months as Firefall is due out sometime this winter.

Developer Red 5 Studios finally let the general public play its upcoming free-to-play sci-fi shooter Firefall last month at PAX East in Boston. Today the development team released its first video dev diary with the PAX East event.

The video shows a lot of fans playing the game at PAX East and giving their reactions which all seem positive. There's also some new in-game footage from Firefall mixed in with the PAX East exhibit footage. Red 5 Studios officially announced Firefall last fall and introduced it at PAX Prime in Seattle. At the moment the game is set for its official launch sometime in the fall of 2011.

Last September at Penny Arcade Expo, developer Red 5 Studios finally revealed its years-in-the-making game Firefall. The upcoming free-to-play sci-fi shooter isn't due out until late 2011 but Red 5 Studios already released a long 10 + minute gameplay demo video at the time of the PAX announcement.

Today the developer released yet another Firefall trailer on YouTube in order to promote the game at a China-based game trade event. There's some footage on this trailer that hasn't been released before that show off lots of action and battles using a version of the Offset Engine. The game is currently taking sign-ups for the eventual beta test but at the moment there's no word on when the beta will begin.

You might expect a game development studio founded by former members of Blizzard's World of Warcraft development team to work on a fantasy themed MMO for its first project. However that is not the case for Red 5 Studios. Launched several years ago the developer finally revealed its plans for its first game, a free-to-play sci-fi first person shooter called Firefall.

The game is currently due to launch in the fall of 2011 but Big Download got Firefall's executive producer James Macauley to give us the heads-up on the game including what players can expect when they get their hands on the game.

Firefall is one of those games that came out of nowhere to blindside us with just how cool it looks. Debuting at PAX 2010, the free-to-play shooter already looks like it will be a fantastic title, and these trailers are the proof. Above is the cinematic trailer, and shows off some of the CGI talent that Red 5 Studios grabbed from Blizzard Entertainment. It's a rather stunning demonstration of the cinematics, and offers a good insight into the world of FIrefall and an introduction to both the humans and the bugs.

The other trailer, after the jump, is a whopping 10+ minute video that shows a player as he goes through his routine. The player mines some minerals with a friend (which triggers a co-op defense mission), flies back to base, gears back up, and fights off an alien assault. We wish all gameplay trailers were as in-depth as this one, as the trailer shows off a lot of what seems to make Firefall unique. Both trailers are definitely worth watching. Go ahead, take 15 minutes out of your day. You won't regret it.

Duke Nuke Forever isn't the only long-in-development game being given a public showing at PAX Prime 2010 today. Developer Red 5 Studios, which launched five years ago, finally announced its game today. It's called FireFall and as we first reported a few weeks ago it is indeed an online team based first person shooter. The sci-fi themed game will be free to play with microtransactions available for purchasing optional in-game items.

FireFall takes place on Earth 200 years in the future where humans are fighting off the Melding, "a hostile energy storm that engulfs most of our home planet." Humans also have to deal with an opposing enemy called The Chosen. Players will be able to customize their characters and even swap and trade items on the fly. Fans of the Tribes game franchise might be interested to know that Scott Youngblood, the lead designer for Tribes 1 and 2 is now the lead designer for FireFall. The game is due for launch in late 2011 but sign ups to beta test the game are now being accepted on the game's official web site.

We have been waiting for a long time for developer Red 5 Studios to reveal concrete details on its first game and it looks like that wait is finally over. We noticed that the company was an exhibitor at PAX Prime 2010 in Seattle in early September. Late on Thursday Big Download got confirmation from both Red 5 Studios and a PR firm that is representing them that the studio will indeed debut its first game at PAX. The PR rep specifically stated the game would be an "team-based action shooter" title.

Formed in 2005 by former members of Blizzard's World of Warcraft team Red 5 has managed to stay silent about their title although we do know it is using a modified version of the Offset Engine. The company ran into some financial issues in early 2010 that included some layoffs but Red 5 later got a majority of its holdings bought by China-based publisher The9 for $20 million.

Last week Big Download exclusively revealed that Intel had shut down development of the Offset Software project it had bought two years ago along with the Project Offset game. However the Offset Engine is still being used by a third party game developer, Red 5 Studios, for its long-in-development MMO game.

Red 5 Studios, formed in 2005, announced it had licensed the Offset Engine from Offset Software in 2006, two years before Offset Software was acquired by Intel. Gamasutra reports that a rep for Red 5 Studios confirmed today that it is still using a "highly-modified version of the Project Offset engine" for its unnamed game. The rep added, " . . . the closing of the Intel team does not impact our ability to complete our own project.." Red 5 Studios was at one point close to being shut down earlier this year before being acquired by China-based game publisher The9 for $20 million

As we reported last week the founders of Offset Software have regrouped following Intel's decision to shut down the project and have formed a new game development studio, Fractiv. The company has not yet commented on whether or not the team has the rights to the Offset Engine technology or the Project Offset game IP.

Earlier this year, MMO developer Red 5 Studios announced a restructuring that caused a large number of its employees to be laid off. A few weeks later, Chinese game publisher The9 was reported to be putting in a large amount of money into Red 5 Studios. Today Red 5 Studios and The9 confirmed that The9 has bought a majority stake in Red 5 Studios to the tune of $20 million.

As we have reported before, Red 5 Studios was formed several years ago by former members of Blizzard's World of Warcraft team. However the studio has yet to release its first game. However the newly relaunched company web site has posted up some fairly generic fantasy looking concept art which they say is from their upcoming title.

Last week Red 5 Studios admitted to a "restructuring" of its MMO game development studio which included layoffs of a number of its team members. At the time the company announced it had secured a new investor but declined to give details. Now a Reuters story reports that the investor happens to be China-based The9.

The9 is best known as the former World of Warcraft administrative company in China. It looks like the company is now looking for developers to fill their void with more games. There's no word on exactly how much money The9 is investing in Red 5 Studios and in fact none of the companies involved have officially confirmed this new investor relationship.