stargate posts

Stargate Resistance, the third person multiplayer shooter, is officially on its last legs. The downloadable-only game is no longer available for sale and now the game's official web site has revealed that the multiplayer servers will shut down for people who have already purchased the game on January 15.

This news comes shortly after the game's original developer Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment won a court fight to claim the assets of Stargate Resistance back from Dark Orbit Games, who attempted to continue the game's development after Cheyenne Mountain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year. Even though it won the battle, Cheyenne has now also lost the war as the game license rights to the Stargate franchise have now expired.

The continuing saga of the Stargate game license took yet another left turn this week as a judge ruled that the assets of the multiplayer third person shooter Stargate Resistance be returned to the game's original developer Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. The company released the digital download game earlier this year and then just a few days later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Not long after that a group of former Cheyenne team members claimed to have taken control of future support and updates to Stargate Resistance. The group, which called itself Fresh Start Studios and then Dark Comet Games, indeed did release a number of patches and content updates to the game. However in August Cheyenne slapped the companies with a lawsuit saying the transfer of the game's assets was "improper" which the judge apparently agreed with this week.

The web site Nerdvana reports that even as Cheyenne wins this court case it is still under Chapter 11 and has a new receiver in place to handle its ongoing financial issues. There's no word on if Stargate Resistance will continue to be updated under its new-old owner. Adding to the problems is that the company's Stargate game license has now expired with its owner MGM althought Cheyenne's chairman and CEO Gary Whiting is claiming that the receiver is working to get that license back.

[Via Massively]

If you missed out on the first free weekend of play for Stargate Resistance. you got another chance. The game's official web site has announced they will launch a second free weekend for the TV show based multiplayer shooter beginning at 3:01 am Eastern time Saturday (that's 12:01 am Pacific time) and ending on 3:01 am Eastern time Monday (12:01 am Pacific time).

Just a reminder: the full game has three different world and allows the player to choose from six different player classes, an assortment of weapons, gameplay modes like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Tech and Domination and more.

[Thanks SGRuser]

The Stargate TV series has seen its share of action, but the franchise will probably see most of the combat come from Stargate: Resistance, an upcoming online third-person shooter based in the Stargate story. The game is scheduled to release on February 10.

"Stargate Resistance is a fast-paced and deadly 3rd person shooter for control of the entire galaxy!

The arrogant System Lords believe they are the true masters of the universe, and have begun a savage campaign to dominate and enslave the known worlds. Stargate Command operatives are the first line of defense against this menace. Small teams of brave agents use the Stargate to travel about the galaxy and parry the thrust of these alien overlords."

Download HD Stargate: Resistance Trailer (31 MB)

We've been covering the saga of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's financial issues with getting their long-in-development MMO Stargate Worlds off the ground for some time now. This week the developer made a surprise announcement with the reveal of Stargate Resistance, a all new multiplayer-oriented third person shooter based on the TV series universe that's set for release in the first quarter of 2010.

The game's official web site has more info and the first screenshots from the game along with a message from Cheyenne Mountain's Chris Klug explaining the premise. Stargate Resistance will feature battles between the humans of Stargate Command against the System Lords. The game will have six player classes, an assortment of weapons, gameplay modes like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Tech and Domination and more. There will also be a strategic element to the game as teams will try to win control over planets via matches.

Klug also talked about their issues with the MMO Stargate Worlds, saying, "We chose to remain quiet during those times, because, honestly, we often didn't know what our future was day-to-day, sometimes even hour-to-hour. As a group we chose to not say anything until we knew something." He added that while Stargate Resistance is being made, "we continue to work towards SGW's release."

Last weekend we reported on comments first posted on the Stargate fan site Gateworld.net in which the TV show franchise's head man Brad Wright expressed disappointment in the progress made by Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment in the making of Stargate Worlds. Today the dev team fired back, saying basically that the team is still hard at work on the long-in-development MMO.

In a statement from the company's Senior Marketing Manager Kevin Balentine he says, "Our official response is that the lights here are still on and the development team is working hard every day to get this game built. Team members are in the office seven days a week to deliver Stargate Worlds. Brad Wright is the Stargate expert and a creative consultant on Stargate Worlds who advises us on the story; unfortunately we had not recently updated him on our progress or the impact from the current global economic crisis, and he was not fully aware of the continuing progress on our game."

The statement adds that funding for the game from angel investors is still keeping the development team working but they are still negotiating a number of deals that if successful will allow the team to finish development of the game. There's still no word yet on how far Stargate Worlds is from completion.

A few months ago we reported that the developer of Stargate Worlds, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, was experiencing financial problems. While the company has continued to develop the long awaited MMO title during their financial crisis and released a handful of new screenshots, there's been no real news on its current status, much less a release date.

In a chat over at Gateworld.net it's clear Brad Wright, who has been the head producer of MGM's Stargate franchise since the launch of the Stargate SG-1 TV series, is not happy with Cheyenne Mountain's issues with finishing the game. He states, "They had an opportunity and they got our support, and they obviously had significant funding, and it didn't happen. It's kind of a drag for the fans and the time that we invested - what little of it there really was, in comparison to what they did - was still a shame that it was wasted, because it should have happened."

This isnt the first time a Stargate-based game has hit development troubles. A Stargate SG-1 FPS was canceled midway in its production in 2005 by its publisher JoWood. It had issues with how its developer handled the game. Wright feels that the sci-fi franchise has not been served well by all of these problems. He states, "Now MGM is back in a position where they don't have a product in that marketplace that they should. There should be a shiny Stargate game on the shelves right now and there isn't, and it's wrong."

Gallery: Stargate Worlds

The poor economic climate is hitting everywhere, even well established game developers like Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. The Arizona based developer has been working for a few years now on Stargate Worlds, the Unreal Engine 3 powered MMO based on the long running sci-fi movie-TV franchise.

However, a web site posted up by an anonymous person claims that it has been three weeks since anyone at Cheyanne has been paid. Ten Ton Hammer has posted up a comment from a Cheyenne spokesperson who, while not admitting to the payroll problems, does say, "...the new economic realities are forcing us to seek out additional sources of funding and that's what we're doing." The spokesperson added that they are continuing to develop Stargate Worlds and plan to launch a new round of closed beta testing in early 2009. Ten Ton Hammer's story also mentioned word from anonymous sources that a number of Cheyenne team members have left the company but specific numbers were not mentioned.

[Via Blue's News]

The iris is about to open on the closed beta test of Stargate Worlds. The upcoming sci-fi MMO based on the long running movie and TV franchise will start inviting its first beta testers to try out the game on Oct. 15. You can still sign up to be a part of the beta at the game's official web site.

Developer Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and publisher Firesky also sent over some new acreenshots from the game showing off the Unreal Engine 3 powered graphics of the title. The game is scheduled to officially launch sometime in 2009. In the meantime more beta testers will be invited into the game in the months before the launch.