three-rings posts

Fans of console-themed adventure games who want to play such games on the PC will soon have an alternative. Sega announced today that it will publish Spiral Knights, an online persistent free-to-play action-adventure game with some classic NES-style gameplay. The game itself is being developed by Puzzle Pirates creator Three Rings.

The fantasy themed game will allow players to adventure on their own or team up with up to three more players in online co-op action. There will be some MMO aspects to the game including some crafting features and the ability to form guilds. The official Spiral Knights web site has already launched. The game is currently available to play in a "preview event" and will officially launch on April 4.

Three Rings is keeping busy. In addition to Spiral Knights the dev team is also working on the TV show themed MMO Doctor Who: Worlds in Time for a launch later this year.

Doctor Who is about to take his TARDIS into PC gaming once again. BBC Worldwide has announced plans to launch a free-to-play MMO based on the long running sci-fi TV series. The game itself is titled Doctor Who Worlds In Time and is being developed by Three Rings, best known for their MMO title Yohoho Puzzle Pirates.

Details of the game are scarce but the official press release states that Doctor Who Worlds In Time will let players "follow in the footsteps of the eccentric and brilliant Doctor by travelling through time and space, exploring new worlds and encountering many alien races, both friend and foe." The game will launch sometime later in 2011.

In 2010 the BBC and developer Sumo Digital released a four episode downloadable PC game series, Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. A second "season" of the adventure game series is slated for release later in 2011.

[Via email press release]

As you sit their reading this, sipping your caffeinated beverage of choice... an online battle rages. Subscription-based MMOs versus the microtransaction business model. Cage match. Fight to the death. Gamasutra conducted a round table about this battle royal with SOE's John Smedley, Three Ring's Daniel James and EA Mythic's Mark Jacobs. What unfolds makes it clear that the payment scheme for MMOs is evolving. Into what exactly is anyone's guess.

Most of the MMOs in the United States are subscription based. Almost everywhere else they are microtransaction based. The mentality here in the States however is starting to change. So much so that many developer are waiting until the last possible second to decide which route to take. For instance SOE has taken a "wait-and-see attitude" for their spy game, The Agency. They're waiting to see how another of their soon to be released MMOs -- Free Realms -- fairs, which uses something they call "freemiums." You can play for free, but you can also sign up for a club in game that gives you extras (for a fee, which is not unlike some other MMOs). They have built the flexibility into The Agency so they can go in either direction.