true-games posts

2010 was a very rough year for publisher Ignition Entertainment. The publisher shut down its Florida-based development studios and greatly reduced its London offices. The US operations of the company are now in Austin, Texas which are shared by its sister company, the free-to-play game developer-publisher UTV True Games.

In an interview at Siliconera, Ignition Entertainment exec Shane Bettenhausen states, "We're kind of combining our resources and re-upping and rebuilding Ignition. Clearly, I think we have a big lineup coming, throughout the year and we're going to be announcing more titles at E3."

True Games finally launched its free-to-play game Mytheon earlier this year and has another game, Faxion Online, in beta testing.

After launching its closed beta test over a month ago, developer and publisher UTV True Games will begin the open beta phase for its free-to-play fantasy MMO Faxion Online on Thursday, March 10. The closed beta players for the game will experience a character wipe just before the game goes into open beta which means everyone will be on equal footing in the game on Thursday.

The open beta will also add some new features to Faxion Online including new territory control and new "multi-classing capabilities" for the player characters. UTV True Games officially launched its free-to-play action-RPG Mytheon earlier this month.

After very quick closed and then open beta tests, the fantasy online free-to-play action-RPG Mytheon is now open for business. Publisher UTV True Games has now announced that the long-in-development game is officially launched. For a limited time players can purchase Mytheon's in-game currency at 25 percent off its normal price.

Just as a recap, Mytheon was first announced in 2008 with True Games working with developer Petroglyph on the title. The game was closed to being launched in mid-2010 but then tensions surfaced betweek True Games and Petroglyph that resulted in a lawsuit over the game's source code. While the lawsuit was later settled the game's development move from Petroglyph to True Games' own internal studio in China. The game started closed beta testing again in early February and began open beta testing just a few weeks ago.

The cancelation earlier this month of the open world crime action game True Crime Hong Kong by publisher Activision was expected to affect its developer United Front Games in terms of its personnel numbers. This week our sister site Joystiq confirmed from a rep from United Front Games that the Vancouver-based studio has experienced "a reduction in staff" due to the cancelation of the game.

While specific numbers were not provided Joystiq stated that activity on on the developer's LinkedIn web page indicates that at least 25 team members have been laid off. The rep did state that United Front Games is "still very much open for business and we will continue to ship top games."

The multiplayer free-to-play action-RPG Mytheon is now reopening for closed beta testing. Developer and publisher UTV True Games has sent over word that the game is allowing players who participated in the game's previous closed beta test to try out the new version of Mytheon along with new beta testers. As we previously reported, Mytheon's previous developer Petroglyph is no longer involved in the making of the game as UTV True Games took over its development in 2010.

Returning closed beta testers will be given "exclusive VIP treatment" when they log onto the game. Beta testers can also expect "in-game giveaways, leaderboard driven PvP matches, and mythology-based trivia with special prizes." Mytheon is expected to finally and officially launch later in 2011.

We've been following the development of UTV True Games' upcoming free-to-play fantasy multiplayer action-RPG Mytheon ever since the game was first announced back in December 2008. Indeed we posted up the first interview about the game the day of it's official reveal. The game was originally developed by Petroglyph and in 2010 it seemed to be getting close to its official launch. In February the game went into its closed beta phase and in April it started its open beta test.

And that's when things got ... interesting. In May 2010 UTV True Games filed a lawsuit against Petroglyph claiming that the developer was holding the source code to the game "hostage". A few weeks later everything seemed to be OK again as the two companies announced that their legal issues had been resolved and that Mytheon would officially launch on July 13. But that wasn't the end of it as it was later revealed that the launch date for the game was pushed back indefinitely. In the end both companies admitted in the summer of 2010 that Petroglyph was no longer involved in the development of Mytheon.

The open beta for the game was shut down in September as UTV True Games announced that the development of Mytheon was now under their own internal development team. Tonight, Big Download can exclusively reveal that Mytheon, under the company's Beijing studio, will restart its closed beta test by the end of January.

The press release, which you can check out after the jump, has more details about the relaunch of Mytheon including word that previous beta testers of the game will be contacted soon via email. Those users will be able to use their old beta accounts in the new closed beta test and will also get "exclusive keys and in-game rewards in the coming weeks" before the beta test begins. The press release does not indicate when Mytheon will officially launch. Big Download also has the first screenshots from the new version of Mytheon which you can check out in the gallery below this post.

More and more we are seeing browser-based games becoming more sophisicated and less like just simple Flash-based titles. This week publisher UTV True Games announced plans to launch Sky Legends, an upcoming multplayer oriented browser-based game from developer Smart Bomb Interactive.

The game itself has player piloting flying WWI-like biplanes in a weird fantasy world setting. You can fight against other pilots in several gameplay modes, customizer your biplanes and more. Sky Legends has already released its official web which has a grainy trailler showing off game gameplay footage. Sky Legends is due for release in spring 2011.

It's been an interesting summer for UTV True Games. The free-to-play game publisher was supposed to launch Mytheon with developer Petroglyph in July but later it was revealed that Petroglyph was no longer developing the title and True Games had taken over with plans to launch the title pushed back to sometime in 2011. The company also revealed plans for another internally-developed game, Faxion Online.

Now comes word that True Games has plans to announced yet another MMO game sometime during GDC Online on October 5-8. The game will be shown to media who tour the company's Austin, Texas headquarters during the event.

Earlier this week we reported that publisher news.bigdownload.com/tag/true-gamesUTV True Games had announced that the upcoming free-to-play action-RPG Mytheon had "fully transitioned into the hands of our Developer" suggesting strongly that the game's main developer Petroglyph was now off the project. Late on Friday Petroglyph's co-founder Mike Legg confirmed to Big Download via email, "We are no longer involved in the development of Mytheon."

Earlier this year True Games filed a lawsuit against Petroglyph to obtain the game's source code but a few weeks later the publisher and Petroglyph announced the quick resolution of the lawsuit. In his email to Big Download this week, Legg says, "We reached a mutual agreement with True Games that resolved the remaining legal issues." That would suggest that there are no hard feelings between the two companies.

True Games will shut down the currently running open beta test of Mytheon on Tuesday, August 31 and says it plans to start inviting players back sometime in the first quarter of 2011. Meanwhile Petroglyph's upcoming downloadable strategy game Guardians of Graxia is supposedly close to being released and the developer's near-future themed RTS game End of Nations for publisher Trion Worlds is due for launch sometime in 2011.

It looks like we will be waiting a bit longer for the official launch of Mytheon. The free-to-play multiplayer action-RPG from developer Petroglyph and publisher UTV True Games was supposed to launch on July 13. However the publisher announced that the launch had been delayed to an unnamed date.

Now the game's official message boards has word from True Games's community manager that because of feedback from players in the game's open beta period the game's release has been delayed until some time in the ""Q3/Q4 2010" time period (a previous message that said the game's launch was being delayed until early September was later refuted). People who purchased the $129.95 Champions pack for the game will be getting some extra stuff because of the delay including "an extra 5% off Coin purchases, exclusive stones and gear at the launch of Mytheon."