Perfect World Message Board

Toei Animation, the Japanese animation powerhouse behind some of our (and hopefully your) favourite animations, has started to investigate and send out cease and desist notices to Chinese companies for copyright infringement.Read more...

RaiderZ is the latest free-to-play MMO from Korea, and those… well, aren’t the most enticing words in gaming right now. This one promises to be a bit different though, with its arcade style combat, and big bad monsters in need of a kick up the first available orifice. We sent Richard to find out if its beta has a chance against the big names, or earns that big Z.

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#cityofheroes As fans gather in a desperate attempt to save the doomed City of Heroes from its announced closure, DC Universe Online unleashes mystical forces with its latest expansion and Dr. Destroyer's army of Destroid robots rises in Champions Online in celebration of the game's third anniversary. More »

#neverwinter I sat down in Perfect World's E3 demo room on Tuesday unsure what I should expect from Neverwinter. I remember trying Dungeons and Dragons Online back in 2006 when it was new, and I've poked ineffectually at Neverwinter Nights a few times in my life, but neither ever captivated me. I respected those games' goals, but the type of gameplay both demanded simply required a kind of patient approach that I'm not always great at taking. More »

The year they call 2012 will be full of dungeon crawling and loot hauling. Thousands of people probably descended on the Path of Exile for the first time this weekend and there’s the not inconsequential matter of Diablo III’s mid-May arrival. But what of Torchlight II? I feel like it hasn’t been clamouring for my attention as loudly as perhaps it should and a short video showing animated animals is hardly the most clamorous display. Still, that is one cute bulldog.

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Torchlight 2 developer Runic Games is putting on a brave front as the reckoning of Diablo 3 comes this May. Runic once respectfully joked that it would have Torchlight 3 out before Diablo 3 launched, but after significant delays, Torchlight 2 will likely launch after Blizzard's behemoth.

"We know a lot of you are worried about us. We've heard what you're saying, and sure we've had similar discussions," a Runic statement notes on the Torchlight 2 site. "But we began making the first Torchlight in 2008 when development on Diablo 3 was already underway. We didn't let that be a reason that we couldn't make an RPG."
"There will be unforeseen challenges along the way, no matter what business you're in. We've chosen to stay small with a total team of 32. We're pretty sure that we want this game out more than anyone (not just so that we can resume a normal sleep schedule!) -- but we are going to do it right. That's our commitment to you, and to ourselves."

Torchlight 2 currently has no launch window. Runic Games is scheduled to launch its Torchlight MMO in late 2012 or early 2013.

You know the classic scene in A Christmas Story when Flick gets his tongue frozen to a flagpole? Sure, we all do. But many (including some top film historians) are unaware that Flick performs the stunt on the promise that he'll be rewarded with entry into the PC Blacklight Retribution closed beta. It's true!

You remember when the Grinch stole all the gifts from Whoville? New research shows that the only one he was really trying to nab was a Blacklight Retribution beta invite, the rest were just a smokescreen.

Oh, and had he not arrived so late as to not be included in the Christian Bible, you'd know that the fourth king from the East brought unto the baby Jesus ... OK, so we're making this one up, but you get the idea.

Here's the great news: You PC owners don't have to steal from a village of diminutive pure-hearts or lick anything to start playing the Blacklight Retribution beta. Just claim your code and redeem it here!

Runic Games is scheduled to launch its Torchlight MMO in late 2012 or early 2013, according to an earnings call with Perfect World's Kelvin Lau. Perfect World, a Chinese MMO developer, owns a majority share of Runic and recently acquired the majority interest of Cryptic Studios, which plans to release Neverwinter in the same timeframe as Torchlight, Lau said.

Runic still hopes to launch Torchlight 2 this year. Depending on its sales, the release schedule of its MMO cousin may move, either pushed back so Runic has more time to pamper its success or shoved forward so Runic can hide its screw-up, CEO Max Schaefer said.

The unstoppable march of free-to-playification continues! Cryptic’s Star Trek Online – which is published by Perfect World – will be free-to-play by the end of the year. According to this report on Perfect World’s exciting Q2 earnings call, chief financial officer Kelvin Lau told investors: “Cryptic is working on the free-to-play model for Star Trek Online. This is going to be launched by the end of this year.”

This feels like a transitional period to me. All these MMOs that launched with subscription models reconfiguring themselves to F2P, while much better contenders – such as forthcoming Tribes-but-WoW offering Firefall – wait in the wings to prove that they can do F2P from the off. Nonetheless, I expect we’re a long, long way from this all being normalised in any fashion. What “free” actually means for these games is still very much up for definition.

An announcement on the Torchlight II site confirms that the game will ship for $20. Here’s the kind of statement that you would think more company bosses releasing PC games would include in their press release: “It’s always been our goal to provide exceptional value for the price,” says Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic Games. “Everyone who wants to play Torchlight II will be able to comfortably afford to do so, and they’ll be able to play with their friend online or via a LAN, or play single player offline, all with no further purchases.”

Ha. The Embermage page (the final class to be revealed and inevitable ranged spellcaster) is here.

Atari announced earlier this year that it was trying to sell off City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios, and it's now essentially done just that, according to the company. Chinese MMO developer Perfect World recently bought an equity interest in the studio, and Atari has now divested its own interest, meaning that Cryptic is in the hands of the same company that also owns a majority interest in Torchlight developer Runic Games.

Perfect World reportedly paid $49.8 million for the sale, and Atari says it will put $30.7 million of that total right back into its own debt, leaving the rest for investment in other deals and programs. Cryptic was working on Neverwinter, as well as developing content for Star Trek Online and the free-to-play Champions Online, but any other titles the company was working on with Atari are probably done for. We'll have to see just how the fate of these games plays out as Perfect World oversees things going forward.

Perfect World has said the purchase will use Cryptic's experience in the MMO space to "strengthen our well-established R&D capabilities," as well as "add [the aforementioned] attractive game titles to our portfolio."

Torchlight II fell into our hands at E3 2011. This is what happened.

We’ve been looking for the bandit camp for ten minutes. ‘We’ being me, a berserker, producer Brock as a cannon-equipped Outlander, Brock’s wolf, Doggy, and my ferret, Marmot. “It’s north!” cries, Marsh Lefler, VP of Runic Games. We head north. We kill massed enemies, skeletons, great halberd-wielding beastthings, endless wolf-like things. Almost every thing we kill drops loot and before long we’re laden like junk pedlars. Our pets run back to town with the vendor junk and return laden with gold.(more…)

Perfect World, the MMO company behind, er Perfect World, and also more recently Forsaken World, seem to be gradually expanding away from their Chinese MMO remit. Last year we heard they were publishing Torchlight 2 and the as-yet-unrevealed Torchlight MMO, and yesterday it was revealed that they have acquired Cryptic from Atari. Perfect World have stated that they expect things to be business as usual for Cryptics operations as a result of the purchase. Right now Cryptic are still working on the Nevewinter MMO, but it’ll be particularly interesting to see what Perfect World have them do once that is complete.

Torchlight II is due in July. That’s only ten minutes from now! Quickly, we must read as much as we can about the creation of its randomized worlds! Oh God, if only there was something to hand… but maybe there is, because Runic have published this piece on the creation of Torchlight II’s world, and this Q&A on level design. It contains gems such as this: “We do have random events! A few examples of these are, maybe you run into a injured person on the road with a broken down wagon that asks you to do something for him/her in the immediate area. Or you could be out exploring and find a campfire with bandits that have tied up hostages that you can rescue for a reward. We are still working on these, and coming up with new ideas to keep them exciting for players.” Cor!

MMO getting new expansion.

'Rising Tide' will unveil new race, classes, systems and more for Perfect World International.