Drucila
Posts: 47
Joined: 08/23/2006
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| FURY - Free to play FOREVER! |
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Australian developer Auran announced yesterday that Fury would be free-to-play forever as of the December 14th. Within hours of the announcement though, Kotaku Australia posted a quote from CEO Tony Hilliam that said: "We will then have some bad news to follow (unless a miracle occurs), but there will be a very positive end to the week."
Here's the deal: Fury is going free-to-play, there will be layoffs, some people are moving to a new Brisebane studio unrelated to Fury run by Tantalus and bad news is likely to follow.
| QUOTE | "FURY" FREE TO PLAY FOREVER
Cockpit, Austin, TX - December 10, 2007 - Gamecock Media Group and Auran Games today announced a new Free to Download, Free to Play option for their fast paced arena combat game FURY. The new business model will begin with the release of the first major free content update "Age of the Chosen" on December 14, 2007.
"FURY was built around giving players options that suit their play style and their wallet," said Tony Hilliam, CEO of Auran. "With the AotC update, we are introducing a new player category called "Chosen". As one of the Chosen, players can access all game types, equip all weapons and unlock all 400 abilities - and they can play as much as they like absolutely free. This is a fantastic opportunity for players to jump into battle with their mates and discover the frenetic pace of the fastest RPG combat ever. Chosen will earn less gold and essence, and will not be able to trade with other players."
"Chosen players can purchase game gold from the FURY store or upgrade to "Hero" status to earn more Essence and Gold. Retail stores sell the "Hero" status pack, along with a free month of "Immortal" status, so this is $30 value for the new price of $19.99 (in US stores). As a Hero or Immortal players can unlock abilities faster and purchase better gear, but the matchmaker then ensures they are playing against other players of similar skill and rank."
FURY: Age of the Chosen is a massive free content update that introduces two new game types aimed at the new player. "Carnage" throws two teams into battle with the aim of returning blood tokens to their base faster than their opposition. Blood tokens are gained from killing bots, not other players, so the action is indirect competition rather than head to head. The 1v1 Elimination game type means games will spawn faster and matches are more evenly balanced.
For more on FURY, visit www.unleashthefury.com. Also, be sure and visit http://www.unleashthefury.com/ageofthechosen/ for information on the Age of the Chosen update and new business model. |
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
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| 12/11/07 11:04 |
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Drucila
Posts: 47
Joined: 08/23/2006
Credibility: 0 pts
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| RE: FURY - Free to play FOREVER! |
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By Bossman : Today at 07:34 AM.
| QUOTE | This is a good news/bad news post. We have made some tough but necessary decisions. These actions give FURY a much stronger future and we look forward to working VERY closely with the community to make sure we build a game that people can enjoy for years to come.
Official Announcement:
The Directors of Auran Developments, the company that employs all the Auran staff, have today called in a Voluntary Administrator (like Chapter 11 in the US). All the staff were dismissed today. Despite earlier reports, staff will be paid for all their work to date, their annual leave entitlements, redundancy payments and long service leave.
Whilst this is the end of Auran Developments, it is far from the end of FURY and Trainz.
Trainz is the world’s leading rail simulator and has a community of more than 250,000 registered users around the world. It is published in dozens of countries and there are many products in the market today. The bulk of the Trainz team will continue to work on current projects and these projects will be released next year.
With Fury, we built up a team to make a world beating game and sadly we have not reached our goals – yet. Our performance to date has meant we could no longer fund the 70 strong dev team. However, FURY: Age of the Chosen will be launched as planned Friday 8pm GMT. We have put together a small but committed team to continue developing FURY on an ongoing basis. This core team, as we announced last week, are a passionate group of people committed to making FURY a success. We will be releasing bug fixes, content and feature updates on a regular basis and in fact they will be more frequent with our new agile team.
I believe that once people hear about F:AotC and the new Free to Play business model, we’ll start building up the player numbers and revenues that will make the game successful.
I expect the naysayers will have different thoughts, but they haven’t played the new build…yet. |
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
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| 12/13/07 09:48 |
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