China’s Perfect World quietly becomes a North American powerhouse in online games (interview)
Perfect World is making its move into the Western online gaming markets.
Dragons, dinosaurs, and Transformers: RuneScape’s CEO on the future of free to play
July 28, 2012 9:00 AM
Dan Crawley
Free to play is the future of gaming, even for traditional game publishers, according to Jagex Games Studio CEO Mark Gerhard. He talks to GamesBeat about the rush to the free-to-play model, Jagex's potential market value, and the development of upcoming MMO Transformers Universe.
Free-to-play games catching MMO subscribers’ attention (and wallets)
March 21, 2012 4:40 PM
Heinrich Lenhardt
The successful launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic notwithstanding, the business model of mandatory subscriptions for massively multiplayer online (MMO) games seems to be on its way out. A new user survey by online core gamer network Curse indicates …
Atari sells Star Trek Online maker Cryptic Studios to Perfect World
Atari has sold off Cryptic Studios, the maker of online games such as Star Trek Online, to China’s Perfect World. Perfect World is paying 35 million euros, or $49.8 million in cash.
The deal is another sign of the times: …
Online game firm Gazillion names former Cryptic chief as new CEO
There’s a new gazillionaire in town. Online gaming firm Gazillion Entertainment has hired John Needham, former head of Cryptic Studios, as its new chief executive as the company enters a new stage of its development of massively multiplayer online games.…
For aging Champions Online game, free-to-play business model proves alluring
Lots of massively multiplayer online games were started with the dream of becoming as big as World of Warcraft, which has 12 million paying subscribers.
For those that have fallen short of their expectations, going free-to-play may be the fallback …
