Region servers will become available when Star Wars: The Old Republic launches locally on March 1; the official SWTOR Twitter confirmed these servers will be physically located in Australia.

Those who have or create an account on international severs before February 28 will have the chance to transfer characters to local servers for free, after launch. Notifications will be sent to eligible players.

A Standard Edition of the MMORPG will go for AUD$79.99 AUD/NZD$89.99/HK$389.00/S$64.00, with a Digital Deluxe Edition on offer exclusively on Origin for AUD$89.99/NZD$99.99/HK$465.00/S$76.00.

Pre-orders from participating Australian and New Zealand retailers will net an in-game colour crystal, to change their weapon effects, but all players will net a Founders’ medal.

“We appreciate that our fans in these countries have been patient and we are excited to deliver this same great customer experience to players this March,” BioWare’s Greg Zeshuk said.

Star Wars: The Old Republic launched in the US and Europe in December, but while no retail release graced Pacific territories, BioWare and EA gracefully turned a blind eye to extra-territorial sign ups, while promising to work on a local launch. The RPG has been labelled the fastest-growing subscription MMO.

Each game will combine the foundations of the original tabletops with new designs and gameplay elements inspired by Blizzard’s universes.

MONOPOLY: World of Warcraft will have players vying for control of World of Warcraft’s locations, wit such “coveted” real estate as Twilight Highlands, Grizzly Hills and the Swamp of Sorrows – instead of Pennsylvania Avenue, Park Place, and Boardwalk.

The standard Monopoly rules will apply, and it will include custom sculpted houses designed after Warcraft towns and hotels designed from Warcraft cities. A red and blue die representing the Horde and Alliance factions will also be included.

The game will debut during the 109th annual Toy Fair going on now in New York City. WoW players can get a look at the game through Facebook and also vote on the token designs. Current options, including Murky, Chen’s Keg, Mechagnome, and a Spellbook, are just a few, and the six most popular tokens will be represented in the game when it launches this May in North America for $39.95.

RISK: StarCraft will once again find the StarCraft universe in jeopardy as players choose from the Terran, Protoss or Zerg factions and use one of six heroes to bring order to the galaxy.

The “struggles” portrayed in the RTS game series are adapted in, and the winner will be determined by “astute deployment of military might and strategic field tactics.”

It comes with three play modes and over 290 custom playing pieces. More details about the game will be revealed as it moves toward release this summer in North America for $49.45.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the wealth of feedback you have provided us with following the announcement made regarding the World merge and character transfers,” a post on the Lodestone blog stated.

“In order to ensure that the most desirable and effective outcome is achieved, we will be reassessing the method of the merger process.”

Interestingly, the publisher chose to delete the original announcement. No further details were given, although Square Enix promised an update soon.

The merger had been planned for March 27, ahead of the game’s version 2.0 update.

Thanks, Massively.

Speaking with Massively, Johannessen said permadeath allows for the player to make more of an investment in the character created, instead of tossing its life away on “random acts of griefing” and expecting the character to respawn.

“Permadeath prevents griefing more than anything else,” he said, adding that its implementation is similar to that of the firm’s Haven & Hearth’s. Characters in Salem can be summoned and killed if a serious crime has been committed – even when the player is offline.

“When you commit a serious-enough crime (e.g., murder, theft, vandalism), you leave a little clue behind that other players can use to track your homestead,” he explained. “If they reach the homestead, the clue can then be used to summon you (i.e., the offending character) into the game for some dispensing of justice.

“Basically you shouldn’t be running around killing people unless you can protect yourself.”

Salem is set in New England during the 17 century, and similar to the time frame, the game will be full of alchemy, folklore styled creatures and the prerequisite witches and crafting.

Johannessen said it shouldn’t be “too long” before the game goes into open beta.

Speaking in a DICE discussion panel with Epic’s Mike Capps and Insomniac’s Ted Price, Pearce admitted the firm “grossly underestimated the demand” for the MMO when it shipped.

“We had to stop shipping boxes to stores,” he explained, and said the firm decided to take a “more aggressive” approach in its estimates for future shipments. The new business model came about through contact with the online community, and allowed the firm a better idea of how many allotments to ship through perceived demand.

Pearce also touched upon the subject of addition to videogames, MMOs in particular, saying he felt it was not a phenomenon pertaining to just the games industry as there are cases of “overindulging” with all forms of media.

“We think about it all of the time… if there’s something that you’re really passionate about, whether it’s video games, a book, a TV series [or something else]… we have to consume it in moderation,” he said.

When Blizzard launched World of Warcraft it had around 500 employees, and now, with Mists of Panderia looming, 4,700 staffer across 11 cities work for the firm, the majority in customer support.

On the development end, Blizzard as 750 employees working on WoW, StarCraft II and Diablo III.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

According to the latest dev diary, players begin on a map of ten square miles, with about one quarter of it playable, and the rest covered over by something called the “melding”. In the exposed area, they can adventure, gather resources, craft, and fight against invasions – but by building special structures, players can push back the melding, revealing more explorable territory. Red5 hopes to eventually expose an entire planet’s worth of new content, entirely driven by player actions.

Watch the full developer diary below. As well as information about the game which you should absorb promptly, check out the sweet hologram interface special effect. Firefall is in an expanding closed beta; check out the game’s website to get on board.

According to the studio’s director, Earthrise, which was scheduled to go free-to-play this year, needed at the least another four months before switching over to the new model, and the firm lacked not onlu the resources required for the extra work but was also in need of an investor. Something the firm has yet to find.

“One year after the launch of the game, we have decided to stop the Earthrise servers,” said Atanas Atanasov in a statement. “Earthrise was released too early and did not meet the expectations of its fans. We did our best to revive the game in 2011, but the time was not enough to keep up with the user requirements.

“We tried to make better game in terms of server and client performance. That means to us that we had to fix over 100 problems, reported by you or by our Q&A team, before we start the F2P model. However the latest internal test showed that we need at least 4 more months to complete this task. It is too long period, and we don’t have the resources to do that. Atanas did his best to find investors, but it is a very hard task during the world economical crisis.”

Atanasov went on to say that the developer doesn’t plan on abandoning the MMO entirely, but it will instead be “postponed for better times” should an investor or publishing agreement be reached.

“We even thought to continue providing services for game for free, but it would still require investments,” he said. “Instead of that we decided to focus on other projects. Meanwhile we will keep the Earthrise forums and we will still use them. I hope one day I will put much better news there.

“I hope that one day an independent studio will be able to release the long-anticipated, open-world sandbox MMO, which everyone is talking about, but no one is making. We tried, but did not succeed. We would like to apologize to those who were disappointed from Earthrise and to thank everyone who supported us during the years.”

For the time being, though, the game will shutter today.

Thanks, TenTonHammer.

The merger will happen on March 27, with Square players advised to transfer their characters and select a new world for it between March 1 and March 19 otherwise it’ll be picked for them come the transfer deadline on March 19.

The current existing world servers will be renamed New World for a period, with New World 10 advised for French and German-speaking players.

This merger is “intended to improve the player experience” ahead of the Version 2.0 update for the MMO later this year.

More details here.

Leydon said that the traditional, disc-based model employed by the likes of Microsoft and Sony is allowed free trials to blossom on other platforms.

“It removes the risk from the consumer,” he said of free-to-play, as reported by GamesIndustry. “The consumer pays nothing to try out the game. I want the consumer to play for months without paying. Good free to play encourages players to stay and that’s where the longevity is, because the risk of an online pass, consoles that can’t play used games, DLC and all this stuff, after I’ve paid $70; why would do I do that? I can play lots of great games that are free.”

Leydon said mobile is the future of games.

“Mobile is the home of free-to-play and that’s the next big model for video games,” he added. “The real problem [for consoles] is price fixing. Consoles set expectations for prices for thirty years.”

Much is being made of the free-to-play transition in the core market at the moment, with many MMOs enjoying huge revenue leaps as they shift away from traditional subs models.

There’s a bunch more through the GI link.

Brainiac has been an integral part of the plot since launch in January 2011, introducing the exo-bytes which explain the presence of many player characters – a factor which contributed to his imminent defeat in the next update. Sony Online Entertainment thinks it’s time to move on from that plot line.

“Never count a comic book character out, but yes, this is Brainaic’s final push,” creative director Jens Andersen told PC Gamer.

“But it will be an ongoing one as he tries to recover from the player’s resistance and future Luthor’s manipulation of everyone, including Brainiac.”

Although the typical MMORPG pattern is to move onto a new major arc, Andersen’s next comment suggests SoE is taking the path less travelled.

“We want to provide a many-colored tapestry for our players. Focusing on one storyline isn’t needed with the pace at which we release content,” he said.

“So players can look forward to the next chapter in this story, resolutions to some of our launch stories, as well as totally new things in the years to come.”

The final attack on Brainiac goes down on Paradise Island, the home realm of Wonder Woman, and involves an epic raid through a looping dungeon.

Thanks, Evil Avatar

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online has over 3,000 lines of dialogue across its 70 heroes and 20 villains, with some having up to a dozen each – Deadpool has over 100.

In addition to Marvel voice veterans Chris Cox, Laura Bailey and Phil Lamarr, many cast members of the Super Hero Squad TV show have been signed up:

• Tom Kenny (Iron Man, Captain America, MODOK)
• Alimi Ballard (Falcon)
• Antony Del Rio (Reptil)
• Charlie Adler (Doctor Doom)
• Dave Boat (Thor, Thing)
• Grey Delisle (Ms. Marvel, Enchantress)
• Mikey Kelley (Silver Surfer)
• Steve Blum (Wolverine, Abomination)
• Tara Strong (Scarlet Witch)
• Travis Willingham (Hulk)

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online launched in Europe towards the end of 2011, and is just one of Gazillion’s Marvel-licensed efforts; MMORPG Marvel Heroes is expected this year.

The deck will allow players to combine seven active abilities and seven passive abilities, filling one or several roles while going solo or teaming with others. After getting all 14 roles, the player will unlock a new outfit.

Each society will get ten decks per group. Lead designer Martin Bruusgaard said the system allows the game to give those that want it “a bit of guidance,” and he isn’t worried if players decide to stay close to recommended decks.

“I believe a lot of players will take a look at the decks when they start playing, and start working towards one,” he said. “This process has some great treats to it, since we can use it as a tool to teach players the different layers of synergy. Players will soon realize that, in many cases, wielding two weapons is optimal.

“Later they will realize that the abilities have synergy through the state system, meaning that an ability can do X, but if target is in state Y then X and Z happens.”

The EA Partners-published MMO launches in April.

Speaking with Ten Ton Hammer, Pétursson said the developer’s vision for World of Darkness is to take the experience CCP holds, and combine it with “all the history and refinement” of Vampire: The Masquerade in the last two decades and turn it into something “the world has never seen before.”

“People [need to] understand that it’s not so much that CCP is shipping a new game this year, it’s more that CCP is dramatically expanding the EVE universe this year, and we think of World of Darkness as that second universe,” added Reid.

“Taking the tech, the human intelligence, methodology, and experience that we’ve got, and building that second universe with a very different flavor of moment-to-moment gameplay [makes] World of Darkness less of a new platform and more of a new universe.”

“When they see what we’re able to do with that new universe and that intellectual property… well, it’s a really big opportunity. There is no shortage of commitment here to making World of Darkness awesome.”

Pétursson said the sixty-person team working on the MMO is making “fantastic progress,” and Reid added that the team is making sure it is a “trans formative” experience for players.

“Despite what you hear from us about DUST and EVE, there are more people working on World of Darkness here at CCP than there are working on triple A titles at other companies I’ve worked at for the stage of development it’s at,” he said. “Everyone here realizes what a tremendous opportunity we have.

“To do what’s been done here with EVE – the economy, the persistence, the Machiavellian politics that players do to construct their own content – imagine what that can be like in a modern era intellectual property, in something everyone understands. We don’t all know how to pilot a spaceship, but we all know how to kill a vampire. And that’s the case even if we haven’t played Vampire: The Masquerade.”

World of Darkness has been development since 2008 and doesn’t have a release window, currently, but is expected sometime this year “at the earliest.”

More details here. Thanks, D’Toid.

Once the sneak peek has finished, accounts will be wiped in preparation for the first of five closed beta tests, which start on February 17 and will run every weekend until April 15.

The open beta will commence on April 19 and you can sign up for all levels of the beta here.

Those interested in purchasing the game, will will able to pre-order it digitally or through local retailers soon, and doing so grants the player a spot in every beta session scheduled as well as the following:

• Access to head start – Access to the game five days before the launch on the 3rd of May 2012.
• CBT & OBT access – Access to closed & open beta tests of TERA in Europe
• Name reservation – Before the actual head start, players will be able to create a character and reserve their favorite character name.
• Special Items: These vary depending which retailer players chose to purchase from.

A collector’s edition of the MMO is also on the slate, and will include a copy of the game, the soundtrack, a world map, and art book and “much more.”

Standard editions of the game will be priced at €49.95, the digital collector’s edition will be priced at €59.95 and the retail collector’s edition will be sold for a recommended €69.95.

A trailer for the pre-order offerings is posted below.

The NCSoft MMO has no date yet. Thanks, Massively.