BlueHole Studio has announced they have licensed the UE Engine 3.0 for use with yet another upcoming MMORPG. The title is codenamed Project 51, and should be out later this year. More info when we have it, click read more for the full info.

PRESS RELEASE
SEOUL, KOREA (March 27, 2008) – Bluehole Studio Inc. announced today that it has licensed Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 for its next-generation, flagship massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for PC, codenamed Project S1.

From SOE:

Additional Crypt of Decay Lore: Throughout worlds, planes, and other dimensions there are many different objects of an immense power. These artifacts are only known of legends and rumors spread throughout the various lands. The Torch of Lxanvom is one of these artifacts.

From Mythic:

An issue cropped up in which the houses that were scheduled to be repossessed today instead had their repossession timers reset. Our next scheduled downtime is on Wednesday, April 2nd. So that we do not have to bring the servers down twice in the span of one week, the fix for the repossession issue will go live with version 1.93 on April 2nd. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience while the issue is being addressed.

Why the developers and publishers continue to put money into MMO game these days, we are just not sure. We keep telling people that the breaking point has been reached for this generation, and that there is just not enough MMO players to fill all the MMO games planned, but of course, no one is listening to us. Why do you think so many MMO games fail? Despite this, Codemasters, one of our favorite dev/pubs, has announced that they will be working on 2 new console MMO games. Maybe the console platform will bring them success.

From NCSoft:

Level Designer Melissa “War Witch” Bianco gives us a blow by blow account of what is changing in the Hollows with the “Gameplay Makeover” for the zone that will be included in the next free expansion, Issue 12: Midnight Hour.

From Funcom:

Funcom will be showing the game live at the main stage, starting at 23:45 on Wednesday evening, when everybody is ready for blood and severed heads.

John Smedley, president of SOE, revealed that the PS3 will someday soon have an MMO that will rival the popularity of the phenomenon called World of Warcraft. This statement comes after SOE's move into the SCE facilities during Sony's massive restructuring plan. A bold claim, for sure, but can Sony deliver?

In part of the Sony reshuffling move, Sony Online Entertainment, long the "red-headded stepchild" of the Sony family, has moved into the Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. building. Atarting April 1, 2008, SOE will be working much closer with SCEI in hopes that the SOE games and services become a much more integral part of the Sony Game picture as a whole. Sounds like a decent plan to us. Click read more for the full info.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN DIEGO and TOKYO, March 13 --In a strategic move to closely align itself with the strong growth of the worldwide online gaming market, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) will report to Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCEI, effective April 1, 2008. The new structure is designed to mutually benefit both companies by further accelerating the PlayStation business through SOE's strong online gaming expertise.