Well, folks, while not necessarily gaming news, it is newsworthy nonetheless. Gary Gygax, the creator of the entire Dungeons & Dragons universe, died yesterday in his home. Now crossed over into the forgoten realms, we wish him safe journeys along whatever path he walks now. Gary has influenced so many games and developers that it is impossible to even being to estimate his influence on the gaming world. Quick, someone get a rez over to his place! Seriuosly though, he will be missed.

From TCOS:

Hello TCoS Community members! Time for an update on this little project of ours called The Chronicles of Spellborn.

We have recently started the final tests for The Chronicles of Spellborn.

Beginning of last week, a new phase within the internal beta phases has been initiated with a brand new version of the game. Up to now these tests have performed very satisfactory, so that they can be expanded pretty soon to larger participants groups like enlisted community members. Server stress tests have been successfully completed by our team in Autumn already.

In a misguided attempt to join the MMO sect, yet another old video game legend is going to try his hand. When will the developers learn that right now the MMO population is split so that that it cannot even support the MMO games that are already out? Why do they think there are so many MMO server shutdowns an consolidations? They all want to be the next WoW, but that will not happen until WoW's day is done. Oh well, I digress. Bushnell is going to be working on a new MMO which he has provided no details about, of course, other than to claim there are other ways to play MMO games than the method used by WoW. Good luck to Nolan.

Blizzard has revealed some details about the storyline for the upcoming WoW expansion, The Lich King. In the latest Blizzard Podcast, it is revealed that the storyline takes players back into Azeroth proper, the realm of Gnolls and Kobolds. Check the link for the full scoop.

From Funcom:

This week's Friday Update is the Clan of Conan Newsletter #14 including the The Pocket Travel Guide to Tortage Island (don't leave home without it!)

Codemasters Online and Trubine are teaming up to bring us a big happening in the world of LOTR Online. The details will be announced at this coming year's Connect 08 expo. Click read more for the official info.

PRESS RELEASE

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, speaking at an investor meeting, has stated that MMOs could be "an insurmountable product category" for publishers at the moment, with the juggernaut World of Warcraft on the loose. This is something we here at GR have been touting for a while now. Kotick went further to claim that at least a 1 billion dollar investment would be required to even have a shot at taking on WoW, and even then it is no guarantee. The simple fact is that until World of Warcraft's day is done, there will be no other leader in the MMO world, and on top of that WoW has changed the MMO model forever.

"We don't think that even if we made the USD 500 million or billion-dollar investment to get a product out [to compete with WOW] that we would even be successful doing it," he said.

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday 26th February/... Brighton, UK — NCsoft® Europe and ArenaNet® have announced that the Guild Wars® franchise of online roleplaying games has surpassed five million units sold in Europe, North America, and Asia.

From Funcom:


The highly anticipated MMO receives 8 more weeks of development, allowing Funcom to deliver a more polished MMO experience when the game launches on the 20th of May 2008. Despite great feedback on vital aspects like immersion, fun factor and the exciting combat system, the management of Funcom has decided to polish the game even more. Eight weeks of development work is therefore added to stress game systems and polish the game further leading up to launch.

Blizzard has announced that it will put online a new set of WoW realms that will allow players to enter world-wide team-based tournaments. You can even win real cash prizes, up to $200,000 USD! Check it out.