| |
Site Navigation
Main
News
Forums
Games
Games Database
Top 100
Release List
Support Files
Features
Reviews
Previews
Interviews
Editorials
Diaries
Misc
Download
Gallery
Music
Screenshots
Videos
Miscellaneous
Staff Members
Privacy Statement
|
|
In this press release, Ubisoft announced it will be the publisher for the upcoming MMORPG Shadowbane:
Ubi Soft Entertainment, one of the top 10 video game publishers in the world, announced its plans to enter the massively multi-player online (MMO) gaming market with a deal to publish Shadowbane in North America. Already the publisher of another well-known MMO in Europe, this agreement will mark the first foray of Ubi Soft into the North American MMO market. Ubi Soft will use its renowned marketing and distribution network to publish the boxed version of the game, while its new online division will play host to the intricate worlds of Shadowbane. The highly anticipated game is being developed by Wolfpack Studios, based in Austin, Texas.
Shadowbane is expected to launch online commercially in the first half of 2002. Ubi Soft targets to attract several hundred thousand players and to generate in excess of 40 million dollars over the first 2 years of operations. Ubi Soft’s online division will handle all back-end support for the game including network and server infrastructure, billing, customer service and in-game support. Wolfpack Studios will continue to play an essential role after the game’s release by developing updates and ongoing episodic content that will feed the game and its players for years to come.
Shadowbane is the first persistent world massively multiplayer online game to combine the fantasy role-playing and strategy genres. In addition, Shadowbane is the first such product to embrace a dynamic world design model, in which players can physically affect the history, politics and landscape of the game itself. In Shadowbane, you can build castles, raise armies, and lay siege to vast areas of virtual terrain. These kingdoms remain even as players come and go-- the game simply continues evolving over time. Early buzz about the game has been phenomenal, with “PC Gamer” fans repeatedly voting Shadowbane as the most anticipated game in the « Waiting Is The Hardest Part » poll, most recently in the August 2001 issue.
Ubi Soft’s new online division will concentrate on the most profitable area of online gaming: pay-to-play games, including MMOs such as Shadowbane. The MMO market is a fast-growing sector in which current games have pulled in $40 to $50 million dollars annually, with 350,000+ subscribers playing an average of 20 hours a week per person. |
|
|
Shadowbane to be published by Ubisoft
