We’re back with another quick roundup of MMO industry news!
Remember the Fair Play Alliance? It was supposed to be a group of major and minor gaming companies coming together to “develop and share best practices in encouraging healthy communities and awesome player interactions in online gaming.” Blizzard, EA, Epic Games, Riot, Twitch, Ubisoft, and Discord are among the notables there. And it is indeed continuing; this week the group announced an all-day summit at GDC, with presentations on social systems, penalization systems, player behavior myths, healthy community tooks, and player behavior research.
Crytek isn’t having the best year, what with its lawsuit against Cloud Imperium Games not going so well. Now, it appears that the studio responsible for the five-year-old shooter Warface has split off from Crytek and set up a new independent company called Blackwood Games Studio. Crytek characterized the move as best for the future of the game, while Blackwood’s new boss wrote, “It’s very important for us to focus on developing Warface in a way that lives up to players’ expectations. […] We have kept the development team intact, and their expertise will allow us to move forward with our plans and ideas. Yet we’re very thankful to Crytek for all the great years together and for their commendable support of this move.” [Thanks, Kinya!]
The Electronic Software Association (ESA) has expanded: The industry group announced today that it’s added six new companies to its roster, including Riot, Sega, THQ Nordic, and Wizards of the Coast. According to GIbiz, half of the list are former members now rejoining.
Finally, Blizzard is touting the start of World of Warcraft’s Arena World Championship this weekend. And yes they have an app for that. The first events begin at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
Arena World Championship begins Friday!
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🍎 https://t.co/zUL75grMiU pic.twitter.com/F9j62Wd3vw— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) February 6, 2019
