Hasta La Gadget!

I wouldn’t be surprised if millions of Pokémon fans have been wishing for years for a MMO version of their beloved game. Nintendo may soon have more reason to consider making such a game. And I’m not talking about the impending release of World of Warcraft’s Mists of Pandaria expansion and its Pet Battle System. I’m talking about a fan-made effort called PokéMMO.

PokéMMO is a Windows MMO based on the Gameboy Advance version of Pokémon Fire Red. Currently in its alpha stage, the game is a lot like most MMOs, but with the beloved monsters and battling system. The picture above says it all. If you’re a Pokémon fan, the trailer below might make you faint with joy. Skip to about 1:10 to see its gameplay.

This game redefines the meaning of PvP. Head to PokéMMO’s website to sign up and play for free. Again, the game is still in alpha so expect a lot of bugs and missing content and features – this FAQ highlights some of them.

[via Geekosystem]

We all knew it was going to happen eventually, but today BioWare and Electronic Arts made it official: Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play. It seems that the Star Wars label and the BioWare name just weren’t enough to get the necessary amount of people to subscribe, so now the companies will see if a switch to free-to-play will provide a boost to user numbers and revenues. Though the transition won’t be happening until this fall (that’s as specific as EA was), there are some changes happening soon that current players will want to know about, so read on to find out more.

After the transition eventually happens, SWTOR will come in two different flavors: a subscription-based model and a freemium model. Those who choose to pay the monthly subscription fee will have access to all of The Old Republic‘s of features, and will be getting a monthly Cartel Coin bonus. Cartel Coins are BioWare’s funny money for The Old Republic, as they allow users to buy “customizable gear and convenience features” from the new Cartel Store. Free-to-play users will be able to play all of The Old Republic‘s 8 classes to level 50, but there will be a few restrictions that can be removed through microtransactions.

Current and former subscribers will get 150 Cartel Coins for each month they paid the subscription fee, so if you were planning to return to The Old Republic once it went free-to-play, you might want to consider jumping back in before the transition happens. BioWare also says that starting in August, the game will be sporting a new $14.99 price tag, allowing users to get in on the cheap before the switch. BioWare has launched an FAQ that answers many more questions about the transition to free-to-play, so if you’re currently subscribed, we recommend that you give it a look.

Making the switch the free-to-play has worked wonders for many MMOs in the past, and we expect that The Old Republic‘s popularity will skyrocket once the change is implemented. BioWare and Electronic Arts stand to make a lot of money if the transition is successful, which begs the question of why this didn’t happen back in February, when user numbers started making a sharp decline. It was probably pride that made them resist, but once the transition actually occurs, we have a feeling that both companies will wish they had bitten the bullet sooner.

Star Wars: The Old Republic going free-to-play later this year is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon must have a lot of free time for gaming during its summer vacation: just a day after unveiling GameCircle as a cloud infrastructure, it’s trotting out Game Connect to make buying game content that much easier. Once it’s integrated into a title, the new platform will let customers buy content in free-to-play games, or subscribe to massively multiplayer online games, directly from their Amazon accounts — no copy-and-paste juggling involved, even if the game account has to be made on the spot. A handful of game developers have already lined up, including Super Monday Night Combat creator Uber Entertainment and World of Tanks‘ Wargaming.net. If you’re engrossed in gaming enough that you’ll need 1-Click to buy virtual goods and MMO renewals that much faster, Amazon has you covered… although you may also want to slow down and relax.

Filed under: Gaming, Internet

Amazon Game Connect links free-to-play, MMO games to store accounts, turns 1-Click into way too many originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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