On March 16th 1999, a Sony-owned video game studio called Verant Interactive released a 3D, fantasy-themed online game called EverQuest.
Japanese game giant Nexon continues to have success with the free-to-play online game business model it pioneered when it was a Korean game maker.
This dictum also applies to those involved in a high-stakes game between the European Commission, online-gambling firms and several European countries opposed to internet betting.
Modders have already enabled single-player mode for the game (or, rather, disabled always-online.) In fact, it appears that the game could run in a very similar fashion with a very similar vision while offline in single-player.
What travel agents learned from Expedia, Borders learned from Amazon, Tower Records learned from Apple iTunes and Blockbuster learned from Netflix, the traditional game makers are about to learn from free-to-play online video game companies: their business is about to fall off a cliff.
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But with a well established competition and a plethora of fresh-faced game developers leaving university or online programs producing free-to-play games, the move has been met with suspicion.
Bradshaw tells us that the developer was following its vision for an always-online game.
Each new release of an always-online game built around a single-player experience is a good reminder of the latter.
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The fact that EA is developing its prized top-selling racing franchise as a mass-multiplayer-online game is another big step for the company here.
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"I am not sure that kind of social network is what the consumer is demanding, " said Greg Richardson, CEO of online game-making start-up Rumble Entertainment Inc.
The award-winning online multiplayer game allows the Major League Baseball star to interact anonymously--but still on a personal level--with human beings he wouldn't otherwise know.
Game has seen its business eroded by competition from online-only retailers such as Steam and Amazon, with Game holding on to 19% of the online market.
The concept of the massively-multiplayer-online-role-playing-game was brilliant years ago.
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This really takes the element of story driven content to a new level for a Massively Multi-player Online Game.
The fact of the matter is, if no continuous plan of action is set in motion, and continually adjusted, third party merchants will continue to be a parasite in virtually every massively-multiplayer online game.
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Last year's first-ever live stream of a Super Bowl in the United States attracted 2.1 million users, making it the most-watched, single-game sports event ever online, according to data provided by Omniture and mDialog, surpassing any previously reported record.
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Free-to-play is on the rise across the video game industry, but especially in multiplayer-based online games.
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Wargaming.net is developing its latest free-to-play online WWII game, World of Battleships, for a 2013 launch.
The move follows connection problems and glitches caused by EA's decision to make SimCity an online-only game.
The online game targets 8-14 year olds, but the company says it sees a sizable crowd of teen and adult players.
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But some new owners are steaming about connectivity issues that made it impossible for them to try out their purchase, and wondering why a single-player game needs to go online in the first place.
Karl Savage, whose Facebook profile describes him as "the unelected, unofficial radio spokesperson for the 'Save Scrabulous' campaign, " was asked during a BBC radio interview last week whether he would play a Hasbro-created online Scrabble game if Scrabulous were shut down.
For weeks now, Blizzard has been offering pre-purchases of the game online, and you could download Diablo 3 in its entirety before release in order to simply click a button and install on launch day, and customers can continue to buy it through them at any time since then.
Valve, best known for the Half-Life, Left4Dead and the Steam online game store has long been known to be working on a console or set-top box that puts PC-based titles onto a TV.
The move toward free-to-play is something that will benefit both consumers and non-colossal MMO publishers alike, and the latest game to adopt the practice is the superhero-based Champions Online.
She started playing the Lord of the Rings online game using an audio-only option on Skype.
The9's business is primarily focused on developing and operating high-quality games for online game market.
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Every day Zynga, the company that produces the online farm-tending game, runs extensive statistical analysis of reams of data.
Specifically from the famed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO), World of Warcraft.
The 75 people working at Meteor Entertainment have big plans for their first game, the free-to-play online Mech shooter, HAWKEN.
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