Cryptic Studios, which created City of Heroes and the upcoming title Champions Online, has just posted several new job openings. Cryptic is hiring for all the usual stuff like programmers and artists, but you might be surprised at some of the things they are looking for.

NCsoft and Epic Games have announced a deal that will allow the Korean MMO developer to develop two as yet unannounced MMOs using the Unreal 3 Engine. There is no word on specifically what games those will be.

NCsoft Announces Unreal Engine 3 License for Two Upcoming Projects

World-renowned online game developer expands on Unreal legacy

SEOUL, KOREA (March 25, 2008) - NCsoft® Corporation, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, today announced that it has reinforced its relationship with Epic Games, Inc. by licensing Unreal Engine 3 to develop two unannounced, top-tier massively multiplayer online games. NCsoft has achieved spectacular results working with the Unreal Engine over the years, shipping the highly successful Lineage® II, and the soon to be released Exteel ™, using Unreal Engine 2.

"Unreal Engine 3 has a well structured rendering pipeline, and its graphical quality is superb thanks to advanced lighting and shadowing systems," said Young-muk Choi, lead programmer, Development Unit, NCsoft. "Tools within the Unreal Editor empower us to instantly produce and optimize our outputs, and we especially love how the engine enables

IGG has announced that their prized 3D MMORPG, Tales of Pirates (http://top.igg.com), has completed the development and will have been officially released on March 24, 2008.

Tales of Pirates started its’ Alpha Test on March 15, 2007 and its’ Open Beta Test on March 29, 2007 respectively and during the tests they received tons of encouraging comments while the number of players online climbed significantly.

LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs
PlanetCazmo

Hasbro’s LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs Deployed Globally; PlanetCazmo.com sees viral growth

Shelburne Falls, MA, -- March 3, 2008 – Pileated Pictures, an online entertainment studio with a focus on virtual worlds and casual massively multiplayer games (MMOs), released information about its first two launches for 2008: The first is a major update to Hasbro’s LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs virtual world web site, which launched internationally in early February with new features in nine languages, making it one of the largest global rollouts of a virtual world to date.  The second is Pileated Pictures’ original creation, PLANETCAZMO.COM a virtual world for Teens and Tweens that has seen impressive viral growth in a short period, without any promotional efforts.

Pileated Delivers Multi-Language Virtual World for Hasbro

Hasbro's LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs virtual world is now accessible in nine languages, with an expanded collection of new pets, online activities and games. Designed for young girls, LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs are a collection of plush pets with codes that unlock access to an online virtual world where each pet comes to life as playful characters.  The new versio

A reliable source has confirmed to Next-Gen that Microsoft is canceling the superhero MMO Marvel Universe Online.

As Crytpic Studios' development of Marvel Universe ramped up, NCsoft eventually outright bought Cryptic’s original superhero MMO, the NCsoft-published City of Heroes, says our source. Now Microsoft has decided to cancel Marvel Universe, which leaves Cryptic with plenty of time and a nice chunk of change from the City of Heroes sell-off to develop a new IP.

Our source, who wished to remain anonymous, said that an official announcement will be made in a few weeks about the demise of the game, unless something “drastic” occurs.

As part of the NCsoft acquisition of the City of Heroes series, the MMO firm founded a new studio and brought in key Cryptic staffers Brian Clayton, Matt Miller, Aaron Brady and Ken Morse. NCsoft had nothing to do with the actual cancellation of the game, according to our source, but as the firm plans to expand the City of Heroes MMO, it would seem like NCsoft would benefit from not having a high-profile Marvel superhero MMO to compete against.

Rumors of the cancellation originated from a 1Up podcast where EGM executive editor Shane Bettenhausen said th

Once upon a time, gamers had the choice of either high fantasy or alternate fantasy if they wanted to play a massively multiplayer online game. And although it is certainly the case that the fantasy genre still dominates the MMOG market, several new games released this week aim to add a bit more spice to one of the fastest-growing sectors of gaming.

On the family-friendly front, Disney Online has released Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Inspired by the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced summer blockbusters, which themselves took root from the classic Disney theme-park attraction, the MMOG lets aspiring swashbucklers captain a ship, steal booty, slay undead, and otherwise build a legend as the most well-intentioned knave on the Seven Seas. The game is available for both the PC and Mac. Players can play for free in a limited-access, ad-supported version of the game, with full access being granted for a first-month fee of $ 4.95 and a $ 9.95 charge each month thereafter. It is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older.

Playing off of the ghoulish frightfest that is (or at least used to be) Halloween, Flagship Studios has opened up Hellgate: London this week. Hellgate seeks to join first-person sh

This press release has details on what preordering Pirates of the Burning Sea will offer those who take the early plunge on Burning Lab Software's upcoming MMORPG, though preorders will not commence until October 23 in North America (a European preorder date has not been set yet). Those who preorder will receive the following:

• An invitation to the “Pre-Boarding Party” allowing them access to the live game up to 15 days prior to launch, and the ability to keep their characters, skills and equipment after launch with purchase of game and paid subscription (characters will have a level cap of 20 during the pre-boarding party)

• Captain’s Best Friend – a blue and yellow parrot

• Mighty Blades - Swedish Rapier, Old World Steel or Musketeer’s Matching Blades (depending upon which fighting style is selected) • Original Game Soundtrack CD – 60 minutes of pirate themed music (comes in pre-order box)