RIFT 3.3: Waking Nightmares Plus Free Patron Time

RIFT 3.3 is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, July 15th, and is the first chapter in the game's new Nightmare Saga updates. Features include a new saga quest, Planar Crafting, new Instant Adventure in Tarken Glacier, as well as a more accessible variant of the Gilded Prophecy raid.

Trion Brings Action-Fueled MMO Devilian to West

Devilian, an ARPG MMO currently released only in Thailand and South Korea, will be coming North America and Europe with Trion Worlds at the helm. We spoke with Producer Andrew Sipotz, Program Manager Victoria Voss and Trion CEO Scott Hartsman last week about the game and we took our first look at how it plays.

At character creation players will be able to choose between four classes: Evoker (battlefield control and projectile blasts), Shadowhunter (whip-wielder that can alternate between melee and ranged), Cannoneer (tactical), and the Berserker (dual-wielder, plate-wearer). During gameplay your character can shift into devilian form, which is a super-charged winged demon form that uses its own ability set, enhanced stats, unique equipment, and has its own progression. By slaying mobs you'll gain devil soul, which both contributes to leveling up your devilian form and grants more time to be shifted into the form.

Andrew: "In the game you play as a devilian who has been awoken from a long slumber after an ancient war between man and demon. The storyline progresses as you quest; there's story for the class that you play through and learn more about the background, what's going on with the world and has happened since you've been asleep, and what the new evil is up to."

Trion Announces Next Defiance DLC

The Gunslinger Trials, Defiance's fourth DLC, has been announced and promises to explore many unanswered storyline questions. The DLC is slated to drop sometime in March on the PC, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Trion Closes European HQ

It’s barely a week since Trion Worlds announced the closure of its San Diego office, marking the start of a plan to revitalize the MMO developer. That strategy continues today, with the announcement that Trion’s European headquarters is to close.

Layoffs Hit Trion

It appears that an unconfirmed number of employees at Trion Worlds have just received a terrible end to the week. According to reports from both IGN and Kotaku, between 70% and 80% of the company have been let go this afternoonUpdate: Trion has been in contact and stated that  the rumored figures are a large exaggeration and do not reflect the restructuring accurately.

Following a disappointing launch and lackluster reception at the hands of critics, Defiance has struggled despite recently clocking up over a million registered users. The TV series has fared significantly better by comparison, with SyFy recently renewing the show for a second season. 

Trion to Publish ArcheAge

We’ve been drooling over the beauty of ArcheAge for some time – enough to give the sandbox MMO a coveted place on our list of MMOs to Watch in 2013. Today, our chances of playing the game moved one step closer with the news that Trion Worlds will be publishing it in western markets.

Using the Red Door platform, Trion will be working with developer XLGames to bring Archeage to North America, Europe, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. It follows Crytek’s Warface in being powered by Trion’s online platform.

We’ll be watching closely for further developments from Trion and XLGames, including news when the highly anticipated western beta is likely to start.  In the meantime, take a look at this gorgeous trailer for the Asian Open Beta.

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor

Not The End Of Nations

Last week's layoffs at Petroglyph left some uncertainty about the future of End of Nations.  Today we know that the game's publisher Trion Worlds is going to take the game in-house to finish the work and prepare for launch.

Trion World Network Announces New MMO

Trion has joined forces with the Sci-Fi Channel to bring us a new MMO!
Trion World Network, Inc. (Trion), the publisher and developer of connected games and entertainment, has announced their first title, a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Jon Van Caneghem, Computer Gaming Hall of Fame member best known for creating the long running RPG and strategy franchises Might and Magic and Heroes, is the creative force behind the project currently being developed internally at Trion’s Redwood City studio. The game represents the initial first-party title on the Trion Platform, and will be published by Trion in both North America and Europe.

Gamers will enter a seamless, persistent fantasy world, where they will significantly affect the gameplay experience through dynamic events. Battles of enormous scale will create epic moments that an unprecedented number of players can participate in. All of this will be powered by Trion’s revolutionary server-based architecture, which is uniquely designed to enable massive scalability, dynamic content evolution, and cross platform development.

“This game is designed on the philosophy of putting players at the center of the game world,” said Jon Van Caneghem, co-founder, President and Chief Creative Officer, Trion. “By building an extensive event system and a server architecture that allows for dynamic change, we are creating completely new opportunities for creative game design. The game will live and change along with the players, evolving in response to their actions and the creativity of our design team.”

It's always exciting to see new folks getting into the game! Keep an eye out for more coverage as the game details become available!