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Skyforge - New MMORPG by Allods Team and Westernization by Obsidian

C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Your destiny is your own to forge. My.com, a subsidiary of Mail.Ru Group, has revealed a new AAA title: the premium massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Skyforge is currently being developed by the Allods Team, an in-house studio of Russian Internet giant Mail.Ru Group, with westernization from US gamemaker Obsidian Entertainment. Skyforge will launch as an immersive MMORPG gaming experience for PCs.

“This is our most ambitious project to date”

In Skyforge, players develop from immortals, to mighty champions, to powerful gods gaining and developing their mortal followers and powers along the way. Empowered by the faith and skill of their followers, gods battle invading armies in intense, merciless combat to protect their home world. Skyforge features unique action combat and a massive variety of classes and character customization options as players grow from immortal to invincible gods.

Skyforge is being developed by the award winning Russian game developer Allods Team, a part of the Mail.ru Group. Their last project, Allods Online, was the first major Russian MMORPG and launched in more than 15 countries. The core of Allods Team includes industry veterans who developed internationally acclaimed games including Evil Islands, Etherlords, Silent Storm and Heroes of Might and Magic V.

Set in a world where fantasy meets Sci-Fi and ancient mysteries live side by side with cutting-edge technologies, Skyforge transports players to a stunning universe where mortals and immortals fight for survival against invading gods and their armies. Players start as immortals newly reborn into the world and vie to become gods themselves.

“This is our most ambitious project to date,” said Oleg Shpilchevsky, The Allods Team’s Head of Development Studio. “With players competing and cooperating on one single giant server, Skyforge brings the massive back to MMORPGs.”

Visceral combat sequences and grand battles unfold across a world settings limited only by the developer's imagination. To ensure that Skyforge meets the expectations of players worldwide, The Allods Team has enlisted the help of the widely lauded development studio, Obsidian Entertainment.

“We have begun working closely with the Allods Team to ensure that the game is a success in western markets,” said Eric DeMilt, Development Director of Culturalization for Skyforge, Obsidian Entertainment. “We are building a team of accomplished developers to collaborate in class and instance content development as well as westernization. It is an exciting partnership with an excellent development team, and we can't wait for players to get into the game.”

To learn more about Skyforge, please visit www.skyforge.com. For instant updates, follow the Skyforge team on Twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to the official YouTube channel.

Skyforge joins My.com’s stellar, recently-announced 2014 lineup that also includes AAA MMOs Armored Warfare, being developed by Obsidian Entertainment; World of Speed, in development with Slightly Mad Studios and Evolution, a sci-fi action RPG for iPad and iPhone being developed by My.com's internal studio.

About My.com

My.com is a subsidiary of Mail.Ru Group, the largest Internet company in Russian-speaking countries with an audience of more than 100 million users (comScore, September 2013), that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: MAIL), (listed since November 5, 2010).

My.com is building an integrated communication and entertainment platform, dubbed ‘Communitainment,’ beginning with a family of mobile services and games. My.com’s mobile communications apps - myMail and myChat - provide multiple email account management and messaging, and myGames is a growing collection of mobile and PC game experiences.

For more information about My.com, please visit: http://press.my.com/about/.

About Obsidian Entertainment

Founded in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment is an entertainment software development company based in Irvine, California, passionately dedicated to the creation of high quality role playing games for all personal computer and console platforms. Obsidian is best known for the products Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the record breaking crowdfunding through Kickstarter for Pillars of Eternity (http://eternity.obsidian.net).

For more information about Obsidian Entertainment, please visit: http://www.obsidian.net/.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_eV6RhtRr0

http://sf.my.com/

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Posts

  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    edited March 2014
    Interview with Aidan Karabaich, Senior Class Designer at Obsidian (Formerly of 38 Studios and Carbine)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKHFxipWj7s

    C2B on
  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    How many of the quests will be about invading and annexing allied countries that you have treaties with?

    What is this I don't even.
  • SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    How many of the quests will be about invading and annexing allied countries that you have treaties with?

    all of them, just how american produced mmos are all about invading the middle east

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  • Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    No man he's right it turns out everyone in Russia are freedom-hating oligarch communists who worship Putin as their god-king. It was totally confirmed on Fox News and everything.

    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
  • FoefallerFoefaller Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    No man he's right it turns out everyone in Russia are freedom-hating oligarch communists who worship Putin as their god-king. It was totally confirmed on Fox News and everything.

    So does that mean when Putin dies the government after will pretend that he never existed for the next 20-odd years?

    On topic though, this is looking kinda neat, but I wonder if I'll have a computer that can make it look anywhere close to that pretty when it comes out...

    Foefaller on
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  • citizen059citizen059 hello my name is citizen I'm from the InternetRegistered User regular
    Jq1Srno.png

    Ric Flair as playable character confirmed.

  • SuperdupeSuperdupe Registered User regular
    Damn, some of the folks in this thread need to grow a sense of humor.

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  • ButtcleftButtcleft Registered User regular
    Wasn't allods that sketchy as hell Russian mmo or something.

  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Wasn't allods that sketchy as hell Russian mmo or something.
    It was basically a free-to-play WoW that got a lot of hype for actually being really good, and then I think someone bought the company and intentionally tried to kill it off by making the cash shop really awful.

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  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    It looks very Tera-ey (peddobait faerie girls notwithstanding). I definitely got a sorcerer and slayer vibe from those two characters that were shown in the trailer.

  • CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    This game reminds me a bit of Allods in it's art style. Minus the traditional Russian style buildings (both Tsarist/Muscovite and Soviet era ones) which don't appear to be present here.

    Allods was okay, but died early on due to it's heavy traditional WoW style, boring grindy leveling and the fact that they were all over the place with their micro-transaction market. Some high end items actually cost, I shit you not, the equivalent of USD 2000 dollars. Not exactly micro.

    Also the promised airship stuff fell through for launch and I don't know that they ever actually got it going.

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  • I needed anime to post.I needed anime to post. boom Registered User regular
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Wasn't allods that sketchy as hell Russian mmo or something.
    It was basically a free-to-play WoW that got a lot of hype for actually being really good, and then I think someone bought the company and intentionally tried to kill it off by making the cash shop really awful.

    yeah allods was shockingly competent and had it been well-managed it probably could have been very successful

    some changes to level flow and items were honestly all it needed, the game had a really solid sense of style and place

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  • SeidkonaSeidkona Had an upgrade Registered User regular
    edited June 2014
    I was pretty excited for allods for a while. I even made an OP for it here when it was first coming out.

    And then they released the game with what amounted to some of the worst pay shop stuff to ever have been seen. I've heard along the way they've dialed it all back but in general it was the pure greed of the cash shop that killed any real hope of most people playing.

    The worst one was at launch, if I remember right, there was a rather crippling death penalty that could only be removed by a cash shop item.

    Yes, if you died you had to spend money or stop playing for a day for it to wear off because you were useless if you didn't.

    Edit: They eventually back off that but by then it was way to late for anyone to care.

    Seidkona on
    Mostly just huntin' monsters.
    XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
  • StupidStupid Newcastle, NSWRegistered User regular
    I actually played Allods for a few months a couple years back. The crippling cash shop issue mentioned was a real thing, but by the time I tried it, they had already realized their horrible horrible mistake and removed that limitation.

    When I tried it, the game was amazingly good, pretty much WOW-level of polish and fun for a PvE game. The crafting system was really good, kind of a little mini-game that had both skill and luck based aspects. I'd have to say that to date, it was the best crafting system I have seen. If you were smart and learned how to play the crafting mini-game well, you were more likely to get a better item. Plus, the luck-based portion became more weighted towards better items as your crafting level increased. Really an elegant system.

    I only played the first three zones worth of content and while it was fun, it wasn't for me. I'm told that the game started to transition to a more open-world PvP focus at level 25, but I wasn't willing to grind out that much PvE to get to what I consider the fun part of the game. I'm also told that the game changes AGAIN at level 40-ish into a naval combat/management type game, which is not what I was looking for at all!

    I gotta admit I dropped $20 into their cash shop for a horse.


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  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    Eric DeMilt will be doing a live chat in about an hour on curse

    http://www.gamepedia.com/news/377-skyforge-revealing-the-divine-observatory

  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    Also Update on one of the games features
    Drew wrote:
    Skyforge_Megashot_140428_131117_eng.jpg

    It's time to continue the journey through the world of Skyforge! Today we are revealing one of the most significant features of our game, the Divine Observatory.

    For the residents of Aelion, the Divine Observatory is a global surveillance and warning system. Its task is to monitor and display the pleas for help of Aelion's mortals and send immortals to their aid.

    For players, it is a single point of entry into all sorts of adventures!

    Skyforge_fornews_1_27.06.2014_1240.jpg
    The Divine Observatory, as well as special Access points located throughout the whole planet, will quickly take you to where your help is needed most.

    When you first begin your journey from immortal to godhood only a few adventures will be open but more and more will become available to you as you progress. During the first hundred hours of play time, the immortal heroes of Aelion will participate in more than 40 exciting solo and group PvE-adventures. There are also five different types of PvP competitions for PvP fans and ten vast open world locations that can be explored for hours and hours.

    There are a multitude of activities open to players in the Divine Observatory, and your choice is not limited in any way. It’s up to you to decide whether you would like to develop your character for PvP or PvE and then quickly jump into the content you prefer.

    Skyforge_02.jpg
    A normal adventure can be completed in an average of 15-25 minutes, while open world locations can take hours and hours to explore.

    The Divine Observatory is updated every 40 minutes. Any changes in the adventures open to you or their rewards will be immediately displayed on the globe, a miniature projection of the planet. The system updates the list of “hot spots”, allowing players to easily see and participate in all cur-rently active events.

    Skyforge_Globe_2.jpg
    Open adventures and their rewards are updated every 40 minutes.

    You are free to replay specific individual and group PvE-missions you enjoy again and again, and their rewards grow as your prestige grows, so they remain useful to your development and progression. After repeating an adventure several times, the difficulty will increase, and so will the amount and value of the rewards. Of course, other types of content also remain relevant to you as you grow as well. For example, the matchmaking system always tries to find the most suitable opponents when it picks players for PvP battles.

    Skyforge_fornews_5_27_06_2014_1240en.jpg
    From the Divine Observatory you can enter the queue to participate in a group adventure and then go to one of the open world locations to continue completing simple tasks while the system is looking for a suitable group.

    There are also additional recommended events which will appear in the Divine Observatory from time-to-time (adventure of the day, week and month). These recommended events are a great way to test your characters progression or try a different class. Sometimes the reward for the recommended event is so high that even an avid PvP player may decide to participate in a PvE adventure, or a confirmed Paladin will set off for Factory 501 as a Cryomancer.

    Skyforge_fornews_en.jpg
    The Divine Observatory also displays upcoming adventures that will soon become available.

    The number you see in this picture above is Prestige - the main indicator of character development. It is affected by new unlocked classes, abilities, talents, equipment upgrades and many other things. When you reach a certain amount, new adventure and content are automatically unlocked.

    Skyforge_Globe_Eng22.jpg
    Over time, there will be there will be a growing array of adventures and content available to you.

    As heroes complete PvE and PvP adventures, they receive rewards including; Credits, the most common money on Aelion. Gems of Insight, which are used to develop your characters skills and talents, unlocking new classes and characteristics, and Exotic Currencies, which can be used to buy new outfits, customizing the look of your character.

    As your prestige grows, the list of rewards expands. While at the first the characters receive only Gems of Insight, later their adventures will earn them other new and valuable resources. Over time, more and more difficult tasks will become available to you, including massive guild activities with their own rules and prizes, but that’s a topic for another day.


    Let us know what you think of the Divine Observatory! If you want the chance to see if it for yourself make sure you sign up for the Skyforge Beta now!

  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    edited August 2014
  • CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    C2B wrote: »

    One of the many times I wished I knew how to understand Russian.

    Game looks pretty though, and gives me the same Russian inspired feel that Allods did in a few ways, mainly in the architecture of that first hub area.

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  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    Live Demo from gamescom on the twitch stream

  • NoizlanifNoizlanif MMO-Whore Registered User regular
    Just watched the gamescom stream. I really hope this game does well.

  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    Theres a technical beta this weekend. If you have registered for the game previously you should have gotten an ivite.

    Didn't pay attention recently so thats something to do on the weekend.

  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    Spunky wrote:
    producers_letter_tech_beta_11-12.jpg

    Hi everyone! I wanted to kick things off by thanking everyone for their interest in Skyforge. The developers teams at the Allods Team and Obsidian have been working hard to get everything locked down for this technical test, and for our upcoming closed beta activities. Everyone's enthusiasm for the game throughout this year has been a great motivator for the teams as we've focused on the countless tasks that go to into getting an MMO out of "development" and into CBT. This includes working on high end content like raids while simultaneously getting numerous little things solidified – like updating that UI nobody loved.

    It has been a busy year for the teams working on Skyforge. Content was adapted and used as demos and for reveals to the public and press at several trade shows including; E3 here in LA, Gamescom in Cologne, Igromir in Moscow, and most recently events in London and Paris Games Week. With press events and trade shows building awareness to the game the development teams continued to lock down features and get Skyforge ready for the kickoff of the Technical Beta Weekend. Demos are important, and it's exciting to show off features and content to the press and see player's reactions, but getting the game ready closed beta tests is the "brass ring" everyone is really focused on.

    Getting to the Technical Beta Weekend - getting "real players" in the game, seeing how game systems behave in “the wild” and iterating based on player feedback & game telemetry is the place all our developers really want to reach.
    As many of you have seen we've already begun some testing with players in Russia and are eager to flip the switch on our servers in other territories. The upcoming technical test has two primary goals. The first is to test the infrastructure we've put in place to support critical services like game authentication, client distribution, game server services, and our feedback & support infrastructure in North America and Europe. These critical systems and services need to be in place and tested before we can ramp up into larger closed beta events. Our second goal, and the one I am most excited about is starting to gather feedback and impressions on the game from actual players.

    This first Technical Test features a very small slice of content from the huge game that is Skyforge. Players will be testing one open world zone (the Lanber Forrest), three solo instances (Okki Island, Kyris, and the Lanber Catacombs), one group instance (Thetin Rift), and one PvP map (Kingesi Arena). You’ll do all of this while playing as the Cryomancer or Paladin character classes. Remember that in Skyforge you aren’t locked into one single class, meaning you can play as both by changing classes whenever you’re not in combat. However, because it is a very small slice of the game you won’t be creating new characters instead, you’ll have the choice of using one of the many pre-made character included in the technical test build.

    I should also mention that because our invite pool is relatively small, we've disabled the matchmaking rules on the PvP map, so players will be able to get in matches quickly, but you may face opponents of much higher or lower prestige. This technical test is just the first of our upcoming round of Skyforge beta activities. Fan support and enthusiasm for the project so far has been great and we wish we could get everyone in day one, but this is just the beginning. Throughout the coming months we'll be rolling out new beta events, testing new content, and continuing to distribute beta keys. If you haven't done so already, be sure to visit Skyforge.com and sign up for the beta. As beta continues, we will continue to send out additional info on future beta dates and opportunities to earn keys.

    Thanks again for all the support and for your help in making Skyforge a great game experience.

    -Eric DeMilt
    Skyforge Development Director - Obsidian Entertainment

  • StupidStupid Newcastle, NSWRegistered User regular
    C2B wrote: »
    Theres a technical beta this weekend. If you have registered for the game previously you should have gotten an ivite.

    Didn't pay attention recently so thats something to do on the weekend.

    Interestingly, even though I had registered for this back in early August, I never was "confirmed" and was able to "apply" (for the first time) today.

    Back-end errors in beta signups do not inspire confidence in a finished product....


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  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    Stupid wrote: »
    C2B wrote: »
    Theres a technical beta this weekend. If you have registered for the game previously you should have gotten an ivite.

    Didn't pay attention recently so thats something to do on the weekend.

    Interestingly, even though I had registered for this back in early August, I never was "confirmed" and was able to "apply" (for the first time) today.

    Back-end errors in beta signups do not inspire confidence in a finished product....

    Yeah, my.com's account system is weird. Had my own problems. Was even worse in the beginning where there was no way to check if you were registered for beta and there were several errors.

  • El FantasticoEl Fantastico Toronto, ONRegistered User regular
    Yeah, sad I missed out on an opportunity to get a chance at the game, but I think I'm signed up properly now. Hopefully I'll be notified of any upcoming events to test things out.

    PSN: TheArcadeBear
    Steam: TheArcadeBear

  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
  • GikenGiken Registered User regular
    So is anyone still looking forward to Skyforge? The CBT starts on the 11th, if you managed to get a key from one of the random drawings, or the stream.

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Well, looks interesting, at least.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlEK1bkLsuo

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Okay, the Gunner speaks to me. Watch one minute of this.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMmSUr89-Zo

  • NoizlanifNoizlanif MMO-Whore Registered User regular
    Well, time to ride another hype train.

  • GikenGiken Registered User regular
    Had fun last night. Played it for a while, and basically did the tutorial and one of the first missions on a planet. Even though my ping sucked it was still enjoyable.

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