A teaser video was recently released showing the all-new Heavy Fighter class in BigWorld-Powered MMO World of Warplanes. This class will be great at a number of unique abilities.

First off is interception between planes. Although it’s a huge hunk of metal, the Heavy Fighter will be ideal for intercepting between planes while in the air, adding a tactical advantage to movement strategies.

The Heavy Fighter class also benefits heavily from head-on attacks. When you come across an enemy dead ahead, this class will tear them apart with its focus on head-on warfare abilities.

Bombing skills will also be a big factor of this class. The Heavy Fighters will be crucial in destroying bases as well as battleships with these powerful bombs.

The teaser video for this aptly named “Ultimate Predator” can be viewed below.

The 7.3 update for BigWorld-Powered World of Tanks just went live, and along with it came a slew of changes and new features.

Some of the most substantial additions are stated below.

Added vehicles for testing, available for supertesters only: Soviet heavy tank IS-6 (tier and German TD JagdTiger 8.8cm KwK 43 L/71 (tier 8).

• Added two new maps Dragon’s Ridge (first map based in Asia) and South Coast (a Crimea based map).
• KV-3 moved from tier 6 to tier 7 as a Soviet heavy tank, and rebalanced.
• T-150 substitutes KV-3 as a Soviet heavy tank tier 6.
• KV-4 added as a Soviet tier 8 heavy tank.
• ST-I added as a Soviet tier 9 heavy tank.
• IS-4 moved from tier 9 to tier 10 in Soviet tech tree and rebalanced.
• IS-8 substitutes IS-4 as a Soviet tier 9 heavy tank.
• KV divided into KV-1 and KV-2. KV-2 becomes a Soviet tier 6 heavy tank.
• Added previously tested French premium vehicles to the game store: tier 3 tank destroyer FCM 36 Pak 40 and tier 4 SPG 10.5 сm leFH18 B2.
• Added vehicles for testing, available for supertesters only: Soviet heavy tank IS-6 (tier 8 ) and German TD JagdTiger 8.8cm KwK 43 L/71 (tier 8).

These added changes and features should add some fresh new perspectives to gameplay.

The official release of patch notes can be seen here.

A while back, we shared a post regarding the announcement of BigWorld-Powered Realm of the Titans‘ “Titan’s Eye” map. Here, I’m going to talk about the features of this unique map a little more in detail.

The first aspect that breaks it from the generic DotA map mold is that there are only two lanes. With it being a 5v5 map, having only two lanes will breed a lot more chaos than from a traditional three lane map.

By having a more limited number of lanes, there will be a higher opportunity for battles, and in-turn, more opportunity for death. Aeria knows this, so they are giving the map an alternate win condition. While you can still push to the enemies’ base and destroy their “tower” to win, on this map getting to 66 kills will also give your team the winner’s spot.

Another one of the most important aspects of this map is the new Rune Altar system implemented in it. Throughout the map you will come across “Rune Altar” structures, and by clicking on them they will yield you one of many enhancements. Each enhancement has a specific color, with the list detailed below.

• Orange – increases magic damage
• Purple – 500 experience
• Blue – double physical damage
• Red – haste
• Green – mana/health regeneration increase
• Yellow – 350 gold

This is a fresh take on the commonly-trite DotA formula, and we’re glad to be behind it.

Gamasutra wrote an article about BigWorld’s  interview with Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins.

The interview delves into developer publishing on mobile and social media gaming platforms. Specifically, how players get there game to be seen in these flooded markets.

“…if you have a million apps in an app store, just because your app is in an app store, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be discovered…So you’ve got issues about how you’re going to bring traffic to it.”

Hawkins brings up that the more traditional way of publishing games at retail was more ideal.

“Retailers in the old days not only solved the distribution problem, they solved the discovery problem.”

He claims that retailers were there to aid consumers in discovering games they might have never heard of, whereas in these new markets the consumer is overwhelmed with options.

“In the very beginning with iPhone, with Android, with Facebook, they also solved the discovery problem because there wasn’t much there. As you got up into the thousands and thousands of things that are there, they’re no longer solving the discovery problem.”

This commentary on the discovery problem is Hawkins’ reasoning as to why game developers still need a publisher to get their game out there. Although developers can put their game into this vast marketplace themselves, they need someone there to help make it stand out.

The interview in its entirety can be viewed below.

BigWorld-Powered World of Tanks is entering Southeast Asia.

Warren Spector has just joined the ever-increasing list of prolific game developers to appear at the BigWorld-Sponsored Game Masters Melbourne exhibition being put on by The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

The creator of Deux Ex, System Shock, and Epic Mickey will share the stage with contemporaries Peter Molyneux  and Tim Schafer to discuss the gaming industry and their contributions to it.

In an exclusive interview, Spector brings up what Role-Playing games should truly be and his views on modern RPGs.

“The fact that today Role-Playing is defined by ‘I have seventeen 80th level characters’…that’s pathetic.”

He doesn’t see Role-Playing as a measurement of class and skill levels, but instead an immersive game-space that makes you feel you are truly living in this world.

“Role-Playing should be about, I don’t know, playing a role, maybe? It’s not about rolling dice, it’s not about what level I am, it’s not about my character class.”

This ideal of game-play is very evident in his games Deus Ex and Thief, which drive the player to become a prevalent part of the world they are playing in.

BigWorld is happy to sponsor this event featuring such inventive game developers like Warren Spector, with a full list of guests here.

The interview discussed can be seen below.

MMO Hut has posted a nice little interview and preview regarding BigWorld-powered World of Warplanes.

World of Tanks continues its campaign to take over the world, entering now into Southeast Asia, as CNET reports.

Published by SEA Gaming, 1 million new tank drivers are expected on the SEA server within the first year of operations with local support services, payment options and in-game events.

Wargaming.net has installed dedicated servers located in Singapore for players in the region where available arsenal include historical accurate armored vehicles from the likes of America, Germany, and the Soviet Union.

In Wargaming.net’s TV News Block #11 video, they bring up the idea of adding an uber-sized tank to the game. This tank, the aptly named “Ratte”, uses its long-range guns at full capacity by shooting shells that transcend servers. That’s right, you shoot at one tank in front of you, and the shot rips through servers, destroying another tank entirely.

This whole idea of a colossal-sized tank reminds us of our post last year on “La Gargantua”, yet another behemoth that crushed anything in its way. This mountain of a tank “sports a long-range impulse rail turret, mine-laying capabilities, and a host of other yet-to-be-revealed functions.” Maybe one of those yet-to-be-revealed functions was the cross-server warfare discussed in the TV News Block?

Check out Wargaming.net’s video and our screencap of “La Gargantua” below to see for yourself.

Wargaming.net recently released the first Developer Diary video concerning their upcoming BigWorld-Powered MMO World of Warplanes.

In the video, they give an overview of what World of Warplanes is, the aircraft and nations involved, as well as the state of development.

Still in the Alpha testing stage, World of Warplanes is shaping up to be another hit from Wargaming.net.

The video in its entirety can be viewed below.

from the tour desk

BigWorld will be doing a multi-stop tour of Latin America in May, and we want to meet local developers of online games.

BigWorld Technology is the game engine and toolset behind such online hits as World of Tanks, Realm of Titans and Kingdom Heroes. BigWorld is known globally for high concurrency online populations, highly scalable server tech and a world class 3D client.

This event is appropriate for anyone developing (or planning to develop) an online game, MMO or virtual world on PC, browser, console or mobile.

We invite you to come learn more about our technology, discuss online game development practices, and catch up with the local developer community. Food and drink will be provided.

Please sign up via Eventbrite…
BigWorld Brasil Meetup: May 8, 2012
BigWorld Argentina Meetup: May 10, 2012
BigWorld Chile Meetup: May 15, 2012

We will discuss the scope of the BigWorld Technology Suite including references to development and world building tools, scripting, client/server performance and potential applications. We want to hear about your projects, so come bearing tablets and mobile devices.

We will also be continuing our video interview series of Latin American game developers on-site.

We look forward to meeting you. Please contact us directly to arrange studio visits, or if you have any questions.

Burning Dog Media has the following to say about their upcoming MMO Origins of Malu, now being developed on BigWorld’s indie license.

“We have licensed Bigworld Technologies for the development of Origins of Malu…we feel that it was the best choice for the direction of the game.”

Origins of Malu is a sandbox MMO unlike most of its predecessors. The game features no scripted boss fights, a single persistent changing world, no classes, an intuitive faction system, and even perma-death. This is a unique take on the MMO genre, breaking tradition in a big way.

The idea of perma-death itself is very intriguing. Malu will feature special areas where – if killed – your character is permanently gone. This adds a whole new layer to the game. Risking it all on a character with hundreds of hours logged would be hard to stomach, but with greater risk comes greater reward.

Origins of Malu looks to be a breath of fresh air for the MMO genre, and we’re happy to be behind it.

The folks at Wargaming.net are still celebrating the one year anniversary of BigWorld-Powered World of Tanks. To give back to the fans, they are offering specials on the following features.

• 5x experience for the first victory of the day on each of your tanks
• 15% discount on six-month and one-year premium account options
• 3-day premium for 250 gold (normally 650)
• 7-day premium for 650 gold (normally 1250)
• 50% discount on:
• Standard: IS, KV-13, SU-8, PzKpfw V Panther, PzKpfw VI Tiger, Hummel
• Premium: T-25, T14, Matilda, Valentine, Churchill
• 50% discount on 100% crew training
• 50% discount on crew retraining
• 50% discount on camouflage

In addition to this, they are also offering a promo code to give players one free day of the premium content shown below.

• 50% more experience per battle
• 50% more crew experience per battle
• 50% more credits earned in a battle
• Opportunity to create a platoon of 3
• Opportunity to create a tank company

These offers end tonight (April 16th) at midnight.

This afternoon, BigWorld-Powered World of Tanks celebrated its one year anniversary. Here’s what Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi had to say about the matter.

“Our growth over the last year has been nothing short of amazing. A year ago, no one in the company could possibly imagine that World of Tanks would have skyrocketed like this.”

We’ve been happy to follow World of Tanks through this success, and only wish them the best in their future. Below are a few statistics of the game since its first year of being live.

24 million registered users

350 million battles

75 billion shots fired

48 billion hits (27 billion misses)

13 billion armored vehicles destroyed

Last January, World of Tanks broke the Guinness World Record for the Most Players Online Simultaneously on One MMO Server, with the number of players totaling 91,311. They’ve since then broken this record again many times, totaling upwards of 450,000 players concurrently online. Looks like it’s time for Guinness to update the books!

Here’s a video commemorating their first year of going live, complete with dubsteb and explosions.

PC game development is coming back in full force, according to a Gamespy.com article.

In particular, they bring up how free-to-play MMOs specifically are a serious new commodity.

“Just a few years ago, free-to-play was associated with the sub-par social games found on Facebook. Today you can find a library of solid free games simply by clicking on a tab on Steam. As evidenced by PAX East, it’s not just a trend, it’s becoming the new standard.”

BigWorld-Powered World of Tanks is leading the pack in a new generation of free-to-play MMOs, containing more action and skill than traditional games of the genre. Gamespy touches on this new emergence in MMO gaming.

“In 2012, MMOs will become skill-based and action-oriented, while still giving us the massive worlds, customization, and loot we love…”

In 38 Studios’  hit Kingdoms of Amalur, they changed conventional RPG gameplay by adding in a robust and intense combat system. With their upcoming sequel to Amalur, BigWorld-Powered MMO Copernicus, we’re curious to see if they keep this action-oriented focus to gameplay, while also including the traditional features of MMOs we’ve come to love.

Read the Gamespy.com article in its entirety here.

Matt’s conversation at the BigWorld GDC booth with Hernán and Nicolas from QB9, the Argentinian online game developer behind the browser-based MMO Mundo Gaturro. They share their vision for the future of games distribution, support, and development in Argentina, and Latin America as a whole.

Matt sat down at the BigWorld GDC booth with Andres Bordeu and Carlos Bordeu, co-founders of Ace Team, prominent Chilean developer that came out of the mod community to develop instant classics like Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages. The studio is known for its very unique, out-of-the-box direction in game development, and they took a few minutes to impart upon BigWorld’s Indie developer community some of their experience going pro and becoming one of the most respected game development studios in Latin America.

See more of our GDC 2012 developer interview series here.

Gamespy.com released an article of their first impressions on BigWorld-Powered World of Warplanes, what they are calling Wargaming.net’s “biggest game yet.”

In the article,  Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kisly added “[World of Warplanes'] budget after one year of development is already higher than all of the flight sims before it combined.”

It looks like this BigWorld-Powered title is shaping up to be to be a great airborne adventure, sparing no expense with the visuals according to Gamespy.

“The terrain I saw in the canyon and island maps looked terrific, with a nooks-and-crannies-level of detail that I was surprised to see given that Warplanes is still in alpha. This one should be a visual stunner by launch, especially for a free-to-play game.”

Wargaming.net is sure to have yet another another big success in their hands. We’ve seen it in action ourselves and the rumors of its awesomeness are not exaggerated.

Below is some alpha footage of World of Warplanes, see for yourself!

This afternoon Beefjack.com shared 10 new screenshots of BigWorld-Powered World of Warplanes. These screenshots were originally shown at the PAX East gaming conference.

Below is our favorite of these screenshots coupled with a photograph taken from a WWII bomber plane mid-battle. Where does one end and the other begin?

]]> http://blog.bigworldtech.com/bwblog/2012/04/world-of-warplanes-back-to-the-future/feed/ 0 http://blog.bigworldtech.com/bwblog/2012/04/world-of-tanks-7-2-patch-notes/ http://blog.bigworldtech.com/bwblog/2012/04/world-of-tanks-7-2-patch-notes/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:51:53 +0000 Matt http://blog.bigworldtech.com/bwblog/?p=2230 from the Tanks desk

Wargaming.net has released patch notes for the much-anticipated release of the BigWorld-Powerd World of Tanks 7.2 update.

Of particular relevance are new maps, new American tanks, lots of re-balancing, updated camouflage.

Added new maps: Province (a small Italian map) and Live Oaks (first American map).

Added American tank destroyers with turning turrets: M8A1, T49, M18, T25-2, and T28 prototype.

The T34 is rebalanced and moved to premium vehicles; it is removed from American Tech Tree. M103 substitutes T34 as an American tier 9 heavy tank.

The T30 is rebalanced; it becomes becomes an American tier 9 tank destroyer with a turning turret. T110E5 substitutes T30 as an American tier 10 heavy tank.

Added one camouflage for each nation.

We reported earlier on the Game Masters Melbourne exhibition being thrown by The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

The event will feature a comprehensive retrospective on the history of video games, loads of playable games, as well as events and master classes by some real legends of game development history.

The organization has today announced the extended list of participants. BigWorld is proud to be a core sponsor of this event, and we hope to see you out there on opening night!

Leading contemporary designers featured in-depth include Blizzard Entertainment (USA, World of Warcraft, 2004), Paulina Bozek (UK/CAN, SingStar, 2004), Hideo Kojima (JPN, METAL GEAR SOLID, 1998), Tetsuya Mizuguchi (JPN, Child of Eden, 2011), Peter Molyneux OBE (UK, Populous, 1989, Dungeon Keeper series, Fable series), Yuji Naka and the Sonic Team (JPN, Sonic the Hedgehog, 1991), Nintendo (JPN, Super Mario Bros, 1985, The Legend of Zelda, 1986), Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy (USA,Rock Band, 2007), Tim Schafer (USA, Psychonauts, 2005), Warren Spector (USA, Disney’s Epic Mickey, 2010), Yu Suzuki (JPN, Hang On, 1983), TT Games (UK, LEGO Star Wars: The Videogame, 2005), Fumito Ueda (JPN, Ico, 2001, Shadow of the Colossus, 2005) and Will Wright (USA, SimCity, 1989).

A major component of the show will be an exploration of independent game designers such as; Jonathan Blow (USA, Braid, 2008), Capy (CAN, Critter Crunch, 2008), Eric Chahi (FR, Another World, 1991), Jakub Dvorský (CZ, Machinarium, 2009), Firemint (AUS, Flight Control, 2009), Halfbrick (AUS, Fruit Ninja, 2010), Introversion (UK,Darwinia, 2005), Masaya Matsuura (JPN, PaRappa the Rapper, 1996), Marcus Persson (SW, Minecraft, 2011), Rovio (FIN, Angry Birds, 2009), Erik Svedäng (SW, Blueberry Garden, 2010), thatgamecompany (USA, flower, 2009) and The Behemoth (USA, Alien Hominid HD, 2002).

GDC in San Francisco last month opened the floodgates for what looks to be a very busy year for BigWorld’s global roadshow.

• PAX East, Boston: April 6-9
• E3, Los Angeles: June 5-7
• GDC Taiwan: June 26-27
• Game Masters, Melbourne: June 28-Oct 28
• Develop Conference, Brighton: July 10-12
• Chinajoy, Shanghai: July 26-29
• Gamescom, Cologne: August 15-19
• GDC Online, Austin: October 8-10
• GDC China, Shanghai: October
• I/ITSEC, Orlando: December

Let us know if you’ll be in attendance at any of these events.

For those who aren’t keep an eye on our Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube channel for the chronicling.

Wargaming.net has officially released it’s 7.2 patch for BigWorld-powered World of Tanks.

World of Tanks Update 7.2 Released
The Long Awaited Update Introduces a Set of New Vehicles and Battle Arenas

30th March, 2012 — Wargaming.net, the award-winning global videogame publisher and developer, is proud to announce the release of Update 7.2 for its free-to-play action MMO World of Tanks.

Along with two new maps, the Italian Province and the American Live Oaks, the latest update enriches the game with a long-awaited branch of U.S. tank destroyers with rotating turrets. It also brings 22 all-new crew skills and perks for virtual tankmen to master. Additionally, to ease the learning curve, the update provides World of Tanks newcomers with a new tutorial to smoothen their entry into the game.

Other significant changes include the replacement of top-tier American heavies T34 and T30 with M103 and T110E5, respectively, with the T34 becoming a tier-8 premium heavyweight and T30 to top the new line of tank destroyers.

“We introduced a French update into World of Tanks a few months ago, and now it’s North America’s turn,” said Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming.net. “We’ve completely reconsidered the set of crew skills in Update 7.2, which will bring a more realistic experience to our players and keep them engaged.”

Wargaming.net has released screenshots, a tech tree, and a video trailer showcasing the newest inclusion to World of Warplanes: The Dragon.

Like, an actual fire-breathing dragon.

BigWorld is proud to be sponsoring Game Masters, an interactive retrospective on the video games being put on by The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne. The first master boss fights on the list? Tim Schafer (Monkey Island) & Peter Molyneux (Fable)… FIGHT!

Schafer will be joined by former Lionhead game designer Peter Molyneux at the opening of Game Masters, an interactive exhibition that will showcase the work of celebrated game designers from Australia and overseas through a combination of concept art, interviews, and more than 125 playable games from the arcade era through to new releases.

ACMI’s Game Masters will feature Schafer alongside the creators of franchises including Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario Brothers, The Sims, Rock Band, and The Legend of Zelda. Schafer’s own exhibit during Game Masters will include playable versions of his games and concept art. The museum has also announced it will provide fans with an opportunity to hear from Schafer in the coming months.

Read the full story here

Heath Hooker from Venturebeat interviewed Sergey Burkatovskiy, lead designer on BigWorld-powered World of Warplanes. Below are some excerpts…

The “Tanks” taught us many useful lessons and we’ve got proven-to-be-good schemes and concepts designed for our first MMO title, which we can now apply to World of Warplanes. Surely, we encountered difficulties, but World of Tanks proved that an MMO has the potential to deliver a great gaming experience, once it’s polished, deep, well-balanced and constantly updated. Take a look at the concurrent user numbers; we have over 500,000 tank men playing at a given moment in time. That’s impressive.

Why planes? Well, that wasn’t a hard choice either. Many people in the dev team are passionate for planes and flight sims, not to mention hundreds of World of Tanks fans asking us to come up with a flight combat title. We were very excited about the idea when only started working on Tanks, and the fact that players pretty much wanted the same thing only urged us towards getting down to the concept.

Gaming Nexus has a put together a fairly comprehensive interview and retrospective with Wargaming.net. Topics covered include World of Tanks and World of Warplanes.

Looking back at the last year what were the things that you did right? What things could you have done better?

The last year was crowded with great events for Wargaming.net. After launching World of Tanks open beta in Europe and North America we were struggling to catch up with the fast-growing game population. We never expected so many people to join the game and had to drastically increase our server capacity! So we built new data centers and perfected the server side technology. Probably, a major milestone here was the introduction of multicluster technology: it allowed us to add several clusters to each server group and, thus, insured server stability. We are doing well right now. But actually, ongoing fast-paced growth in Russia makes me think another mad scramble to keep up with the WoT population is soon to ensue.

We’ve introduced lots of new content and stuff in World of Tanks in 2011. I must admit we were a bit behind our internal schedule at times. But well, you know, our schedules aren’t set in stone: we want to be certain people love what we give them, and we only introduce updates when we are sure they are by all means top-notch and well-balanced. Speaking about our major goals, I can’t but mention full-scale graphics modernization. It’s a burning issue we’ve been tackling since last year.

Wargaming.net has unveiled the first World of Warplanes video anyone has publicly seen. The game, currently in Alpha, is powered entirely on BigWorld Client and Server.

This past week’s revelation that Wargaming.net is earning double-digit millions monthly on World of Tanks has created a firestorm of commentary all over the interwebs.

The company has come quite far since we first partnered with BigWorld on World of Tanks over four years ago. BigWorld is proud to play a role in Wargaming.net’s continued success. Here’s what everyone is saying…

Gamesindustry.biz: As the game has grown to reach over 20 million registered users, developer Wargaming.net has scaled with it – 18 months ago the business consisted of 120 employees primarily based in Minsk. Today it is approaching 800 staff around the globe.

MMORPG.COM: Further, Wargaming.net is considering South American and Middle Eastern releases as well.

Curse.com: “If you count the last year and a half, we might be the fastest growing company ever, headcount wise and revenue wise,” said Kislyi, and that, “We probably have one of the highest payment ratios in the industry, it’s around 25-30 per cent, because people love the game.”

Beefjack: With a devoted, and rapidly expanding user base behind them, Wargaming.net reporting close to half a million concurrent active users in Russia and Europe combined, with Chinese users (managed by KongZhong) standing at around 150,000.

Gamasutra: As for its staff, the London-headquartered company has 400 people working on World of Tanks alone — compared to the 120 it had 18 months ago — across its development studios in Minsk, Belarus and Kiev, Ukraine.

Games Brief: Victor Kisyli, CEO of Wargaming.net estimates that MAUs = 10x peak concurrency. (I treat these numbers with a very big pinch of salt, meaning that I don’t believe that they are verified).

Strategy Informer: “For casual gameplay which most players do most of the time, people don’t usually use gold or expendables. Of course if you want to win a tournament, if you’re competitive, if you play clan wars, if you want to be at the top, we think it’s appropriate to expect a little bit of money from you because you already spent hundreds of hours in our game and that’s much more than the value of any $50 box.”

Gaming Nexus has tackled a rather in-depth retrospective of BigWorld-powered World of Tanks. In the interview, Wargaming.net discusses some of their Asian expansion plans.

Wargaming has loads in store for 2012. For starters, this spring we are launching World of Tanks on the Singaporean cluster in South-East Asia. Tentatively, we are planning to release World of Warplanes in 2012. We’re shying away from giving a specific date, but I can tell you that it’s coming together very nicely. The Global Alpha that has only launched 23th February and we already have more than 100 000applicants eager to join the ranks of virtual pilots! It makes me think WoWP has really tremendous potential.

Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi talks to Matt about World of Tanks, Wargaming.net’s explosive growth, World of Warplanes, his favorite (French) tank, and other topics.

Curt Schilling and 38 Studios are hiring new leadership with strong MMO backgrounds, including John Blakely (DC Universe Online, Everquest II) and Mark Hansen (LEGO Universe). 38 Studios is building the sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, an MMO currently titled Copernicus, and built on BigWorld Technology.

Read more on Joystiq.

The very talented folks at Up At Noon interviewed Todd McFarlane, the creative force behind Spawn. He weighs in on his involvement with 38 Studios’ recent success Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and the upcoming BigWorld-powered MMO sequel.

In the interview, Todd discusses the upcoming MMO, currently codenamed Copernicus, which is being built on BigWorld Server Technology. He explains how Curt Schilling “doubled down” his bet that the Amalur franchise would be a success by releasing single-player Reckoning before the BigWorld-powered Copernicus MMO.

It’s that time of the year again. BigWorld will be out in full force at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.

We’re set up at island booth #624, with private meeting space, our executive team, and half a dozen of our engineers demonstrating our tech on multiple machines.

We’re excited to tell you about new developments in our technology, as well as progress on BigWorld-powered titles like World of Tanks, Realm of the Titans, Secret Kingdoms Online, and others.

Shoot us an email for a meeting.

In the meantime, here are some memorable BigWorld shenanigans from GDC Online: Austin in October.

Develop has included BigWorld in their Essential Engines Guide: a comprehensive compendium of the top game development middleware solutions available today.

Matt shares some thoughts in the interview…

Any middleware developer would be remiss to not address the new needs of the rapidly-growing sector of small, often distributed, independent development teams. They’re developing awesome and compelling interactive experience in comparably smaller budgets, with faster turnaround time, a higher rate of innovation, a lower rate of risk aversion, and they’re doing it on myriad platforms. So, I’d say we’re seeing an intense diversification of game types, as well as the tech that facilitates their development. BigWorld is moving, along with the whole industry, with this oceanic momentum.

In this month’s GDC edition of the Magazine, Intent Media has done a great job of cataloging existing middleware options, based on core focus (casual, mobile, browser, console, MMO, etc.)

Keep an eye out for the feature around pg. 40 of this month’s GDC edition of Develop Magazine.

We congratulate Wargaming.net as BigWorld-powered World of Warplanes officially launches its alpha testing period.

Producer Anton Sitnikau said the studio is looking for a “massive number” of pilots to take part in the test. “Our most important task now is to gather feedback from our test pilots and prepare a well-balanced, stable version with a large amount of vehicles and battle arenas, which we’ll be able to enter the beta with,” he explained.

Read more on The Escapist.

Wargaming.net is taking their first dip into mobile with their recently-released iOS app (Android coming soon). The app allows players to check game stats, profiles, stay in touch with their in-game comrades, and so forth.

We rather liked this ultra-slow motion rendition of BigWorld-powered World of Tanks, set to Schubert’s Ave Maria…

Why not.