1、《仙境传说》和《全球计划》发布免费模式，网游似乎正渐渐从付费转向免费。近日Gravity Interactive宣布除提供VIP服务外，以北欧神话为背景的MMORPG游戏《仙境传说》开启免费模式。无论新手或是老玩家均可完全免费体验游戏中的升级、任务和战斗。同时，之前的额外角色和内容仍将在VIP服务中出现。（游戏邦注：《全球计划》1.4版本也预计将于4月中旬上线，所有角色在50级以下均免费。）

神秘世界

2、《神秘世界》开发偏离原计划，跨平台MMO游戏计划搁浅。4年之前，Funcom扬言《神秘世界》将成为横跨PC和Xbox 360的MMO游戏。但现在创意总监Ragnar Tørnquist表示假如《神秘世界》真得研发出控制器版本，也将与PC版本不尽相同。尽管Tørnquist声称有团队专门负责设计Xbox 360版本，但这不是公司关注的重点。只有当游戏取得巨大成功后才会推出控制器版本，其言外之意是Xbox 360版本《神秘世界》的研发已被秘密推迟。

3、Outspark试图用新发游戏《圣魂》进军美国网游市场。Outspark觊觎网游市场长达5年之久，4月5日公司发布动作网游《圣魂》，试图用劲爆的打斗和精美的画面打开美国网游市场。公司认为这款免费游戏将会吸引该市场位于两个极端的玩家：厌烦休闲游戏以及在其他游戏中花费大笔资金的玩家。当然，Outspark也很可能被Zynga等Facebook休闲游戏公司和暴雪等硬核MMO游戏厂商击败，但他们认为自己瞄准的这块休闲游戏和硬核MMO游戏之间的市场仍有发展潜力。

坦克世界

4、《坦克世界》获吉尼斯世界纪录认证，单服务器同时在线人数超9万。今年1月23日，《坦克世界》某俄罗斯服务器同时在线玩家总数达91311人，打破之前由《Eve Online》创下的63170人的世界纪录。4月6日，该游戏获得吉尼斯世界纪录证书，纪念这个辉煌的时刻。到目前为止，《坦克世界》在美国、俄罗斯、欧洲和中国的注册玩家已超过3百万。

《坦克世界》吉尼斯世界纪录证书

5、独立游戏《Minecraft》制作者Markus Persson称在游戏开发完成前先行投放市场大有益处，这也是Zynga如此成功的原因之一。发布半成品后，开发者可以根据社群玩家的反馈信息来改善游戏的质量，而不只依赖内部测试。Persson表示在《Minecraft》发布后，他增加了许多玩家希望看到的内容。事实上，这正是发现和修正错误并增加新内容的过程和方法。

6、4月6日，由以色列开发者Shy Shalom制作的网页游戏《Cycleblob》正式上线。Shalom称制作这款游戏是为了学习如何更好地运用WebGL和其他新型公开标准和规范，探索其在网页游戏开发中的实用性。虽然这些网页技术应用尚未成形，但《Cycleblob》的面世或许最终会导致Flash退出市场。

7、EA于近日官方发布免费网页游戏《Lord of Ultima》，与免费策略页游大亨《Evony》展开角逐。虽然该游戏免费，但玩家仍然可以购买“钻石”来做某些特殊和有趣的事情，比如说每天可以建造更多建筑等。尽管《Lord of Ultima》是免费网页游戏，但比起其竞争者而言无疑显得更为精致。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

1. Stack e’m up and knock e’m down. It looks like yet another premium, pay-to-play MMO has taken off the subscription harness and replaced it with free-to-play reigns. Gravity Interactive announced today that the long-time P2P MMORPG based on Norse mythology now offers gamers free-to-play options in addition to VIP services.

All the game’s classes, quests and battles can be experienced by newbies or veteran players alike completely free. At the same time, however, all the premium characters and content from before is still available on the VIP servers.

Gamers interested in partaking in the new Ragnarok Online can do so…for free…simply by making an account at the Warp Portal’s Official Website. (Source: Gaming Blend)

2. Four years ago, it was still reasonable to believe that we were on the verge of some kind of console MMO explosion. That’s when Funcom unveiled The Secret World, an MMO in development for PC and Xbox 360 — the first and last time there’s been a definitive statement about the console version of the game to date. (A press release in January described The Secret World as “a next-generation massively multiplayer online game for the PC platform.”)

What a surprise, then, to hear creative director Ragnar Tørnquist tell Eurogamer that he’s “been very vocal in saying that when — I guess also if — we have a console version of The Secret World, it’s not going to be exactly the same game.” This is the first we’ve heard of a change in plans, even if we’d presumed that, at best, The Secret World console game had been secretly delayed.

While Tørnquist allowed that he had “a team” working “specifically” on an Xbox 360 version (at least at some point), he noted, “It’s not something we’re focusing on now. I think it will only happen if The Secret World turns out to be — as of course it hopefully is — a huge success. We will want to do things on other platforms; we will want to expand the universe. But it won’t be the same game.”

“You can still have the same setting; you can still have the same philosophies, the same basic systems,” he said of a console version. “But you really need to make a different game. How different that will be, it’s hard to say.” (Source: joystiq)

3. Outspark has been trying to carve out a role in the middle of the online game market for five years. Today, it’s launching a new online action game called Divine Souls that it hopes will spur demand for online market games with faster action and better graphics.

A lot of online games are stuck in two dimensions, or they cost a lot of money, or they take a huge amount of time to play. Outspark’s games are free-to-play, but the company’s betting that the quality of Divine Souls is so good, it will lure in players at both ends of the market: those who are tired of casual games and want more and those who are tired of spending a lot of money on games that take forever to master.

Of course, Outspark could also be hammered by rivals at both ends of the online game spectrum — casual Facebook game companies such as Zynga and hardcore massively multiplayer online game makers such as Blizzard Entertainment. Outspark’s bet is that the middle of the market isn’t a No Man’s Land. (Source: Games Beat)

4. Wargaming.net claimed a world record for the most players online simultaneously on one MMO server on 23rd January this year. The number of players on World of Tanks’s Russian server totaled 91,311.

The impressive figure beats a previous record set by Eve Online, which claimed 63,170 concurrent accounts logged on to the same server on, strangely enough, 23rd January.Currently, World of Tanks has received the Guinness World Records Certificate. This is an actual recognition of the achievement.

As far, the registered players of World of Tanks in the US, Russia, Europe and China have exceeded 3 million. (Source: MMOSITE)

5. The Zynga way — releasing games mid-production and updating them as time goes on — is the way to go for independent game developers, according to Minecraft creator Markus Persson.

By releasing mid-production, developers are able to use a community to do quality assurance on a game rather than relying on testers and in-house staff. Persson said he released Minecraft and then added additional features as the community asked for them. That meant he was able to tailor the game to the growing community, which only fed Minecraft’s — and Persson’s — popularity. It’s basically crowd-sourcing the process of finding and fixing bugs and adding features. (Source: Games Beat)

6. Cycleblob, an addictive browser game created by Israeli developer Shy Shalom, went live today. The game ports light cycles, the futuristic vehicles from the legendary 1982 film Tron, to the browser. Nerd power! Of course, seeing as Tron was recently upgraded with a new sequel, it’s only fitting that light cycles should be given a more contemporary setting in which to compete — especially if that backdrop takes advantage of modern web standards and contexts.

Shalom said that he created Cycleblob to learn how to best use WebGL and other new open standards and specifications in creating games and to generally explore its applications. Though the applications of these browser technologies are still largely incipient, it certainly looks like Cycleblob’s plumbing could eventually spell doom for Flash. Maybe not. You be the judge. (Source: TechCrunch)

7. EA’s browser-based free-to-play strategy game, Lord of Ultima, has offically launched out of beta and is now available for you (and I) to play, freely, on the internet. The game, which bares only the most tenuous of actual connections to the Ultima universe, is EA’s attempt to muscle in on the market created and dominated by the similar free-to-play online strategy title and part-time boob-tease, Evony.

Although Lord of Ultima is free to play, you can purchase “diamonds” with real-world money to allow you to do special and interesting things, such as build more units each day. Despite being a browser-based free-to-play game, Lord of Ultima (or “Lou” for short) undoubtedly possesses a polish and sophistication somewhat lacking in its boob-tastic competitor, including a fully-fledged game wiki and multiple language support. (Source: games.on.net)