Atari Launches Its Greatest Hits App for Android

The #1 Selling iTunes App Expands into the Global Android Marketplace

Atari, one of the world’s most recognized publishers and producers of interactive entertainment, today announced the availability of Atari’s Greatest Hits for Android Marketplace.

Launched only a few months ago for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, Atari’s Greatest Hits has already exceeded 3.5 million downloads in the iTunes App Store.  Android smart phone and tablet owners can now download the App to receive Missile Command for FREE, and get access to a vast catalog of 100 classic Atari games.  This extensive collection pays homage to each of the originals and was designed to mimic the gameplay Atari fans remember from 30 years ago.

“The #1 selling Atari’s Greatest Hits continues to expand its reach to new operating systems, devices and territories,” said Jim Wilson, CEO of Atari.  “It exemplifies our company goals as we shift our core focus towards delivering casual gaming experiences through mobile and social platforms.”

Players can purchase 25 separate game packs for $0.99 each or buy all 100 games for a discounted price of $9.99.

 

Game packs include:

Centipede, Asteroids, Tempest, Battlezone, Black Widow, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Star Raiders, Pong, Lunar, Lander, Super Breakout, Major Havoc, Warlords, Adventure, 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Fatal Run, Quadrun, Casino, Swordquest, Championship Soccer, Football, Realsports Basketball, Realsports Football, Super Breakout 2600 and Hangman.

Tribes: Ascend Closed Beta Begins Tomorrow!

Player Progression Will Be Preserved In Beta, No Character Wipes Planned

Hi-Rez Studios (www.hirezstudios.com) today confirmed that the Closed Beta for Tribes: Ascend will begin on Friday, November 4, 2011.

Studio representatives also announced that no character wipes are planned during Beta.  Player advancement in terms of rank, class unlocks, and skill progression will carry forward beyond Closed Beta, into Open Beta and into Release.

Previous Tribes titles have been played by well over 1 million gamers and feature fast-paced, jetpack-enabled multiplayer combat.  Tribes: Ascend continues this tradition, delivering speed, verticality, vehicles and stunning graphics within an entirely new, free-to-play game for the PC.

The Closed Beta build of Tribes: Ascend includes two initial class options – the Soldier and the Ranger, 10 additional classes available to be permanently unlocked, 3 drivable vehicles, 2 game-modes, and servers located across North America, Europe and Australia.   Prior to release Hi-Rez will also support Ranked Servers and Private Servers.

“Compared to Alpha, Tribes: Ascend enters Beta with even more unlockable classes, a skill & perk system, and additional projectile-based weapons” said Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios Chief Operating Officer.  “And we plan to deliver new playable maps and classes after Beta and even after Release.   Our dev team is excited to reintroduce such a fast-paced, team-based shooter and we are looking forward to playing alongside the Beta community.”

Players interested in joining the Tribes: Ascend Closed Beta can register for an invitation at http://www.tribesascend.com.

Those wishing to guarantee a Closed Beta spot may purchase the Tribes: Ascend VIP Starter Bundle at the game’s official website. The bundle includes automatic admission into Beta, permanent VIP status in the game, a 30-day Booster and 3000 Tribes Gold. The VIP Starter Bundle is priced at a 33% discount to list price, as a reward to the game’s early testers.

CLUB PENGUIN GETS MORE SOCIAL WITH DEBUT OF NEW FEATURES

The #1 Virtual World for Kids Debuts New Chat and Friends Systems Designed to Make Communicating and Playing in Club Penguin Easier and Safer

 

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA—October 28, 2011—Club Penguin (clubpenguin.com), the #1 virtual world for kids with more than 150 million registered players, today introduced new Chat and Friends tools.  With these new tools, which will begin to roll out today and be available for all users in the coming weeks, Club Penguin has completely overhauled its in-world communications tools, and designed systems to create a safer and more social experience for kids online.

 

The new Chat system allows kids to communicate faster more efficiently by automatically completing words and phrases as they type.  The patent-pending system was developed by a team of Disney computational linguists, producers and engineers, and represents one of the safest and most advanced Chat technologies for kids.  It incorporates six years of learning from player behavior in Club Penguin, and includes a database of nearly 300,000 approved phrases in each of the virtual world’s four supported languages globally.  Chat has become one of the most popular features in Club Penguin, and each day millions of kids exchange more than 56 million Chat messages.

 

The enhanced Friends functionality allows players to better organize, find, and visit their penguin friends.  The new features change the way kids connect with one another in the virtual world by allowing them to choose best friends and add new friends by searching for specific penguin names.   Each player is also now represented with a personalized penguin avatar in the friends list, rather than just their penguin names.  Additionally, in the coming weeks, Club Penguin will launch a “jump” feature that allows kids to easily travel to the location of their penguin friends.

 

“We’ve added powerful social networking technologies to the world’s biggest online world for kids,  making it much easier for kids to find and connect with each other in Club Penguin,” said Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin and executive vice president of Disney Online Studios.  “The new Friends and Chat systems are the most significant enhancements we’ve ever made to Club Penguin and we’re just getting started.”

 

More details on the new Club Penguin features follow:

 

NEW CHAT SYSTEM MAKES COMMUNICATING EASIER, MORE EXPRESSIVE

 

• CHAT SYSTEM THAT FILLS IN THE BLANKS—The new Chat utilizes a proprietary algorithm that enables players to type only part of a phrase or sentence and have the anticipated phrase automatically completed, word-by-word as the player types. 
• HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PHRASES —Club Penguin worked with computational linguists to design this program as an easy and safe way for kids to communicate.  The program currently encompasses nearly 300,000 approved phrases, which have been identified based on six years of Chat history in Club Penguin.
• CONTINUED COMMITMENT TO SAFETY —. The new Chat evolves Club Penguin‘s screening technology from one based on pre-approved and banned words to a system built on pre-approved phrases.  Because every phrase used in the new Chat system has been previously screened and pre-approved, it’s designed to give kids the ability to easily communicate, but not share any personal information or abusive language.

• MULTI-LINGUAL – The enhanced Chat functionality has been translated across four languages making it accessible to Club Penguin’s global audience.  The new Chat is available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

 

FRIENDS LIST BECOMES MORE PERSONALIZED

 

• FULLY CUSTOMIZED PENGUIN AVATARS—Until now, the “Friends” lists in Club Penguin featured penguin names only.  Now fully customized penguin avatars and backgrounds will represent each friend on players’ lists, and these customized penguins will appear transparent to denote that a friend is currently offline.  Additionally, a cleaner user interface will allow players to more easily organize and locate friends.
• TAG YOUR FAVORITE PENGUINS AS BEST FRIENDS—Friends who are communicated with most frequently, based on friends who you jump to play with, send a postcard to, visit their igloo, and stampbook with most frequently will appear at the top of the list.  Penguins will also be able to tag fellow penguins as “best friends” so they appear on top of their lists. Once a penguin has exceeded 10 friends, they will be able to tag “best friends.”
• BETTER TOOLS FOR LOCATING FRIENDS AT CLUB PENGUIN HOT SPOTS — A new and improved Friends interface will allow players to instantly locate where their friends are in world so they can easily meet up with them, regardless of which server they are using.
• ADDING NEW FRIENDS HAS BEEN SIMPLIFIED—Players just need to enter another penguin’s name into the search box and send a friend request.
• ELIMINATE PENGUINS FROM YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN—The Friends list now contains an icon that empowers kids to “turn off” players they don’t want to be contacted by or interact with in Club Penguin.  These players can now be completely hidden from a player’s screen, which offers increased protection for players.

 

“JUMPING” TO LOCATIONS IN-WORLD

• TRAVEL OR “JUMP” WITHIN THE WORLD IS MORE FUN AND IMMERSIVE—Images of penguins jumping into box will appear on screen to showcase their journey to meet up with friends in other locations.

• “JUMP” TO FAMOUS PENGUINS —Club Penguin is making it easier to discover and visit the “Famous Penguins” of the island, such as Captain Rockhopper and Aunt Arctic.  When the Famous Penguins  visit the world, players will be alerted at random to their whereabouts so they will have the opportunity to “jump” to them to enjoy this unique experience.  

King of Kings 3 – Battle for the Moon Goddess

Gamigo’s clan war MMORPG King of Kings 3 is launching a new add-on called “Moon Goddess” with truly celestial content: Gamers are drawn into a conflict between good and evil angels. Almost 200 new skills have been unveiled to help prepare you for this new threat, and the top level cap has been raised from 140 to 180.

A whopping 24 new maps and over 200 missions offer plenty of opportunities to familiarize yourself with the new class skills. There are also four new dungeons awaiting daring adventurers. In the “Angel Arena” for example players battle against six of Gabriel’s henchmen before getting their chance to take down the master villain himself. Special daily dungeons offer big-time action without all the build-up skirmishes. You’ll get one boss fight after another, without having to grind out fights against lesser opponents.

Overview of new features

• Over 180 new skills
• Level cap raised from 140 to 180
• 24 new maps
• 2 new regular dungeons
• 2 new daily dungeons
• Enhancement stones for upgrading to Deadalus equipment

Fiesta Online Gets Spooky For Halloween Celebration

From now on through to November 4th, gamigo‘s fantasy MMORPG Fiesta Online is putting on its best costume and inviting everyone to join in on the spooktacular Halloween Celebration. New Halloween elements will be added to the game each week and there are plenty of tricks and treats in store for players. More treats than tricks, but considering the spirit of the time, there is no telling what will pop up next.

Brand new Halloween weapon covers, outfits, accessories and more will be placed into the Cash Shop on October 20th. If that’s not enough to raise the devil, we have created the new quest ”The Ghost And Ghouls“ (released on October 20th) that rewards players with a 20% Magical & Physical Attack/Defense boost as well as a 7 day Halloween Pumpkin Head mask just for going on a supernatural scavenger hunt of sorts. New, monstrous mobs will also be regularly spawning throughout this time period. The biggest and rarest of them all will include a giant zombie that can transform players into zombies themselves. Between these happenings, city decorations, Facebook events and the in-game Halloween parade, Fiesta Online is giving its players one great Halloween time, minus the candy.