MMO: Top NEWS Stories this week

MMO market grew by 22 per cent in 2008 shown in a new report by Screen Digest

Consumer spending in the sector reached $1.4bn across Europe and North America, with the ongoing success of Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft credited as being the driving factor."
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MMO developer Gazillion has claimed that it is working on “six or seven” titles at the moment, and that its intention is to take the currently hardcore-centric MMO genre to the mainstream.

“We're making a wide range of products, some for kids, some for the core gamers,” Gazillion’s VP of marketing Paul Baldwin told Joystiq.

“We actually think that what makes us unique is that we're going for the mass market. Much like a Pixar film not only resonates with a six-year-old kid, but a 39 year-old guy like myself the whole way through – much like Zelda works with eight-year-old kids and 35 year-old hardcore gamers in terms of the depth of gameplay.
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Marvel MMO to see 2012 release

Marvel Universe Online, the comic book superhero MMO, will be released in 2012 - shortly after a number of movie properties make their debuts in cinemas.

Simon Philips, Marvel's president of worldwide consumer products, said the MMO wouldn't be out until after the Captain America movie in 2011 and the Avengers film in 2012. He explained that time would be used to work with Gazillion to create "the next generation of storytelling".

"It sounds like a long way away, but it's not," Philips told MTV. "We've got to create, together with [game publisher] Gazillion, that environment that is going to be a totally immersive experience and a perpetual storytelling experience as well."
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Eve Online bundled with Nvidia cards

Eve Online will now be bundled with the current series of Nvidia VGA cards manufactured by Albatron Technology, alongside a one month subscription to the space-faring MMO.

Each Nvidia card comes packed with a DVD that includes the Eve client and CD key with one month of game time, worth USD 14.95.

Last year, CCP signed a deal with Atari which saw boxed copies of Eve Online distributed throughout retailers, previously the title had only been available through digital distribution.

The MMO has approximately 250,000 monthly subscribers and, earlier this year hit a peak in concurrent users of over 50,000.