It was Friday! Although the News Bits are posted on Friday every week, but this week, due to some technical difficulties, the 'Friday' News Bits are more of 'Saturday' News Bits. Here are the News Bits of this week!
Sony Online Entertainment(SOE) has announced that to focus on other projects, SOE will shut down four of its' massively multiplayer online(MMO) games. The games are Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Wizardry Online and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Each of the games have been given a closing date and a reason for closure(except for Wizardry Online):
Sony Online Entertainment Will Be Closing Four MMOs
Sony Online Entertainment(SOE) has announced that to focus on other projects, SOE will shut down four of its' massively multiplayer online(MMO) games. The games are Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Wizardry Online and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Each of the games have been given a closing date and a reason for closure(except for Wizardry Online):
- Free Realms: "Free Realms has reached a point in its life cycle where players are moving on to other games." The closing date is March 31.
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: The reason for it's shutting down is because of "decreasing player population and the increasing cost of updating the game". The closing date is July 31.
- Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures: The reason given for it's closing down is that "its players moving on". The closing date is March 31.
- Wizardry Online: No reason for shutting Wizardry Online has been given, so it is assumed it is due to lack of interest. The closing date is July 31.
Microsoft and EA Accused of Paying YouTubers
Microsoft has been accused of paying YouTubers to mention Xbox One in a positive light in their videos. The news broke out as Machinima UK YouTube channel's Community Manager made a tweet which revealed that YouTubers can earn an extra $3 per a thousand views as long as their video includes 30 seconds of Xbox One and spoke about it in positive light. The YouTubers are also not to talk about being in the scheme. Since then, the account of the manager has been deleted, however, the agreement from Machinima about the scheme has been immortalised 'here'.
Microsoft has spoken about the topic that it did not pay any YouTubers and that they paid Machinima to advertise the console and they're the ones who did this while Microsoft wasn't aware. They have asked them to halt any additional Xbox One content now:
Microsoft was not aware of individual contracts Machinima had with their content providers as part of this promotion, and we didn’t provide feedback on any of the videos. We have asked Machinima to not post any additional Xbox One content as part of this media buy, and we have asked them to add disclaimers to the videos that were part of this program indicating they were part of paid advertising.
Electronic Arts-
After the news with Microsoft broke out, EA's data also appeared on NeoGAF. The deal with EA was that the YouTubers were given specific rules on to how the videos should be labelled and what features of the games should be talked about to promote their games. One thing they shouldn't do is highlighting bugs in their games. Doing this, they can earn $10-15 per a thousand views.
King Trademarks Words "Candy" and "Saga" and Takes Action Against The Banner Saga
The creators of the mobile game Candy Crush Saga, King, has trademarked the words Candy and Saga. They are now taking an action against the upcoming Indie PC game "The Banner Saga" for using the word 'Saga'. Stoic Studio filed an application for trademarking the full "The Banner Saga" name, however, King stopped them since they have already trademarked the word "Saga". Stoic Studio can still use the name, however, it cannot trademark it.
The creators of the mobile game Candy Crush Saga, King, has trademarked the words Candy and Saga. They are now taking an action against the upcoming Indie PC game "The Banner Saga" for using the word 'Saga'. Stoic Studio filed an application for trademarking the full "The Banner Saga" name, however, King stopped them since they have already trademarked the word "Saga". Stoic Studio can still use the name, however, it cannot trademark it.
Man Arrested After Sharing Freeland Police Department's Wanted Picture of Himself
Photo Credit : Facebook
After the man shared the post and mocked the police saying "lol i fucking love it, ASSHOLE". According Daily Mail, the police after seeing the suspect shared the picture, posed as an attractive woman and lured the man into a trap. The undercover officer pretended to be a woman and asked him to have a drink with her, to which he declined. Then the officer said "The least you can do is have a cigarette with me" to which the man agreed and walked right into their trap, thus got arrested. The man happens to be a father.
Woman Jailed For Killing Her Baby and Then Posing a Selfie of It
Emma Wilson
Photo Credit : Central News
The baby suffered critical brain damage, nine fractured ribs, broken leg and arm and died in the hospital.
The mother blamed the murder on her older son who is 2 years old, but it did not work and she is jailed for 14 years by the court.
Yahoo Buys Virtual Worlds Gaming Company "Cloud Party"
Yahoo has purchased virtual worlds game developer company "Cloud Party". Cloud Party is known for providing a 3D multiplayer engine that runs into Web Browsers without the need for plug-ins or downloads that allows users to create their own worlds and avatars to explore.
Cloud Party will continue to run until February 21, 2014. The CEO of the company, Sam Thompson has posted on the official Cloud Party blog:
We’re excited to announce that the time has come for the Cloud Party team to start our next adventure. We are joining Yahoo! The last two years have been an incredible experience for everyone here. We’ve been continually amazed by your creativity and the worlds you’ve built and shared with us. Cloud Party will continue to run until February 21, 2014. We want to support our community during this transition. In the interest of preserving your extraordinary Cloud Party creations, we’ve added export tools and written this guide to help you export your content. If you have any questions, please contact us at support@cloudpartyinc.com. We are privileged to have had so many wonderful users share ideas and creations. We are excited to bring our vision and experience to a team that is as passionate about games as we are. Thank you all for sharing in this journey with us, and we hope you stick around for what’s next!
Muhammad Junaid
Muhammad Junaid is the writer of Entertainment Ghost. He writes articles, reviews, previews and entertainment news about gaming, technology, the media and so on. You can follow him on Twitter @Mr_MJunaid and Facebook MJunaid
