“It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.”

World of Warcraft debut in North America on November 23, 2004, and has since claimed the bestselling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide. In 2007, World of Warcraft: The Burning Cursade was also met by popular demand, and was the bestselling PC game of the year.

World of Warcraft is currently available in seven languages, with a Russian version in development and scheduled for release later this year. In addition to North America and Europe, World of Warcraft is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Wings Of The Goddess will include new jobs, new characters, and new adventures in the world of Vana’diel.

Accommodating players in North America, Europe and Japan, Final Fantasy XI is the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game capable of simultaneous multiplayer cooperation across three different platforms. Now in its fifth year of service, Final Fantasy XI has a community of more than 500,000 subscribers and more than 1.7 million player characters from around the world.

For more information about Final Fantasy XI, Wings Of The Goddess visit the official site at playonline.com/ff11us

During the convention Ubisoft’s Chief Executive Yves Guillemot gave his insight into the new MMO business approach. “They all have the ability to get it, and if they want to progress you can sell (enhancements) to them,” he told Reuters.

Other companies have already pioneered the method with game titles such as Yulong and Legend of Mir II, created by the Chinese companies, CDC Corporation and Shanda Interactive Entertainment.

Electronic Arts has also taken the approach in the Asian market, which has an online gaming market of $3 billion. “We had many people playing but nobody paying. The online games drive the pirate out of the business,” said Gerhard Florin, Executive Vice President, General Manager, International Publishing of Electronic Arts.

This type of online gaming service allows the casual player to play for free, while more avid video gamers can experience more in depth play with the payed enhancement features. This attracts a wider audience into the MMO world, where many gamers spend severals hours playing while interacting with friends, socializing, and building online communities.

Read More: Source: Reuters

Tony Hilliam, CEO of Auran stated, “We believe that FURY will be the start of a PvP revolution, so why not create a revolutionary Open Beta event to show the world that we have arrived. Last week we announced our unique business model of free to play with free content updates and an optional subscription. This week, we’re pleased to announce a landmark in gaming with a total prize pool valued at over one million dollars. In late September, hundreds of thousands of players will compete to kick-start their Fury careers by winning Fury Game Cards, Fury Subscriptions and lots of other cool loot too.”

Brian Cooke, Auran Marketing Director comments, “We’ve lined up a huge array of prizes from our sponsors including NVidia, Dell, IGN, GameStop, Harvey Norman, FHM, Logitech and ZBoard. More sponsors are lining up to get their brand message on the FURY Challenge website, on in-store advertising and also on the in-game loading screens (which will be present for FURY Challenge only). The full list of sponsors and prizes will be continually updated via the www.furychallenge.com website.

Adam Carpenter, Fury Creative Director says, “Although FURY Challenge is a competitive event, our main goal for this Open Beta competition is to ensure that all players have fun. There will be plenty of time once the game is up and running to get into more serious tournaments where the goal is to find the best of the best. Meanwhile, during the lead-up for FURY Challenge we are allowing players to earn as many abilities as they like. However, once the competition kicks off, we will be limiting player Ranks to ensure casual and hardcore players are competing on a level playing field.”

Richard Iggo, Gamecock VP Sales and Marketing states, “We have garnered enormous support in the North American market for FURY Challenge. For example, when we first mentioned the concept to GameStop, the world’s largest specialty games retailer, they jumped at the chance to get behind the event. They are offering FURY pre-order customers’ special access to mid-week practice sessions and to the Closed Beta prior to the event. Pre-order customers also get a special in-game suit of armor which can be used both in Fury Challenge and once the game goes live in October.”

David Solari, Vice President and General Manager of Codemasters Online Gaming adds, “Announced only last week as the European partners for FURY, Codemasters are very excited to be able to lend our support to this landmark gaming event. We look forward to adding a number of European sponsorship partners to help boost the prize pool and to ensure that FURY Challenge is a major success.”

Visit furychallenge.com for official rules and details.

“Our first update significantly expanded the world of Middle-earth with new story arcs, quests, and exciting new kinds of gameplay,” said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “For Book 10 we continue the epic story and introduce a ton of new content, but we also are introducing legendary play, a completely new way to experience monster play that enables you to play as a powerful Ranger of the North or a terrible Troll.”

“We are working very hard to deliver the most content and best experiences to our subscribers and it is extremely satisfying to see such a large number of players embracing the game and joining us in Middle-earth,” added Anderson. “We intend to continue our long established reputation of delivering frequent and substantial updates to our players with the release of Book 11 this Fall which will offer players the opportunity to live in their very own house in Middle-earth!”

Read up on the new content at lotro.com.

Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom said, “We naturally regret that we have to push back ‘Age of Conan’. However, after careful consideration, and analysis of recent Beta feedback, we believe that the new release date is in the best interest of the gamers, our company and our owners. We are fully committed to delivering games with absolute qualities, and in the current MMO marketplace we know that only the best is good enough to truly succeed. With the new release date we have therefore given ourselves more time to meet and deliver on the massive expectations for the game. We are certain that our choice will ultimately pay off, and that all ‘Age of Conan’ players will get a special online experience.”

Gaute Godager, founder of Funcom and Producer/Director on Age of Conan comments, ”We are honored by the immense reception our game is constantly getting, with an astounding amount of positive press coverage, awards and magazine covers, but we still see that we need to polish some aspects of the game even further, especially when it comes to the entry barriers. With the added development time we can now deliver something even more unique and powerful, something which is worthy of the incredible Conan legacy.”

Age Of Conan is now in Beta form. Gamers can apply to test the game by visiting ageofconan.com.

As an Immortal, players will be given additional benefits including,

• Quick travel in the Sanctuaries and Schools
• VoIP talk privileges
• One additional Item Roll Slot
• Extended “rested gold bonus”
• Selling privileges on the Auction House
• Priority log-in queuing
• Entry into weekly and seasonal Ladders
• Personal player battle statistics
• In-game Customer Service access
• Elite access to the test server to preview new content

After the first free month of play, gamers will have the option to continue as Immortals with a monthly fee of USD$9.95. Those who chose not to subscribe will be given Hero status. The only disadvantage as a Hero is the lack of included benefits provided by the Immortal status. Heroes will still be able to play the game as usual, and will have access to all items, all abilities a can still reach the highest ranks in the game.

Tony Hilliam, Auran CEO, states, “FURY is a game that blends elements from different genres; the pace and adrenaline rush from FPS games; the depth of character customization from RPGs; and the social and virtual economy aspects from MMOs. Therefore we wanted to make sure that our business model took into account the different expectations of various player types.”

Adam Carpenter, Fury Creative Director, says, “We’ve put a lot of effort into getting the business model right for our game. Some players will play FURY in their lunch time or for an hour after work and they will be less interested in a full subscription model. Other players will devote many hundreds of hours to FURY in order to complete over 800 Trials, unlock 4,000 Tiered abilities and rise to the rank of Eternal. So with FURY you can play casually and play for free, or if you are playing seriously for many hours, it is likely you will want to subscribe to receive the additional benefits.”

Phil White, Auran Online Producer, adds, “We know players love to discuss the pros and cons of free to play versus subscription games. Ultimately, we need to support the cost of running the game and providing new free content updates to players. Fury utilizes the same secure client-server architecture as a traditional MMO and we have to monitor and maintain the servers. Then there is the in-game customer service, online community staff and website and live support teams. The additional ongoing revenues from players help us maintain those high quality service levels.”

Fury is set to release October 2007. Visit unleashthefury.com for more information.

Burning Crusade was the latest in the line of expansion packs for the series, which sold for a record number of 3.5 million copies in only a months time. The user base of WoW has also risen dramatically to 9 million, set back in June. There is no stopping the popularity of WoW and other massive multiplayer online games due to their addicting nature and complex worlds. And it seems there is no stopping the cash roll of Vivendi Games as it capitalizes on the WoW success.

Catch up on the latest news for World Of Warcraft at worldofwarcraft.com