Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The company's name is derived from the company's original slogan, "Java Gaming Experts".
NCSoft Corporation is a South Korean video game developer and publisher headquartered in Pangyo, Seongnam, South Korea, primarily known for the distribution of massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as Lineage and Guild Wars.
Habbo, also called Habbo Hotel, is a virtual world and massively multiplayer online game. It is owned and operated by Sulake. Founded in 2000, Habbo has expanded to nine online communities, with users from more than 150 countries. As of October 2020, 316 million avatars have been registered in the game.
Club Penguin was a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) that ran from 2005 to 2017. The game featured a virtual world that included a wide range of online games and activities. It was created by New Horizon Interactive. Players used cartoon penguin-avatars and played in an Antarctic-themed open world. After beta-testing, Club Penguin was made available to the general public on October 24, 2005. It expanded into a large online community, such that by late 2007, Club Penguin reported that there were over 30 million user accounts. In July 2013, Club Penguin had over 200 million registered user accounts.
The history of massively multiplayer online games spans over thirty years and hundreds of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) titles. The origin and influence on MMO games stems from MUDs, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and earlier social games.
Justin Kan is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and Twitch, as well as the mobile social video application Socialcam. He was also the co-founder and former CEO of law-tech company Atrium before it was shut down in March 2020. In 2021, he launched NFT marketplace Fractal, which was renamed to Stash in 2024.
Free Realms was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) set in a fantasy-themed world called Sacred Grove. The game was first released on April 28, 2009 for Microsoft Windows. Versions for Mac OS X and PlayStation 3 followed in subsequent years. The game was free-to-play with leveling restrictions, with access to additional content available through a membership fee. The game allowed the player to fight, interact with other players, take up jobs, and more.
Grand Chase was a free-to-play, two-dimensional side-scrolling MMORPG, developed by the South Korean company KOG Studios. Alternative names for Grand Chase included Three Young Heroes, Eternal Adventures, both used in Taiwan prior to its closure, as well as Rainbow Warriors on the Mainland Chinese server.
theHunter is a series of simulation video games developed by Expansive Worlds and published by its parent company, Avalanche Studios. The first game in the series, known as theHunter: Classic, was developed and published by Emote Games, in association with Avalanche Studios, and released in April 2009. Subsequently, Avalanche Studios bought the rights to the franchise and opened Expansive Worlds as a subsidiary that would exclusively focus on theHunter development. A standalone expansion, theHunter: Primal, was developed and published by Expansive Worlds and Avalanche Studios, and released on March 15, 2015. The most recent entry in the series, theHunter: Call of the Wild, was developed by Expansive Worlds and published by Avalanche Studios on February 16th, 2017.
TERA, also known as TERA Online, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Bluehole Studio, a subsidiary of Krafton. The game was released in South Korea on 25 January 2011, in North America on 1 May 2012, and in Europe on 3 May 2012, with closed and open beta tests taking place before the launch dates. Nexon, Krafton, and Gameforge published the game in these regions, respectively. En Masse Entertainment was the North American publisher, until September 2020, while Atari handled physical distribution. In February 2013 the game was renamed to TERA: Rising concurrently with the game's launch to the free-to-play model.
Spacetime Studios (STS) is a games development studio, based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2005 by a small group of PC MMO game developers. The start-up was created with the aim to create Sci-Fi MMOs for the PC market.
Nazara Technologies is an Indian Video game publisher and technology company, founded by Nitish Mittersain in 1999 that has business interests in mobile games, esports and sports media. It is based in Mumbai, India.
InnoGames GmbH is a German video game developer and publisher based in Hamburg. Founded in 2007, it focuses on the development of free-to-play online browser and mobile games. The company reached a turnover of €220 million in 2020 and currently has ten live games.
Video game monetization is a type of process that a video game publisher can use to generate revenue from a video game product. The methods of monetization may vary between games, especially when they come from different genres or platforms, but they all serve the same purpose to return money to the game developers, copyright owners, and other stakeholders. As the monetization methods continue to diversify, they also affect the game design in a way that sometimes leads to criticism.
Clark Stacey is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of WildWorks, which in 2010 launched the National Geographic Animal Jam, a massively multiplayer online virtual world, in partnership with the National Geographic Society. The game has around 75 million registered players, and is one of the fastest-growing online children's properties worldwide, targeted at the 9–11 years age group.
Animal Jam Classic, formerly known as Animal Jam, is a massively multiplayer online game that is developed by WildWorks and recommended for kids up to the age of 12. It was launched in 2010, in collaboration with the National Geographic Society. As of late 2020, there were 3.3 million monthly active users and a lifetime total of 130 million registered players in 200 countries across both Animal Jam Classic and Animal Jam.
Video games can include elements that use blockchain technologies, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), often as a form of monetization. These elements typically allow players to trade in-game items for cryptocurrency, or represent in-game items with NFTs. A subset of these games are also known as play-to-earn games because they include systems that allow players to earn cryptocurrency through gameplay. Blockchain games have existed since 2017, gaining wider attention from the video game industry in 2021. Several AAA publishers have expressed intent to include this technology in the future. Players, developers, and game companies have criticized the use of blockchain technology in video games for being exploitative, environmentally unsustainable, and unnecessary.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. Initially pitched as a new class of investment asset, by September 2023, one report claimed that over 95% of NFT collections had zero monetary value.
Legends of Aria or LoA is a fantasy-based indie MMORPG. The game was released in beta in 2014, early-access in 2019, and a full release in 2020. It was developed by Citadel Studios Inc., a gaming company founded by Derek Brinkmann, who previously lead development of Ultima Online. In 2022, the game announced plans to shift to a blockchain game, with the introduction of a cryptocurrency and NFTs.
Astellia was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Korean Studio 8.
