Trion’s Defiance, the platform-agnostic shooter-MMO that Stephen Totilo saw at E3, promises to deliver open-world action with thousands of simulataneous players. It’s also supposed to sync with an in-development SyFy TV series, so that developments in the game affect the show. That’s a tall order, right?
Developer Trion Worlds has sent emails out to its subscribers warning them that accounts for its MMO Rift – which some people think is a damn fine game – have been compromised by “unauthorised intruders”.
Trion CEO Lars Buttler promises that platforms like his company’s will evolve the way we play online. The company recently announced some ambitious plans – to develop a persistent MMO that ties into an ongoing Sci-Fi Channel television series, to create a new fantasy MMO helmed by Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, and to publish PlayStation 3 games through an agreement with Sony.
Though Trion has just recently announced its games, the company has been quietly at work on its technology infrastructure since last year, when it scored $US 30 million in investments from Time Warner and NBC Universal, among others. It’s this infrastructure, says Buttler, that aims to shift the paradigm for multiplayer gaming.
Trion’s World Network server cloud, Buttler said, will allow high volumes of players to participate in a fully persistent online world that can be evolved at any point by the game operators – or affected by the users. And the company has big cross-platform visions, promising mobile access to the worlds as well as console or PC, on the heels of the Sony partnership.
What about the Xbox 360? Is Trion talking to Microsoft, too?
Earlier this morning, we reported Trion World Network is teaming up with the Sci-Fi channel to create an MMO based on an upcoming show, a cool idea as the show’s direction is intended to evolve depending on what players do in the game. That co-development agreement is not the only thing Trion has in the works, however.
Trion’s first title will be a first-party game, a fantasy-themed MMO headed by Jon Van Caneghem (shown), creator of the Might and Magic and Heroes RPG and strategy franchises. Trion will self-publish in North America and Europe through its own proprietary platform
Though the company announced its platform several months ago before any games were on the horizon, it’s not restricting itself to a first-party strategy; Trion also announced a publishing partnership today with Sony Computer Entertainment America to do games for the PS3 in North America, though no specific PS3 titles have been announced yet.
Both the first-party game announce and the SCEA partnership release follow the jump:
