Huxley's Xbox 360 fate still in the air
by Xav de Matos 
{ Jun 2nd 2008 at 5:00PM }
One of the first MMOs announced in the new generation of consoles, Huxley, is having a difficult time making its way to consoles. While Huxley developer Webzen has announced that the PC title will finally make its way to North America after signing a new deal with publisher NHN USA, the Xbox 360 version continues its release limbo.Other items that need to be ironed out of for the Unreal Engine 3 MMO/FPS include the business model approach for the title and a firm release date, as Webzen only specifies an expected PC release in late 2008 for North America and Western Europe.
[via Big Download]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
lightdarksamus @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:09PM
this game would own if you didn't have to pay the adittional monthly fee,if the do it...
JerkfacedFed @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:38PM
i've been following this game for a long time and it looks promising.
they obviously need dedicated servers for a persistant world, but this can be solved by establishing a revenue system through advertisements that are at the welcome screen like a motd, or even in-game if needed.
i think that the gamers wouldn't mind them if the ads arent intrusive and make sense in their placement.
for instance, huxley's environments range from urban to wilderness type levels, so i would expect the developers to be smart enough to place billboards and posters only in the urban maps where the ads make sense.
what do you guys think?
Troy @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:59PM
agreed that would be nice.
El Capitaine @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:43PM
and then if that isn't enough, just tack posters on the trees and paint large fields with huge, sprawling ads =D
^ obviously not, but I can say that I will definitely not be getting this game if there's a monthly fee. However, motd ads and in-game billboards would be okay.
BananaBoat @ Jun 3rd 2008 1:16AM
That's assuming enough eyeballs would be on the ads to make them worth placing. Unfortunately, if you watch the latest gameplay video, you can easily see that noone will be playing this game when it launches, no matter which platform it's on.
As for in-game ads, I'm a strong opponent. It really annoys me that in-show advertising (and in-movie advertising) seems to be taking off, so there is no way I would pay for something, only to see advertisements while I'm playing it. Advertisements are fine when the game is free (Basically the Planetside model of an old game becoming free via ad-support) but after I've payed? Nay.
If you are getting your hopes up for Huxley, it should be noted that your hopes are going to be trampled on should this thing ever see the light of day. This has been my public service announcement for today.
(4 hours till Ninja Gaiden II....come on babyyy)
BananaBoat @ Jun 3rd 2008 1:24AM
Nevermind. Demo was a lie. Resume sleeping.
horngreen @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:56PM
It seemed to good to be true when announced years ago. I think it's been going downhill since. The last gameplay clip I saw looked awful but maybe they've cleaned it up since. I'll bet they are doing the monthly fee in order to make a profit on a game they know will get terrible reviews. Maybe not but it doesn't sound promising when they can't even put together a launch.
italiansmoke @ Jun 2nd 2008 9:46PM
The whole "pay to play" approach isn't new. And due to the success of MMO's like World of Warcraft, it also seems lucrative. So, they are just doing what works in terms of monthly fees, etc.
But as far as this game is concerned, the last time I followed anything about this game was like a year or more ago. And like others said, it looked promising. Actually, it looked like a really good game. I think it will be released soon or along side the PC version-- whether they say it or not. The game appeared well enough and with potential, so I think it's not a matter of "if", but when.
Also, if any of you guys remember the last bit of info regarding this title... the game looked A LOT like Gears of War(as far as character models--looked exactly like the Gears chracters(no surprise since it's the UT3 engine aka Unreal Tournament), destroyed cities, and the whole destroyed and war torn beauty you get in Gears.
david.antonacci @ Jun 2nd 2008 9:53PM
meh, I was hot for this game years ago, but lack of progress, lack of a business model, lack of a publisher, lack of any commitment to consoles etc. tells me the developer simply bit off way more than they could chew.
The game probably will see the light of day, at least on PC and it will likely suck as the devs realized they couldn't deliver their ambitions and the publisher wants it released NOW.
OTAM @ Jun 3rd 2008 12:17AM
Pay to play hasnt worked on the consoles yet and it's going to need something bigger than this to get the ball rolling. PSU was a failure and so was Final Fantasy Online.
Anticrawl @ Jun 2nd 2008 11:16PM
I doubt FPS fans will be willing to pay a monthly fee so if they don't figure out their target audience before the game launches it will be a massive flop. They have to figure a way to run the servers free of charge to the players, be it ads or whatever.
xenocidic @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:26AM
another 360 mmo bits the dust
i guess we're left with conan?
Boff @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:48AM
Huxley? Fucking hell I thought this got shelved years ago!!!
This has been in development since man first emerged from the primordial soup.
penguincomrade @ Jun 4th 2008 4:43AM
Here's a post: http://huxley-evolved.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,118/func,view/id,4926/catid,6/ about huxley on the 360 but aside from that release date is still up in the air. I'm just gonna copy and paste stuff here.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=4501
Huxley MMO still alive, new details revealed
Thursday 29-May-2008 11:19 PM New information surfaces on long-delayed MMO/FPS
Some new details on the long-awaited online shooter Huxley have been confirmed by OXM in the US. A spokesman for developer/publisher Webzen has revealed exclusive content for the Xbox 360 in the current issue of the magazine, along with the news that you won't need to pay a subscription if you skip the "MMO" part of the game.
It's been a long while since we heard anything about Huxley, which we'd assumed was due to the massive amount of work involved in creating it. Combining FPS standards like twitch combat and vehicles with a persistent MMO world featuring player-v-player, player-v-enemy and a proper levelling system, it's a hugely ambitious creation.
Now Producer Kijong "KJ" Kang has told our chums in the States that while the 360 version will be out a few months out after the PC release later this year, it'll feature a lot more content.
Xbox-exclusive campaigns and PVP battles will "reveal more secrets about world that you will never find in the PC version," he said. This single-player gameplay will feed naturally into an MMO backend where you can get stuck into 200-person PvP battles.
You'll have to pay a subscription to access the servers, but if you stick to single-player, you're assured of "a great experience... without any charges or fees."
If you're in the US, check out the story in issue #85 of OXM, and we'll have it in the July issue in the UK.