NCsoft® Europe and ArenaNet® today revealed their exciting plans for the future of the hugely successful Guild Wars® franchise. The companies announced that development already is underway on a full sequel to the original Guild Wars games. Guild Wars 2™ will draw from the game mechanics that made the original Guild Wars one of the most popular online games ever and will add a fully persistent world. It was also revealed that, like its predecessors, Guild Wars 2 will not have a subscription fee. No launch date was announced, but the ArenaNet team anticipates that Guild Wars 2 will go into beta sometime in the second half of 2008.

In addition, ArenaNet developers are working on the first true expansion for the Guild Wars franchise, Guild Wars Eye of the North™. Due to hit store shelves during the Q3 2007, Guild Wars Eye of the North™ will require at least one of the previous Guild Wars campaigns (Prophecies™, Factions™, or Nightfall™) in order to play. It's a game that will benefit long-time players of the Guild Wars games, with all of the content targeting existing Guild Wars characters.

- Official Press Release

"As children around the world continue to spend more time online, we are developing new and engaging ways for them to interact with our brand," said Lisbeth Valther Pallesen, Executive Vice President, Community, Education and Direct Division LEGO Group. "The LEGO brand represents construction, creativity and problem solving -- values that complement the MMOG market. By merging the online world of social interaction with physical play, the LEGO brand is providing new experiences for children, as well as fans. NetDevil's technological capability, openness to work with a large community, and enthusiasm for the LEGO brand make them a natural partner."

"Playing with LEGO bricks and developing online worlds are both creative activities. To bring them together is deeply professionally satisfying and we look forward to working with the LEGO team," said Scott Brown, president of NetDevil.

- Official Press Release

Set sail on the vast blue waters of the Caribbean in search of adventure, fortune, and fame in the world of the infamous Jack Sparrow and the evil Davy Jones. Create and customize your own pirate, build and outfit your own ship, and assemble a crew of your fellow rogues. Set your own course, your own adventure, and truly live the Legend!

In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, a massively-multiplayer online game for the PC platform, you, alongside thousands of other players, will be able to fully experience the adventure of the films and explore beyond these boundaries to discover new myths and untold stories. Forge alliances, hunt for buried treasure, battle evil undead forces, and use cunning and strategy to outwit your foes - all to become the most legendary pirate on the high seas.

- Official Press Release

We'll probably have some kind of detail in the next month or two as to our pricing model, but the design is both a standalone as well as an MMO, so we want to be able to hit both markets just like we did with the Diablo titles. There are a lot of people that in some instances actually can't get online, and there are also people who are online but for gaming they aren't sure if they want to make that commitment to pay the monthly fee and go online. They can get the game and play the standalone, and get 30 or 40 hours' worth of gameplay. If they like that, they can go online and we'll have a good ramp of some kind for them to go online and check out some of the services. Exactly how we handle that, whether it'll be a trial or whether they can check out some of the game for free, we're still hammering out the final details. Then beyond that it will be pay to play, and again we're about a month out from announcing more on that. But what you're getting with that service is you're getting 24/7 customer service, secure servers, databases, and the biggest thing is that you're getting continuing content. We'll have a full dev team that's on the project from day one. Actually, right when you buy the game, when it launches there will already be content available that you can't get in the single-player -- additional monsters, areas, all the community and economy things, you'll be able to form guilds, auction houses, all those things you expect from MMOs.

- Shack News