Crackdown (X360) developer Realtime Worlds bought back the rights to its upcoming crime MMO All Points Bulletin (PC, X360) in hopes of selling it to Rockstar for use as a Grand Theft Auto MMO, according to a rumor reported by Eurogamer.

While such a rumor would typically seem ludicrous, Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones founded Realtime Worlds and is a major influence on the development of APB. The story cites a "credible industry source" as the origin of the claim, but provides no additional details as to his or her credentials.

Rockstar founder Sam Houser recently noted that a massively multiplayer Grand Theft Auto was "very, very doable" and "very, very compelling." Last week's release of Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, X360) marked the first time the series has featured online multiplayer on consoles.

When reached for comment, a Realtime representative said they had not heard the claim before, but that the company rebought the rights to "give themselves some options" and "look for another partner."

Boy, we've sure seen some dreary, lackluster MMOs released lately, haven't we? Let's hope Funcom product manager Erling Ellingsen over at the Age of Conan desk has some sunny news for us.

Erling, take it away.

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There is a good chance of Age of Conan releasing May 20 on PC, at a monthly subscription rate of $14.99.

Rockstar founder Sam Houser recently chatted about the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 4 release, and the GTA franchise in general. Although the idea of a GTA MMO has certainly been tossed around a few times before, hearing one of the founders of Rockstar Games make such a strong statement on the matter is, well.. compelling. The actual quote from Mr. Houser is:

"A subscription-based Grand Theft Auto-type game.. is very, very doable and is a very, very compelling proposition.. the combination of what we're doing with multiplayer and what we're doing with the [downloadable X360] episodes is the start of us putting our toes in this water and seeing how our audience.. adapts to online."

Not exactly a huge shocker, but in case you thought the guys at Rockstar Games were not interested in making lots of money, there you go. They like money and chances are they would like more of yours.

It is also probably worth noting here that the folks who made Crackdown, which include Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones, are actually already working on something similar: the APB property, which they just recently dropped even more cash on. More on Grand Theft Auto, the 1UP interview, and thanks Kotaku.

New screenshots of Gravity's Havok-powered MMO Requiem: Bloodymare (PC) have arrived, showcasing the usual suspects: gore, guts, and not-work-safe imagery.

According to the company, the upcoming horror-themed title "goes far beyond traditional MMOs" and represents "a world where living nightmares take players by the throat...And never let go."

"There is a goddamned nipple in every one of these shots," exclaimed Shacknews editor Nick Breckon.

Requiem: Bloodymare was announced for a North American release earlier this year. Gravity has not yet revealed a release date for the horror MMO.

Turbine today released a few screenshots for the upcoming Book 13 content update to The Lord of the Rings Online.

The images present a glimpse of Forochel, a frozen region to the north of Eriador. Says Turbine: "Forochel lets players see the ocean for the first time and introduces several new temperature based landscape effects."

Speaking at the 2008 Smid Cap Conference, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick mentioned massively multiplayer online editions of BioShock and Civilization as examples of the company's "potential untapped opportunities."

Following the release and strong sales performance of 2K Boston and 2K Australia's story-driven underwater shooter BioShock (PC, X360) last summer, Zelnick noted Take-Two's intent to transform BioShock into an ongoing franchise.

A sequel to BioShock, announced earlier this month and developed by 2K Marin with the involvement of creator Ken Levine, is slated to arrive on unspecified platforms between August and October of 2009.

As initially reported by MTV Multiplayer, other opportunities for Take-Two, which today told its stockholders to reject a hostile takeover bid from Electronic Arts, include a film adaptation of BioShock as well as mobile phone iterations of both BioShock and Carnival Games.

Developer EA Mythic has revealed that the release of its oft-delayed PC MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, which was previously slated for Q2 2008, has been pushed back until this fall.

Alongside the delay, the studio announced plans for a bonus-filled Collector's Edition of the game. Limited to 60,000 units in North America, the $79.99 Collector's Edition will pack an exclusive miniature, a 128-page graphic novel prequel, a 224-page art book, 12 bonus quests, 12 additional in-game character heads, and an experience-boosting item, which is restricted to three uses of 60 minutes each.

Furthermore, EA Mythic noted that those who pre-order the Collector's Edition from a participating retailer--a list that includes Best Buy, GameStop, GameCrazy Amazon.com, GoGamer.com and EAStore.com--will receive guaranteed access to the open beta, early access to the live game, and two more exclusive in-game items.

Speaking of the delay in the Warhammer Online Forums, studio manager Mark Jacobs declined to provide an exact launch date, but noted that the company is still planning to release the title simultaneously in North America and Europe.

"Given the highly competitive nature of the MMO industry right now, we feel it is best not to establish a set launch date at the present time," Jacobs wrote.

"We've always told the community that when a delay was necessary we would tell them right away, and we’re doing just that," he continued. "I wish I could say all other developers do this but the fact is that they don't."

Developer and publishing house NCsoft plans to utilize Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 in two upcoming MMOs, the company announced today.

The company originally licensed the UE3 middleware back in 2005. NCsoft said that the engine will be used to develop two unannounced and "top-tier" MMO titles, but did not specify further what those titles might be.

The company is no stranger to Epic's middleware, having previously utilized the company's Unreal Engine 2 in the development of Lineage 2 (PC) in 2004. The heavily-licensed Unreal Engine 3 is currently at work in projects at 2K Games, THQ, Konami, Square Enix and numerous others.

NCsoft is currently working on a new Lineage (PC) title, and late last year announced the acquisition of the City of Heroes property from series creator Cryptic Studios.

Blizzard Entertainment has released the long-awaited World of Warcraft 2.4 patch. It is available in several flavors: the full US/AUS patch, the incremental 2.3 to 2.4 US/AUS patch, and the incremental 2.3 to 2.4 UK patch.

Titled Fury of the Sunwell, the patch adds new quests, dungeons, and raids to the incredibly popular PC MMO, along with a new global arena tournament and various user interface improvements.

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The complete patch notes follow:... Read more

Following its purchase of the Tom Clancy name for all game-related properties, French publisher Ubisoft has revealed that it will be developing a Tom Clancy-branded massively multiplayer online game.

"We are ready and decide now to go for an MMO on the Clancy name," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a conference call yesterday, according to Gamasutra.

It was not stated if if the MMO will be set within an existing Tom Clancy franchise, popular examples of which include Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six, or a new off-shoot.

Guillemot noted that Ubisoft had been considering a Tom Clancy MMO for some time, but had held off as it would have increased the company's annual royalty payments to Clancy. The company expects its purchase of the name to save at least 5 million euros (roughly $7.87M) a year in royalties.

"With the royalties we had, it was another barrier not to create the game, because the return on investment was diminished by that," Guillemot said.

While the CEO estimated that the MMO could cost up to $50 million to develop, he did not disclose specifics on target platforms, a release window, its genre, or the studio that will be working on the title.

Publisher Codemasters has unveiled the first retail expansion pack for Turbine's Tolkein-inspired PC MMO, The Lord of the Rings Online. A smattering of concept art accompanied the announcement.

Titled Mines of Moria and marking the start of the game's second volume, the expansion is expected to arrive this fall. Across its six books, players will be able to help release Durin's Bane, battle the Watcher, and aid Galadriel.

Alongside with new environments and foes, it will raise the level cap to 60, sport a new item forging system, and introduce two new classes: the Rune-keeper and the Warden.

"The Mines of Moria is one of the most epic settings in all of fantasy fiction," said Turbine CEO and president Jim Crowley. "No one delivers more quality content than Turbine and with our journey into Moria, we will raise the bar even higher."

EA Mythic has released three new sets of screenshots for its upcoming fantasy MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC), currently in closed beta testing.

The latest deluge of media includes shots of the magic Saphery kingdom, cinematic stills and concept art.

EA Mythic's oft-delayed MMO is presently slated for release in the second quarter of this year.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed the possibility of an eventual massively multiplayer game based on Infinity Ward's popular shooter series Call of Duty.

"When you think about other properties that we own and control like Call of Duty, and what would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively multiplayer environment...how do you monetize that," Kotick pondered, reports GameSpot.

In a conference call last year, Kotick made similar comments regarding a possible Guitar Hero MMO. "When we look at all the prioritization of opportunity we need to do, clearly, those are things that fall into the realm of opportunity for us for the future," he said.

Despite disappointing sales, NCsoft's space-age MMO Tabula Rasa has been infused with some new blood by a 1.5 patch.

Check out this new trailer for a look at some of the creature changes included with the update.

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Cryptic Studios has released the first trailer for Champions Online, their recently announced PC / XBox 360 superhero MMO. The video runs for about a minute and includes gameplay footage.

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EA Mythic's fantasy MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is still somewhere out there in the beta-testing background. To prove it, Mythic released a few new images of the game today.

These screenshots depict the classic tale of a man cruelly separated from his nature, a simple lumberjack forced to live out his days hacking limbs from men rather than trees. Truly tragic.

A group of several developers representing major MMO studios such as Blizzard, BioWare and Cryptic Studios sat on a panel today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Together they fielded a flurry of questions on some hot genre topics, including whether MMOs are headed to consoles en masse, and why there are so few successful massive sci-fi titles out there. We were there too, taking notes.

The Rising Cost of MMO Development

Cryptic chief creative officer Jack Emmert: "Expectations are so high now because of WoW that [some] publishers aren't even going to try."

BioWare general manager Ray Muzyka: "[Five years ago] who would have imagined [Portal] winning game of the year? Perfect execution, very polished. There is no one business model. It's about tuning the game to your audience. You can succeed [in both] but you gotta know who you are."

Blizzard VP of game design Rob Pardo: "It's interesting almost to hear that no one wants to compete with WoW's success. As a business person, that's great. As a game player, I hope that's not true. As a game player, I really want to see other... Read more

Cryptic Studios, developer of the superhero MMO City of Heroes, have today announced their next project: Champions Online, a self-published superhero MMO based on the popular pen-and-paper game Champions RPG.

The key bullet point of Champions Online will be customization, with Cryptic boasting a "near infinite" amount of character-defining traits.

Says the press release: "Gamers will be able to create their hero's name, back story, costume, powers and abilities as well as design their own personal arch-enemy and his or her back story, which will guarantee a truly unique experience."

"We thought carefully about which IP to select for our next game," said Cryptic chief creative officer Jack Emmert. "I've been playing the Champions RPG since it first came out and I love both the rich history and the wide array of compelling characters which made this an obvious choice for Cryptic Studios."

Champions Online is slated for a spring 2009 release. A website for the project has also been launched.

A new set of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures screenshots is now available, showing a couple of different locations and characters found in Funcom's upcoming PC/X360 MMORPG. The game is currently scheduled for a May 20 release.

Gravity just sent over some shots of its gory Havok-powered MMO Requiem: Bloodymare (PC), and quite frankly, we're not sure how to respond.

According to the company, the upcoming horror-themed title "goes far beyond traditional MMOs" and represents "a world where living nightmares take players by the throat...And never let go." It was announced for a North American release earlier this year.

"Odd monster does not even begin to sum up what that is, holy shit," responded Shacknews' Nick Breckon upon seeing the shots for the first time. "It looks like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland stitched onto a giant rotting cow carcass, or maybe something from [childrens' book series] Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark."