Nintendo has delivered alot of flagship titles. However, Nintendo hasn’t been able to “captivate” its online portion with these titles — much like its competitors. When speaking on the matter, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said that he believes that Nintendo isn’t “proactive” enough with its online portion.

“It is true, though, that Nintendo hasn’t been very proactive in developing such online activities as an MMOG,” Miyamoto told Edge. “But when it comes to our endeavors that try to take advantage of internet technology, where we can provide our customers with more fun and entertainment, then I think we can say we have been very, very proactive and well-received. And that attitude won’t be changed at all in the future.”

Miyamoto then talked about the companies online future, revealing that “[they're] desperate to realize is the core [online] business structure.”

“Do we need to demand customers pay monthly fees to enjoy online activities? Or give an online subscription that is free of charge, but then offer something extra for people that pay, so that they get some extra value? With these core business strategies, I think we are less active than we should be,” continued Miyamoto.

CCP Games, the people behind the popular EVE Online PC game, today released the first trailer for their massive multiplayer FPS, Dust 514.

DUST 514, featuring first-person shooter and RTS-style gameplay, will interact directly with EVE Online, CCP’s critically acclaimed flagship MMO. This interplay between the two games opens the EVE universe to console gamers and gives them a chance to become part of one of the most massive cooperative play and social experiences ever. Enjoy the trailer.

Funcom today revealed new details on its upcoming modern-day, real world massively multiplayer online game The Secret World. As a teaser for more reveals to come out of the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle this week, Funcom unveiled three secret societies – the Illuminati, the Dragon and the Templars – all of which will be central to gameplay and the storyline in The Secret World.

Gamers everywhere can also visit the official website at www.darkdaysarecoming.com and complete a unique personality test that will reveal to them what secret society they are most suited to join. Completion of the test will not only allow them to become an initiate of that secret society and thus an important member of the official The Secret World community, it also gives them the chance to win exclusive future beta access to the game. Initiates will also be kept up-to-date on the development of The Secret World.

“The secret societies are integral to The Secret World,” says Producer and Director Ragnar Tørnquist. “Players must eventually pick a side in the conflict. By revealing the three societies – and at the same time keeping some exciting new features under wraps – we provide players with the opportunity to dig deeper into the conspiracies and urban legends, and to learn more about these famous secret societies, before making their final decision when the game launches.”

It’s no secret that Blizzard Entertainment has been working on a new MMO, even teasing at its development via a job listing. However, it wasn’t until BlizzCon that World of Warcraft director, Jeffrey Kaplan confirmed that Blizzard is “definitely involved” in a new MMO. “I think the great part about a new MMO from Blizzard is that it doesn’t have to be ‘WoW‘,” he said to MTV. “There are a lot of lessons we learned in making ‘World of Warcraft,’ and some of those you can take and do things better than you ever did before.”

When being asked about the possibility of their new MMO being cannibalizing to “WoW” subscribers, Kaplan stated that he wasn’t worried at all, and that the company was going to great lengths to make sure that, that doesn’t happen. But, with the recent success of high fantasy MMOs, one must wonder if there’s any more room for MMOs of WoW’s kind.

“Oh yeah,” Kaplan said. “I only think [non-high fantasy MMOs] have a harder time because of the past games that have tried and the game design decisions that they made, not because of the [intellectual property] or the setting that they chose.” Kaplan also added that the next-gen MMO is very early in development and, like all Blizzard titles, it’s “going to be a while” before we see it.

It seems that not everything is fine in the Fallout circle. According to a recent 10-K financial filing, it seems that Interplay, who were supposed to have been developing a Fallout MMO, maybe getting their tales sued off of them by Bethesda.

It’s a looming lawsuit that hasn’t been officially revealed by anyone, yet. But, it’s not about the ‘rights’ to the game, it’s about the games progress. Lack there of.

Anyway, the deal worked like this, Bethesda was supposed to have commenced “full-scale” work on the title by April 4, 2009, which Bethesda says hasn’t happened. Along with that, Interplay were also supposed to have secured funding for the development of the game, which Bethesda also claim has not happened.

If Bethesda were to go running to this lawsuit, and win, Interplay would lose their rights to the MMO – along with their pride.

[Bethesda To Sue Interplay Over Fallout MMO? via Kotaku]

In 2007, Cryptic were working on a title called Marvel Universe, a MMO based on characters in the Marvel Universe – no pun intended. But, because of many reasons the game got canceled, and now it seems that the title has turn zombie on us and has returned.

There were many reports stating that Gazillion Entertainment has four development studios working on four massively multi player games. The first three are working on games like, LEGO Universe, the recently announced Super Hero Squad MMO, and an ‘unannounced original MMO’.

The fourth, however? Gargantuan, which is located in San Mateo, California, is busy working on ‘Marvel Universe’, an MMO for the PC and ‘consoles’, but which consoles have yet to be determent. The title sounds interesting especially when you consider that this all-new project is being worked on by former Blizzard, Sony Online Entertainment, Cryptic and NCsoft devs.

Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan is one of the fastest selling PC games of all time. More than 400.000 gamers have entered Hyboria over the last few days, with almost half coming from the North American market. This amazing figure for a PC game shows that the positive pre-order trend has transferred into actual sales, and people from all over the world are now flocking to the most savage, sexy and brutal MMO ever created.

Over the weekend an astounding amount of concurrent gamers were logged on to the game, making Age of Conan one of the busiest MMOs in the western hemisphere. With stock flying out of several retail chains, Funcom expects the number to increase in the days to come. In addition to the many gamers logging in, there was also substantial traffic to the Age of Conan websites, with more than 2,2 million unique visitors during the last ten days.

As a result of the great launch, players and press have been raving about the unique qualities of the game, and the first 20 reviews give Age of Conan an average score above 90%. The first US reviews are also live, with Gamezone.com giving the game an Editor’ s Choice Award, a 9.4 of 10 score, while heralding Age of Conan as a “ Benchmark MMO” . Sci-Fi.com was also an early mover and gave the game a straight A, stating that “ If Robert E. Howard had been a game designer.., this is the Conan he would have invented.”

“ The initial sales and reviews are very encouraging, and it’ s great to see that so many are enjoying Age of Conan ,” said Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “ This is just the beginning, and we already look forward to massive updates and cool new features. We believe our focus on making Conan unique and groundbreaking is a key reason for the initial success. This is a focus we will keep and reinforce, and players can expect continued quality and innovation as we enter a new era for the game.”

BUSINESS WIRE