Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Promising-looking space-MMO Black Prophecy would be breathing a sigh of relief – if unreleased games could breathe – as the cashflow problems brought developer Reakktor Media into insolvency have been sorted out, for now. The announcement explains: “The insolvency plan, suggested by insolvency administrator Rainer M. Baehr, was accepted by all creditors. Due to the support of a solvent investor, the financial reorganization of the company could be carried out successfully and all jobs have been saved.” It seems the game will still be released next year, which is good news as the high-spec engine and trading larks look intriguing. For more information on the game itself it’s worth checking out their recent developer diaries.

This is a fairly specific aspect of the forthcoming space-combat MMO, but I think it’s a fun one. Plenty of people have said something like “I wish there was a space MMO with real-time, Elite-style ship controls”, and now we have two coming in at once. Black Prophecy, from Reakktor, and Jumpgate: Evolution, from Net Devil. Both companies have had dodgy MMOs in their past, so we’re hoping they can pull out the stops this time around. Black Prophecy is certainly looking like the more visually accomplished, high-spec game, at least from the images we’ve seen and this game footage trailer. Anyway, two new images from the game below, and you can click up on that header image to get the full shot, too.
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Having raised a collective eyebrow at the few glimpses of space MMO Black Prophecy that have emerged over the past few months, we thought it might be time to have a quick chat with Reakktor Media’s community manager Chris Schuett. Beyond the jump Schuett discusses the real-time combat nature of the game, and claims that player starships in the game could have “millions” of possible configurations.
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Via the all-encompassing bloggings of Castle Crecente, we discover deep-space menu browsing from the other forthcoming space MMO, Black Prophecy. Despite spending a long time on snazzy GUI, it’s got atmosphere coming out of its coaxial thrusters, and it gets rather exciting at about 4:40. I hope there’s a cockpit-free first person mode.
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The voiceover guy for the new Black Prophecy trailer sounds like he’s going to burst out my speakers and recruit me directly into his interstellar crusade. Calm down, mate! The trailer apparently shows combat between the two main factions in the game, as well as the obligatory spooky alien faction at the end: The Restorers. Woo. We’ll hopefully have an interview with the team behind this absurdly pretty space MMO some time next week. In the meantime, go sign up for the beta.
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While spaceship chumps like myself are generally gearing up for both next week’s Eve patch and the Jumpgate Evolution beta a few weeks later, those aren’t the only space MMO excitements on the horizon. There’s another visually impressive offering incoming from German development studio, Reakktor Media (of Neocron fame). The Black Prophecy website has just been relaunched, complete with a lovely beta sign up form – suggesting that a playable version of the game isn’t too far away. Other than a handful of new screenshots there’s not much more information than what we got with last year’s sumptuous trailer (after the link), but the game nevertheless remains a profoundly shiny proposition.

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