Blog: Yestra Labyrinth 2.0

The team from Runes of Magic has updated their official MMORPG.com blog with an entry on Yestra Labyrinth and the investment in polishing and improving it.

While new features and balancing changes always get noticed in MMORPGs, there is also a lot of time invested in polishing and improving current adventures, which mostly go unnoticed – which is a good thing in general, because we want constant evolution rather than revolutions in the game.

I’d like to give you a little peek inside the polishing process. I’m Wilfried Henseler, Co-Producer for Runes of Magic at Frogster.

Back in Closed Beta, we saw a lot of changes when the lands of Taborea opened to the public for the first time. We changed pretty much every zone based on the experience of the testers; we doubled the number of quests, adjusted the level of difficulty, loot and reward tables many times, and added a huge amount of content to achieve the gaming experience we have today. One of these improvements was the dungeon under the ice of Ystra, called the Ystra Labyrinth. It was introduced around the end of Closed Beta to add more content to the experience for the levels 35-40.

Read Blog: Yestra Labyrinth 2.0

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Vermillion Warrior’s Boots Item Giveaway

MMORPG.com and Frogster America are pleased to present the MMORPG.com community with a very special free offer. We are giving out gift keys that will allow you to get a cool in game armor item – the Vermillion Warrior’s Boots! Get your key while supplies last!

GET YOUR FREE GIFT KEY AT THIS LINK!

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Two New Classes: Elven Warden

Two new classes are being introduced as part of the upcoming expansion to Runes of Magic, The Elven Prophecy.

The first class is the Druid:

The druids will have the choice of focusing on group support, or bringing the pain to enemies. Their abilities will build up Nature Power which they can expend to boost, or add additional effects to their abilities. They will also have to consider the order of the abilities they execute so they can take advantage of more effective combination’s. The healing abilities of the Druid will focus on a more burst-healing style, while the damaging abilities will be more of the DoT variety.

Next up we have the Warden:

The Warden’s appear to fill a tank role, protecting their allies. They are also skilled in close combat and have a variety of group buffs to support their team. Additionally, the Warden will be able to make use of companion pets in combat.

For more details on the Warden and Druid classes, go here

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French and Spanish Closed Beta Launches

The closed beta for the French and Spanish localizations of Runes of Magic has launched today. In addition, the Runes of Magic website is now also available in French and Spanish as well.

The full announcement is available below:

Runes of Magic: French and Spanish closed beta launched

Official website now online in French and Spanish

Following on from successes already achieved, Runes of Magic now reaches another milestone with the start of its French and Spanish closed beta version. French and Spanish players now have the opportunity to explore the multi award winning fantasy online game world of Runes of Magic in their own languages on two new high-end servers. Accompanying the beta start the official website is now available in Spanish and French, too. French players can find their channel at www.runesofmagic.com/fr/ , while Spaniards can surf over to www.runesofmagic.com/es/. New online adventurers can immediately register there for the closed beta to set up a character in their own language version. Players who are already registered can do this without any restrictions using their previous account.

The French and Spanish language closed beta phase is set to run until the end of July 2009 under current plans. Following a comprehensive update of the version, including a deletion of the beta characters, the open beta will begin subsequently. Frogster will be shortly announcing an exact date. In the following change-over to the release version Frogster will not perform another ‘character wipe’. This will allow players to carry over their characters from the open beta into the launch version. The release version will officially go live in France and Spain in September including the comprehensive new content of Runes of Magic ‘Chapter II – the Elven Prophecy’. Runes of Magic already counts more than 1,400,000 registered players worldwide up to now.

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Have The Look and Stats Too!

Runes of Magic has a feature that lets people not only get the best rated gear, but also look how they want.

You’ve raided and raided, spent months in PvP, farmed and sold drops, poured hour upon monotonous hour into reaching level cap collecting and hunting down the best of the best gear for your class. Whether weeks, months, or even years later, this is what you’ve been working so hard for. The time is near, just one more raid; one more piece of equipment to completion and you will be hailed alongside the others to be crowned one of the best. You will be elite.

The time has come; you have the gear, decked out from massive head to massive toe. It’s time to make your entrance into the hallowed halls. You are tingling with excitement and anticipation of showing off your giant glowing weapons and shiny armor. You’ve even cleaned the crumbs from your desk, loaded up your favorite heart-pumping music and put on a clean pair. As you start strutting around your favorite MMORPG’s gathering spot, you notice something. No one really cares, but more disturbingly, as you prepare to snap that screenshot alongside the others, you realize it doesn’t really make a great screenshot. Why are you not more excited? Deep down the answer slowly surfaces like a kraken out of the cold unfriendly depths of the ocean.

Read Have The Look and Stats Too!

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New Zone: The Weeping Coast

Chapter 2: The Elven Prophecy will be released in multiple stages, with the first stage coming this August. The initial rollout of content will bring a new zone called "The Weeping Coast" to Taborea, along with 200 new quests, and a raise of the level cap to 52.

The full announcement is available below:

New Zone Introduced in Runes of Magic

The ‘Weeping Coast’ Brings 200 New Quests to Taborea

SAN FRANCISCO – June 25, 2009 – Frogster America, Inc. has begun implementing new content from the next chapter of Runes of Magic, Chapter 2 – ‘The Elven Prophecy.’ The company today released the first information about the region, the ‘Weeping Coast.’ The new zone coincides with the level cap being raised to 52.

The Weeping Coast is located in northern Taborea, and features a swamp landscape with branching channels. Fish-like creatures known as the ‘Tiktaalik’ make the marshes unsafe, and temples which are found on higher ground are populated by wild clans of trolls. The region is also where players will first encounter the Naga, an infamous evil race in the game world. These saurian people are entwined in ancient secrets which players will slowly unravel as the second chapter progresses.

A pueblo-style village lies at the heart of the zone and serves as a central contact point with merchants and quest givers. Around 200 new quests in the ‘Weeping Coast’ will give adventurers plenty to do as they climb to level 52.

The opening of the ‘Weeping Coast’ zone and the start of the multi-stage launch of ‘The Elven Prophecy,’ is scheduled for August. The climax of the official release will then happen one month later in September when the chapter is fully implemented in the game.

A new trailer on the official Runes of Magic website offers a glimpse of the new territory: http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/videos,id28.html

You can also find a trailer for The Weeping Coast here

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Free Jade Shirt Giveaway!

MMORPG.com and Runewalker Entertainment are pleased to present the MMORPG.com community with a very special free offer. We are giving out gift keys that will allow you to get a cool in game armor item – the Jade Shirt! Get your key while supplies last!

The item you will get is:

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE IN GAME GIFT KEY!

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New Mounts, Diamonds for All!

Frogster is giving away 20 diamonds to every active user of Runes of Magic. Purchasing diamonds at regular price will also reward users with an extra 900 diamonds.

Two new mounts are also available in the Item Shop, and those are the Wild Lions and Night Lions.

Get the full press release below:

Diamonds for all!

Frogster gives away millions of diamonds in Runes of Magic

Publisher Frogster is giving away diamonds (the in-game currency of Runes of Magic) to its active players! Each player will receive a credit of 20 diamonds for their Runes of Magic account, per server on which they have a character with a minimum level 10 character. In addition when buying diamonds at the normal price players will receive up to 900 more diamonds than usual until Saturday 17:00.

What’s more, as of today there are two new mounts available in the Item Shop: Wild Lions and Night Lions. These majestic creatures are ready and willing to carry their riders swiftly and safely through the dangerous worlds of Taborea.

The Ruby Shop has also been fully open from yesterday. This is where exclusive items can be redeemed which in turn can only be found here. Payments are made using the rubies which are transferred to the Ruby account after each exchange for items in diamonds in the Item Shop.

Further information about the mounts, the diamond offers and the Ruby shop is available at: www.runesofmagic.com

In addition, two new screenshots of the new mounts are available in our Runes of Magic gallery, here

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Night and Wild Lion King Mounts

The team from Runes of Magic has provided us with these images of two of their game’s many available player mounts. This time around, it’s the Night Lion King Mount and the Wild Lion King Mount.

Check out the Night and Wild Lion King Mounts

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Yes, Elves!

Unlike Hi-Rez Studios, Frogster will be embracing their love for Elves in their game Runes of Magic. This September, Runes of Magic will be launching Chapter II: The Elven Prophecy, and if you can guess from the title, there will be Elves.

So get ready to roll a fresh-faced Elf and explore the new lands of Taborea this September! To celebrate this announcement, we’ve got 7 new screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

 Check out the rest of the new shots here

 To view our full Runes of Magic gallery, go here

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Chapter II:The Elven Prophecy

Frogster has announced that Chapter II: The Elven Prophecy, the next major update for Runes of Magic will launch in September of this year, bringing new regions, a new playable people, new classes, new instances, updated graphic engine and more.

Under the name of ‘The Elven Prophecy’, Frogster is to turn over a new leaf with Chapter II of Runes of Magic scheduled for launch in September 2009. The publisher has announced this today at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) currently being held in Los Angeles. At the exhibition, Frogster is already showing some new content from Chapter II like the new game region “Weeping Coast”.

As the name already suggests, the core element of ‘Chapter II – The Elven Prophecy’ is the integration of the elven folk as a playable race. A widely branching background story entwines about the elves with lots of new challenges with the new pieces of lore being told by means of a multitude of new quests and epic quest series. Continuing ‘Chapter I – Rise of the Demon Lord’ the second chapter leads players into new game regions, steeped in elven history. It’s the eponymous elves who stand by mankind in their epic conflict against the demon’s menace.

According to the legends, demons of human origin – having degenerated into underworld beings under the influence of the runes – forged an alliance with the nagas in ancient times. Together, these evil forces brought war and devastation to the world of Taborea. An alliance of elves and humans succeeded in banishing the demons into the void and drove back the nagas behind a magical wall. However, when elven prince Sig’aylas removed the holy sword ‘Arclight’ from the wall to defend his human truelove, the wall perished and the naga threat flared up once again.

Read more here

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Return of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom

Frogster has announced that the world of Runes of Magic is about to get bigger with the game’s next patch, Return of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom.

With the new large Patch 1.7 “Return of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom”, Frogster will soon deliver additional new game contents for Runes of Magic. Among other things, this update enlarges the world of the online role-playing game with new expansion potentials for guild castles. Moreover, the instance “Ruins of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom” is extended by a high-level area with new boss adversaries. The release of “Return of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom” is scheduled for 3 June 2009.

With this update, guilds can, for collected resources, erect special buildings in their castle yard. Step by step, these guilds unlock more and stronger constructions from the technology tree. Thus, the workshop is available only after the erection of a school, and powerful rune towers are available to the guilds only if they have considerably advanced the expansion of their castle. All buildings grant the guild special bonuses, from enhanced riding speed through the potential to mine resources up to powerful defensive works, which are in turn tactical elements in the planned guild vs. guild wars.

Players at level 50 can now plan new trips to the “Ruins of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom” again. So far, the dungeon was conceived for adventurers at levels 35 to 40, but this update extends it by a completely newly designed area for high-level groups with new bosses and, of course, new rewards.

Read more here

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Review

MMORPG.com reviewer Sean Bulger takes a look at Frogster’s recently released free 2 play MMORPG, Runes of Magic.

Free-to-play games have a certain stigma attached to them by most people, at least in the West. They tend to have less content, fairly simplistic gameplay, and are often little more than mindless-grind fests. I’ve played a number of these types of games in the past, and every time I do, I question why I haven’t learned my lesson yet. Runes of Magic has shown me why: because there’s always the exception to the rule, and hopefully one that will be a trend-setter. It is far from being a perfect game, but many gamers out there may find that Runes of Magic has enough to it to hold their interest.

Read the Runes of Magic Review

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One Million Players

Frogster has announced that Runes of Magic now boasts more than 1 million players in Europe and North America.

Frogster announces today that the online role play game Runes of Magic has now reached over a million registered users in Europe and the United States. In less than one year after announcing the game, the Berlin based publisher has been able to reach a further important milestone in the marketing of its multi-award-winning MMORPG.

“We at Frogster have been looking for a real hit title for two years and are happy to have found one this last year with Runes of Magic.” Summed up Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH. “We are convinced that with the up-coming offering of additional language versions we will achieve further strong growth in Europe.” Weidenhaupt continued. The Berlin based publisher plans to release at least two further localised versions this year. In addition to this, the already announced Korean version is to appear in association with Frogster Asia, as well as a Russian version in a cooperative partnership with Game Factory Interactive.

Read more here

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Lars Koschin Named CEO Frogster America

Frogster America has announced the appointment of Lars Koschin as the company’s new CEO.

Online games company Frogster America, the publisher behind the Runes of Magic title, has appointed ex-GameForge boss Lars Koschin as CEO.

The move follows the transition of founding CEO Sean Kauppinen into a business development and communications role.

"Lars brings deep and valuable experience to the role of CEO and we’re confident he and his team will continue the early success we’ve seen in North America," said Christoph Gerlinger, chairman of Frogster America and CEO of its Berlin-based parent company Frogster Interactive Pictures. "We would also like to thank our start-up team for their contributions in getting us through our initial launch stage and state that our founding CEO, Sean Kauppinen, will continue to provide marketing strategy, business development and communications support going forward as we had always planned."

Read more here

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Dev Blog: Very First Beta Testers

Our exclusive Global Agenda developer blog has received a new entry, where Michal Adam of Hi-Rez Studios tell us about the first few Beta testers in their sci-fi shooter.

Global Agenda’s very first beta testers just leveled up.

Inside the Studio, Thursdays are typically New Tester Day (OK, internally we call it ‘N00b’ day), when we invite new people in to the studio to test Global Agenda.

Today, our NooBs got a special treat. While Global Agenda’s Closed Beta does not officially begin until tomorrow (July 24), we allowed the tester’s to login early and be the first on our Beta Servers. So, if you are one of our Closed Beta testers and you login right at the start tomorrow and see a few players already tooling around 10 levels ahead of you – you know they were probably among the group that was at Hi-Rez today.

Read more here

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Combat ion Videos

A pair of Global Agenda videos are now available at GameTrailers.

The first video gives us a detailed look at what we can expect from the character creation system of Global Agenda. The second video runs through some in-game PvP combat footage.

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Closed Beta Phase One Begins July 24th

Earlier in the month we reported that Hi-Rez Studios had nailed down July as a timeframe for when we could expect the game to enter Closed Beta.

The developers are now ready to set a more solid date. The first phase of beta will begin on July 24th, 2009. The beta process will follow in a similar vein to that of the Aion beta, with each phase spanning a single weekend.

Get more details on the beta at the Global Agenda Answer Center.

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Closed Beta This July

The Answer Center on the official Global Agenda website has been updated with a date for the first phase of Global Agenda’s closed beta program.

The closed beta program will begin this July, so if you’ve not signed up yet, get to it!

For more information, check out the Answer Center here

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10 New Shots

Get a close look at all of the classes as they duke it out in these latest shots. Also, there are jetpacks. Jetpacks.

Take a look at all of the shots here

For our full Global Agenda gallery, go here

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Meet the Team: Mick Larkins

The "Meet the Team" series of interviews continues on the official Global Agenda blog. In this latest entry, we meet Mick Larkins, Lead Technical Artist on Global Agenda.

What do you do at Hi-rez Studios? ( List your title or give a few sentences about your job and duties. )

I am the Lead Technical Artist on Global Agenda. My job is to be a bridge between artists and programmers. I am responsible for programming the animation system and am a “generalist” for a lot of features (typically character related) that need programming support for a very visual result. I also create and maintain tools for artists and audio designers.

To learn more about Mick Larkins and Global Agenda, read the full interview here

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Hands-On Preview Interview

At E3 2009, MMORPG.com had a chance to sit down and play Global Agenda. The MMOFPS from Hi-Rez Studios in Atlanta makes great use of the Unreal 3 Engine and compares favorably with some classic shooters. Plus, it’s an MMO. We also talked to Executive Producer Todd Harris on camera about the game.

Global Agenda pulls off hands-to-hand combat beautifully.

My Assault character had this absurd electric battle axe. It looked awesome and at first, it seemed pretty useless. But as I got more comfortable with the game, it became an amazing tool, powered by the tight maps.

In one area, we were having a firefight back and forth on a walkway, with one solid wall and one side open to the air. At first, both sides dug in and just lobbed rockets and bullets back and forth. It was a stalemate.

At least, until I broke out the battle axe.

Read the preview here

Watch the interview here

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Elves vs. Recon Trailer

Hi-Rez Studios begins their "No Elves" campaign in this latest trailer for Global Agenda. In this newest trailer, you’ll find out what happens when you pit an Elven mage against a Recon.

Check out the trailer here

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Features Revealed at E3

Hi-Rez Studios has revealed a number of new features as fans had the opportunity to give the game a try at E3.

June 3, 2009. New features and content for the upcoming action MMO Global Agenda were unveiled and enthusiastically received today by attendees of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Players lined up to sample new character creation, Co-Op Player vs. Environment missions, and intense Player vs. Player missions.

This public showing of the game, that is available for hands-on preview throughout the expo, includes a first glimpse into the Global Agenda backstory via the "Inception Mission" that follows character creation, a chance to explore "Dome City", a social hub area set within the Sonoran Desert, new PvE mission content against Commonwealth androids and bosses, and new PvP areas within arctic and jungle settings. The skill-trees for each of Global Agenda’s four agent character classes were also debuted for players to experiment with.

Read more here

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Meet the Team: Chris Larson

Hi-Rez Studios has posted an internal interview with Chris Larson, Sr. Programmer for Global Agenda.

What do you do at Hi-Rez Studios?

Well, I would say that I’m kind of the jack of all trades (master of none?) around the programming department. I’m officially in charge of our game configuration tools, database and interfaces. As far as game code goes, I work with the inventory and item systems. I am also deeply involved in our device and effect code and have a general working knowledge of everything else (except our networking code… eeeewwww).

To summarize I’m the unofficial programming lead.
How long have you worked in Gaming, and what did you do before Global Agenda?

Global Agenda is the first game I’ve worked on. Prior to Hi-Rez, I worked on engineering systems for General Electric and later in my career I worked for the Founder/CEO of Hi-Rez (Erez Goren) at his previous company as a programming lead for retail workforce management systems… Yes sounds boring but I found it challenging and fun. Well, testing the software I currently work on is much more fun!

Read more here

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Dev Blog Debuts

Global Agenda, the upcoming sci-fi spy MMO, is the latest to join the ranks of developer blogs on MMORPG.com. In their debut, Producer Todd Harris talks about "A Minute To Learn, A Lifetime To Master."

In early 2005, when we first opened the doors of Hi-Rez Studios, we were asked to describe our team’s philosophy in making games. Our answer was "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master".

Erez (our company founder & Lead Designer) and I grew up in the coin-op arcade era, where if the game did not grab your attention and give you a taste of victory within the first 5 minutes it wouldn’t earn another quarter from you. Yet the best games also managed to engage & challenge the best players for hours, and sometimes on that same quarter!

Check it out here

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Meet the Team: Jeff Voeltner

Hi-Rez Studios has posted an internal interview with Jeff Voeltner, Senior Environment Artist for Global Agenda.

What do you do at Hi-Rez Studios?

I’m a Senior Environment Artist. I design and build the areas or "sets" that the players run around in. Most of my time working on Global Agenda has been on designing and developing the social spaces for the game (cities, agency headquarters, etc.).

How long have you worked in Gaming, and what did you do before Global Agenda?

I’ve been working in the industry for about seven years now. The first game that I worked on was Call of Duty: Finest Hour. I also worked on the games Legendary and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty during the beginning stages.

Prior to working on games, I’ve had the fortunate opportunities of working within feature film, advertising, and in comic books where I began my career as a color artist with Image Comics in the 90s.

Read more here

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Fiction: The Utopian

Hi-Rez Studios has released this new piece of fiction based on their upcoming MMORPG, Global Agenda. The Utopian is written by Nathan Knaack.

Steven made a conscious effort to awaken several minutes before his alarm sounded every morning, creeping out of bed as quietly as he could to peer out the window at the street a few stories below. The immaculately cleaned road had never suffered an automobile on its surface, as most of the traffic in Commonwealth Prime was airborne, clogging the skies above the incredible city in a perpetual jam of personal vehicles, public transportation, and security patrols. Ground level was reserved for pedestrians, with narrow walkways punctuated by neatly trimmed gardens and every imaginable shape of abstract sculpture. Thick nationalist banners hung from so high up on each towering skyscraper that the morning haze would obstruct their origins, making it appear that they hung from the clouds themselves, unfurling to broadcast their message of loyalty and pride. Steven wasn’t interested in any of that, not the cleanliness and beauty of the metropolis, or the eerie complacency and ruthless efficiency of each passersby. All he cared to see was the single hovering garbage collection drone that would visit the intersection just below his window every morning, a few minutes before his assigned duties began.

Read Fiction: The Utopian

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Fan Video Contest

Hi-Rez Studios has announced that they’re holding a video contest, challenging players to create the best or funniest video using assets from their new fan video kit. The video submission deadline is May 10th.

Today, Hi-Rez Studios posted a new Fan Video Kit that includes various clips of Global Agenda game play footage, launching The Eyes of the World Are Upon You! contest. This kit supplements the previously released Fan Site Kit, which includes a bunch of great art and music assets.

Hi-Rez is encouraging fans to use these materials — as well as other publicly available game assets and original fan-created content — to create videos that promote Global Agenda and then post them to the special Global Agenda Fan Videos Group on YouTube.

Read more here

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Gameplay and Teaser Videos

Hi-Rez Studios has released a new trailer featuring in game footage from their upcoming spi-fi MMORPG, Global Agenda.

Watch Gameplay Video

Hi-Rez Studios has released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming spi-fi MMORPG, Global Agenda.

Watch the Teaser Trailer

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