It's been a busy week in the MMORPG scene with a number of surprising announcements from various companies. Keeping up with everything that's happening can be a problem (especially since we MMORPG fanatics have to balance leveling and gearing up our characters while keeping tabs on the news). Thankfully, here's another episode of Weekend Warriors which should summarize all the major events this week.

This week, we see an attempted takeover of the Hellgate: London Franchise from HanbitSoft, the removal of certain features from the launch version of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the rapid growth of Second Life, and more. So let's get started shall we?

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First up, we have reports that HanbitSoft, the co-owner and distributor of Hellgate London, is trying to wrest control of the aforementioned IP from its developer Flagship Studios which has just undergone mass layoffs. It looks like both sides will be pursuing legal action regarding this, so we can probably expect to hear more about this in days to come.

Link: Flagship Studios experience mass lay-offs, HanbitSoft trying to take over Hellgate: London

In other news, EA Mythic's Vice President and General Manager of EA Mythic revealed that they had to cut four classes from Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and lower the capital cities down to two. This had to be done so that they could meet their deadlines. It makes one wonder what else won't be making it to the game. Anyway, the full details can be found via the link below.

Link: Warhammer Online removes four classes, four racial capital cities

Not all is dreary in the MMO world this week though as Second Life has announced that its virtual world has expanded by 44 percent. Linden Lab, the developer of the game, pointed out that this massive growth spurt was due to a few of their new additions to the game such as the Openspace land product as well as recent price drops.

Link: Second Life virtual world expands by 44 percent


Long time subscribers to NCSoft's City of Heroes/ City of Villains will be getting some sweet gear via the 51st and 54th months Veteran Rewards Program. Aside from various badges, players will also be getting a set of the pre-order helmets and some new weapons. Follow the link below for more details on the loot you can expect to get.

Link: City of Heroes: Details released for 51-month and 54-month Veteran Rewards

Finally, we have the announcement that Vivendi (the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment) and Activision have already officially merged into one company: Activision Blizzard. This can only mean one thing, more games coming our way!

Link: Call them Actizard: Activision-Vivendi merger gets official

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The recent announcement regarding Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was actually pretty surprising considering the game has been pushed back a number of times already. It seems that the developers have been trying to add too many features in the game to set it apart from the rest of the MMORPGs in the market.

Still, we should remember that regardless of these cuts, we can still expect a huge turnout for the first few months of this game with gamers trying it out just to see if it is better than the MMORPGs they're currently playing.