Aside from Pirates of the Burning Sea, there's another MMO title that allows players to live their wildest fantasies of being pirates. We're talking about Bounty Bay Online. If you are interested, today is your lucky day because the game is currently in need of players who will fill the closed beta slots.

Bounty Bay Online takes place during the 15th century. Much like PotBS, there are several career options to follow in Bounty Bay Online aside from being a pirate. A player may opt to become a merchant and focus on trade. Also, one can just be an adventurer and travel the exotic and then-unexplored regions of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

This MMO is being developed by German-based yusho GmbH. There is still no word when this will be available but the developer mentioned that Bounty Bay will come in two different versions: a normal retail package and a special edition. Of course, the latter has more goodies to offer.

You can register at the game's official site to take part at the closed beta via our Read link below.

According to an industry analysis report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the video game industry will continue to be considered as an above-average growth segment of the global entertainment industries. Additionally, they have claimed that this year's investments made by the game industry is "set to exceed" the current spending for the music industry.

 
The global spending has jumped 14.3% to US$ 31.6 billion back in 2006, and PwC expects that the amount should climb another 18.5% to US$ 37.5 billion in 2007. The report also projects that the game industry will officially overtake the music industry by 2008 in the US, as data from key growth factors in the industry have been gaining performance this year.

Such factors include that of online and wireless games, next generation consoles and the advent of in-game advertising. Although much of the analysis took the US into question, PwC cut back on US-only expectations and spread its views over the global scape.

Click on Full Article to learn more of the gaming industry's performance as a whole and the best performing region for 2007.

 

Two days ago, we shared with you TT Games' charitable deed to help raise funds for the NGO, Comic Relief, as well as the event that they sponsored, which is no less than Red Nose Day. Well, if you're living in the UK, then you're probably familiar with all this, but if you're from somewhere else, let us tell you that Red Nose Day is a bi-annual Spring event which aims to help poor countries in Africa, as well as the underprivileged people in the UK.

Residents of Linden Lab's MMORPG, Second Life, joined in the fun by altering their avatars a bit to put on red noses. Other players didn't go that far, but still showed their support by putting on Red Nose Day t-shirts. If you really think about it, this may actually be the more effective way to help, as the shirts cost 550 Linden dollars (US$ 2.20/ 1.13 GBP). Most of the funds raised by this activity directly to the Comic Relief fund.

Comic Relief was founded way back in 1985. Since then, the organization was able to solicit 425 million GBP or roughly around US$ 825.1 million from its Red Nose Day project alone. 40% of this money is automatically allocated to the ones their helping within UK while 60% of which is used for funding their missions to Africa.

It sure looks like Age of Conan is shaping up to be one buffed up game - and we have the images to prove it. These images were actually taken from its beta test, and we'd have to say, it's getting there.

The collection actually is that of the game's setting, which is, as described by game director Gaute Godager of Funcom in an interview with OGaming, "..like a dark, decadent, twisted and corrupt version of Euro-Asian history. Mix a bit of the Roman Empire, Mongolian culture and Babylonian mysticism with '30s-era myths of undiscovered Africa..." Well that sure sounds interesting.

More intriguing is how the land itself is a seeming representation of the storyline. The place is characterized by a variety of land formations, from plains to rugged terrain, and everything in between. Much like how it is neither a land of good or evil, but with "moral shades of gray". Yes, it's set in a time where everything is much simpler. But with moral issues and dilemmas abound, you know it wasn't so simple after all.

Tarantia

More of the images after the jump!

Sony Online Entertainment desires to test if MMO lands are fertile in foreign territories such as Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). As a first step, the big conglomerate agrees to sign a deal with Koch Media that includes hit title EverQuest II, its back expansion packs, and forthcoming Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Koch Media Executive Craig McNicol reveals, "Our cooperation with Sony Online Entertainment began some months ago with Planetside Invasion." The officer then added that they hit the deal through handling well the trust given to them by Sony. "We firmly believe in the future of the MMO genre," McNicol further shares.

Everquest II was already released while Vanguard is expected to come out early next year.

Bagging a couple of E3 awards (including IGN's, Gamespot's, and Gamespy's "Best MMO"), Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has become one of the most anticipated MMORPGs. Those who've already tried out the beta version of the game (and loved it!) will rejoice at this latest news: the launch window is now between March and May 2007. This is according to the latest agreement between Funcom and SCi/Eidos.

In a co-publishing agreement that the two companies signed recently, Funcom and SCi/Eidos will have specific sales targets that will make Age of Conan one of the most successful MMO to date. Under the terms of the agreement, SCi/Eidos will publish the boxed product of ‘Age of Conan’ while Funcom will retain digital distribution rights.

Also, distribution rights for North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand have been granted to SCi/Eidos; Funcom will operate servers and provide customer service for the game and collect and retain subscription revenues.