Warhammer Online Nets 500,000 Players In First Week

Over 500,000 new players registered for new massively multiplayer online title Warhamer Online: Age of Reckoning in its first week, developer Mythic says. WAR launched simultaneously in North America, Europe and the Oceanic territories. Mythic says the game's strong launch week makes it publisher Electronic Arts’ most pre-ordered PC title -- and the fastest-selling new MMO of all time. Earlier in the month, Electronic Arts announced it had sold 1.5 million units of the game to retailers in the launch territories, making WAR the first MMO to open its servers simultaneously in all three regions. Shortly after launch, Mythic also banned 400 "bottom feeding" users for selling gold. "In just one week, we have a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG," says Mark Jacobs, co-founder and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "We spent years working to provide players with the most stable, epic, and polished online world we could, but it is the players that have truly brought the Age of Reckoning to life." Although the game courted controversy for failing to credit all those developers that have been involved in its long gestation, the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) yesterday praised Mythic for its plans to address the situation with an online database.