Bigpoint, Schell License Photon Network Engine For Mummy MMO

Online games publisher Bigpoint and developer Schell Games, who are working together on an MMO adaptation for Universal Pictures' film franchise The Mummy, licensed Exit Games' network engine Photon, the companies said Tuesday. Pittsburgh-based Schell Games is developing The Mummy Online in multiple languages with the Unity game engine. Exit says Photon, which will power the MMORPG's online features, complements Schell's process as its network engine provides a .NET/C# development framework and a Photon Unity Client SDK. The middleware firm claims its product is unique in that it provides "UDP protocol support, binary sockets and an interest management framework" for large-scale online titles and real-time games. Bigpoint comments that the network engine will also help it handle thousands of concurrent users on a small number of servers when The Mummy Online releases. As with the movies, the MMO adaptation is set in Egypt during the first half of the 20th century. Players take on the role of adventure seekers with customizable talents and skills, exploring environments and meeting characters from the films as they battle against each other and "ancient evil". "We are extremely proud that Exit Games Photon was chosen for such a fantastic and large scale MMOG production," says Exit Games CTO Chris Wegmann. "That is a great example of what Photon is made for. We can hardly wait for the game launch to see Photon's high-performance architecture being proved once more." He adds, "Schell Games and Bigpoint really went through a tough due diligence process and at the end Photon was the winner. I think that tells the story."