A couple weeks ago, we heard from the Perpetuum Beta Blog about a new game mechanic known as Intrusion. Centering around PvP and Corporation competition, Intrusion will provide players with a way to gain control of other corporations’ outposts.

In the world of Perpetuum Online, outposts are hubs for commerce and social activity. Unaffiliated players may stop by to buy and sell, or simply to take a break from adventuring. More importantly, Corporations can profit from the existence of these outposts by gaining control over it’s operations. This is where Intrusion comes in. As in real life, Outposts require maintenance from time to time, and become vulnerable during this period. It is at this time that other corporations may strike and attempt to steal control for themselves.

Continued…

Do you hear that clicking sound? That’s what it sounds like when 11 million MMO subscribers repeatedly hit their “Check Email” button in the hopes of being one of the first players in the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Closed Beta.

In an announcement released just hours ago Blizzard Entertainment confirmed that they have begun inviting players to the closed beta. Players have been signing up for an early preview of Cataclysm over the last several months through their Battle.net accounts.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, said about the testing, “Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we’ve gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date. Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year.”

Cataclysm beta testers will get an early peek at the new expansion, help find bugs, and give suggestions on  balance issues and content. Cataclysm will be the third expansion for the incredibly popular World of Warcraft, and is expected to break sales records much like the previous two releases.

Are you one of the lucky first folks in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta? Let MMOCrunch know what you think about the overhauled Azeroth!

GamesCampus, a free-to-play games portal, has announced a Heroes in the Sky open beta beginning tomorrow, July 1, 2010. For those that don’t know, HIS is a World War Two “flight combat simulator” with the twist that it is a massively multiplayer game. It will feature both PvE and PvP, with up to 16 players competing in one session. Supposedly containing hundreds of war planes, and “some of the most exciting battles in history”, Heroes in the Sky has certainly set its sights high, if you’ll pardon the pun. Joining the beta may be your chance to see exactly how this concept translates into an MMO, as the entire game will apparently be represented.

To register for the Heroes in the Sky open beta, fly your way to the official site.

Lord of the Rings Online produced by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and created by Turbine Inc. is now free-to-play (F2P)!

Although the game is free to sign up for and begin, expansions, quest packs, items and other account services can be purchased from the LOTRO Store. There is also a VIP program that grants unlimited access to all of the game’s content for one low price.

Senior Vice President Jeff Junge had the following to say about LOTRO going F2P. “Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is bringing quality games based on The Lord of the Rings to multiple platforms, and the franchise’s expansive adventure story lends itself perfectly for LOTRO freeto-play, giving a wide range of players the opportunity to experience the game.” Junge then added, We are focused on expanding our game franchises onto new digital platforms to maximize quality experiences for gamers worldwide and LOTRO’s new model is agreat leading example of this.”

In connection with Turbine’s other F2P game, Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, President and CEO of Turbine Jim Crowley had the following to say: “Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Online®: Eberron Unlimited™ was the world’s first truly premium free-to-play online game that ushered in a new era of choice for online gamers seeking qualityentertainment. The popularity of DDO validated the extraordinary demand by gamers for quality entertainment they can experience at their own pace and within their budget. Extending free-to-play to LOTRO will offer another premium game to a broad spectrum of fans.””

Gamers who wish to sign up for today’s launch of the free-to-play Lord of the Rings Online Beta click here.

I am pleased to announce that there is now another way to get into the beta for World of Warcraft: Cataclsym. The first way is to opt-in, which means you have the chance to be randomly selected for a key. The second way is to take part in the Guild Contest for Cataclysm beta.

There will be 5000 beta keys given out through June 7th to July 12th and 100 winners will be chosen every week. The Guild Master must be the one that submits the essay. If a guild is selected in this contest then the GM will receive 10 keys to distribute among the guild.

The essay must be 50-250 words in length (in English) and explain why the guild should be in the World of Warcraft: Cataclsym beta. Guilds are allowed only one entry and the essay itself must not have any comments that are obscenities, lewd, profane, etc.

All essays should should be emailed to: blizzardcontest@blizzard.com.

Realtime Worlds appears to have misplaced its keys, as the city won’t be opened for another two days. The APB Key to the City end-of-beta event is now scheduled to begin at 9am EDT on Saturday June 12th, 2010 in North America and 8am GMT in Europe. Lead designer David Jones gave this explanation:

We’ve worked tirelessly to bring the service online, installing and configuring a massive amount of new hardware in our data-centres, to help meet the high demand and bring you the best experience we can. As we’re sure you’ll appreciate, this is a huge undertaking and unfortunately on this occasion, we’ve hit a number of installation delays.

The event is intended to allow a taste of APB to those players lucky enough to have codes for it – they will gain access to the game’s social districts for an unlimited time, and the action districts for five hours. While for many people this is simply a delay in their chance to get a free look at an upcoming game, some loyal customers have obtained codes for the event by way of pre-order bonuses, so there are no doubt some unhappy fans out there today.

Visit the official site for more info.

The Remote Auction House is a feature for Wold of Warcraft that will allow you to access the Auction House from an iPhone and from the web. This means that you can buy/sell items and do all your Auction House things without being logged in to World of Warcraft.

Currently this feature is in open beta testing. If you want to try out the Remote Auction House by using a web browser go here. The iPhone version of this feature can be downloaded here. Also there will be a limit on the number of transactions a player can do. The beta has a limit of 25 transactions a day but the live service will have a 200 transaction limit per day.

The Remote Auction House feature will cost $2.99 a month once beta testing is finished. More info about this feature can be found by reading this FAQ.

As Final Fantasy XIV makes its transition from alpha to beta, the public are given another opportunity to apply for a testing position. It seems that the Playstation 3 beta will also begin shortly, as users are given the option to enter the code that was received when registering the Playstation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII through the Square Enix members site. Apart from access to the beta, the code will also grant the user an exclusive in-game item.

For more information on the Final Fantasy XIV beta, head on over to the official beta registration website.

If you’ve been excited for Final Fantasy XIV, then you are certainly in for a treat as we have a huge amount of screenshots for the upcoming beta test. Final Fantasy XIV is currently still in alpha, however that hasn’t stopped Square Enix from promoting its game. We also have the entire map of Eorzea – Final Fantasy XIV’s world.

Visually, the beta is quite the significant leap over the alpha version. Below are some comparison screenshots:

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Keep on checking MMOCrunch for all the latest news on Final Fantasy XIV.

World of Warcraft:Cataclysm is now open for closed beta opt-ins. As some of you may know the alpha was only available to friends and families of Blizzard employees. The only requirements needed to participate in the beta is to have a Battle.net account that has a World of Warcraft account tied to it and details about your system specifications. After doing that make sure you check the box for World of Warcraft beta.

More info can be found here.