CryENGINE 2-Powered Mars-Set MMO Initially Unveiled, to be Powered by StreamBase

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Honolulu-based Avatar Reality, whose management and advisory boards feature something of an all-star cast of industry veterans, released early screenshots and concept artwork from its sci-fi MMO Blue Mars. The company also joined BioWare in licensing StreamBase Systems' Complex Event Processing technology for its game's online infrastructure. Blue Mars was already announced as using Crytek's CryENGINE 2 as its rendering solution.

Unsurprisingly set on a terraformed Mars, Blue Mars seems highly focused on the community and customization aspects of MMOs, with avatar creation mentioned prominently in all the game's press releases. It will be demonstrated at this week's E for All Expo in Los Angeles.

Heading up Avatar Reality are Kazuyuki Hashimoto, CG supervisor on Square's Final Fantasy VII (PS, PC) and more recently technology VP for new platforms at Electronic Arts, and Li-han Chen, formerly of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within production company Square Pictures and more recently project manager on Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II.

Interestingly, Avatar Reality's advisory board is made up of three figures crucial to the early success of Nintendo: Henk Rogers (listed on the company's site as "mastermind"), who notoriously secured the original rights to Tetris after befriending designer Alexey Pajitnov and went on to found The Tetris Company; Minoru Arakawa, the first president of Nintendo of America, who helped establish the initially floundering branch; and Tetris creator Pajitnov himself, who went on to co-found The Tetris Company with Rogers.

Blue Moon is planned to enter a beta phase in late 2008.

From The Chatty
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    October 17, 2007 9:43 AM

    I about peed myself when I saw Blue Mars, thinking of the Kim Stanley Robinson books, but this doesn't appear to be related? :(

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      October 17, 2007 9:47 AM

      I don't know anything about the books, but they came up in my Google research on the game so I've already emailed about it just in case.

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      October 17, 2007 10:30 AM

      Coincidence, I think. I wouldn't say the books lend themselves to MMO, heh. Or at least the MMO as we know it today.

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        October 17, 2007 11:03 AM

        Yeah, that was my second thought. :)

        Loved the books; it's been years since I read them but they're still collectively hands-down my favorite.

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          October 17, 2007 3:53 PM

          Yeah, it'd need to be more a management/diplomacy/strategy sim like Alpha Centauri or something, I think.

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