14 DAY TRIAL // Huxley is a much delayed project and an MMO. So, the signs are not good for developer Webzen. A similarly late MMO, Richard Gariott's much troubled Tabula Rasa, has yet to make profit and create a niche for itself in the MMO market. Another champion of delays, Age of Conan, is also due to launch later this year.
Meanwhile, World of Warcraft is continuing its triumphal march. Patch 2.4 has recently been announced with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion due to hit shelves and computers sometime later this year. Competition hasn't yet managed to dent the massive popularity of the Blizzard-run MMO that continues to grow. It has recently surpassed 10 million subscribers and the number of active players continues to grow steadily. So, competition for any MMO new comer is likely to be brutal.
Huxley is set in a post-apocalyptic game world where most of the humans have morphed into mutants. A mysterious scientist figure, doctor Huxley, creates Lunarites, a fantastic source of power but also a powerful mutagen. The world is divided into a Sapiens faction, composed of unaffected humans, and an Alternative faction, with heavily mutated members. The game is claimed to feature fast-paced gameplay with the PvP battles featuring 60 players per side. As the game was first unveiled in 2005, with a tentative release date of 2006, it is unclear how much the current game has in common with what was previously shown. It's likely that the main concept of a post-apocalyptic world with mutants is still in place, but other aspects might have been significantly changed. Recently, developers Webzen have said that Xbox 360 version of the game will also feature a single player campaign.
A South Korean release is planned for the game in the first half of the year. Then, some six months will be allocated for a localization and testing process before the game is shipped in North America, with no release date set for Europe yet. Check back with us for further Huxley news.