Bigpoint, one the largest German gaming portals and one of the top 3 gaming portals worldwide, has acquired Ruined.com from Sedo GreatDomains for its post apocalyptic third person shooter called ‘Ruined’.
Bigpoint originally used the domain name Ruinedonline.com for its site which debuted in October.
According to an article in Gamasutra: ‘Hamburg, Germany-based Bigpoint said that it’s adding 250,000 new registrations every day, and with the pending official launches of Battlestar Galactica and the company’s first U.S.-developed game Ruined Online, Bigpoint expects growth to continue.’
As of late October, the company claims to have over 150 million registered members of its browser-based games.
Bigpoint owns nearly 1,000 domain names for over 65 online games bundled on its game portal.
The company issued a press release about the launch of Ruined in early October:
Bigpoint Inc., the US-based subsidiary of Bigpoint GmbH (www.bigpoint.com) – a worldwide leader in online gaming – today unveiled its first browser game developed in North America. Set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, Ruined (www.ruinedonline.com) is a fast-paced, arena-style combat game that includes high-end features common to traditional console games.
“We came to the United States to extend and optimize our existing portfolio of games and to create new titles specifically for this market,” said Heiko Hubertz, CEO and Founder, Bigpoint. “With Ruined, we believe we’ve taken a huge step forward in producing a game that looks and feels like something you get with console and PC games, but requires nothing more than a browser to play.”
While still in early development, Bigpoint is showing-off a playable demo at the Game Developers Conference Online in Austin, Texas this week. In its current form, the game includes two arenas based on well-known San Francisco landmarks. Players can select one of three characters and engage in a deathmatch against other live players.
In developing Ruined – which is being built atop the Unity 3 engine – Bigpoint has partnered with dSonic Inc., an award-winning audio production company, and Cinematico Inc., a full service 3D design, animation, and motion capture studio. Bigpoint selected these firms to achieve a high-caliber experience for hardcore gamers.
Bigpoint is targeting this winter to release an open beta of the game. At that time, three more characters, additional San Francisco-inspired arenas, and multiple game modes will be available. In addition, the game will include 3D positional and stereo sound, including voice chat.
For more information about Ruined, including character back-stories and 3D scenes from the game, and to sign-up for the game newsletter, please visit: www.ruinedonline.com.
