Jolt Online Gaming
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| Type | Online gaming network |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland |
| Key people | Dylan Collins, CEO |
Jolt Online Gaming is an online gaming company hosted in the UK. Its main site provides news, reviews, and interviews concerning upcoming games on consoles and computers, while its gaming network Jolt Online Gaming Network hosts and publishes free-to-play browser based games. Notable works include Utopia, Utopia Kingdoms, Legends of Zork, and NationStates 2.
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[edit] History
Founded in 1999, Jolt Online Gaming is based in Europe, with servers across the USA. Jolt is known as one of the pioneers of the supply of rentable servers to online gaming clans. Jolt was acquired by OMAC Industries, a company based in Dublin, Ireland in June 2008.[1] On November 8, 2009 the website Silicon Republic confirmed that Gamestop had acquired a stake in Jolt, making a major, undisclosed investment.[2]
The Jolt Online Gaming Network has been noted for releasing browser-based games using the names and fictional worlds of older games or franchises. Their business models often employ micropayment systems, as well as basic banner advertisements.
[edit] Hosted Games
[edit] Championship Manager: Rivals
Championship Manager: Rivals is a football (soccer) game playable through the Facebook[3] website. It was officially released on Wednesday, June 1st 2011 by Jolt Online and developed by Beautiful Game Studios.[4]
The game is the most successful game that Jolt currently has, with a user base of 50,000.[5] Jolt has announced updates including player vs. player gaming, which will allow friend's teams to play against each other.[6]
[edit] Earth:2025
Earth: 2025 was a browser based massive multiplayer internet-based strategy game, originally created and run by Swirve.com. It was first officially brought online in 1997 and acquired by Jolt through the 2008 sale of Swirve.com to Omac Industries.
In 2008 Jolt acquired this game along with Swirve's Utopia. On November 4, 2009, Jolt announced that they would no longer be continuing the game when the current rounds end in December, citing an over abundance of technical problems which allegedly made continuing support untenable.[7] The game was recreated by fans as Earth Empires.
[edit] Utopia
Utopia is a browser based massive multiplayer internet-based strategy game, originally created and run by Swirve.com. It was first officially brought online in 1998 and acquired by Jolt through the 2008 sale of Swirve.com to Omac Industries.
In 2009 Jolt recoded the game in an effort to remedy gameplay issues that Jolt reported as being a result of hacker attacks.[8] The new code was brought online as beta version of the game, the first since 1996. Jolt passed development and maintenance of the game to Frontsquare solutions in 2010.
[edit] Utopia Kingdoms
Utopia Kingdoms is an online strategy game related to the universe of Utopia which was released in early 2009 and originally promoted as a kind of sequel.[9] Utopia Kingdoms allows players to pick a race from the original game and build a kingdom, juggling buildings, resource manufacturing, and high-risk combat. It was made in conjunction with XS Software and is based on their game, Khan Wars. On 16 November 2010 Jolt announced that Utopia Kingdoms would be discontinued after the 31st of January 2011, citing lack of development resources.[10] Around the same time, Jolt Online who had already been developing a re-release of Utopia Kingdoms game on Facebook, announced it officially on November 11th, 2010 in the game's Facebook page.[11] The original official forum announcement was lost due to data failure on or around December 21st, 2010,[12] the forum announced a second "welcome" to current Utopia Kingdoms players on December 22nd, 2010.[13] Which was thought to be the "official" release of the game, although it wasn't.[14]
[edit] Legends of Zork
Legends of Zork was a casual adventure game that was released in April 2009[15] that took place in the Zork universe, a text-based adventure game created in the 1980s for the PC. It was released on April Fool's Day, 2009, to mixed reviews, with some saying that it had little to do with the original Zork.[16] Other, more recent reviews of the game were more positive, describing later features added to the game "with puzzles that would make the original Zork developers proud."[17] Finally on May 24th, 2011, two years and one month after its release; Jolt Online announced the game closure to players in-game.[18]
[edit] Hattrick
Hattrick, a Swedish-based sports game, agreed to allow Jolt to host their game and make it available to more countries including the U.S., U.K., Ireland, and Australia.[19]
[edit] Trukz
Trukz was a text-based game that allowed the player to create a truck driver and simulate the multitude of struggles cargo truck drivers endure on the road, the goal being upgrading their vehicle with commissions earned from the shipping and earning achievements for playing. The game used Google Maps to point out cities they visited or pass on their drives. On 16 November 2010 Jolt announced that Trukz would be discontinued after the 31st of January 2011, citing lack of development resources.[20]
[edit] Playboy Party
Playboy Party was a short lived online game released on Facebook around November 30th, 2010.[21][22] The game was released after Jolt failed to launch the long promised Playboy Manager game that they had planned in conjunction with Playboy[23] since 2009. The game consisted in the player being a talent agent managing supermodels in an attempt to beat other agents to a prized spot as a Playboy supermodel.[24] It was announced in May 2009 and garnered media coverage from well-known publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.[25] The original Playboy Manager website contained the options to pre-register, beta sign-ups[26] and subscription to updates, as well as promotional content. The Playboy Party game in Facebook[27] was poorly managed, requiring a reset that made players start from scratch on March 31st, 2011.[28] It was closed six months later on September 12th, 2011.[29]
[edit] NationStates 2
NationStates 2 was an unauthorized[30] sequel to the popular society simulation game Jennifer Government: NationStates. NationStates 2 was unpopular next to its predecessor, suffering from technical issues and was later discontinued. After it was taken down, the owner of NationStates, author Max Barry reclaimed the domain and encouraged users to return or try the original version which was "now proudly Jolt-free".[31]
[edit] References
- ^ Elliott, Phil (2008-06-18). "OMAC Industries acquires Jolt Online Gaming". http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/omac-industries-acquires-jolt-online-gaming.
- ^ Kennedy, John (2009-11-08). "GameStop Acquires Stake in Jolt Online". Siliconrepublic.com. http://siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14355/business/gamestop-acquires-stake-in-jolt-online. Retrieved 2009-11-09.
- ^ "Championship Manager: Rivals – Football & Soccer Game in Facebook". Jolt and Beautiful Game Studios. http://apps.facebook.com/cmrivals/. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ^ "Jolt Online Gaming Launches Championship Manager: Rivals". Jolt and Beautiful Game Studios. http://joltonline.com/2011/06/jolt-online-gaming-launches-championship-manager-rivals/. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ^ "Championship Manager: Rivals – Football & Soccer". AppData. http://www.appdata.com/apps/facebook/127468480646542-championship-manager-rivals-football-soccer. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ^ "Championship Manager: Rivals - Manage your dream team to the top in our latest Facebook game". Jolt. http://joltonline.com/games/cmrivals/. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ^ "Earth Announcement - Jolt Forums". Forums.joltonline.com. http://forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?t=602468. Retrieved 2009-11-09.
- ^ "Utopia Announcement - Jolt Forums". Forums.joltonline.com. http://forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?t=600903. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
- ^ Guttridge, Luke (2009-02-26). "Jolt Online confirms Utopia sequel". http://play.tm/news/23524/jolt-online-gaming-confirm-utopia-sequel/.
- ^ Utopia Kingdoms Forums (2010-11-16). "Utopia Kingdoms: Closure Announcement". http://forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?613755-Utopia-Kingdoms-Closure-Announcement.
- ^ "Verily we welcome thee, Lords and Ladies, to Utopia Kingdoms on Facebook". Joltonline.com. 2010-11-11. http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=119919798066625. Retrieved 2011-05-28.
- ^ "Apology Announcement". Joltonline.com. 2010-12-22. http://ukfb-forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?6-Apology-Announcement. Retrieved 2011-05-28.
- ^ "Welcome". Joltonline.com. 2010-12-22. http://ukfb-forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?7-Welcome. Retrieved 2011-05-28.
- ^ "Utopia Kingdoms Released as a Free Facebook Game". Brightsideofnews.com. 2010-12-22. http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/12/22/utopia-kingdoms-released-as-a-free-facebook-game.aspx. Retrieved 2011-05-28.
- ^ Graft, Kris (2009-01-14). "Zork MMO Announced". http://play.tm/news/23524/jolt-online-gaming-confirm-utopia-sequel/.
- ^ Biggs, John (2009-04-03). "Legends of Zork: This is not the Zork you’re looking for". Crunchgear.com. http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/03/legends-of-zork-this-is-not-the-zork-youre-looking-for. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ Washburne, Robert (2009-09-30). "Legends of Zork: Just Adventure". Justadventure.com. http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/LegendsOfZork/Zork.shtm. Retrieved 2009-10-05.
- ^ "Legends of Zork: Game Closure". Joltonline.com. 2011-05-24. http://forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?615393-Game-Closure&p=15074684#post15074684. Retrieved 2011-05-28.[dead link]
- ^ Jolt (2009-09-23). "Jolt and Hattrick Announce International Team-Up". http://www.joltonline.com/news/15_jolt_and_hattrick_announce_international_team-up.
- ^ Trukz Forums (2010-11-16). "Trukz Forum and Game Closure". http://forums.joltonline.com/announcement.php?f=1570&a=146.[dead link]
- ^ "NSFW: Jolt Online releases new game ‘Playboy Party’". AllFacebook. 2010-11-30. http://www.allfacebook.com/nsfw-jolt-online-releases-new-game-playboy-party-2010-11.
- ^ Gamershell (2010-11-30). "Jolt launches Playboy Party". http://www.gamershell.com/companies/jolt_online_gaming/798388.html.
- ^ "Jolt Online Gaming and Playboy Enterprises Inc. Announce Playboy Manager: The Massively Casual Online Game!". Jolt. 2009-05-06. http://www.playboymanager.com/press_release.htm.
- ^ Kee, Tameka (2009-05-11). "Yes, You, Too, Can Manage A Playboy Playmate (Virtually, At Least)". Washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051102633.html. Retrieved 2009-10-05.
- ^ Kennedy, John (2009-06-04). "Playing the Game: Irish Playboy Builds a Global Online Empire". Siliconrepublic.com. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/13095/new-media/playing-the-game-irish-playboy-builds-a-global-online-empire/. Retrieved 2009-11-09.
- ^ "Playboy Manager Announced: It's a Casual MMO to be played in 'short bursts'". IGN. 2009-5-06. http://pc.ign.com/articles/980/980386p1.html.
- ^ "Playboy Party Game on Facebook with announcement: "Sorry, this game has been closed ..."". Jolt. 2011-10-30. http://apps.facebook.com/playboyparty/.
- ^ "Playboy Party: New version launched!". Jolt. 2011-3-31. http://playboy-party-forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?71-New-version-launched!.
- ^ "Playboy Party: Game Closure". Jolt. 2011-9-12. http://playboy-party-forums.joltonline.com/showthread.php?79-Game-Closure.
- ^ Barry, Max. ["http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2009/05/20/index.html "Max's post about closing NationStates2"]. "http://www.nationstates.net/page=news/2009/05/20/index.html.
- ^ Barry, Max. "NationStates2". http://www.nationstates2.com. Retrieved 2009-11-09.
