HeroEngine Volume 1 Update Released

Simutronics sent us over a press release today announcing that a new update is available for their HeroEngine platform that will allow as many as 100,000 concurrent users per server. BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic and ZeniMax's unnamed MMORPG are both powered by HeroEngine, so I guess this is good news for those of us planning to play either game:
Simutronics Announces "Volume 1" Update For HeroEngine Platform

Leading Realtime Collaborative Development Platform for MMO Games and Virtual Worlds Updated With Boundless Worlds and Interoperable Multiplatform Servers

Gaithersburg, Md. March 24, 2009 - Simutronics today announced the release of HeroEngine 2009 Volume 1, the only realtime collaborative development platform for massively multiplayer online (MMO) games and virtual worlds.

As the premiere integrated platform for full life-cycle development, deployment, and maintenance of MMO games and virtual worlds, HeroEngine provides creative teams with the tools and technology they require in order to fulfill their exacting vision while reducing time to market and lowering costs.

"Creative visionaries are no longer bound by arbitrary limits on the size of their virtual worlds or how areas in those worlds can connect together), said Simutronics CEO and HeroEngine Architect David Whatley. (And, they can choose to run their virtual worlds on Windows or Linux, or any combination, in order to meet their cost and performance goals.)

Now HeroEngine supports more than 100,000 concurrent players in a single shard. Utilizing HeroEngine's new Seamless World technology, developers can create virtual areas that transparently connect together to build single seamless worlds as large as they require in order to achieve their vision. There is no limit on how large a single seamless world can be, and seamless worlds themselves can even be instanced as needed to meet specific gameplay or product requirements. The maximum capacity per shard will grow even larger as the HeroEngine team continues development of inter-world scalability.

With new Linux server support, HeroEngine extends its backend server capabilities to a whole new class of server hardware. The choice of Microsoft Windows Server or Linux allows development teams to choose the operating system and hardware combination that meets their needs. And, both Windows and Linux servers are fully interoperable in the same environment. Other additions include: support for Autodesk Maya 2009 and named content packages for atomic publishing via LivePush that will allow you to deploy new content without booting your players offline.

Available immediately, HeroEngine continues to lead the way in providing creative teams with the best in class collaborative tools, technology, and platform they require in order to execute their vision.

Simutronics executives will be demonstrating HeroEngine and the forthcoming Hero's Journey MMO game built on HeroEngine at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco from March 25-27, 2009. You can check out HeroEngine for yourself at North Hall, Booth 5538.

About HeroEngine
HeroEngine is the world's only integrated, collaborative, and realtime platform for full life-cycle development, deployment, and maintenance of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games and virtual worlds that reduces time to market, lowers costs, and allows creative teams to focus on what they do best. HeroEngine's collaborative development model, rapid prototyping environment, natural world building tools, end-to-end content pipeline, and integrated versioned content system are built and optimized for the needs of large-scale geographically-distributed MMO and virtual world development teams. Licensees include Electronic Arts' BioWare studio's Star Wars: The Old Republic, ZeniMax Online, and many more around the world. More information is available at www.heroengine.com.

About Simutronics
Simutronics Corp. is the leading creator of advanced technology platforms for developers in the multi-billion dollar global market for massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Simutronics has been developing multiplayer online games for more than 20 years including pioneering titles like GemStone, DragonRealms, and CyberStrike, which were best-selling games on AOL and other online services during the 1990's. Its next game, Hero's Journey, is scheduled for release worldwide during 2010 and information can be found on its website www.herosjourney.net. Corporate information is online at www.play.net/corporate. Simutronics has offices in St. Charles, MO and Gaithersburg, MD.