Nurien / Unreal Engine 3 Media Tracking Report

Media Coverage – Epic Press Conference

IGN (all platform news)

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/854/854138p1.html

21-Feb-2008

…Mark eventually turned things over to Nurien Software who demoed their vision of using the Unreal Engine 3 to create a fully 3D social networking engine. Players can create and dress their very own avatars and then engage in a variety of mini-games with other friends online. The game we saw was a very realistic and highly attractive dancing rhythm game but there are also fashion design and modeling competitions and trivia contest that players can engage in. Right now Nurien is planning on offering the service for free when it launches in 2009 with additional assets being sold through micro-transactions.

IGN Insider

http://insider.ign.com/articles/854/854470p1.html

25-Feb-2008

…Epic also announced MStar, a fashion-based MMO hoping to capture the attention of Asian audiences later this year; a move that demonstrates the versatility of Epic's engine.

VIDEO: http://media.xbox360.ign.com/articles/854/854888/vid_2300462.html

GameSpot

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186439.html

…Epic capped the demo with a presentation for a new Unreal-powered product that seemed, according to Rein, "entirely different than you'd expect to see [the] Unreal [engine] in." The product was an online social networking client from Korean-based startup Nurien Software called MStar. This unusual product features highly detailed 3D models as customizable avatars (which can have different facial expressions, hairstyles, and many different articles of clothing) that can have their own "rooms," which act as, according to Nurien's Taehoon Kim, "like 3D versions of MySpace," where users can store photos and videos, but which can also be furnished and can serve as places for online friends to visit.

MStar also includes a built-in dancing rhythm minigame, as well as a game-show-style trivia minigame called "QuizStar," and an interactive fashion-modeling minigame called "Runway," that will apparently let users make their avatars be runway models--the winners of the fashion competition will be decided by online votes.

Eurogamer

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=93245

Following the tech demos in our Unreal Engine demonstration at GDC, a Korean outfit called Nurien took the podium to demonstrate a "next generation social networking application" built around Epic's popular technology.

"M Star" will launch in Korea this year and the US next year, and allows you to create a custom avatar - a sexy lady or a hunky man - and then dress them up and network. Socially. And play games, like a rhythm-action dancing effort.

It will be a free service, with money paid for things like clothes and other items as micro-transactions

The demo we saw was pretty slick. The designer talked about how easy the high-resolution graphics and realistic character model make it to do things like product placement for types of jeans, jewellery and even make-up, and how good it then looks.

Going through a bunch of outfits, the perky Korean girl handled her wardrobe changes well and certainly knew how to wear the clothes, proving popular with the men in the audience - Mark Rein in particular - as she twirled her tiny skirts.

When it comes to applications, there's a fashion show and a quiz show type affair and the aforementioned rhythm-action dance game. What was a bit surprising to our cynical eyes was that the dance game actually looked, well, good.

Mostly it was the visuals - the female model danced very convincingly, batting her eyelids and getting excited when she managed to string successful moves together, as the player did button-matching and built up combos to keep it all going.

"The characters in PlayStation Home don't look this good," said Rein, with a cheeky grin.

It's alright, Internet, he was just winding you up. Although he's probably right: having built M Star with beautiful people at the absolute core of its design, Nurien has the advantage visually. It certainly beats the crap out of ShameBook.

Play.tm

http://play.tm/story/16305

22-Feb-2008

…Called M Star, the new service will be launching in Korea and in North America next year. Fully customisable avatars will feature, and once you've crafted your alter-ego you'll be off looking for pals, to socialise and play casual games.

One such game is a rhythm-action dancing effort, while Nurien assure us that M Star will be free to play, being funded by micro-transactions, covering clothing items and other objects.

The MMO certainly looks to offer a rich and detailed world, and a release is on the cards for 2009. The visually accurate characters certainly pleased Epic's Mark Rein, who was quick to quip: "The characters in PlayStation Home don't look this good," during the GDC presentation.

More on M Star soon.

4Gamer.net (Japan)

http://www.4gamer.net/games/027/G002782/20080223009/

23-Feb-2008

By Zenji Nishikawa

Media Coverage – News Release

Gamasutra

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17526

Develop

http://www.developmag.com/news/29339/Nurien-to-make-UE3-powered-virtual-world?archive=bmV3c2FyY2hpdmU/bW9udGg9MDIyMDA4

GameTrailers (video)

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30827.html?r=1&type=wmv

Filefront

http://news.filefront.com/gdc-08-nurien-harnesses-the-power-of-the-unreal-3-enginefor-a-rhythm-dancing-game/

Games Press (login required)

http://www.gamespress.com/release.asp?c=w%09%C9m%B9

Voodoo Extreme

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/36864/Nurien-Epic-Go-Dancing

YouTube (video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPhkyNgMRbk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ED1ouzeNMM

SPOnG

http://news.spong.com/article/14848?cb=62

Spike TV

http://www.spike.com/collection/26140

Gaming Bits

http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/3520/2/

AOL Video (video)

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/exclusive-nurien-gameplay-footage-by-amishgramish/3851198849

SpawnPoint

http://www.spawnpoint.com/feature/2115/Nurien_to_Transform_3D_Social_Networking_with_UE3

Gamers Hell

http://www.gamershell.com/news/45831.html

BeyondUnreal

http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=175003

1UP

http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3166430

http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3166431

http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3166433

Softpedia

http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Unreal-Powered-Game-Announced-79339.shtml

Gaming Console Network

http://gamingconsolenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=506&Itemid=1

VR-Zone

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=239414

Gamers Reports

http://www.gamersreports.com/news/7488/gdc08-nurien-at-gdc/

Second Life Talk

http://www.secondlifetalk.com/index.asp?p=10&u=

Akayuki

http://akayuki.com/2008/02/23/unreal-engine-to-power-social-networking-app/

360 Plex

http://www.360plex.com/news/view/240845/

Codamon

http://codamon.com/2008/02/nurien/

G4G (Italy)

http://www.g4g.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&p=10814

포스팅이 유익하셨다면, 누리엔 블로그를 구독하세요.