Petroglyph doing free-to-play MMO

By Robert Purchese Published 3 December, 2008

Micro-transaction-powered Mytheon.

Star Wars: Empire at War developer Petroglyph has unveiled Mytheon, the massively multiplayer online game it teased earlier this year, and said it will be out next autumn.

Mytheon is free to download and play and then powered by micro-transactions. Items for sale will include double-experience potions, clothing and "premium bundle packages for those who wish to further enhance their experience", according to the Mytheon website.

Despite a history steeped in strategy, Petroglyph has opted for an action and collect-'em-up blend, whisked with various role-playing flavours. There's three classes, each based on a particular skill: healing, summoning, and presumably fighting, although there's no evidence to back this up yet.

Abilities are acquired through Power Stones, and there are hundreds to collect. Spells lie in familiar fireball, lightning bolt, heal, summon-minion territory, and solo, group and PvP elements are all present.

The setting is ancient Greece, but the plan is to expand Mytheon into other bygone mythologies using expansion packs. In its first iteration, the idea will be to banish the Greek gods from a world mortals want to rule.

Petroglyph's latest, Universe at War: Earth Assault, wasn't brilliant, but did begin to branch into the persistent online world, albeit under the - at the time - buggy and expensive Games for Windows Live (and Xbox Live) umbrella.

There are no screenshots for Mytheon yet, nor videos, but what scraps of information are available lie on the Flash-heavy website.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (6) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • iokthemonkey #1 4 years ago

    I think it should be the law that no company is allowed to "announce" an MMO until they can provide at least three in-game screenshots.

    I've lost count of the number of "announced" MMOs I've seen that never get beyond a few concept sketches.

  • makeamazing #2 4 years ago

    Yes everyone is apparently making and releasing MMO's right now.. hmm time for EG to announce they have one in the works.

  • SliderNL #3 4 years ago

    I think it should be the law that no company is allowed to make an MMO

    The amount of time and money wasted on these projects is enormous....

  • Madafunkola #4 4 years ago

    I have just announced and launched an MMO based around my life. Players are able to interact with me (or not if they choose), buy things in shops with REAL money (which they may or may not give to me as a present), do quests/activities, buy and wear clothing, drink and eat, and many more besides.
    The unique selling point of this game is that it is not played on a computer but in real life!
    I have been running an open beta for a while now but am about to introduce subsription charges of £8 per month from everyone I have ever met.
    :D

  • Jigglybean #5 4 years ago

    I'm looking forward to this. Hopefully, it will bring something new and refreshing to such a stale genre

  • the_mtfr #6 4 years ago

    Oh my God the Mytheon site sucks. Ass.