CMUNE

Cmune

Type	Private
Founded	March 2007
Headquarters	Beijing, China
Key people	Ludovic Bodin, Shaun Lelacheur Sales, Benjamin Joffe, Yong Joon Hyoung, Tommy Franken, Gabriel Weyer, Jerome Scola, Eamon Logue
Industry	Online games, Internet, Social Networking
Products	Computer games
Employees	18 employees
Website	www.cmune.com
Available in	English

Cmune is a Chinese software developer which was established in 2007. Cmune is the maker of UberStrike, a cross-platform computer game. Cmune has offices in Beijing, China^[1] and San Francisco, United States.

Developed initially under the name Paradise Paintball, the first-person shooter (FPS) Uberstrike is a casual and multiplayer free-to-play 3D browser game. As of November 2012, it was the largest FPS inside Facebook. It is also available on its own website, and on the App Store for Mac and iOS.^[2]^[3]

Background

Cmune was founded in 2007 by Shaun Lelacheur Sales and Ludovic Bodin.

Paradise Paintball

Paradise Paintball was launched in November 2008. The game was ranked number 1 worldwide on Apple Dashboard for four months after its debut in November 2008 and was the first real-time 3D multiplayer game launched on Facebook^[4] and MySpace, where it was awarded "Best New App" at GDC in March 2010.^[5] Paradise Paintball was touted as the first 3D browser based game with real time micropayment systems, where users are able to purchase virtual goods without having to quit the game.^[6]

"Paradise Paintball" was one of the first applications to be verified by Facebook.^[7]

UberStrike

New UberStrike 4.3.3 logo.

Paintball Paradise was renamed 'UberStrike' on November 16, 2010,^[8] to align with the changes in theme and gameplay toward a fantasy shooter. In November 2012, UberStrike had over 1.3 million Monthly Active Users and 1.1 million Likes on Facebook, making it the first and largest FPS on Facebook for two years straight.

UberStrike was also available for free through the Mac App Store and can be accessed through their website. Both apps had improved graphics over the Cmune Portal. On June 2013, Cmune announced the discontinuation of the Android, Mac, and Windows Uberstrike apps.^[9]

Uberstrike varies from Paradise Paintball in many ways. Some of the most recognised changes are the 'loss of paintball', which allowed for the inclusion of many more weapons. A new economy system has been introduced, consisting of two currencies. 'Points', or commonly called 'coins', are earned by performing kills. The other currency being 'credits', a Virtual currency that can be bought with real-life money. Another major change was the new armour system, clothing purchased now provide a base Armor Points value (AP), which protects the player from taking damage. Armor Points are drained slowly when taken more than the base value.

In October 2011, Cmune released an iPad beta version of UberStrike. With three independent servers across Asia, Europe, and North America. The iPad version was soon shut down, following an attempt by players exploiting an iOS bug which Microtransaction could be done without payment. Some players were permanently banned and some offenders remain undetected.

Uberstrike was released on Steam in June 2015, where countless old items were added back to the game. The new shop, where these in-game items can be bought, has a new economy system. The price of items in the store was lowered by a significant percentage. Items that were exclusive to players who paid could be purchased with 'points', earned by playing the game. Most of the level restrictions on items have been lowered. Higher quality graphics has been introduced in the game, with some bugs fixed. Unfortunately, as of July 2015, UberStrike was tormented by cheaters, where a fair-game environment is non-existent. Reviews given on Steam had an average rating of 'Mostly Negative', administrators and moderators are deemed as inactive, with negative comments from the community. The game was reckoned as 'doomed' and 'hopeless' by the players. UberStrike now has an average players count of 50 to 100.

On April 13th, 2016, Cmune announced the closing of Uberstrike through the game's website homepage.^[10] Credit purchases and Steam download were disabled on the day it was announced, following on May 13th, with the In-game shop disabled. Ultimately on June 13th, the game servers shutting down.

Micropayment model

Cmune's games employ the micropayment business model through the sales of virtual goods.

On August 15, 2013, in the 4.4.1 update, Cmune announced a change to this model, allowing players to all the weapons (where as previously some of the items were accessible only through buying the in-game premium currency) now available with both the premium currency and the free earnable currency.^[11]

Recognition

On 28 May 2009, Paradise Paintball was selected as one of the winners Facebook fbFund 2009 program. The fbFund is run by Facebook, Accel Partners and The Founders Fund.^[12]^[13]

Cmune was nominated for two Unity Awards: the Community Choice Award, which is chosen via poll, by users, and The Cross Platform Award.

Notes

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.