| Gravity Interactive, Inc. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Type | Private company |
| Industry | Video Game Publishing |
| Founded | 2003 March |
| Headquarters | Buena Park, California, USA[1] |
| Key People | Hyun Chul Park, Executive Director Yoshinori Kitamura, CEO[2] |
| Products | MMORPG and Mobile video games |
| Number of Employees | 35[3] |
| Parent | GRAVITY Co., Ltd. |
| Subsidiaries | L5 Games |
| Website | Gravity Interactive Website |
Founded in March of 2003, Gravity Interactive INC. was created to host games developed by GRAVITY Co., Ltd. for North America. It is based in Buena Park, California near Orange County.
History
Gravity Interactive was initially provided with several servers from GRAVITY Co.,[4] and began beta testing of the International Ragnarok Online (iRO) service in 2003.[5] Commercial service subsequently began on June 1, 2003.
In 2005, Gravity Interactive also began hosting the North American version of ROSE Online (naROSE). On January 1, 2006, Gravity Interactive LLC became Gravity Interactive, Inc.[6] After ROSE Online's original developers TriggerSoft was dissolved by GRAVITY Co. in 2007, development became outsourced to all publishers, including Gravity Interactive.
In February 2008, Gravity Interactive began beta testing its third MMORPG, Requiem: Bloodymare.[7] Later that year, Gravity Interactive gained localization rights from their parent company for Ragnarok Online.
In July of 2010, Gravity Interactive launched the WarpPortal account platform along with their new Gateway game launcher. It became a mandatory requirement for accessing their recently acquired game Dragonica, which was met with negative feedback due to Gateway's beta state. In addition, the name Dragonica was already copyrighted in the USA, so the game was renamed to Dragon Saga.[8]
Around mid to late 2012 Gravity Interactive began beta testing its fourth MMORPG, Maestia: Rise Of Keledus.
In April 2013, Gravity Interactive began beta testing the second title in the Ragnarok Online series. Ragnarok Online II was launched in May of 2013 and also made it available on Steam.[9]
In November of 2013, GRAVITY Co. ceased development of Requiem and outsourced the game to Gravity CIS and Gravity Interactive for their respective servers.[10]
Some time in 2014, Barunson Interactive ceased development on Dragonica either because the company was dissolved by GRAVITY Co. or absorbed into their development team. Gravity Interactive began negotiations to take over development on the title and in February of 2015, became the new developers of Dragonica.[11]
On 2015 July 22, Gravity Interactive offered RO and RO2 players a chance to beta test a new GRAVITY Co. mobile game known by its alias as Project B. The beta test ran for a few days and then was never heard of ever again.[12]
In November of 2015, Gravity Interactive submitted an application to acquire the trademark of Metal Assault[13], which shut down in 2012 March.[14] The online game was originally developed by Korean company GNI Soft and published by Aeria Games.[15][16] A website was compiled some time after the acquisition along with a registration page.[17][18]
Gravity Interactive later collaborated with Playsaurus to develop Ragnarok Clicker for the PC and eventually port it to smartphones.
In January of 2017, Gravity Interactive launched the preregistration page for Ragnarok Journey,[19] a localization of Ragnarok Online Web. The MMORPG.com website was given beta keys to pass out in March for the game's closed beta test.[20] However, Gravity Interactive decided to utilize beta keys in a lottery-like fashion, making it so those interested in beta testing only have a chance to participate.[21] This detail was not included in the MMORPG.com website.
Games
Gravity Interactive currently develops in-house:
- Requiem: Rise of the Reaver (PC)
- Dragonica (localized to Dragon Saga) (PC)
- Ragnarok Online II (PC)
Gravity Interactive currently offers:
- Ragnarok Online (PC)
- Ragnarok: Click H5 (Mobile)
- Ragnarok: Renaissance (Mobile)
- Ragnarok: Poring Pop (PC/Mobile)
Gravity Interactive previously offered:
- CrimeCraft (PC)
- FreeStyle Street Basketball (PC)
- Eternal Destiny (PC)
- Maestia: Rise of Keledus (PC)
- Heroes of Arzar (PC)
- Metal Assault (PC)
- Record of Lodoss War Online (PC)
- ROSE Online (PC)
- We Build Story (Mobile)
- Tower of Ascension (Mobile)
- Ragnarok Violet (Mobile)
- Ragnarok: Ash Vacuum (Mobile)
- Monster Coin Racer (Mobile)
- Ragnarok: Valkyrie Uprising (Mobile)
- Ragnarok Clicker (PC/Mobile)
- Ragnarok Journey (PC)
L5 Games
In 2007, Gravity founded a new game developer, L5 Games. Its employees consisted of those formerly employed by Blizzard Entertainment. This subsidiary of Gravity Interactive, rather than GRAVITY Co., Ltd., was formed to develop games for the North American market.[22] L5 Games went into liquidation in 2008 August.
WarpPortal
The WarpPortal logo.
In 2010, Gravity Interactive launched the WarpPortal account platform, which allows players to manage and pay for different game accounts under one umbrella account. In doing so, Gravity Interactive rebranded itself as WarpPortal, although some veteran players continue to refer to the company by their actual name.
Each WarpPortal account can be linked to an unlimited amount of old game accounts but only 3 new (made after 2010) game accounts per game. Once a game account is linked to a WarpPortal account, it will share the same email as the WarpPortal account. New players now must make a WarpPortal account in order to create a game account for any game published by Gravity Interactive. In addition, old game accounts that have yet to be linked to a WarpPortal account cannot take advantage of Gravity Interactive services until linked.
Previously, payments were made directly from a payment option (e.g. credit card, gamecards, etc.) to each game, but with the new WarpPortal platform, payments are converted into WarpPortal Energy (WPE) and then distributed to whichever game account the user wishes to use it on.
The WarpPortal BR logo.
In 2018, Gravity Interactive opened a Brazil branch of their WarpPortal network to take over operation of the Brazil (bRO) servers of Ragnarok Online from Level Up! Games. Known as WarpPortal BR, the current bRO staff was transferred over to the new network branch, acting on Gravity Interactive's behalf in Brazil. Current bRO players would need to create WarpPortal BR accounts (not WarpPortal accounts) in order to continue to access their bRO accounts. Only Brazil users playing RO2 would need WarpPortal accounts; WarpPortal BR accounts cannot be used to create RO2 accounts as WarpPortal BR is on a separate network from WarpPortal.[23]
The WarpPortal PH logo.
Around October of 2018, the Philippines branch of the WarpPortal network was established to publish RO2, Ragnarok Online: Prequel, and Dragonica to the Philippines region.[24] However, the launch of pRO2 remains uncertain due to Gravity Interactive ceasing development on the title indefinitely.
Gateway
| “ | Welcome to the launching ground for the Gateway! The Gateway is a neat little program that will grow with you and the WarpPortal, allowing you faster access to your friends, your games and up-to-the moment news about all the WarpPortal games. | „ |
| ~ Gateway synopsis on its download page |
In addition to the new WarpPortal account platform, Gravity Interactive launched the beta of its first (and perhaps last) self-developed software: Gateway.[25] Gateway was meant to be a convenient means for players to launch games hosted by Gravity Interactive and connect with fellow WarpPortal players via text and voice chatrooms in addition to being able to remotely buy WPE among other WarpPortal transactions.
Gateway was discontinued after about a year due to overwhelming unfavorable responses to the client (and possibly due to lack of development manpower to maintain it).
Gateway's home screen.
Gateway's settings interface and remote panel.
Media
References
- ↑ GRAVITY Website 2019 Sept. 23
- ↑ SEC Report 2019 Apr. 01
- ↑ SEC Report 2019 May 15
- ↑ Sample Contracts - Equipment Sales Agreement
- ↑ About Gravity Interactive - Gravity KR Website
- ↑ SEC 20-F Filing 2006 Annual Report
- ↑ Requiem Closed Beta Information.
- ↑ WarpPortal Forums 2010 Sept. 28
- ↑ Ragnarok Online 2 Launch Information
- ↑ Requiem Website 2015 Nov. 15
- ↑ WarpPortal Forums 2015 Sept. 26
- ↑ WarpPortal Forums 2015 Aug. 11
- ↑ JUSTIA Trademarks 2016 Feb. 14
- ↑ OnRPG 2016 Feb. 14
- ↑ MetaCritic 2016 Feb. 14
- ↑ StrategyWiki 2016 Feb. 14
- ↑ Gravity Interactive's Metal Assault site 2016 Feb. 14
- ↑ Metal Assault Landing Page 2016 Feb. 14
- ↑ WarpPortal Forums 2017 Mar. 05
- ↑ MMORPG.com 2017 Mar. 05
- ↑ Ragnarok Journey Website 2017 Mar. 05
- ↑ Gravity Announces New U.S. Game Development Studio 2008 January 5
- ↑ bRO Website 2018 Oct. 02
- ↑ Official pRO2 Facebook 2019 Feb. 06
- ↑ Gravity Opens Warp Portal Community Site 2010 Jul. 22
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