Stronghold Kingdoms

Today Firefly Studios becomes the first developer to place the fate of entire game worlds in the hands of its players. The Stronghold developer announced that their ‘Final Age’ expansion for medieval castle MMO Stronghold Kingdoms will give a single player, the Marshall of a winning House, the option end their game world with the press of a single button.

Stronghold Kingdoms: The Final Age – Launch Trailer

As the British developer prepares for the cross-platform release of Stronghold Kingdoms on iOS and Android, players on PC and Mac ready themselves for the unique trials of the Final Age. In this expansion a single House of players must conquer and capture all Royal Towers, a new PvE target on the world map, before deciding whether or not to press ‘The Button’ and close their world forever. Players are then rewarded with multiple prize tiers based on their rank and position at world end, with up to $500 of in-game loot each.

“From the very beginning we knew players would be involved in development, this is the ultimate expression of that” said Simon Bradbury, Lead Designer at Firefly Studios. “Players deserve a proper endgame and in the case of Kingdoms we believe this means letting the community decide whether or not to close their game worlds. This doesn’t mean Stronghold Kingdoms is coming to an end, far from it! For those worlds that players do decide to close new ones will open. We also have updates planned for the game, including our upcoming events system and redesigned iOS and Android versions.”

While the Sixth Age is already available, the Final Age expansion is set for release in the near future. Meanwhile Firefly is responding to one particular request from the community by developing a new in-game event system, offering global PvE and PvP challenges in which players compete for rewards. There are even new world types on the horizon to replace the old and give all players the opportunity for a fresh start in new and uncharted lands.

For more game information please visit the official Stronghold Kingdoms website.

Firefly Studios has just released a new expansion pack — Stronghold Kingdoms: Island Warfare. Currently available on PC and Mac, with a redesigned mobile version set for release in the coming months, Stronghold Kingdoms has introduced another heavily-requested feature in the form of player ships and a new game mode. View the launch trailer here.

The lords of Stronghold Kingdoms can now turn the ocean red by waging bloody war across 38 tropical islands with new, changing sea conditions! Players must fight for a single kingly throne avoiding rough seas and the occasional hurricane as they attack, scout and trade across 18 provinces and 99 separate counties.

Conditions change daily with tail winds, rough seas, violent storms either slowing or accelerating the progress of attacks, trade ships and scouting parties as they move between islands. Attacking forces may catch a strong tailwind and obliterate their enemies in the blink of an eye. Traders can double their earnings in a single day by all casting off while conditions are favourable. Scouts on the other hand could be so heavily delayed by storms at sea that, upon returning home, find their actions have sparked a conflict that has destroyed their home!

Releasing soon after Stronghold Kingdoms: Global Conflict, Island Warfare introduces fresh changes to the game’s most basic mechanics for hundreds of thousands of monthly active players. The top requested feature by players since the release of the ‘Global Conflict’ world map, Island Warfare renders old strategies irrelevant in a new mode where the movement of your forces is impossible to predict beyond current sea conditions. The first in a series of updates in 2016, Island Warfare paves the way for both a new events system and the release of Stronghold Kingdoms on iOS and Android.

Players can download and play Stronghold Kingdoms: Island Warfare for free at the official Stronghold Kingdoms website.

New game world launched featuring warfare across a European world map, adds capacity for tens of thousands of extra active players

Firefly Studios has opened a ‘Europe’ game world to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of active players who log in every month to their castle MMO. Accurately based on the current day map of Europe, this new world is a direct response to requests from the community for more game worlds on a grander scale than those based on single countries. Since launch more than 3.5 million players have signed up to play Stronghold Kingdoms, two years since launch it remains one of the most actively played games on Steam.

Expanding Kingdoms with the addition of a new ‘Europe’ world provides both new and experienced players with the opportunity make their mark on an untouched landscape. ‘Europe’ promises extraordinary riches to those who take control of the 33 different countries in this persistent game world, stretching from the warm and inviting coasts of Portugal to the cooler and unforgiving trenches of Eastern Ukraine. As one of the most popular free-to-play games on Steam, Kingdoms will continue to grow through releases of new map types, community-driven updates and larger expansion-style feature updates coming in 2015, working with players to remain the leader in its genre.

With monthly active players in the hundreds of thousands, Stronghold Kingdoms continues to be enjoyed by fans and Firefly as a small independent developer. Although Kingdoms already has players from over 100 different countries, Firefly plans to expand into further territories and release new types of game world in 2015. Players enjoy the ability to build a castle near their real life home town and engage in local and country-wide politics, something Firefly is keenly aware of. New worlds will continue this trend by allowing players to expand their empire, dominate nearby regions and eventually rule over entire continents. Currently the largest game world on offer, ‘Europe’ features 33 different medieval countries and a fully persistent game world to be claimed by players, in an often brutal fight for domination and glory.

Stronghold Kingdoms can be downloaded and played for free at the Stronghold Kingdoms website.