You’ve been waiting impatiently for this day to arrive, and it’s finally here! THQ and Vogster Entertainment today announced that the highly anticipated Persistent World Next-gen Shooter CrimeCraft®, has shipped to North America and is available for purchase at exclusive retail partners Best Buy (USA & Canada) and Future Shop (Canada) in addition to directly online via download from Steam, Direct2Drive and right here on CrimeCraft.com.

Daniel Prousline, vice president of development for Vogster, said “The streets of CrimeCraft are ready to be filled with players anxious to leave their mark and earn leader board glory for themselves and their gangs. We are pleased to work with Best Buy as our exclusive retail partner to develop a one of a kind program for their customers.”
 

CrimeCraft is a Persistent World Next-Gen Shooter that blends a gripping, action-packed shooter experience with the best community and role-playing elements found in massively multi-player games. CrimeCraft is set in a gritty fictional city of the near future, following an ecological disaster of unprecedented scale, where the price of life is far less valuable than one’s reputation. Join thousands of players online as you learn the rules of the street, build your own gang and do whatever it takes to survive amidst the chaos.

As the title implies, CrimeCraft's Head Start is underway, which means that any and all who preordered the game can now join a CrimeCraft realm and start their journey in Sunrise City.

And if that's not enough, we've also got a brand-new slate of events for the players joining us during the Head Start, with rewards like CrimeCraft-branded clothing and in-game items, including gold bars.

But that's not all. If you're looking for something even more exciting, we'll be running a special contest spanning two weeks. If you're one of the top finishers, you'll have a chance to win a new ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB graphics card.

Interested? If so, read on.


GM Meet and Greet

When CrimeCraft's Head Start kicks off on Saturday, August 22nd at 2:00 PM Pacific Time, players will be greeted by our team of GMs, who will be in-game to level alongside players, field questions, and run special instances that will include small prizes for the best performers. So if you want to jumpstart your life in Sunrise City, come join the GMs starting at 2:00 PM Pacific Time on Saturday.

Read more about the GM Meet and Greet ...

PvE Day

On Sunday, August 23rd, players that join PvE instances between 4:00 PM Pacific Time and 11:59 PM Pacific time will be eligible to win real-world and digital prizes. All you have to do is be one of the players with the most PvE kills during that time period. Sound easy? Then at the end of the day, you might be enjoying things like CrimeCraft-branded clothing, for your real-life person, or gold bars for your in-game persona.

Read more about PvE Day, including rules and prize listings ...


PvP Day

If you couldn't make the competition on Sunday, you'll have another chance to earn prizes on Monday -- but this time you'll have to show off your PvP skills, because beating up on the AI just isn't good enough.

On Monday from 4:00 PM Pacific Time to 11:59 PM Pacific Time, be one of the players with the highest number of PvP kills and you'll be eligible to win more prizes.

Read more about PvP Day, including rules and prize listings ...


Rogue Master

If you're reading this, you're probably interested in winning the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB graphics card. Not that we blame you.

So what do you have to do? You have to prove you're a master of all things Rogue.

Players earn a score in every PvE instance based on a number of factors. Different amounts of points are awarded for killing different enemies, killing an enemy via headshot, multi-kills, and things of that nature. For a two-week period from the start of our Head Start launch, all your scores in PvE instances will count towards a cumulative total. At the end of two weeks, the 50 players with the highest cumulative totals will win prize packages and earn an automatic entry into a raffle for the ATI graphics card.

Read more about the Rogue Master competition, including dates, times, and rules ...

The CrimeCraft website and forums will be temporarily offline on August 22nd, from 12:00-2:00 pm PDT, 3:00-5:00 pm EDT in preparation for the pre-order head start.

At 2:00 pm PDT, 5:00 pm EDT the website, forums, and CrimeCraft game servers will all be online. Note that only pre-orders will be allowed access to the CrimeCraft game servers at that time. The official launch for all players will be on August 25th.

The last two videos in GamesRadar.com's exclusive CrimeCraft "Skills" trailer series has posted!

These two videos take a look at the power of the Molotov and the sneaky Remote Mine. Check them both out at GamesRadar.com!

--KevinB

The third in GamesRadar.com's exclusive CrimeCraft "Skills" trailer series has posted!

In this video, we take a look at the awesome Cluster Rocket! It ain't subtle, but it gets the job done. Check back daily this week for more Skills videos at GamesRadar.com.

--KevinB
 

Don't forget that the CrimeCraft Preorder Head Start program kicks off Saturday, Aug. 22 at 2 p.m. PDT, 5 p.m. EDT. Make sure you check out our offers page for all of the great preorder packages!

--KevinB

The second exclusive CrimeCraft "Skills" trailer has posted on GamesRadar.com!

In this video, we look at the sneaky Active Camo skill and how it can be used to ambush your enemies! Check back daily this week for more Skills videos at GamesRadar.com.

--KevinB

The first of the CrimeCraft "Skills" trailer series has posted exclusively on GamesRadar.com!

In this video, we highlight the "Spray and Pray" skill as a seasoned team of gangsters goes down in a hail of lead! Make sure you check back daily this week for more Skills videos at GamesRadar.com.

--KevinB

Open Beta has now concluded and game servers will be closed until the official launch on August 25th.

On behalf of Vogster Entertainment, we hope you have enjoyed your CrimeCraft Open Beta experience. We would first like to thank you because you are all not only CrimeCraft players, but also CrimeCraft testers. We extend our gratitude for your time spent in game as it has been a valuable resource to both our bug testing and feedback gathering. The community has been, and will continue to be a vital part in our never ending efforts to further build Sunrise City and the CrimeCraft experience.

Open Beta has been a wonderful learning experience for the developers, the community team, and the players. As you have gotten to know us both in game and on the forums, we have gotten to know you. CrimeCraft is an ever evolving world as evidenced by our closed beta, open beta, and our highly anticipated launch.

We thank you for patience during the server downtimes, events, and patches. It has been a long journey with a few bumps, and we have looked to the community every step of the way. Do not think of today as an end, it is a beginning. Vogster Entertainment is committed to an aggressive campaign of additional content including: new weapons, combat areas, skills, gameplay types, and monthly contests for significant real world and virtual prizes.

We look forward to seeing new and familiar faces when the walls of Sunrise City open on August 25th. For those of you who have pre-ordered, we will see you even earlier on August 22nd. Sunrise may be safe for now, but the gangs run these streets… and they will be coming back.
 

All good things must come to an end, and so we must say goodbye to the Open Beta. The servers will close at 7 p.m. PDT Friday night. That's not the end of the story, however, as launch is right around the corner on Aug. 25. While you’re waiting, why not pre-order CrimeCraft through one of our partners and get early access on Aug. 22 as well as a chance to reserve your character name?

Keep an eye out for in-game events running throughout the day Friday!

We’ll see you soon, through the scope of a sniper rifle!