Jumpgate Upgrade Coming Soon

The long running massively multiplayer space sim Jumpgate turned five years old this fall, and it's about to get a major upgrade to celebrate. The game's original publisher ran out of money a few years back, but the developers stuck it out, streamlined their operations and manage to successfully operate the game to this day. SirSkippy noticed a blurb at Kotaku about the MMO's upcoming overhaul. Few details are forthcoming on the specific improvements to expect, but improved graphics and new options seem to be a given. Jumpgate could probably use a bit of a marketing push to supplement its user base as well.

The game, sort of Elite or Wing Commander Privateer online, managed to survive both the ebbs and flows of the MMO market and the death of its initial publisher 3DO.

Although the game doesn't get much publicity these days, it still has a pretty strong user base of about 1,000 people, NetDevil's Scott Brown told me. And it's profitable.