Love PvP? Come to the player-organized* weekly tournament on the Test server!  The third weekly tournament is this coming Monday.  Check out some of last week's fast-paced action: participant videos are below the jump!

• When: Monday, January 30th at 7PM Eastern Time.  Here's our handy Time Zone Conversion Tool!
• Where: South of Ember Watch on Alpha PTS
• Events:  Best in Class title take away!!! 
• Rules: Matches will be best 2:3 you can only challenge the title holder once, you lose, better luck next week!
  Rules will be determined by both sides prior to the match!
• Conduct: Gentleman rules apply.

For more information or to sign up, see this thread in the PvP & Warfronts section of the official forums.   

Trion quietly released Rift Mobile on iTunes over the holidays, promising that it'd be coming soon to the Android OS. That day has come! 

Rift Mobile brings all of the features from the iOS to the Andoid phone world, including:

• Chat with friends and guildmates - Check if your comrades are online, and communicate instantly from anywhere! Send messages from your phone to in-game, or plan your adventures mobile-to-mobile! Push Notifications help your friends call you back to Telara.
• Full guild support - Guild and Officer chat run smoothly on your mobile device, so you never miss a big decision.
• Guild MOTD and Guild Wall - View your Guild Wall and Message of the Day at anytime, anywhere.
• Zone Event notification - Hear the call when Zone Events erupt on your shard, and pick your battles with flexible alert settings.
• Earn in-game loot - Win real loot through the mobile app with Lootables. Artifacts, crafting items, and planar treasure shoot straight to your character’s mailbox!

The app supports the English, French, and German languages. It's not supported for tablets, and an active Rift account is required.

Download the Android version here, or the iOS verion here!

There aren't too many reasons to pick up EA's online game distribution program, Origin, but Trion Worlds is trying to sweeten the deal by officially launching through this persnickety program with bribes goodie bags and pets! For a limited time, anyone who purchases Rift through the Origin store will receive a Screechling Vanity Pet in addition to the Ascended Gift Pack. Within the pack, players will receive:

• Spirit Woven Backpack - 10 Slot Bag.
• Essence of Magic (10) - Restores a small amount of mana.
• Essence of Health (10) - Restores a small amount of health.
• Soul Nectar (20) - Restores a moderate amount of health and mana over 10 seconds.
• Words of Might (5) - Temporarily increases Dexterity, Strength, Intelligence, and Wisdom.

Love PvP? Come to the player-organized* weekly tournament on the Test server!  The third weekly tournament is this coming Monday. 

• When: Monday, January 23rd at 5PM Eastern Time.  Here's our handy Time Zone Conversion Tool!
• Where: South of Ember Watch on Alpha PTS
• Events:  Best in Class title take away!!! 
• Rules: Matches will be best 2:3 you can only challenge the title holder once, you lose, better luck next week!
  Rules will be determined by both sides prior to the match!
• Conduct: Gentleman rules apply.

For more information or to sign up, see this thread in the PvP & Warfronts section of the official forums! 

*ZAM is not affiliated with this tournament. Please contact the organizers on the official forums with your feedback.

A little more industry-oriented than usual, but Trion Worlds has managed to secure $85 million in new funding, with this round led by none other than... the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan! There are some other interesting tidbits to note within the news article from CNBC, including the fact that Trion is "eyeing the public markets," and that RIFT has generated $100 million in revenue in a mere 10 months during 2011.

CEO Lars Buttler notes that Rift is profitable and that the game will soon be coming in South Korea between April and June, and China at a later date. Additionally, Buttler notes that the $85m in funding will serve as the company's "warchest," which they can then use to aggressively pursue acquisitions or potential IPs. The future's looking good for Trion!

The North American region shards will be coming down for 1.6.1 hotfix #8 tomorrow, January 18, 2011, at 8:00am PST. The estimated downtime is 30 minutes.

See the complete patfch notes below the jump.

RIFT 1.7: Carnival of the Ascended is coming, bringing improvements across the board for high-level Ascended. Here’s just a taste of what’s in the coming weeks!

• PvP like never before with smoother advancement and better rewards
• Ascended weddings: Share eternity with your soulmate, Telara-style
• River of Souls Chronicle: Undead adventure for two
• New Master Mode dungeon
• Expert dungeon overhaul: More options, better loot!
• Improved loot for your endgame Ascended

Join the discussion on the ZAM Rift forums!

Some clarification for the internets! Yesterday we reported that RIFT was beginning to "consolidate" its shards, but we had not yet ascertained the reasoning behind these shard transfers.

Well, today we just received an email from Trion World's Chris Schmidt, where he confirmed that these shard transfers were not the beginning of server merges, rather, the 11 shards in question were going to be turned into "trial servers for a future large-scale trial promotion." In other words, we might soon see a more robust free trial on its way to Telara! We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

On Friday, January 13, 2012, the North American shards will be coming down for a hardware maintenance. This will be an extended downtime that is expected to last until 11am PST. The downtime will begin at either 5am PST or 8am PST, depending on your shard:

Trial shards including the following - Maintenance ETA: 5:00AM - 11AM PST

Shadefallen
Sunrest
Galena
Belmont
Dayblind
Estrael
Alsbeth
Freeholme
Crucia
Atrophinius
Faemist

All North American Shards - Maintenance ETA: 8:00AM - 11AM PST

UPDATE 1/13 @ 8:30AM: All North American Shards are offline for the extended maintenance. We apologize that no server broadcasts were made prior to the servers being brought offline. We've adjusted the ETA to 1:00PM PST - continue to look to this thread for updates throughout, thanks!

New subscription plans and bonuses have been trotted out for RIFT fans around the world, and they're looking pretty tasty. For anyone who purchases a multi-month subscription plan during the month of January, they'll receive a complimentary 30 days of game time! In addition, Trion Worlds has slimmed down their annual subscription plan to just $99 for a year, which averages out to around $8.25 a month. The new multi-month subscription prices are now as follows:

• Monthly: $14.99 / month
• 3-Month: $12.99 / month (38.96 billed every three months)
• 6-Month: $10.99 / month ($65.94 billed every six months)
• Annual (12-month): $8.25 / month ($99.00 billed every year)