Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising has effectively been canceled and the majority of its development team laid off today.

WarCry will continue to bring you details as the story develops.

Perpetual Entertainment has indefinitely delayed (essentially canceled) Gods and Heroes. The company will continue work on their development platform and Star Trek Online, and continue its operations in the same San Francisco studio under the same management. Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, though, is no more.

Read the full story after the jump.

In this week's exclusive screenshot, we get a peek at a "water battle" in Rome. Players and monsters alike slog it out somewhere in Italy in this nice action shot.

Perpetual Entertainment, the developers of Gods & Heroes Rome Rising are making a few more beta codes available. As the beta program moves forward they require some fresh slaves, err, testers to bang on their game.

Rush on over here to sign up for your beta key.

Stieg Hedlund, the design director of Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, checks in with another quality developer video diary. This time, he talks about what the company plans for Gods and Heroes after it launches.

Check out the video after the jump.

If you're a gamer and a PHP programmer, we've got a job for you. We're looking for another web ninja or two to fill out our tech team in Durham, NC. If you're interested, please take a look at the full job description for more details and contact information.

John Smedley is the President and CEO of Sony Online Entertainment. We had a chance to talk to him by phone last week about his company, the games they make and where they're going. Here's a sample:

"We are very focused on taking the grind out of our next round of games," he said simply. "Our next generation is not trying to do what we did in this generation." He cited The Agency, with its more mature theme, FPS elements and cinematic-storytelling as an example.

It's been a turbulent path for Smedley and SOE. The online game division of Sony began when the company purchased Verant, the studio behind EverQuest of which Smedley was a co-founder. That blossomed into "The Station", a game hub that has since been the model for the entire industry. It included EQ and a host of smaller games, like Tanarus, an online tank-combat game, whose mechanics were a forerunner to games like Battlefield.

Read more after the jump.

This is the latest from Perpetual Entertainment's Gods and Heroes. This action shot reminds me of an old master's mythological battle scene. It's a great sequence and shot of it.

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa is the latest MMO from NCSoft Austin and aims to change the way people think about the genre. Garriott has created a game that combines fast action tactical combat with RPG mechanics and character development in a world full of stories that have moral consequences.

Here on WarCry, we offer you the chance to win one of 20 box copies, to be distributed after the game launches.

Interested? Click below to enter for free.

WarCry spoke to Perpetual Entertainment Co-Founder earlier today as news broke that the company had laid off 30 to 40 members of the Gods and Heroes team. Others were re-assigned to Star Trek Online. The company had hoped to launch Gods and Heroes this fall, but based on Beta feedback, opted to give the game more time and move its launch to early 2008.

"We've never set an official launch date for Gods and Heroes," Co-Founder Chris McKibbin told us. "Driving to the fall, that's been our goal."

For the last several weeks, Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising had been in Closed Beta testing. While it is, according to Perpetual, content complete, they felt it needed more polish before it goes to market. "Our feeling was driving hard to make a fall launch would lead to less than high quality results and we've seen that in other launches," he said. "We've made the decision to give the game more time. What we really want to do is to deliver a polished and high-quality game."

For our interview with Chris McKibbin, click below.

Gods and Heroes looks to have a retail price of $49.99 and is shipping on Feb 15, 2008 if you believe this listing by EBGames. Also, pre-ordering gets you some cool stuff:

COMMAND THE POWERS OF THE GODS! With the Gods & Heroes Pre-order, Details below and in the PDF's provided Embark on your journey to ancient Rome well equipped> Purchase Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising and receive:

* LIONHEAD HELMET: Known as the helmet of the great heroes of Rome, aligning the bravery of heroic feats with the symbolic prowess of the lion. Choose one of three class-specific versions: Gladiator/Soldier: Nomad/Scout: or Priest/Mystic. NEMEAN LION MINION: Command the King of Beasts in battle 16-SLOT INVENTORY BAG: The largest bag available in-game for all your loot and rewards. RESERVE YOUR CHARACTER NAME* (FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE): Stake your claim on a unique persona. RESERVE YOUR GUILD NAME* (FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE): Establish an exclusive identity for your group. EARLY ACCESS TO THE LIVE GAME: Enter and begin playing the game up to 5 days prior to release.

In store customers will receive a pre-order pack containing a codes and instructions on how to redeem these items. Online customers will receive an email containing a code and instructions on how to redeem these items. Please provide a valid email address when ordering online. Supplies are limited.

The inventory bag is a good thing. Starting out with no loot space is one of the things that makes being a newbie really suck. I hope the Lionhead helmet looks like something the Myrmidons wore in Troy.

MMORPG.com has posted a new city profile on Rome, for Gods & Heroes. With Rome being the largest and most central city in the setting, fans of Gods & Heroes will want to check this out.

The taberna located in the Forum Plebeium is the headquarters of the Collegium Plebeium. Some call the Collegia "gangs," but Nolus, captain of the Collegium Plebeium, prefers to describe the Collegia as "consortiums of merchants, tradesmen, and mercenaries who watch each other's backs." A local merchant named Prosco, who regularly pays his dues to the Collegium Plebeium, was recently accosted by members of a rival gang, the Collegium Caelium. These two Collegia are now on the brink of open warfare. The good news is that this means you, the player, will get to engage in combat within the city! The bad news is that violence on the streets of Roma itself is a severe reminder of the chaos and lawlessness that are afflicting the Roman Republic.

You can read the entire profile over at MMORPG.

EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning aims takes the concept of Realm vs. Realm combat pioneered in Dark Age of Camelot to a whole new level. WAR boasts next generation graphics and systems and the ability to advance exclusively through a number of PvP game types or by PvE, as the player chooses.

The strength of WAR is its license. The less than serious and popular Warhammer fantasy IP provides an original twist on the typical fantasy setting and permeates every aspect of the game.

This contest provides a lucky ten winners with Beta keys that after entered into your Warhammer Online Beta Center account grant guaranteed access to the Beta in the near future.

Click below to enter. It's free!

In week eleven, we take a peek at a group of characters engaged with an elephant in one of those pretty images only Gods and Heroes can provide. Set for launch this winter, Gods and Heroes is a window into the world of Roman mythology and the debut product of Perpetual Entertainment.

It's Monday and that means Gods and Heroes screenshots. The self-published Perpetual Entertainment MMO puts players in a world where myth is fact and the gods of Ancient Rome are locked in a mortal struggle. As the half-sons and daughters of the gods, it is up to the players to decide the future.

This week's screenshot is from the center of town in the Alban zone. This image shows a couple characters in front of a monument, surrounded by volcanoes.