Planetside Next: Coming To You March 2011


It's been a long time.

“We have a very big launch coming in the month of March,” Smedley said. “It’s a big first person shooter franchise that we’re really happy with.”

Oh John Smedley, you are so coy. We’ve known about Planetside Next for a while now, since last year when Sony released the Call To Arms asking players what they would like to see in a new MMOFPS. In a recent interview with The Escapist, Sony’s own John Smedley dropped a bombshell; Not only is Planetside Next in the works, but the title has a release window for March 2011.

“We haven’t technically announced it. This is the farthest I’ve gone [discussing it with the press] and the PR people are going to shoot me.”

We’ll have more on Planetside Next as it appears, as well as the location of John Smedley’s dumped corpse.

"Big" Planetside Announcement On The Way?


Somewhere in an MMO Fallout post...

Planetside is hitting its seventh birthday soon, and I still believe that no other MMO has come close to the enormous battles that Planetside has presented since its launch in 2003. In fact, here is a community video recently highlighted on Sony Online Entertainment’s website, highlighting the action of the game. I’ll give you a few minutes.

Back? Being at Planetside’s age, and considering the current state of the game’s population, any “big announcement” is going to be met with a lot of speculation. By speculation, of course, I mean claims that the big announcement is the game shutting down. But can you blame them? Servers have been consolidated down to one, and my understanding from MMO Fallouters in the field is that botters have become quite an issue over the past year or two.

Well, there is a big announcement coming: On the 18th of May to be exact (and not just the season finale of House MD). A countdown timer appeared in the Planetside News section, alongside the above comic. You can follow the countdown in the link, or just wait until early on the 18th.

MMO Fallout will continue to cover any Planetside News as it appears. Could this be an official announcement of the elusive Planetside 2?

“Big” Planetside Announcement On The Way?


Somewhere in an MMO Fallout post...

Planetside is hitting its seventh birthday soon, and I still believe that no other MMO has come close to the enormous battles that Planetside has presented since its launch in 2003. In fact, here is a community video recently highlighted on Sony Online Entertainment’s website, highlighting the action of the game. I’ll give you a few minutes.

Back? Being at Planetside’s age, and considering the current state of the game’s population, any “big announcement” is going to be met with a lot of speculation. By speculation, of course, I mean claims that the big announcement is the game shutting down. But can you blame them? Servers have been consolidated down to one, and my understanding from MMO Fallouters in the field is that botters have become quite an issue over the past year or two.

Well, there is a big announcement coming: On the 18th of May to be exact (and not just the season finale of House MD). A countdown timer appeared in the Planetside News section, alongside the above comic. You can follow the countdown in the link, or just wait until early on the 18th.

MMO Fallout will continue to cover any Planetside News as it appears. Could this be an official announcement of the elusive Planetside 2?

King of the MMOFPS Hill: Sony Vs CCP Vs Blizzard Vs Infinity Ward


By this time in, oh I’ll go for a long shot, 2011 we should be seeing the outcome of the battle of the titans: Four major contenders looking to bring their best and brightest to the field and answer one question: Who will dominate the MMOFPS market? Granted, two of the contenders are not actually fully declared.

According to insider reports, Blizzard’s unnamed upcoming MMO will be split into two parts, a social aspect and a first person shooter. Virtually nothing is known about the MMO so far. Likewise, Infinity Ward is rumored to be working on a Call of Duty MMO, with Modern Warfare 3 being moved to another company. Of course, there is Sony Online Entertainment, with the recent announcement of Planetside 2, and the most confirmed of the group: DUST 514.

More after the break…

Continue reading “King of the MMOFPS Hill: Sony Vs CCP Vs Blizzard Vs Infinity Ward”

2009: Surprise Sequels and Drama Aplenty


2009 in a nutshell...

2009 has come to a close, and has brought us plenty in terms of surprise sequels and drama. Here is a comprehensive list of the surprise sequels and drama that hit this past year.

Continue reading “2009: Surprise Sequels and Drama Aplenty”

Hello Planetside 2!


planetside2

That’s right! Although the original Planetside downsized to one server this year, it appears that Sony is not yet done with the intellectual property. Yesterday, Sony sent out a mass email to their subscribers telling them that a new game based on the Planetside universe is being planned, and that they would like input directly from the players as to what should be put in.

This is where I admit that I looked at Planetside all wrong. John Smedley had this to say about the (soon to be) series:

John Smedley: PlanetSide fans will be happy We have big things planned in the next 12 months. Were working on something new thats really cool.

Sony Online Entertainment, as I have said, is notorious for keeping MMOs online as long as humanly possible, even if it means cutting every cost except for the electricity required to keep the servers running, as long as the title remains profitable. Although Planetside was a pioneer of its time, one of the first MMOs to bridge the gap between first person shooters on a massive spectrum, the title has aged greatly since its launch. A brand new Planetside would do justice to the game that capitalized on massive battles involving hundreds of players.

It should be noted that Planetside 2 is technically unconfirmed at this point. There is the possibility that this new game may be a complete rework of the original Planetside, reminiscent of what Jagex did with the transition from Runescape to Runescape 2.