The latest video from Planetside 2 comes from Sony’s publishing partner, The9. You may remember The9 as the Chinese publisher for World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Free Realms, and Hellgate London. Details in the video aside, you can see some glimpses of ground combat, aerial combat, and vehicle combat, and boy does it look good.
Planetside 2 is set for release hopefully this year.
Planetside has always been a standout IP. When the original game launched way back in 2003, the idea of a shooter where hundreds of players could participate in a single battle, where instances were nonexistent and everyone fought on the same world, and your actions could determine the outcome of a war, was virtually nonexistent. Even now as 2011 comes to a close, the number of companies willing to take on such a task has barely budged at all, and several projects promising an updated version of what Planetside offers are either still in development or caught somewhere in limbo.
When Planetside 2 launches at some point between now and the apocalypse, you will be able to jump in free of charge. Before that point, why not sign up for the beta and have a chance at trying it out free of charge? All you need is a Station account and the ability to sign in and click the “I agree” box.
(Source: Planetside 2 Website)
Sony Fan Faire 2011 is still live until tomorrow, but there has been a plethora of information coming from the Las Vegas convention center. New expansion packs, updates on upcoming games, and more.
Everquest and Everquest II respectively are set to receive yet another expansion in the coming months. In Everquest, Veil of Alaris opens up a new continent, and releases Guild Hall exteriors so players can place their guild halls in neighborhoods which will be part of a further revamp. When the expansion launches this November, it will also raise the level cap to 95. In Everquest II, Age of Discovery brings with it a ton of new content, including new hired mercenaries and the ability to design your own dungeon. Also coming this November, the expansion will bring in a new class: Beastlord.
Plenty of updates were announced for DC Universe Online (including a fight against Brainiac at the Fortress of Solitude), Free Realms and a cross promotion with McDonald’s Happy Meals for Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures.
What is likely to draw the most attention is Planetside 2, which Sony revealed will bring back all three factions and has been redesigned from the ground up to not only ensure that most if not all of the field is worth battling over, but so even players with old computers can play. Players will fight over resources and will have to coordinate with their individual goals to boost their faction’s overall progress. There was also talks of player generated content, customization with weapons and vehicles, and user generated content. Planetside Next will be PC exclusive and still has no release date.
Everquest Next received very little information, other than a screenshot and a note that the game would also run on the same engine as Planetside Next.
Check out this trailer for Planetside Next:
Hold your BFR’s folks, something big is coming from Sony regarding Planetside 2, and hopefully not like March’s announcement. A clock has appeared on the Planetside 2 website, at 45 hours currently, putting the countdown to end sometime late Friday EST. Stay tuned for more information.
SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
With the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment had performed layoffs and shutting down studios (Denver, Seattle, Tuscon), a lot of the eyes on the news websites turned at The Agency, Sony’s upcoming yet secretive MMO. So, although disappointing, it isn’t all too surprising that the game is the first on the chopping block among the cost cutting at SOE.
Granted, the news is not all bad. In reaction, John Smedley has posted to Planetside Universe that the Planetside Next team has actually expanded, and a post on the Everquest forums has reaffirmed players that the game is not going anywhere.
Once again our best wishes go out to the 205 employees who are now on unemployment. Hopefully you’ll all have just as easy of a time finding a new job as the Realtime Worlds guys did last year.
SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
With the announcement that Sony Online Entertainment had performed layoffs and shutting down studios (Denver, Seattle, Tuscon), a lot of the eyes on the news websites turned at The Agency, Sony’s upcoming yet secretive MMO. So, although disappointing, it isn’t all too surprising that the game is the first on the chopping block among the cost cutting at SOE.
Granted, the news is not all bad. In reaction, John Smedley has posted to Planetside Universe that the Planetside Next team has actually expanded, and a post on the Everquest forums has reaffirmed players that the game is not going anywhere.
Once again our best wishes go out to the 205 employees who are now on unemployment. Hopefully you’ll all have just as easy of a time finding a new job as the Realtime Worlds guys did last year.
Alright, so this isn’t the “official” trailer, so to speak, but it just about sums up our reaction when the real trailer comes out.
Sony Online Entertainment remains the juggernaut in the MMO industry, with more than ten titles currently on the market, with more on the way this coming year. Already released is DC Universe Online, based on the popular comic books characters and worlds. Aside from DCU, SOE has three titles that are on their way, two of which should be released by the end of the year.
First in line is expected to come in March, the sequel to Planetside codenamed Planetside Next. The next incarnation is anticipated to take the large scale battles of Planetside, and make them even bigger. As John Smedley stated in an interview with Eurogamer:
“And we haven’t announced a release date for it but you can expect it… We’re looking at late first-quarter, early second-quarter [2011].”
Next up, The Agency, expected to launch late this year. The Agency may be smaller in scale than Planetside (expected to be mostly instanced with social lobbies), but Smedley has big hopes for the game post-release, and is allowing the team to take as long as they need to make sure the game is up to snuff.
“One thing that we’ve learned over our company’s history is that it takes time to make great games. And we’re not trying to make cookie-cutter MMOs. There’s some stuff coming out in the next two or three months, MMO-wise, and a lot of it is generic copycats of other games. That’s not what we want to do. We want to make new experiences for people. So The Agency is a new kind of MMO so we want to make sure it’s as good as it can be.”
Third in line is Everquest Next. Although not slated to release for a good while, Everquest Next is expected to take the world of Norrath and turn it on its head. The number of classes and races is confirmed to be reduced, less than Everquest II and likely more around the numbers in Everquest. With a new art style, new lands to travel, and no doubt tons of lore to become accustomed to, Everquest Next may also be heading onto the Playstation 3 to saddle up with Sony’s increasing number of MMOs slated for release on the console.
Sony Online Entertainment remains the juggernaut in the MMO industry, with more than ten titles currently on the market, with more on the way this coming year. Already released is DC Universe Online, based on the popular comic books characters and worlds. Aside from DCU, SOE has three titles that are on their way, two of which should be released by the end of the year.
First in line is expected to come in March, the sequel to Planetside codenamed Planetside Next. The next incarnation is anticipated to take the large scale battles of Planetside, and make them even bigger. As John Smedley stated in an interview with Eurogamer:
“And we haven’t announced a release date for it but you can expect it… We’re looking at late first-quarter, early second-quarter [2011].”
Next up, The Agency, expected to launch late this year. The Agency may be smaller in scale than Planetside (expected to be mostly instanced with social lobbies), but Smedley has big hopes for the game post-release, and is allowing the team to take as long as they need to make sure the game is up to snuff.
“One thing that we’ve learned over our company’s history is that it takes time to make great games. And we’re not trying to make cookie-cutter MMOs. There’s some stuff coming out in the next two or three months, MMO-wise, and a lot of it is generic copycats of other games. That’s not what we want to do. We want to make new experiences for people. So The Agency is a new kind of MMO so we want to make sure it’s as good as it can be.”
Third in line is Everquest Next. Although not slated to release for a good while, Everquest Next is expected to take the world of Norrath and turn it on its head. The number of classes and races is confirmed to be reduced, less than Everquest II and likely more around the numbers in Everquest. With a new art style, new lands to travel, and no doubt tons of lore to become accustomed to, Everquest Next may also be heading onto the Playstation 3 to saddle up with Sony’s increasing number of MMOs slated for release on the console.
“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.
MMO Fallout 