Tag: Sony Online Entertainment

Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…


Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.

It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.

But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:

Continue reading “Vanguard: Merry Christmas! We’re Not Doing Well…”

Get It All: Star Wars Galaxies $10



Is that Kyle Katarn?

 

I often try to keep people informed of various sales for MMOs they may be on the edge of purchasing, as I did with Direct 2 Drive’s small selection of MMOs during their 5th year anniversary sale (You will remember Age of Conan, Planetside, and Eve Online were five dollars for approximately a week).

Star Wars Galaxies is on sale for $10 on Steam this week, and includes every expansion pack for the game: Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookies, and Trials of Obiwan. Even so, you will receive the Star Wars Trading Card Game, a digital trading card game, some of which can be redeemed in game for free items. Players in good standing will also receive a free booster pack each month with their Star Wars Galaxies subscription.

Desperate cry for help? Perhaps. I can’t say no to ten dollars.

The sale can be found here, and is available until November 26th. The free month is only for new accounts, and is not a cheap method to obtain play time.

 

Ignorance Not An Excuse


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October 15th has come and gone, and with it came the closure of twelve Star Wars Galaxies servers, as I reported this past September. Now, I originally assumed that once the servers shut down, all characters left on them would be lost for good. The reason for the server closures was that the already running free transfer service had been such a success that multiple servers were now dead as players flooded their characters to other, more populated, servers.

Continue reading “Ignorance Not An Excuse”

Hello Planetside 2!


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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.

Remembering the Classic: Everquest "Ancient Heroes"


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An MMO is unique in its own world in the sense that, despite what some people think, you truly do live in the world. Think back to titles you’ve played for years, and you’re bound to have nostalgic moments of times that are long past. Many of us longtime players expect the company to recognize their earlier game in some fashion. Jagex, for example, continued running the original Runescape, and continues looking for new ways to publicize the, albeit currently closed to all but a few, title to players who never experienced it.

In a recent update to Everquest, Sony Online Entertainment inserted an old man who will transform you into the classic Everquest experience: A level 50 with the normal gear of the time, before even the Ruins of Kunark expansion. The only alteration comes in the form of brand new drops.

Everquest has come a long way, possibly longer than any other MMO on the market (apart from maybe Star Wars Galaxies). Sixteen expansion packs later, and the Everquest of now is day and night to the Everquest of old. Everquest Underfoot launches on its newly delayed date in December. Everquest’s target demographic is their current and previous players, a fact they have begrudgingly admitted.

Now if only Sony would bring some pre-NGE Galaxy servers up.

Remembering the Classic: Everquest “Ancient Heroes”


tss22

An MMO is unique in its own world in the sense that, despite what some people think, you truly do live in the world. Think back to titles you’ve played for years, and you’re bound to have nostalgic moments of times that are long past. Many of us longtime players expect the company to recognize their earlier game in some fashion. Jagex, for example, continued running the original Runescape, and continues looking for new ways to publicize the, albeit currently closed to all but a few, title to players who never experienced it.

In a recent update to Everquest, Sony Online Entertainment inserted an old man who will transform you into the classic Everquest experience: A level 50 with the normal gear of the time, before even the Ruins of Kunark expansion. The only alteration comes in the form of brand new drops.

Everquest has come a long way, possibly longer than any other MMO on the market (apart from maybe Star Wars Galaxies). Sixteen expansion packs later, and the Everquest of now is day and night to the Everquest of old. Everquest Underfoot launches on its newly delayed date in December. Everquest’s target demographic is their current and previous players, a fact they have begrudgingly admitted.

Now if only Sony would bring some pre-NGE Galaxy servers up.

Star Wars Galaxies: Server Shutdowns


header_defaultI’ve been criticized a few times for being somewhat harsh on Star Wars Galaxies, going as far as calling it a comatose title that Sony Online Entertainment continues to hold on life support, giving it regular changes of clothing and painting pupils on its eyelids so people think it still has some life in it. For several years now, players have reported that all but the most populated of servers are faced with legions of empty player owned villages, desolate cities, and much of the world virtually abandoned. Sony still supports the title with frequent updates, such as the upcoming deathtroopers, and were it not for Sony’s attempts to keep their titles profitable to the point where the only cost is the electricity to keep the servers running, the plug would have been pulled a long, long time ago.

So it comes as no surprise when Kotaku reported today that Sony is shutting down 12 Star Wars Galaxies servers on October 15th. The following servers will be shut down:

o Corbantis
o Europe-Infinity
o Intrepid
o Kauri
o Kettemoor
o Lowca
o Naritus
o Scylla
o Tarquinas
o Tempest
o Valcyn
o Wanderhome

Players have until 5:00pm PT on October 15th to vacate the servers before they are shut down for good. After the change, there will be 13 servers remaining, offering plenty of space for players to fight the zombie hoards in the upcoming content update. That’s right, I said zombies. In Star Wars. Zombie Wookie.

More on Star Wars Galaxies’ downward spiral as it turns up.

Really? ANOTHER Star Wars MMO?


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TenTonHammer is reporting on a rumor that Sony Online Entertainment may be working on a more casual Star Wars MMO, that might be based on the Star Wars: Clone Wars CGI film. Not much is known on the title, but it is very likely that Sony will build the game off of the Free Realms engine, delivering the MMO as a freemium, browser based game, not necessarily aimed towards children, but instead a wide variety of players.

With Star Wars: The Old Republic being released next year, will this title be launched close-by as a free alternative? Does Sony really need two running Star Wars MMOs at one time? Will players be willing to take Sony up on a new Star Wars MMO on the idea that they learned from their mistakes with Star Wars Galaxies?

More on the rumored Star Wars MMO as it develops.

Everquest: Not Going Anywhere


“So you can see there’s a lot to wrestle with as we begin laying the foundation for EverQuest ‘Next.’ As I write this, we have concept artists and game designers working hard in our studio-taking the lessons of the past, the best parts of the present and the most promising ideas for the future-to bring the world of Norrath to a new generation of players, as well as the dedicated legions of fans who made the EverQuest franchise timeless. I hope we’ll see you there.“

Everquest once again proves itself to be the Granddaddy who not only refuses to stop dancing, but continues to go hiking, bungee jumping, and is always ready to throw down in the wrestling ring. Fresh off of its 10th year anniversary, Everquest continues to remind us that the franchise will not be going anywhere, with the announcement of Everquest Next. The announcement is from the Everquest 10th anniversary book.

Considering the massive changes between Everquest and Everquest 2, the third go at the series can bring nothing less than innovation, a strong player base, an excellent development team, and fifty expansion packs. So cheers to Everquest Next.

Via Zam

SOE 2009 Address


Sony Online Entertainment did their Fan Faire Press release this year, and seeing as how they have the largest collection of MMO’s in the list, I just had to have a look at what is on the horizon for their titles, and for the company itself.

I’d like to note on Sony themselves. Despite what I may think about the rest of Sony, I give SOE a lot of credit for the dedication they have to their games. Unlike NCSoft that more closely resembles the guy sitting on his porch with a shotgun waiting for someone to slip up, SOE has a strong dedication to their products, and does everything in their power to make sure that the remaining population, as small as they may be, continue to enjoy what they enjoy, and supports their products long after any other company might consider them to be “dead”.

So I have a lot of respect for Sony Online Entertainment, even though at the same time I have a lot of contempt for the boneheaded mistakes they’ve made in the past, namely the NGE updates for Star Wars Galaxies, and implementing legal real world trading in the Everquest titles. They didn’t talk about many of their existing games at this conference, mainly Everquests and Free Realms, with some Star Wars Galaxies thrown in. So without further ado, here is Sony.

Continue reading “SOE 2009 Address”