Posts with tag: sony-online-entertainment

Sony Online's long running sci-fi MMO Star Wars Galaxies has always been set in between the films Episode 4: A New Hope and Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back. Today the publisher and LucasArts announced that the game has finally given its players a long awaited encounter; Empire's famed Battle of Hoth sequence.

Our sister site Massively has the info on the new addition to Star Wars Galaxies which allows players to join either the Imperial landing force to destroy Echo Base or as the Rebels who are simply trying to get out with as many people and stuff as possible. There are some other new additions in this latest free content update and Massively even has a dev diary from Sony Online on the new features.

It's been a long time in coming, but Sony Online has finally begun accepting sign-ups for people to beta test Free Realms. This fantasy MMO is being made for a more mainstream and casual audience and as the name implies the game will be free to play.

Sign-ups are being taken at the game's official web site which also has more info on what Free Realms is all about. While it takes place in a fantasy world the look of the game is definitely more cartoony than the more realistic looking Everquest series. Mini-games like soccer and golf and pet raising are available in the game but there is combat against creatures as well. There's no word yet on when Free Realms will officially launch.

This past week the big reveal in games was for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the highly anticipated MMO from BioWare, EA and LucasArts. But what about Star Wars Galaxies, the Sony Online developed MMO that launched in 2003. Chatting with Eurogamer, LucasArts executive Tom Nichols states they still have plans for the first game, saying "We see no reason why the two games can't exist together."

Meanwhile, can Star Wars: The Old Republic be the MMO to take on the 800 pound gorilla that is Blizzard's World of Warcraft? EA Games president Frank Gibeau thinks so In a chat with Videogaming24/7 he states, "Just look at the base of Star Wars fans, plus what BioWare can do. Trust me: we want to win. EA's reputation is for wanting to win. This is going to be a powerful category and there's lots of ways to compete in this category. [Blizzard] created a much larger opportunity for everybody else, but that doesn't mean it's going to stay that way."

It's not exactly a shock that some MMO games will be holding special Halloween themed events this month but Sony Online Entertainment decided to go all out and have almost all of their MMO titles have some kind of Halloween related event (Planetside seems to be the only game in Sony Online's line up to not be participating).

A couple of examples; Star Wars Galaxies will be holding something called the Galactic Moon Festival from now until Nov. 7 that will have "Sith-o-lanterns" (hehe) among the spooky stuff around the Galactic Empire. The Matrix Online will have events that will allow players to fight off zombies and risk getting infected. The collectible card game Legends of Norrath will also have a special Halloween senario this month. So if you are too old for trick-or-treating, at least you can stay at home and trick a lot of other folks online.

Game Politics has been doing an excellent job covering which game developers and game industry executives have been contributing money to the various US Presidential campaigns. It shouldn't come as a shock that most of them are Democrats who have given money to that political party's nominee Barack Obama.

So far nine game industry members including Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, Take Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick, Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser and Sony Online CEO John Smedley have all given money to Obama's campaign. Only three gaming reps have given money to the Republican candidate John McCain; Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling and, in what might be a surprise to some, Maxis founder Will Wright.

The typical stereotype of an online PC gamer is someone who doesn't take care of himself physically as he or she spends hours at a time in front of a monitor. A new study of Everquest 2 players, however, puts this idea to bed but brings forth another more troubling issue for such gamers.

The study brought in 7,000 players of Everquest 2 (promising them a unique in-game item if they participated) and according to a story at Newscientist.com they asked the players questions about their physical and mental health while also checking out their online playing statistics. The survey's results state that gamers have a average body mass index lower than the national average and the average gamer does engage in exercise. However the survey also revealed that gamers tend to have "more cases of depression and substance abuse than their compatriots".

Sony Online has got a couple of major MMO titles on their agenda. One is the first person shooter super-spy themed game The Agency and the other is DC Universe Online, the long awaited super hero game that's set squarely in the Superman-Batman-Wonder Woman-Ambush Bug Earth.

Sony Online sent over new screenshots from the game depicting various characters like Superman, Green Lantern, Bizarro and Lex Luthor in a massive suit of armor. The game, which Sony Online just announced would have comic book writer Geoff Johns script the back story, currently doesn't have a release date.

There's more MMO news today that doesn't concern World of Warcraft. Today Sony Online announced that Geoff Johns, one of the most popular and busiest writers for DC Comics, will be handling the back story for DC Universe Online, the upcoming super hero MMO that was officially unveiled at last July's San Diego Comic Con.

Johns's background includes writing tours on The Flash, Green Lantern, Justice Society of America and the massive crossover mini-series Infinite Crisis. He's also writing the current mini-series Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds. In a chat with Newsarama, Johns states he was brought to help write for the game by Jim Lee, the legendary comic book artist who is serving as art director for DC Universe Online. Johns will try to explain in story terms why all of these new super heroes (the player's characters) are suddenly popping up in the DC universe. Johns said there have been discussions of adapting classic or current DC Comics storylines to fit inside the DC Universe Online set-up.

Ever since Sony Online announced plans to release their spy action MMO game The Agency for both the PC and PS3 many journalists have asked if the game could have cross-platform play with players from both existing in the same world. Gamasutra states that the answer is, "Yes.". In fact, Sony Online's producer on the game, Matt Wilson, states, " . . . we're actually doing that at the office. Technology-wise, it's really not that complicated."

That doesn't mean the final version will have such support, however. Wilson states there are three major barriers keeping the dev team from making cross-platform play a reality. One is that it's easier to cheat in a PC game than in a console title. Another is the PC keyboard-mouse controls compared to a console's hand controller and the gameplay imbalance that's caused with that set up. Finally there's updating the game; PCs can quickly be updated with patches while console updates are slower because of the need for certification. So things are still up in the air on the cross platform feature. The Agency is currently set for a release sometime in 2009.

Big Iron had the opportunity to catch up with Funcom's Jorgen Tharaldsen (JT) at Dragon*Con, and was able to ask him some questions about what's in store for the hardware freaks as far as Age of Conan is concerned. Their willingness to speak frankly about what the player base has brought up as points of concern is great to see, and the fact that they're so up-front about what they're doing to address these items is laudable.

From their July Developer's Note (for those who haven't seen it):