A survey emailed to current and past Planetside subscribes has indicated that Sony is planning “to expand the Planetside universe with another game”. It has also been discovered that SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) registered Planetside2.com on September 21st.

“We plan to expand the PlanetSide® universe with another game and we need your help with the design. After all, who knows the game better than you, our customers, the people who actually play it! Don’t worry about the original PlanetSide, it isn’t going anywhere.

We want to hear your opinion and to do so we have put together a short survey. The information you provide will play a critical role into helping guide the development and direction of the next hit Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter.” - Source

Planetside Universe, a Planetside fan site, contacted John Smedley, the CEO of SOE, who had this to say;

“PlanetSide fans will be happy We have big things planned in the next 12 months. We’re working on something new that’s really cool.” - Source

Planetside was never the most popular MMO (at its peak it was estimated to have around 75,000 players) but it had some great ideas, which led to some truly epic moments (some of the player stories that came out of the game are amazing). Now only a few thousand hardcrore fans remain and you’d be lucky to see the massive battles that the game experienced during its prime. If a new game can successfully fix its predecessors problems then I’m all for it, just like the guys over at Rock, Paper Shotgun.

Just when we thought two Star Wars MMO’s were enough for any fan rumours rise out of the murky depths of Dagobah that Sony Online Entertainment is working on a new one. SOE have already tried this once with Star Wars Galaxies - which had a brief spurt of popularity but lost many fans when it was decided to introduce a ‘combat upgrade’ - and Bioware are currently working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, which looks very tasty indeed. An “insider source” is now saying that a third game may be on the drawing board, which is apparently going to be casual-centric and will most likely be based on the animated Clone Wars series.

Ten Ton Hammer says their anonymous source confirmed the rumour at PAX, where it was said that SOE will probably use the same engine as their immensely popular browser-based MMO Free Realms. So, if we’re talking that casual – combined with its roots in the animated series – then it’s probably not going to be something to get overly excited about unless you’re pretty young or a casual player who happens to like Star Wars. Going for the casual crowd means that SOE isn’t trying to be a direct competitor to Bioware’s attempt, and by doing this SOE may pick up the players who don’t want to sink a lot of time into a fully fledged MMO but still want to play a Star Wars game.

Given the source material the game will most likely take on the look of the animated series, which may or may not be a good thing depending on whether or not you liked the look of Clone Wars (I didn’t). Even so, if this rumour is true and SOE can successfully replicate the appeal of Free Realms to the casual crowd then they may have a winner on their hands to make up for the disappointment that was Star Wars Galaxies. Either that or they’ll fail miserably again.

(Image source)

Related Posts:

• Bioware Announces New Star Wars MMO

There’s one big thing missing from Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and that’s any real representation of the MMO genre. Cryptic, developer of the upcoming Champions Online, believes that it’s not because developers don’t want to represent the genre on the 360, it is because Microsoft is holding back on coming with a way of how such a game would work through Live.

“Microsoft’s a big company, and they have to work out all the various issues related to MMOs,” explains Emmert. “It just takes time for the big beast known as Microsoft to get moving. I really have no explanation other than that, because it’s as baffling to developers as it is to everyone else.” (Source)

Cryptic already have a 360 version of Champions Online “ready to go”, but with Microsoft dragging their heels on the subject it doesn’t look like any 360 gamer will be controlling their very own superhero anytime soon. That means we probably won’t see it this year, but will we ever see it at all?

“Right now we’re just talking with Microsoft. Right now the ball is firmly in their court. We’re ready to go, but until we get the go ahead from Microsoft, right now we’re sort of waiting.”

This isn’t the first time this has happened. In fact the team behind Final Fantasy XIV told VG247 that their game was partly a timed PS3 exclusive because they were still in ongoing discussions about just how the game would work over Live. Of course, Final Fantasy XI is already out for the 360, so it does work in some way.

Personally I’m not sure MMO’s are such a good idea on the console, at least not for the time being. The 360 is good for online games, but on a far smaller scale, and I’m not sure the communities that form around such games as Call of Duty 4 would translate to an MMO. I’ve always thought MMO’s were a far better fit for a mouse and keyboard, but I would have said the same thing about FPS’s a few years back. Another thing is you would have to pay two subscriptions; one for the MMO and one for Live, so maybe the PS3 would be a better bet.

Meanwhile Sony have no such reservations about the MMO, with The Agency currently under development. Maybe we will see Champions Online on the 360 eventually, but it certainly won’t be in time for the PC versions release next week.

DRAGONS!!! That’s what Guild Wars 2 is all about if this stunning new trailer is anything to go by. What’s stunning about it? Well, the first half is pretty much just artwork but don’t let that put you off because if you stick around you’ll see some absolutely gorgeous in-game footage. I always thought the first game looked amazing, even on my sub-standard PC, and hopefully it will again be optimised for those who can’t afford expensive rigs (I suppose MMO’s always have to have some degree of flexibility in the graphics department, or they couldn’t raise a large playerbase).

So what’s the sequel all about? Amidst all the drama of co-founder of NCsoft, Jeff Strain, and another staff member leaving just over a week ago (although ArenaNet says that the development of Guild Wars 2 will not be affected) there has actually been very little information on the game. The slate isn’t totally blank though, so let’s sum up what we know so far.

Apart from the attractive scenery there are a number of changes over the game’s predecessor. Firstly the whole game world is persistent, much like World of Warcraft, although instances will still play their part; including in the games main storyline which, to be fair, makes sense. Player choices will also impact on the world at large, although I doubt it’s going to be as complex as the player driven world of Eve Online. PvP will retain the guild versus guild battles of the first game (it wouldn’t be called Guild Wars otherwise!), but large-scale PvP will also be introduced. It’s a world battle that will take place in a place called The Mists, although I’m sure more places will be added over the games lifespan.

So, that’s pretty much all we know at this point. Details will probably continue to trickle out over the next few months, so keep an eye out for more info here as I loved the first game so I’m a keen follower of anything new about its sequel.

I stopped playing World of Warcraft a few years back - mainly because it was taking up way too much of my life - but if I had still been playing it and I owned an iPhone then the official ‘World of Warcraft Mobile Armory’ application would be a must have.

Since this new application has officially been designed by Blizzard you no longer need to rely on third-party applications, which are sometimes unreliable, to keep track of your WoW characters while on the move. The free application has all the functionality of the web-based armory, but with the added bonus that you can do it away from your computer.

A few of the features include the ability to check your current equipment set-up, those of other players, guild databases and information on every item in the game. There’s also a spec calculator to help you plan out your character, a calendar that keeps track of upcoming raid events and an achievement tracker. It’s also under 10mb, so you can easily download it away from your computer with 3G.

So, for you WoW obsessive’s this new application means you’ll never have to be all that far away from the ‘delights’ of Azeroth. I’m not actually sure if that’s a good thing or not…

(Image source: Kotaku)

Remember APB? The MMO in development from the same guys who brought us Crackdown? No? Well, I didn’t really expect you to. In fact I only really knew about it because I wrote about it last year. Realtime World’s haven’t exactly been forthcoming with new details on the game, but now they have chosen EA’s E309 press conference to unleash a new trailer on the unsuspecting world.

Without repeating much of what I said in my earlier post APB will throw thousands of players into a city split between the warring Criminals and Enforcers. After creating your character with the incredibly deep customisation options (I have a feeling that there’s going to be a lot of semi-naked women running around if players tastes are anything like the mohawk sporting woman in the trailer above) you take to the streets to carry out missions; which may mean robbing somewhere as a Criminal or trying to stop a robbery as an Enforcer. In the end I’m sure it will just boil down to one massive firefight.

Rumour has it that the game is no longer coming to Xbox 360 and will only be released for the PC in early 2010.

That’s the face of a model who knows that this is the best gig she could get. She was dressing up as an Elf in order to celebrate the 10th birthday of the most popular MMO of all time, Everquest.

We’ve come a long way since then, and the biggest current MMO, World of Warcraft, has a lot to thank Everquest for. In turn, Everquest wouldn’t be around without the early text-based MUD games. Who knows where we’ll be in another 10 years? Everquest itself is still going strong, with 15 expansions available to date and a sequel in the form of Everquest II.

Its birthday will be celebrated through a party at Fan Faire 2009 in Las Vegas this June, plus other events both virtual and real-life.  San Diego also celebrated Sony Online Entertainment Day yesterday.

Go here for the full list of events.

If you’re a World of Warcraft player then you’re probably aware that that it’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, hits shops on November 13th. If you’re not a WoW player then, well, move along swiftly! Myself? Well, I used to play WoW but gave up when I realised I wasn’t getting any free time. However, I can’t move on as I want

Anyway, Blizzard has kicked off opening events for the hotly anticipated expansion with an attack on Horde city Orgrimmar by Scourge forces. The attack is on a loop of 20 minutes, so don’t worry if it’s nearly over by the time you get there. WoW Insider has the full list of events going on in Azeroth, so you’ve no excuse not to check any of them out.

Gamestation, Tesco and HMV will also be opening up stores across the country for midnight launches tomorrow night. Tesco is 24 hour anyway and, knowing supermarkets, you may actually be able to pick up the game before midnight if you’re lucky.  The flagship launch event will be taking place at London’s Oxford Street HMV store, so get down there if you want to revel in the atmosphere and possibly see some cos play costumes.

The expansion will raise the level cap to 80, give you a new continent - Northrend - to explore, the new Death Knight class and a tonne of other features. Basically, WoW just took up even more of your life.

Check out the official site for more details.

Bioware - a company well known to Star Wars fans due to the excellent Knights of the Old Republic series - has announced that the new Star Wars MMO rumored a few months back will be called Star Wars: The Old Republic. The game will be set three centuries after the events of KOTOR II and will feature two opposing factions - the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. You won’t be forced to pick good or evil right from the start though as, like KOTR and Mass Effect, your good or evil status will evolve through the choices you make.

“Players get to come in and take the roles of heroes–or villains–at this pivotal moment where we’re starting to go back into a big galactic war,” promised Erickson. - Gamespot

There’s not much more we know yet, aside from the basic information about the story (which is apparently going to be pretty important to the game, and each class will have its own unique story). The game’s art direction will not be realistic (as you can obviously see from the screenshot above) but it will not be overly cartoon-y either. The big reason for not having spectacular realistic graphics is similar to the approach that Blizzard took with World of Warcraft. Having more simple colourful graphics means that the game will be able to work on a wide range of systems, which is part of why WoW is so popular.

Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the second attempt at creating a Star Wars MMO. Star Wars Galaxies was certainly ambitious but never quite managed to fully grasp the attention of the extensive Star Wars fanbase. Then there was the complete change to the way the game played that angered most of those still playing the game, and while the game still exists today its playerbase is tiny compared to what it could have been.

Hopefully it will be a better game than its former attempt, especially as it’s being made by the rather excellent Bioware. The game is only in development for the PC at the moment but Bioware aren’t ruling out a console release just yet.

More information:

Star Wars: The Old Republic Revealed - Gamespot.
Star Wars: The Old Republic - What we Know so Far - Kotaku.
BioWare Compares ‘Star Wars’ MMO Combat To ‘WoW,’ ‘Age of Conan’ And ‘The Force Unleashed’ - MTV Multiplayer.

I recently wrote about the upcoming Wii game SimCity Creator and my main concerns were that many of the micro-management aspects that come with running a city had been stripped due to the more casual approach. This is to be expected with the Wii and I don’t fault Maxis for wanting to bring SimCity to a new sect of gamers. However, now that SimCity has been scaled down it leaves the door open for a new sim to step in with the features that made SimCity so addictive in the first place. So, hardcore sim addicts may now have a new game to make up for Maxis going all casual on them.

Cities XL is the latest game from Monte Cristo - the team behind City Life. At its most basic the game looks a lot like it’s predecessor but attempts to expand on this in almost every way possible. City Life introduced social classes which meant you had to think a lot more about where to place certain buildings, other than the usual ‘don’t plonk industrial zones near residential zones’ which should be basic common sense to any aspiring city mayor. So, for instance, rich people would want to eat at fancy restaurants while the poor would be happy with the nearest burger joint. Cities XL takes all this and vastly expands on it, so while you can still do the traditional zoning you can also plonk down individual buildings - something I’d always wanted to do. You can even go as detailed as placing bus lanes, creating pedestrian and bike only areas, or even build a ski resort and carve out ski routes with varying difficulty levels. After you’ve set this up you can walk around your creation as one of the cities residents (one click will return detailed information on each and every resident).

Probably the most interesting aspect of the game is what it will do when connected to the Internet. Monte Cristo not only promise to offer constant updates in the form of new buildings or micro management responsibilities (for example, you can purchase the ski resort pack described above) but also offer a full MMO style game world to play in. Thousands of players will build competing cities on an earth-like planet and will have the ability to trade for each other. For example, if your city is located near oil fields you can negotiate with another player who’s city is a burgeoning automobile production centre and trade for, say, lower cost automobiles. Some will question the need to give a city creation sim a multiplayer mode but it sounds like it’s shaping up to be pretty enticing. Be sure to check out the sources below for more information on the multiplayer mode.

Cities XL is extremely ambitious and you could be forgiven for thinking that it may fail for trying to do too much. If you’re anything like me you’ll probably be extremely excited about the game, but then again I am a bit of a nerd. Hopefully it’s extreme micro management won’t turn many people off, but there’s also plenty of SimCity fans out there who may be willing to make the switch.

Preview: Be a Massively Multiplayer Mayor in Cities XL - Wired.
Cities XL Impressions - City Building, Management, and Multiplayer - Gamespot.