Sony's MMOs to be available in one package
by Jennie Lees 
{ Feb 14th 2006 at 6:00PM }
The variety of MMOs on the market can be confusing to new players, especially if you want to try multiple games out before you subscribe. Sony appear to have acknowledged this need with their new Station Access Collection which includes Sony Online Entertainment's top MMOs in one package.
The collection, available for $39.99 from March 14th, consists of EverQuest Evolution, EverQuest II, PlanetSide Aftershock, The Matrix Online and Star Wars Galaxies. Crucially, it'll include a month's free play for each bundled game, giving players a chance to try out all the offerings. Other publishers with a wide range of MMOs on offer may want to take a tip from Sony for a change; the perceived value is likely to make this product far more appealing than a single standalone game for the same price.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cyberclaws @ Feb 14th 2006 6:08PM
I have them all but Matrix. I only pay 21 bucks a month to play all of them.
Enigma @ Feb 14th 2006 6:09PM
Should read:
Other publishers of MMOs may want to take note, that Sony has to do this because they screw their playerbase over so many times with shoddy patches and buggy games they have no other choice with their subscription drop off rates.
Most other MMO makers dont have 20 different MMOs in their portfolio and have split dev time to make mediocre products. They have one or 2 solid products they continue to work on.
SOE = horrible! All of the above games are no good.
Not to mention it is easy to relase all of them at that price. They are how old now?
Robert @ Feb 14th 2006 6:11PM
I smell desperation. Not one good MMO in that whole lot.
David @ Feb 14th 2006 6:13PM
Wow that seems like a great deal
Jago @ Feb 14th 2006 6:16PM
WOW!!! So you mean we get FIVE crappy MMOs instead!!! WOW!!! Where do I sign up!!!
/end sarcasim
Lolersticks @ Feb 14th 2006 6:38PM
Everquest II isn't bad at all. It excels where others fail (coughWoWcough), but it seems people are too distracted by the pointy ears and endgame grinding of you-know-what to actually give EQII a try.
But, as per usual whenever somebody like me tries to start a civil conversation, the flaming will commence, I am afraid.
dork @ Feb 14th 2006 6:54PM
look its a bundle of poop for one crappy price!
Robert @ Feb 14th 2006 6:55PM
If SOE wants to be successful, then they need to cancel all those MMOs, fire their devs, then look at and play WoW and understand how to make a good MMO.
They have the money, they should just take the chance and do it. They are only hurting their credibility by keeping these pathetic games alive.
Powerlord @ Feb 14th 2006 6:56PM
What about expansions? Everquest 1 is quite useless without them, I'd think.
mandarin @ Feb 14th 2006 7:02PM
I wouldnt even take them if they were free...
jennie @ Feb 14th 2006 7:03PM
What's interesting about this isn't necessarily that all five MMOs are crappy -- there are people playing all of them who might well disagree. It's the appeal to casual players or MMO newbies, who'll see the box on the shelf for the same price as WoW and choose this product first. It appeals in the same way as mega bumper bundle packs of slightly outdated games do--people don't always want the latest and greatest, but making new things easy to try is always a good move.
Enigma @ Feb 14th 2006 7:08PM
"If SOE wants to be successful, then they need to cancel all those MMOs, fire their devs, then look at and play WoW and understand how to make a good MMO."
It is not their "devs" that need to be fired. They have real good talent. It is the people in charge, like that bafoon John Smedley (SOE president) that needs to be fired. They have poor direction, thus crazy mismanagement.
Not to mention if every MMO was like WoW, it would get boring. There are plenty of non-WoW MMOs that are still a success, it is all about understanding your playerbase (not just about money). And that is something SOE lacks.
Carson @ Feb 14th 2006 7:09PM
#7: "Look at and play WoW and understand how to make a good MMO."
This comment is made so frequently it's ridiculous. The reality people ignore is that Blizzard looked to EverQuest to see how to make a "good MMO." Without EverQuest, there would BE NO WORLD OF WARCRAFT.
(Also, it's kind of a pity Blizzard didn't take a lesson from SOE on server reliability. That would make WoW so much more fun to play.)
Jago @ Feb 14th 2006 7:39PM
The HUGE thing that WoW has over EQ2 is the design of the worlds. EQ2 brought nothing new to the table interms of design. It is just the same'ole ultra realistic medieval style that every other game is going.
Blizzard still kept a similar theme but put their own unique twist on it. They didn't rely on the newest and most up-to-date technology to sell the game (*cough*EQ2*cough*)...they instead focused on the overall design of the worlds, the characters, etc. and made it so that it would run on a broader spectrum of PC hardware.
Oh...and I forgot to mention the character designs in EQ2 are HORRENDOUS!!!
Pal @ Feb 14th 2006 10:58PM
I still play online text-based RPGs. It's free. It's colorful. It's what inspired the graphical ones we see today, it's the younger brother of the paper and pencil!
Anna @ Feb 15th 2006 4:55AM
I have played both World of Warcraft and Everquest 2, they both have their merits but WoW's major downfall is that it's TOO accesible. My grandmother could play it for crying out loud.
I enjoy EQ2's more realistic style, as I can at least walk around without being crushed beneath gigantic shoulderpads. Plus, WoW's crafting system is rudimentary and tedious.
Planetside USED to be fun, but the polish wore off with the inception of Battlefield 2. Matrix Online was... well, a movie tie-in. Star Wars Galaxies was basically gutted recently and is all but unplayable to anyone who enjoyed the previous iteration.
Chadhulhu @ Feb 15th 2006 5:00AM
meh, the price seems nice, but to buy x number games, and still pay fees, it is retarded. none of these games are worth it, because you shell out money ( usually 50-60$) then a monthly fee, it is bogus. Just so you can get PK'ed.. oooooo, that is a thrill. I will stick to Pen and paper RPGs thanks.
Lineage 2 Fan Art @ Feb 15th 2006 5:07AM
And hopefully no one will buy any SOE products. Not with the way they treated SWG.
:p
Mike @ Feb 15th 2006 5:50AM
Well - it seems like a desperate move at first. Sure.
But here's the thing - they've probably got a bucket-load of old stock just wasting away in a Taiwanese factory. Better than using them as coasters at a titty bar.
Mind you - Why play a game? When you can play with yourself?
*stuffs his pockets full of one dollar bills*
Dyxon @ Feb 15th 2006 8:35AM
Let's see...
You can't buy Matrix Online in Retail anywhere outside of the Internet anymore and no one liked it anyway, they killed SWG (swiftly and violently, I might add), Planteside is almost impossible to find as well and it's got a huge learning curve, EQ2 is now being offered free if you have a paid Fileplanet subscription, and has never reached anywhere near the popularity of the original...and EverQuest is probably the oldest game out there, where the people are the pure embodiment of rudeness, and hate newbies.
Plus, you'd have to pay extra to get the 7 expansions for the various games (1 for PS, 1 for EQ2, 2 for SWG, 3 for EQ1) that are already out, with 2 more on thier way...
Add in more with the all-inclusive SOE pass that's what...$21 per month?
Desperation and covered-up info at it's best!
Eric @ Feb 15th 2006 9:43AM
Having never played any of these games (I'm a console gamer now, THEY turned me) I was attracted to this offer. But from all the negative feedback I've read/heard, you'd have to pay ME to get them.
The Devil Hisself @ Feb 15th 2006 11:52AM
I have never played any of these games. How lame am I?
But I have heard nothing good about EQ2 or SWG, the 2 games I was looking forward to for so long, turns out they are crap.
I play The 4th Coming (www.realmud.com) it is free.
Azure @ Feb 15th 2006 1:03PM
That's not a civil conversation Lolersticks, you're just stating your opinion and insulting anyone who doesn't agree with you.
No wonder you get flamed you flamer.
Fatal Exception @ Feb 15th 2006 1:45PM
Read: Other publishers with failing game titles may want to take a tip from Sony for a change, your games won't sell alone so bundling twelve of them together for the same price might reel in a few more customers... at least for a little while.
Angie @ Feb 15th 2006 2:24PM
Maybe SOE's server stability has improved, but I played EQ for 5 years (not recently, mind you) - the servers were worse during that time than what I have experienced playing WoW since launch. Even counting the bad launch WoW severs had and accounting for the time difference.
SWG servers were a joke too. But like mentioned above, they killed it so I guess that doesn't matter much.
Also, SOE never gave me day credits when they had issues. Big step on WoW's part - I've gotten several days from them (most from the first couple of months, true). Sometimes when it's not even my server having issues. ^_^
As far as EQ2 goes - I tried it for two months when some friends decided to try it. Not worth it IMO. Almost all of us cancelled it and went back to WoW. Those that didn't, didn't play WoW to begin with.
Jago @ Feb 15th 2006 6:55PM
"they both have their merits but WoW's major downfall is that it's TOO accesible."
Ummm hate to break it to you but some of the most successful games of all time have appealed to a broad range of people. If you are whinning b/c you don't want non-gamers playing WoW then get over it already.
"You can't buy Matrix Online in Retail anywhere outside of the Internet anymore"
Wrong...I just at Fry's here in Southern California...and it had quite a bit of dust on it I might add.
Noluck Ned @ Feb 16th 2006 2:55AM
SOE could take a page from CCP's book on how to treat your user base.
I never thought that there would be company out there who did its best to keep its subscribers in the loop and up to date on changes.
If you have never played EVE-online you have been missing out on the way all MMO's should be.....! single non-instanced unsharded world with the possibility of meeting any of the other characters in the whole world ingame.
Blizzard fans can say what they like, but if they have gotten people to the point where they accept that it is right to have to wait in line to get on a server or run a dungeon its a sad day for MMO lovers everywhere.
Gromit @ Feb 16th 2006 5:02PM
Why do these people keep insisting that wow is a MMO? Its a first person shooter. Nothing more. Blizzard sold out on that game and lost alot of their hardcore fans. Why the mindless legions keep playing it is beyond me however.
If SOE can gain a little revenue and possibly some new players here or there by offering their stable in one package then more power to them. You never know what game will appeal to whom (Some people actually LIKE wow believe it or not) and like its been previously stated, not everyone is out there looking for the latest and greatest. Aspects of PVP or PVE, cost, community, and in general the draw for any users is always different depending on the person. By offering all of their products in this class at once, it offers people the ability to at least look at these games and not have to rely on some braindead wow players for recommendations on what makes a good game. This is more a decision by some bean crunchers that makes sense when you look at the numbers.
CloudWolf @ Feb 17th 2006 6:54AM
While im not gonna go insulting WoW as a game i personally dont get why people love it so much... It seems to me just a place for the mass n00b mobs of times past to go hang, grind and generally be asshats to their hearts content. No offence to anyone here btw, im sure your all great people ;)
But the one thing i hate more than anything is people generalising and constantly ripping SOE, have half you people actually played these games lately? If not your all hypocrites.
As for MxO, im also willing to bet your all judging your opinions on when it was first released? Well wise up cause its better now, a lot better. SOE actually fixed that game and nows it more kick ass than ever.
For anyone reading this, dont listen to these naysayers, go give these games a chance, you may be pleasantly surprised =D
ANTEKCO @ Mar 3rd 2006 12:20AM
CloudWolf.. I think your a shill.. honistly..lol
EQ is dead.. that game is like 8 years old, and it is useless without buying atleast a FEW of the expansions.
EQ2 is.. okay. I don't like the changes they did to the class system though. Other players SEEM to like it. Now insted of waiting till level 20 to get your final class you can pick it at the beginning. Effectivly removing 9 subclasses from the game. The graphics are kinda bland though, feels as nothing is alive.
MxO is great. But methinks SOE will run it with a CU.(same thing they did to SWG)
SWG was completely trashed by NGE to try to attract more subs to the game. This was just a few months ago. Before this it was a great game with space combat and a GREAT profession system. You could play any hybird of two or three professions you wanted. There was 32 classes origionally. Now they have 9. They completely screwed vet Jedi players that grinded for months. The Jedi prof was a alpha class that took some REAL work to get. 'spesh in the higher levels of it, id est Jedi Knight, ect. Jedi is now a playable class from the START of the game. It was nerfed to a almost SUB par class, you cannot advance any farther in it than any of the other classes.
Planetside:Aftershock is fine. And HEY look, they GIVE you the only expansion they made with it.
I definatly wouldn't recommend this. SOE has a really bad rep. There are much better MMO's on the market that have producers that wont try to screw you over.