When Jim Lee stepped onstage at the Sony press conference Tuesday, it was the first reminder in some time of Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming super-hero MMO DC Universe Online. The title, meant to bring the world of Batman and Superman to fans of the massively multiplayer genre, has been under a communications blackout and in development for years. E3 2008 is the first substantial chance the gaming press has had to learn about the title, and our friends at Massively were naturally attracted by the smell of grouping mechanics and instanced content.

To kick things off, they've got a description of the extensive trailer that was the core of the SOE presentation. That wasn't enough for the MMO-addicted writers, so they followed that up with an exhaustive Q&A session. Follow along as DCUO Creative Director Chris Cao and SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely explore how the game will interact with the PlayStation 3, tie-ins between DC Universe Online and the actual DC comics, and an interesting aside about how the developers are already acting like the game is 'released' inside the company. The Massively crew also has a few choice pieces of concept art from the game, from the mind of comic legends like Jim Lee - take a look below.

Gallery: E308: DC Universe Online concept art

Sony has announced that they are willing to carry all studios' video content on their PSN video delivery service -- they'll be hosting standard and high definition videos from anyone who wants to sell them. Video will be available for both sale and rental, and will be portable -- you'll be able to buy it on a PS3, download it to the PSP, and have it live on both devices at the same time.

Prices are said to be $2.99 for an SD rental, and $5.99 for an HD download. Purchase price is $14.99 for SD movies, and it's unclear yet whether HD content will be sold for purchase. The video store will look much like the game store, and will be available tonight on PSN.

The comic-geeks over at Big Download followed the clues left in DC comic books this week and have found a MySpace page for DC Universe Online. The site contains the painfully small first screenshots seen in the gallery below.

The MySpace page also showcases several concept drawings for the game and wallpaper downloads. Also, those who make the game's MySpace page their top friend, may get invited to Sony Online Entertainment's big reveal party later this month at Comic-Con in San Diego.

[Via BigDownload]

While spending boatloads of cash on ritzy garments and top-of-the-line gadgetry may seem like a natural behavior for an international man or woman of mystery, gamers weren't keen to last month's announcement that Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming MMO The Agency would be riddled with character-customizing microtransactions. Fortunately, in a recent interview with Eurogamer, the game's developers set the record straight, ensuring that we won't be blowing all our real-world money on digital Emporio Armanis.

The developers explained that they had not enlisted the aid of virtual trading house Live Gamer to establish a microtransaction system, but rather to create a real-world auction house to allow players to trade and sell in-game items (much like the Everquest II Station Exchange). It seems your operatives will have to secure new attire the old fashioned way -- by viciously bonking an appropriately dressed underling, pulling him behind a curtain, and performing a sartorial quick change that would put even Hannah Montana to shame.

Update: Added source -- this press release, which vaguely implies that Live Gamer's RMT service, called Live Gamer Exchange, will allow players to "customize their characters through attire, weaponry, gadgets, vehicles, gear and aliases that tailor their game play." However, Massively's Kyle Horner spoke last night with The Agency lead designer Hal Milton who said that no weapons will be sold. The team is currently discussing the sale of low-level operatives (analogues to low-level equipment), but currently, everything planned to be sold will be purely cosmetic and not gameplay affecting.

Original: Remember all the hoopla over virtual arms dealing in Battlefield: Bad Company? Sony Online Entertainment's not hearing it. In fact, it announced today that its upcoming espionage MMO FPS, The Agency, will feature real money trading (RMT) of everything from clothing and gear to vehicles and weapons.

SOE has yet to declassify its business model for The Agency, so this could go in one of two directions. If it's free-to-play (a la Battlefield: Heroes) the cash-for-guns program would be (slightly) easier to swallow. Since The Agency is a PC and PS3 title, we're laying a bet on a free model given the latter platform's already free online gaming service and today's announcement, which provides a means for SOE to subsidize free play with a cut of player trades. If it's subscription-based? Someone best send some fire-retardant undergarments to SOE brass.

FPS players -- console ones specifically -- are used to earning their way to the top and into better weapons and gear, as seen in Call of Duty 4. The idea of playing a game where they're at an immediate disadvantage based on cash money is unlikely to sit well. At least trade works both ways; those who take the route of being skilled players -- and not payers -- can profit from their homegrown skills by selling stuff to noobs (and people with dead presidents lighting fires in their trousers).

In an interview with the Seattle Times, Sony Online Entertainment head, John Smedley, sees a future for MMOs on the PS3. He tells the paper that MMOs are going to be a "real strong selling point for the PS3" and uses The Agency as an example. More collaboration between the online and console divisions makes sense now that SOE reports to Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Smedley believes that MMOs will reach a 50/50 ratio between men and women over the next decade. He believes some of these games will be "as big as hit movies." Funny thing is that there's already a few out there, like World of Warcraft -- too bad that one only belongs to Blizzard.

[Via GameDaily]

Yair Landau, a 17-year veteran at Sony and head of its digital division at Sony Pictures Entertainment, is leaving the company in April to start his own game and animation studio. Landau plans to develop cross-media content and will continue to have involvement with the studio as an executive producer on Sony Animation's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Landau also oversaw SOE's growth, which coincidentally became part of Sony Computer Entertainment today, with games like EverQuest. Landau is expected to make announcements about what his company is actually up to once he leaves Sony next month.

Sony has announced a change in the relationship between two of its, err, Sonys, namely Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment. If we understand the press release correctly -- the pop-up pictures were an immense help -- SOE will be reporting directly to SCEI president and group CEO, Kaz Hirai, as of April 1, 2008. The structural change is "designed to mutually benefit both companies by further accelerating the PlayStation business through SOE's strong online gaming expertise," which ultimately boils down to more "exciting entertainment offerings" to consumers.

SOE will continue to develop said exciting entertainment offerings for the PlayStation 3 and PC, with company president John Smedley reporting to Hirai and making sure he says things like, "We are thrilled to become a part of the incredible team that has made PLAYSTATION 3 the premier platform for next generation online gaming."

SOE is currently hard at work on The Agency, a promising spy-themed MMO shooter for PC and PS3.

In a time before World of Warcraft, there once was a game called EverQuest, and it was good tolerable. Sony Online Entertainment would like to invite players back to EverQuest and the land of Norrath to celebrate the MMORPG's ninth anniversary.

The online game will hold various events throughout the year to celebrate being one year away from an actual milestone. Beginning March 16, there'll be a scavenger hunt and a month-long event tied to the divinities and servants of the Planes of Power. SOE states that EverQuest, after fourteen expansions, still has a flourishing community and will "stay active into the foreseeable future." There is more information about the anniversary events and special downloadable items (like an EverQuest timeline poster) at Station.com.

After a brief hiccup earlier this morning, pirate-themed MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea hoisted its sails and left port for the wide open sea where, SOE hopes, it will be greeted by thousands upon thousands of patiently waiting pirates who've got treasure aplenty to spend in their virtual Caribbean. If you're a lowly stowaway aboard this latest MMO, you'd be wise to stop off at the port of Massively wherein you'll find plenty of features to orient yourself. If you're an old hand, been playing since this morning, let us know what you think in those there comments.

Earlier this month, Sony Online Entertainment finally gave the gaming world a full-on look at The Agency. The unique title, a brand-new blend of the shooter and MMO genres, was featured in a hands-on talk over pre-recorded video; a compromise in the face of demoing an online title in the unfamiliar surroundings of Las Vegas. That talk, given by the mile-a-minute lead designer Hal Milton, has been covered endlessly at other sites. You can view the complete discussion in video format, or read a great writeup of the event over at GamersInfo.

Some of the most interesting tidbits the developers were willing to discuss that day weren't on the guided tour. Lead Designer Hal Milton and Design Director Matt Wilson were willing and able to discuss several aspects of the project still in the development stages with us and our friends at Massively; we were able to pick their brains on the game's business model, the fantastic world they're creating, character advancement, future content additions, and the numerous challenges of creating a game that straddles two platforms.

Easily one of the most refreshing things about The Agency is the humor that the developers are aiming to introduce to the world, as Hal Milton explains: One of the things I love about the spy genre is that everyone automatically gets it. I love fantasy, I love sci-fi, I love writing those stories, but whenever I try to describe the game concept I have to go in and back-fill for like ten minutes. "And then Sir Clamdar of Thobordoxy grabbed the Handbag of Doom." Or, "the year was 2753, and the Federation ..." Most people don't care. They just want to jump into the world and know where they stand, as opposed to being dropped into a world completely clueless. That's what's great about the Agency, there's a lot of similarities but our world is so different from the real world that they start to experience the humor and flavor.

Read on for more 'covert intel' you may not have seen discussed elsewhere on this blockbuster in-development title.

CES provided us with an interesting look at the future of Sony Online Entertainment. We finally found out what The Agency was all about and got a good look at the wacky, kid-oriented MMO FreeRealms. And, in an exclusive interview with Massively, CEO John Smedley unveiled a new program that will launch alongside FreeRealms. Dubbed "Share the Wealth," SOE's unique buy-in program will offer site owners monetary incentives for driving customers to the game:

"Let's say you have your own website. You come out our site, fill out a form pretty much the same as the one for our Station Exchange service with a Social Security number, and give us your PayPal account information. You cut and paste some JavaScript to your site, and now you have a banner ad for FreeRealms on your site. We are tracking every customer you give us, and once a month we'll give you somewhere between 5-10% of all the revenue from every customer you send us. That's as long as they are playing the game."

The full interview gets into specifics behind the program, while the follow-up touches on big plans for the future of the company's Station Access pass.

PlayStation Network titles "based upon gameshow IPs" are being developed by Sony Online Entertainment using Gamebryo middleware and will be released before next month's Game Developers Conference.

Gamebryo, owned by Emergent Game Technologies, has been previously used for games like Civilization IV and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. No word on what game shows will be used, and there is no indication that these projects began before this year. Given the quick turnaround with the titles, we're not anticipating AAA effort. However, should Deal or No Deal end up being one of the "gameshow IPs," then we expect to see HDR rendering on Howie Mandel's dome.

This story has been circulating message boards and gaming industry sites for the past few hours -- Zapak Digital Entertainment, an India-based online gaming portal similar to Pogo or Miniclip, is supposedly set to buy out Sony Online Entertainment, American developer and publisher of Star Wars Galaxies and the Everquest series, for about $300 million sometime in the next few days. It's part of Zapak's plan to "expand [their] reach in the global market," and will hopefully give the company the momentum it needs to make an impact on the gaming scene in China, their next big goal.

Something about this story just doesn't sit right with us enough to report it as fact just yet. Maybe it's the source -- The Economic Times, the Indian online newspaper which broke the story, does not name any of its sources in its article, which has a number of unattributed quotes. This could just mean that they're breaking the story earlier than Zapak or SOE would have liked, and they're protecting their source, most likely an employee for one of the companies -- but it's enough to raise a skeptical eyebrow. Still, it wouldn't be the first completely surprising business deal that went down this month.

(Thanks, Zak.)

Update: Our sneaking suspicion that the story was false was apparently correct -- SOE CEO John Smedley told sister site Massively that the rumours are completely false; Reuters also confirms with a report that a SOE spokesperson recently spoke to them on the telephone and completely denied the Zapak buyout. SOE is currently talking to various companies in India to try to bring their games to the country, but in no way is Zapak buying them.

(Thanks, Ashe, for bringing this to our attention in such an expeditious manner.)

Prepare to put on your black jumpsuit, brandish your katana, and stealthily engage the Pirates of the Burning Sea as it enters open beta beginning Friday. Wow, wish we could go back and fix that first sentence. Sony Online Entertainment's swashbuckling adventure will technically be open only to FilePlanet subscribers on Friday, Dec. 7, with others receiving their invites during the week.

Pirates of the Burning Sea has been in development for quite some time and there's been no changes to its plans in pillaging retail beginning Jan. 22. We'll take any alternatives to World of Warcraft at this point. The MMO genre is a nasty place with games releasing and then hardly hearing a peep out of them after. Maybe Pirates won't sink soon after leaving port. Now where's the ninja MMO?