At Sony Online Entertainment's Fan Faire event in Las Vegas, expansions to two of the MMO developer's major titles, Everquest and Everquest II,were revealed and dated: EQ fans will be planting Seeds of Destruction on October 21, while EQII players will find themselves embarking on The Shadow Odyssey November 18. Shortly thereafter, SOE revealed a teaser trailer for each expansion. We debated about which one to feature on the main page, and ultimately decided upon the expansion for the game that hasn't been out for a hojillion years (fret not, Seeds'trailer is after the jump).
The Shadow Odyssey's teaser shows off some of the rather uninviting locales featured in the update, and not much else. The Seeds of Destruction trailer previews the new mercenary system, and flaunts a number of new areas which will be added to the title. Pretty impressive from a game that, if it were a human being, would be entering the fourth grade this Fall, where it would slowly begin to develop funny feelings towards its classmate, Asheron's Call.
At its annual Fan Faire, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has revealed new expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II. For EQ players, The Seeds of Destructionexpansion offers a new level cap (85), 20 new zones, a new mercenary system, and all fourteen previous expansions in one box. EQII: The Shadow Odyssey will feature brand new zones, some revisits to the original EQ dungeons, a bump in the number of achievements you can get (up to 200), new deities, new quests and a new loot system that lets you pick your loot rewards.
Our MMO-obsessed colleagues at Massively have interviews with the EverQuest design team and EQII Senior Producer Bruce Ferguson about the expansions. All Fan Faire attendees will receive both games for free and will be able to participate in the SoD and TSO betas when they begin on August 19 and September 2, respectively.
Seeds of Destruction will come out October 21, while The Shadow Odyssey is scheduled for November 18. Stay tuned to Massively all week for more Fan Faire coverage.
The show floor had been open for less than three hours at E3 and we spun, giggling madly in the middle of the room and trying to decide which delight we would indulge in first. But then, before we could do anything, we saw the above dude.
You know what that dude was doing, three hours after E3 had officially begun? He was playing Everquest. No not Everquest 3: Rise of the ZOMG Rad, but rather Everquest. One. From 1973.
Have you played either Everquest or Everquest II any time in the last nine years? Even if you picked it up and put it down just as quickly, Sony Online Entertainment's giving your character a second lease on life, as it unveils the Living Legacy summer program. In an unprecedented move, SOE has reactivated every stagnant player account for two free months of access on both Everquest and its sequel. Yes, that's right. Every single account.
More than simply account resurrection, SOE is including EQ's expansions in these lapsed player accounts, as well as offering bonuses to help get older players up to speed. For more information on the ambitious campaign, check out Massively's interview with EQ senior producer Bruce Ferguson. So, who's headed to Norrath?
Source - SOE's Living Legacy campaign gives you 2 free months in EQ and EQ2 [Massively]
Source - Everquest II's senior producer on SOE's Living Legacy [Massively]
As the former lead designer of Everquest, Travis McGeathy has likely acquired just as many ardent fans as vengeful detractors, wishing they could get those thousands of click-click-clicking hours back. With your social life still in ruins, your cautious digestion of this bit of news from Gamasutra is probably for the best. You see, Mr. McGeathy is now the systems design lead for "Copernicus," Studio 38's mysterious MMO project.
He's not the only Everquest vet at the Curt Schilling-founded developer either, as former Everquest II lead designer, Jason Roberts, and Everquest II expansion pack designer, Steve Danuser, also occupy padded leather chairs at the Maynard, MA office. We've yet to see what lies behind the Copernicus veil, but we're starting to suspect there may be buxom, elfin ladies involved.
Despite the inability to get actually drunk over virtual alcohol, there are MMOs celebrating St. Patrick's Day. If you're looking for the biggest virtual parties this side of Norrath (and on that other side, too), the MMO-obsessed over at Massively have you covered with a handy guide of events for the week.
Conspicuously absent from St. Patrick's Day celebrations is World of Warcraft, but if you happen to find some drunken dwarves in Azeroth (or other ad hoc festivities), be sure to snap a photo and send to WoW Insider.
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.
A ban on the sale of Counter-Strike and EverQuest in Brazil has gone into effect. According to AFP, the ban was ordered by federal court in October 2007 but is just now being imposed. Said judge Carlos Alberto Simoes, the titles encouraged "the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security." (Just so you're clear: EverQuest is an attack on democracy, but censorship isn't.)
Of course, the ban is just on the sale of the two games. Each title is about nine years old, with their latest respective sequels (EverQuest 2 and CS: Source) released in 2004 - not exactly the most timely censorship. By that timeframe, World of Warcraft has about five years left before Brazil drops the banhammer. Let's hope Blizzard can get out Wrath of the Lich King before 2014.
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.)
Since the Gears of War movie wants to be like 300, it should be no surprise that the EverQuest movie wants to be like 300 as well. In fact, they've hired300 screenwriter Michael Gordon to try and bring some of his magic to the script. Hopefully that doesn't mean someone will be shouting "THIS! IS! EVERQUEST!" throughout the film.
Unlike Stuart Beattie, who is writing Gears, Gordon doesn't have an impressive set of credits to his name, other than 300. Couple that with the waning popularity of EverQuest every year, and the World of Warcraft film that is being readied, and it smells like a recipe for video store shelves and Netflix accounts.
However, we could be wrong and this could smash box office records, sweep the awards, and bring tears to millions of eyes around the world. We're just sayin' ...
How do you renew flagging interest in an MMORPG, especially when there's clearly another top dog? For MMORPG granddaddy Everquest, part of the solution (they hope) comes in the form of a new, digital collectable card game called Legends of Norrath: Oathbound. The first of what Sony says will be a series, Oathbound features 375 cards in 55-card starter decks for $9.99 and 15-card booster packs for $2.99.
The game is playable from EQ I or II, thought a stand-alone client is due for free on Sept. 12. You can test your skills (and decks) against others in the Tournament and Casual lobbies that have been set up or you can play against the AI. This isn't necessarily the sort of thing that would make us cheat on WoW, but if you're still a Norrath denizen, it sounds like this would certainly beat /gems.
Sony Online Entertainment's recent Fan Faire was held in Las Vegas, which is already known for quirky characters and quickie weddings. However, this was probably the only time the city over hosted both a real wedding, and a virtual one, at the same time. Er, and for the same people. We don't want to slight the Vegas virtual wedding scene, if it exists.
Two gamers, who met in EverQuest, tied the knot during the event at the Rio Hotel ... and then promptly went on a six-hour hack and slash raid through an orc-infested dungeon as a honeymoon treat. Okay, we keed, we keed ... but listen to the preacher during the ceremony as he says "we're gathered here today at the beautiful Rio Hotel." Wonder if he's a paid shill.
Anyhow, check out the wedding video above (Darth Vader and some Stormtroopers actually lead the bridal procession in), and some costume contest photos in the gallery below. One of these days BlizzCon and Fan Faire need to meet so the MMORPGer's can battle it out for global online domination.
Gallery: SOE Fan Faire Wedding and Costume Constest
Sony Online Entertainment gave us a lot of EverQuest to digest recently, including the fact that they are only going to be releasing one expansion per year from now on. Players were complaining that with the expansion packs coming out every time they blinked six months, they weren't getting enough time to explore the new worlds.
Speaking of new worlds, if you've never jumped on board the EverQuest bandwagon, you can pick up the just released EverQuest: The Anniversary Edition for only $19.99. It contains every expansion ever made for EverQuest, which at last count was thirteen. That's a lot of adventuring, folks. Hard to believe it's been around for eight years now.
EverQuest II also gets some love in the form of a huge new expansion called The Rise of Kunark, which comes out in November. It adds a new playable race, weapons, armor, zones, deities, now level cap at 80, and even a new mount ... a rhinoceros. We're not sure about you, but tooling around on a rampaging rhino sounds like sweet ride.
Shortly after delivering his convergence keynote at this year's D.I.C.E. summit, the vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment confirmed to Gamespot that Sony's film studio would be responsible for dragging Metal Gear Solid into the cinema. "We're working with the Metal Gear guys," says Yair Landau. "It's a very cinematic game, it really lends itself to movie telling. But the question is, 'How do you translate Snake's experience into a full arc that conforms to what audiences expect on the large screen?'"
Lead Metal Gear guy, Hideo Kojima, announced the film at last year's E3, though barely any details have surfaced since then. Apart from crushing the hopes of Dr. Boll, Kojima and co. have said nothing with respect to casting, directing or script. A safe assumption sees Solid Snake strangling inept soldiers and battling at least one psychopath with a penchant for babbling about the philosophical hangups of dropping nuclear bombs ... on the rainforest. The real trick will be to provide a film more entertaining than the infamous Metal Gear Awesome (embedded after the break for old time's sake).
Landau also hinted at an Everquest movie from Sony Pictures, but declined to name the supposedly esteemed producer attached to it. If it winds up being an epic tale of elven mana dealers and over-the-top dragon chases, we'll know it was Jerry Bruckheimer.
MMO Portal, a website that chronicles everything MMO related, is selling a nice annual calendar for MMO fans. The bonus? 100% of the proceeds are going to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For anyone that hasn't shown up to a movie theater 10 minutes before the show in the past, uh, 5 years, St. Jude focuses on researching cures for diseases -- like cancer -- that take the lives of many children every year. For $14.95, the 2007 MMO calendar is a great way to get that desperately needed calendar in your house and benefit a good cause.
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