Sony Online Entertainment Reveals EverQuest Next
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) offers its new vision for the future of online games with the worldwide debut of EverQuest Next (EQN).
“With EverQuest Next, we’re going back to our roots – a space we defined with the EverQuest legacy – and ushering in a new era of MMOs: The Emergent Era,” said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment.
EverQuest Next has been in development since 2009. Nearly two years ago, SOE made the decision to rethink core creative and technical aspects of the design and start from the ground up to build a new kind of game.
As a result, EQN is different from all of the MMOs that have been made before in very important ways, says the company.
This winter, SOE will introduce EverQuest Next Landmark (Landmark). Essentially, Landmark will combine the powerful and intuitive building tools SOE is using to create the fully destructible world of EQN with all of the social functionality expected from a modern MMO.
The game will feature huge persistent worlds that each support thousands of other players and varied terrain inspired by the environments of EQN.
Most importantly, Landmark will provide anyone who wants to participate with the opportunity to actually build structures, and eventually create other types of content, to be considered for inclusion in EQN.
Landmark will launch this winter as a “Free To Play. Your Way.” offering and the first step in a multi-phase release strategy.
It will serve as the gateway to EQN and as the collaborative building hub where SOE will guide the development of selected structures and environments for inclusion in EQN. No formal date is set for the launch of EQN, says the company. The announcement was made Friday, August 2.
