The first real bit of information on EverQuest Next has arrived. John Smedly, president of SOE has said the following about the game.
- It's planned to be the world's biggest sandbox game. So it looks like its days as a traditional MMORPG are over.
- The game in some form was presented to the EQ and EQII teams, and both have responded enthusiastically.
- He has hinted that it will not only go into Beta this year, but will also launch this year.
No pics yet?
Not yet. At the beginning of the January there was a rumored picture that was leaked, but that turned out to be false. Lots of updates have gone on with EverQuest II for the past few days, but nothing for the sequel yet.
On a slightly related note, today I learned about Project 1999. The long and short of it, is that someone has emulated an original EverQuest server from the year it came out - 1999. So it's a chance to play the original game for free in its original form. Or at least what is considered its original "perfected" form. It goes up to the year 2001, so pretty much the first 2 years of the game, which pretty much match the time that I played it. Pretty impressive experience to be had here for people like myself who were apart of this game in its early years.
The very name evocates tales of epic journeys and lost college semesters and jobs.
SteelAttack said:The very name evocates tales of epic journeys and lost college semesters and jobs.
I was unemployed during my most hardcore stint of EverQuest. The company I was working for went under and I was actually on sabbatical from the game at that time, so I can't claim I lost a job to it. But it's not entirely unfair to think that I may have found a job sooner had I not been playing it then.
EverQuest Next may have an announcement date. SOE is doing their fan convention for all of their online games. The press release can be read here. There's one big thing mentioned in it: "In addition to holding meet and greets with the Development teams, tournaments and other annual activities that fans have come to love and enjoy over the years, this year's event will expand to include new titles from our growing free-to-play games portfolio, including Dragon's Prophet and the next highly-anticipated chapter of the EverQuest game franchise."
Strange way of announcing a game (and god it seems like everyone on earth missed it). Makes me wonder if they're actually going to do a real announcement for the game at a bigger event. Perhaps around E3 or even when Sony shows of the Orbis next week. There's a lot of talk that EverQuest Next could be part of the console's launch, since they've announced it will be fashioned more as a Sandbox game than the traditional MMO.
A couple of big pieces of EverQuest news got announced over the past week. The biggest was that Brad McQuaid, the lead developer on the original EQ, has returned to the game after leaving it 12 years ago.
The other bit is confirmation on the story of EQ Next itself. Turns out it's not a sequel. It's actually going to be more of a reboot. It'll be a retelling of the original story (yes EverQuest had a story) and presented in a "parallel world" - AKA reboot. Brad confirmed it, and now we can finally believe it. Boo-yah!
The last EverQuest game was made in 2005. It's a beast of a series that's been laying for the most part dormant for quite a while, but if you look at what's on the table there's a ton. 3 MMORPGs, 1 strategy game, 2 action games, a card game, and a couple book.s The original EverQuest has had 19 expansions over the course of its nearly 14 year run, and the most recent one was just 3 months ago. EverQuest II has had 8 expansions and 3 minor add-on packs. Sony Online Entertainment knows full well there's still an audience here that's waiting for a sequel, and after very carefully deciding on what direction to take it, it looks like it's finally on the horizon.
So this spot will be my own personal hype thread for gathering any and all information that gets released on the game, and it looks like the information is finally trickling out.