Don't get me wrong, i'm glad we are still here *Morpheeeuuuss cave speech rings in my head... but 3.5 yrs. later and where are we really?? Gamewise...
Linky
Sony Online Entertainment president, John Smedley reveals to Next Generation his plans for a DC Comics MMOG and how his cross-platform strategy will include handhelds like PSP.
On Friday, SOE announced a multi-part deal with Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment. The first component of the deal gave SOE control of WBIE's Matrix MMOG. The second and more significant part gave SOE rights to develop a DC comics MMOG for PC and consoles.
Clearly, SOE seeks to take a chunk of the considerable business that NCSoft's City of Heroes mustered in recent years. "On the design side, I think City of Heroes is a fantastic product. We have lots of people here who still play it," Smedley said. "It proved that a great comic book game can really bring in a subscriber base. What we're trying to do is make an even better game, and bring a very powerful brand to the mix. There are a lot of Superman and Batman fans out there."
Smedley laid out ambitious plans for the game. "It's early so we don't know everything just yet, but one thing we do know is that it's going to be multiplatform: PC, PS3 and potentially PSP. The specifics on that, well we don't know if they're going to share servers, but our thinking of the moment is that they could be slightly different games with different emphasis. Imagine if you could take your character across to different games. It'd be the same DC universe, but with different play styles for the console and PC," he said.
The general idea is that a player's character abilities in one platform version could carry over in some form and give benefit to your characters in the same series on another platform.
Different game
A successful title with a sizable base could dramatically impact the incremental sales of adjunct SKUs, though it could cut the other way too. If the first SKU doesn't sell well then retail will stock subsequent SKUs in low numbers.
"I'm not going to lie and say we have this all figured out, but we know what our goal is. We want to bring these products cross-platform," explained Smedley. "We also know that a PSP is not a PS3 so we need to do a different game. Maybe it's more of a top down game, but it's still going to be an MMO and have the same flavor, but the style and emphasis may be different on the PSP, PS3, and PC. You're looking at three different products, with the ability to carry your character across them if you so choose. This has become the core vision of our company and you're going to see this across a lot of products we do."
The as-yet-unnamed DC game is being developed internally at SOE's Austin studio.
Matrix management
So why did SOE buy The Matrix? By most retail accounts, the game's sales have been less than cosmic. Smedley says the potential exists for profits. "By offering The Matrix for play through Station access we saw an opportunity to make money on it and offer value to our subscribers. We think it's a great addition to the Station as a whole," he said.
Any retail issues surrounding The Matrix will remain in the hands of WBIE's original publishing partner, Sega. On the prospects of the Matrix as a going concern Smedley said, "We offered jobs to 25 of the Monolith core team that were running The Matrix. We intend to continue it and the live events as they were already going. Our plan is to do additional content and treat it like any of our other products." Those 25 employees will join SOE's studio in Bellevue, WA.
Smedley indicated that retail expansions may or may not be in the works for The Matrix "We aren't sure what we're going to do with that yet. We may offer something online digitally and we need to get our heads around the business as a whole and see what shape the game is in. The team is really good."
SOE was unwilling to share the number of active accounts on The Matrix or internal sales figures for the retail product.
