Vanguard: Saga of Heroes had been performing poorly ”a long time”, admits Smedley. Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures closed down first at the end of March.
Vanguard and Wizardry Online will keep going until the end of July. Sony Online is now swearing off kid games in their MMO library given how difficult they are to manage.
”No more kids games,” he stated. ”Kids don’t spend well and it’s very difficult to run a kids game. Turns out kids do mean stuff to each other a lot.” Yes, any MMO targeted at kids is essentially a Lord of the Flies simulator. SOE will instead focus on more mature themes that can bring in big bucks.
President John Smedley also confirmed that EverQuest Next ”will absolutely” be on PlayStation 4. They’re also hoping to get PlanetSide 2 on PS4 in the early half of this year. Interestingly, Smedley teased that fans of Star Wars Galaxies should pay particular attention to their upcoming new MMO.
”SWG PLAYERS,” he cried, ”OUR NEXT GAME (not announced yet) IS DEDICATED TO YOU. Once we launch it… you can come home now.” This will get a mixed reception given that SOE was lauded for the deep old school grind that Star Wars Galaxies provided, but was ultimately stripped out by the studio speeding its decline. Lesson learned?
Sony Online Entertainment is also pursuing their All Access subscription model where a single monthly payment gets you access to their entire MMO library. $14.99 per month will cover all current and in development games with existing subscribers being ‘upgraded’ April 2nd.
EverQuest 1 & 2 is also due more content expansions: ”I’ve just seen the content update plan for EQ,” said Smedley. ”We heard the players loud and clear that they want a bigger expansion next time, and they’ll get it. We’ll be making EQ and EQ2 expansions for a long time to come. “
Check out John Smedley’s AMAA on Reddit.
