SOE making an espionage-type MMO

SOE - Image 1Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley gave a keynote presentation yesterday at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas and revealed that fans can expect a yet-to-be announced MMO IP fro the company later this year. Given the success being enjoyed by MMO games under its belt, this move is rather expected.

Smedley wouldn’t mention concrete details but if his speech was any indication, the new MMO will go somewhere along the lines of war games such as Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and Company of Heroes. Part of his speech reads:

When you look at what Saving Private Ryan did theatrically, it’s a fraction of what those games have done. It’s driving a lot of what we’re trying to do from a Sony Online Entertainment standpoint. We’ve historically been very much in the men-in-tights genre, a lot of guys running around in[sic] broadswords. But we’re now looking at a broader genre. We’ve started to immerse ourselves into the world of espionage.

If you’re still baffled about what kind of a game this is, Smedley added that think of it as a “24” meets “Alias” meets CounterStrike kind of game. The official pointed out that the problem with today’s games is that developers and publishers are afraid to try something new.

Things are getting more exciting for the MMO genre and SOE is indeed stepping up to the challenge. We guess it would only take two things to topple World of Warcraft from the top spot: first is to go head-to-head and invest a massive amount of money for marketing and stuff; or go through the back door and take it by surprise. Smedley then said,

SOE’s Seattle office is charged with the task of putting a multiplayer environment in an espionage world, with both cooperative, team-oriented objectives and PVP. We think it’s okay if you have MMOs where you wear tuxedos and carry a silencer, not just tights and a mace.

SOE - Image 1Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley gave a keynote presentation yesterday at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas and revealed that fans can expect a yet-to-be announced MMO IP fro the company later this year. Given the success being enjoyed by MMO games under its belt, this move is rather expected.

Smedley wouldn’t mention concrete details but if his speech was any indication, the new MMO will go somewhere along the lines of war games such as Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and Company of Heroes. Part of his speech reads:

When you look at what Saving Private Ryan did theatrically, it’s a fraction of what those games have done. It’s driving a lot of what we’re trying to do from a Sony Online Entertainment standpoint. We’ve historically been very much in the men-in-tights genre, a lot of guys running around in[sic] broadswords. But we’re now looking at a broader genre. We’ve started to immerse ourselves into the world of espionage.

If you’re still baffled about what kind of a game this is, Smedley added that think of it as a “24” meets “Alias” meets CounterStrike kind of game. The official pointed out that the problem with today’s games is that developers and publishers are afraid to try something new.

Things are getting more exciting for the MMO genre and SOE is indeed stepping up to the challenge. We guess it would only take two things to topple World of Warcraft from the top spot: first is to go head-to-head and invest a massive amount of money for marketing and stuff; or go through the back door and take it by surprise. Smedley then said,

SOE’s Seattle office is charged with the task of putting a multiplayer environment in an espionage world, with both cooperative, team-oriented objectives and PVP. We think it’s okay if you have MMOs where you wear tuxedos and carry a silencer, not just tights and a mace.

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *