SOE is, of course, the perpetual home of Everquest, the game that, more or less, started it all mmo-wise. Yeah, we do not want to hear about Ultima and such via e-mail, ok? Star Wars Galaxies, as well, and a slew of other MMO games. Well, in John Smedley's keynote at ION 08 that's apparently all going to be changing in the near future. He did say "There's more Everquest in our future." But after that, left the topic of EQ. Free Realms and The Agency are where MMO games are going at SOE, it seems. Check out the speech yourself.

NCsoft has announced their first quarter financials, and their net profit is down 43%. How this happened with Guild Wars doing so well is unclear, but it is partially because NC has been developing MMO games like crazy, we think.

This year's Blizzcon has been officially announced. The event will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 10 and 11. Click read more for the full info.

PRESS RELEASE

MARLOW, UK – 12th May, 2008 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its third BlizzCon™ gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on 10 and 11 October. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises. In response to the demand to accommodate more attendees, this year’s event has expanded from two convention halls to three.

Sony has stated that it intends to feature MMO games prominently on its PS3 console. So much so, that they are billing it now as a selling point.

"I think MMOs are going to be a real strong selling point for the PS3 long term - there's going to be some great ones on the PS3. You're not going to find "The Agency" on the [Xbox 360]," he added.

Apparently, ex-subscribers to Lord of the Rings Online have been granted a free chance to revisit the MMO and explore updates made to the game since launch. The "Welcome back to LotRO" campaign, as the free experience is called, runs from May 8 through to May 12.

Codemasters is now making plans to bring development of their MMO games in house. Codemasters currently runs four MMO games with another due later this year. Codemasters now plans to bring development of these games in house in order to help with production and costs.

SOE has worked with many companies to develop their extensive library of MMO games. They arew now working with Warner Brothers, and claim that partnerships are what its all about.


"We all love what we do, so we want to work with people we care about, and on games that we want to play."

Vanguard got off to a real rocky start, but is now going strong, according to SOE. A learning experience for Sony, apparently.

PRESS RELEASE

MESA, Ariz. - April 24, 2008 - Stargate Worlds, the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) from new publisher FireSky, is now taking registrations for closed beta at www.StargateWorlds.com .