Through 2007, the company experienced many technical support issues causing a decrease in the number of players using their services.Ĭurrently, John Smedley is the CEO of Sony Online Entertainment. The next expansion Sentinel's Fate is announced for February 2010. SOE has released several adventure packs and expansion packs for EverQuest II, including The Bloodline Chronicles March 2005, The Splitpaw Saga June 2005, Desert of Flames September 2005, Kingdom of Sky February 2006, The Fallen Dynasty June 2006, Echoes of Faydwer November 2006, Rise of Kunark November 2007 and The Shadow Odyssey November 2008. The company continued the EverQuest universe through a sequel set hundreds of years after the original with the release of EverQuest II on November 9, 2004, which has seen similar success to the original phenomenon. This upset some players, who demanded their money back for the recent expansion that was released just days before the announcement of the changes. In November 2005, SOE added the New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies, changing some of the game's core mechanics. EverQuest Online Adventures was not as successful but spawned an expansion EverQuest Online Adventures Frontiers, which is still maintained by SOE as of 2007. PlanetSide can be played for free under a "Reserves" program, that limits character advancement, but otherwise grants full access to the game. SOE has released two expansions for PlanetSide, one a retail product called Core Combat, and a second free expansion titled Aftershock. PlanetSide enjoyed a reasonably successful launch, however the product never attracted wide popularity. In 2003, the company also explored relatively untouched MMO territory with the MMOFPS PlanetSide and the PlayStation 2 MMORPG EverQuest Online Adventures. LucasArts has released three expansions for Star Wars Galaxies, Jump to Lightspeed October 2004, Rage of the Wookies May 2005 and Trials Of Obi-Wan November 2005. Bruce Woodcock estimates that SWG reached nearly 300,000 subscribers within the year before trailing off. In October 2001, McQuaid resigned and went on to found Sigil Games Online, drawing many of the original developers of EverQuest from SOE to develop their Vanguard: Saga of Heroes MMORPG, released January 2007.ĭeveloped by Sony Online Entertainment, LucasArts released Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, which saw rapid growth as expected. EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark (March 2000) was the first in a long list of expansions for its hit MMORPG. SOE acquired Verant in June 2000 and eventually promoted Brad McQuaid to be its Chief Creative Officer. In April 2000, Verant hired former Ultima Online developers Raph Koster and Rich Vogel forming its office in Austin, Texas to develop Star Wars Galaxies for LucasArts. As of 2004, Sony reported subscription numbers close to 450,000. Numbers continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed. The company's computer game/online development branch spun off, initially calling itself RedEye Interactive and then soon after Verant Interactive.ĮverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on Maunder its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful. Towards the end of 1998, 989 Studios shifted its strategy to making PlayStation console games only. Within a matter of months after this change, Sony Interactive Studios America was renamed 989 Studios. In April 1998, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) was formed by merging parts of Sony Online Ventures with Sony Pictures Entertainment'. Smed hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the singleplayer RPG Warwizard. In 1996, John Smedley (known to the gaming community as "Smedley") was put in charge of SISA's development of an online computer role-playing game, or MMORPG that would evolve into EverQuest. Sony Online Entertainment and Verant's history can be seen as starting with Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA), an internal game development studio of Sony that formed around 1995.
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