Planetside Next Arriving in March 2011?

By Kevin Parrish
published

Planetside Next is slated for a March 2011 release.

Last week Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley "hinted" that Planetside's sequel may finally arrive in Q1 2011.

The news came during a tour of the Sony Online Denver studio where The Escapist's Greg Tito was able to snag a few minutes with the SOE president. As the two discussed Blizzard's success and Realtime Worlds' failure, Smedley dropped the "bombshell" that unofficially revealed the upcoming MMOFPS.

"We have a very big launch coming in the month of March," Smedley said. "It's a big first person shooter franchise that we're really happy with."

When asked if the new MMOFPS was the Planetside sequel, Smedley avoided using a direct yes or no. Instead, he said "could be."

"We haven't technically announced it," he said, adding that Tito could say he "hinted" at a new Planetside which seems to be a confirmation without giving an official confirmation. "This is the farthest I've gone [discussing it with the press] and the PR people are going to shoot me."

For now the game is supposedly called Planetside Next, and as Smedley hinted, it's slated for a March 2011 release. "We don't have the official name for it," Smedley admitted. "Planetside Next is kind of the working title. We've learned some lessons with Everquest II, not one of the better moves that we've ever made. We should have called it EverQuest Something. Having Everquest I and II sit on the shelves at the same time, in hindsight, was probably not the the brightest of moves."

Having World of Warcraft sitting on the same shelf probably didn't help the franchise either. Still, the biggest problem for both Everquest titles is that they're two separate products with their own servers and their own audiences. That won't be the case with Planetside Next, as there are only a small number of people still playing on the one Planetside server. Ultimately this group isn't expected to have any problems adapting to the update.

"[Planetside Next] is the coolest god-damned game," Smedley said. "I'm so in love with that game."

Sounds like a confirmation. What do you think?

Kevin Parrish
18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • maigo
    Here's hoping it doesn't suck
    Reply
  • endoftheline2
    Really like the concept of the first planet side. With some improvements and tweaking it could have been really good. Hopefully this game delivers on that.
    Reply
  • baseline
    Planetside was very cool, until they started tweaking the game adding in BFR's and some of the other unbalanced additions that were made. Planetside had some of the most amazing open field battles of any game out there and the battles for a single bridge or capital could be nothing short of Epic.
    Reply
  • yzfr1guy
    Here's hoping Planetside Next is much better than the last lousy game. Anyone remember Tribes I or the better Tribes II? I miss that MMOFPS!
    Reply
  • kin3000
    Played the original Planetside and the first expansion. Was really fun and original for its time. I think the concepts from Planetside are really good, 3 unique factions, leveling system, unique weapons/vehicles per faction was great. However, after the BFR's came out, balancing between vehicles became a huge issue and around there is when I stopped playing. If they can improve on the original concept (and there are improvements that can be made), they should have a real contender in the oversaturated MMO space.
    Reply
  • SVoyager
    omfg yes!!!! I really liked the original idea, never saw any other mmofps like it. Right now, its a big nightmare in there with all the hackers and no devloppement. I really hope that this time SOE will learn from the mistakes they made and hope they dont lose faith in PS Next. If PS still had some constant dev and upgrades, it would still be alive today.

    This news made my day. On the other hand, Kevin, you are guilty of making my next few months an agonizingly slow wait! YEAH PS NEXT IS STILL ALIVE!!!!
    Reply
  • Ditto svoyager, it was hard to hold onto the game with the occasional hacker. But then hour long battles were destroyed when a guy could hack a base, steal an LLU and capture the base in around 5 seconds. I loved planetside back in the day, running a massive outfit is a joy I haven't been able to find again in my own life.

    I hope they really focused on the gameplay, balancing on weapons and vehicles, and over all objectives. I remember the whole thing where they had a story line to the game 'the bending', I thought it was ridiculous and likely a tremendous waste of resources on their part. Who could count the number of times people chanted for old oshur to return. Oh well.
    Reply
  • Maxor127
    I'm skeptical since the game hasn't been announced, yet it's supposedly coming out in 3 months. I never bothered with the first game. A monthly fee for an MMORPG is bad enough. I'm not going to pay to play an FPS each month.
    Reply
  • Played and loved the original until it started becoming a ghost town of hackers. Huge 100v100v100 three sides fights for a base were awesome.
    Reply
  • dEAne
    The original is very good then after this BFR thing it gets really bumpy - bad game I never recommend it.
    Reply