More SOE MMO Games Coming

The latest Game Over column is up at CNN Money, reporting that a new massively multiplayer action game is in development at Sony Online Entertainment. It will be the company's second action MMO, following PlanetSide, which wasn't a huge success. SOE president John Smedley says the company knows what it is doing now though, and expects to take things "to the next level". Unfortunately it will be a while before we hear any concrete details; the game should debut at E3 2006. SOE is also looking at doing another massively multiplayer stategy game, despite their inability to launch Sovereign. Smedley mentions the company's goal is to be the dominant player in every major genre.

The launch of Blizzard's "World of Warcraft" last year has proved to be the stiffest competition SOE has faced, however. In less than four months, Blizzard signed up 1.5 million subscribers. (The game is currently available in several more countries worldwide than the latest version of "EverQuest".) Smedley said he's been watching the trends closely. "Does it concern me? Yeah. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was," he said. "'World of Warcraft' has proven Blizzard is a dominant company. On the other hand, we're still very strong and remain the market leader – and we're branching out into a multi-platform arena. I think there's enormous potential in the console space."