SOE's New MMO: Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy...

Sony Online Entertainment has several new franchises in the works, including an espionage-themed MMO, company president John Smedley revealed at the D.I.C.E. Summit currently being held in Las Vegas. Smedley screened a trailer for the currently untitled game, which he describes as "24 meets Alias meets Counterstrike [sic]," according to GamesIndustry.biz. It is being developed by the company's SOE Seattle studio. Sony Pictures Digital head Yair Landau commented on the game's spy-oriented premise, unusual for an MMO. "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," he explained. "We've started to immerse ourselves into the world of espionage... We think it's okay if you have MMOs where you wear tuxedos and carry a silencer, not just tights and a mace." In a general sense Landau compared the cinematic realism of the film Saving Private Ryan and thematically similar video games to SOE's current design goals. "When you look at what Saving Private Ryan did theatrically, it's a fraction of what those [WWII] games have done," he stated. "It's driving a lot of what we're trying to do from a Sony Online Entertainment standpoint.... You don't get to just play Bond, but you get to play yourself in this environment". Details on the game are sparse, but it will apparently feature cooperative, team-based, and PVP components. No projected release period was given.