PlanetSide 2 embracing app developers

Some of the most admirable aspects of PlanetSide 2's ambitious massively multiplayer FPS world are its scale and persistence. With the battle taking place on maps larger than Call of Duty games, it's no surprise that players will want stay connected to the game--even when they're not playing it.

While most multiplayer communities offer web-based stat tracking, SOE promises to take it "a step further" with PlanetSide 2. Creative director Matt Higby told us at Game Developers Conference about their plans to open up the real-time data of the game. "We're real interested in seeing the state of battles that are occurring on the map at any given time, seeing their friends that are online and fighting, being able to see what region they're fighting in."

"You'll be able to get access to all the weapon stats you want to see, all the world stats that are real-time, things like character stats," Higby explained.

While all of this information will be accessible on PlanetSide 2's website, Higby is more interested in seeing what the community will do if the data is free for anyone to use. " We're making all this data available to everybody," Higby promised. "We're setting up XML feeds so that all the iPad and Android app makers will be able to make all the cool apps they want to make. Anybody who wants to make their own web apps will be able to do it too."

Not only will this make the community happy, it should have a viral effect as well. "Hopefully we'll get a really cool ecosystem of apps and websites that all are built around showing off stuff."