Posts Tagged ‘john smedley’

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SOE brings free-to-play Magic: The Gathering – Tactics to PC

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

If you’re any type of gamer, admit it, you’ve probably played a round or 10 of Magic: The Gathering. Love it or hate it, the franchise has one of the longest and most successful track records of any card/tabletop game in history. To this end, Sony Online Entertainment is hoping to draw current and lapsed Magic: The Gathering players into a whole new experience, as they’ve recently released a Magic: The Gathering themed free-to-play tactical strategy game for PC.

“Working to expand the boundaries of the world’s best-known trading card game – a game I’ve played and loved for years – has been our goal from the very beginning to capture each enchanting aspect of the Magic franchise – the challenge, collectability and fierce competitiveness – into one fantastic online community,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment in a press statement.

Titled Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, the game transports players to a mystical far off world where they play the role of a Planeswalker, a powerful mage. Players’ Planeswalker is tasked with commanding powerful spells and well known creatures from all five colors of Magic. This summation of powers is put to use in rich online tactical battles set in lush 3D environments.

“By bringing Magic’s Planeswalkers and iconic creatures such as Mahamoti Djinn, Nightmare, Bogardan Hellkite and Force of Nature to a 3D animated, tactical battlefield, we’re continuing the storied tradition that has mesmerized Magic fans for years while introducing the world of online gamers to the magic of the Multivers,” adds Smedley

Magic: The Gathering – Tactics is developed and published by SOE, in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast LLC, and seeks to reinvent the popular card game like no other. Gamers compete against each other on a global scale in head-to-head battles, competitive tournaments, or solo. Players can level their character, with optional in-game booster packs and campaign chapters available via microtransactions.

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Add another brick to the Free to Play wall – EverQuest II Extended

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

In the latest “move your old(er) title over to free to play and reap the financial rewards,” move, SOE has announced that their long running EverQuest II title is now going this route. However, this isn’t just your standard “flip it” conversion, as Sony Online Entertainment announced that EverQuest II Extended will be released via Sony’s new “free adventure service.”

everquest2-logoIt looks like Sony has finally adopted an idea I through out there a long time ago – parallel servers. Meaning, the EverQuest II Extended title will operate alongside the EverQuest II subscription model, thereby giving players the choice if they want to pay for a subscription, or pay piece by piece, i.e. free-to-play and microtransactions.

“As the digital entertainment market evolves, SOE is focused on continued innovation in content delivery that best fit the needs of the growing consumer base,” said Sony Online Entertainment President, John Smedley. “Our goal with Extended is to offer players an alternative to our current subscription program that gives them the option to choose a program that best fits their play style.”

And it’s not just the game that’s getting new options. Players will now have access to download the application via a completely revamped web-based interface, thus providing players with (almost) instant access to the game, foregoing the extended client download and installation.

“The very nature of an MMO is change, and the decision to create Extended was fueled by evolution of the industry landscape,” said EverQuest II Producer, David Georgeson. “By offering two services side by side we have given the power to our players to determine the program that best fits their game play style.”

Extended players can access all areas of the game up to and including The Shadow Odyssey, the 5th expansion pack in the series. Additional armor, classes, races, weapons, mounts, etc. will be available via the standard in game item shop.

Adding to the “nice!” factor, EverQuest II has recently undergone a user-interface upgrade that’s designed to improve game navigation and functionality. Also featuring a new and improved character progressions throughout the game, players are sure to appreciate the updated graphics and “Storyteller” adventure journal that visually displays quest details.

The EverQuest II free-to-play kickoff is scheduled on or around the 17th of August. For more info, please visit eq2extended.com.

No further details were included about Sony’s “free adventure service,” but something tells me, this isn’t the last we’ve heard of it. In fact, if you think about the number of older titles that Sony could very easily integrate into this service…well, let’s just say that’s a whole lotta new users, as well as a boatload of additional new revenue Sony could tap via microtransactions. Let’s keep an eye on this one and see where it goes.

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Free Realms: One year later – 10 Million users and PS3 version details

Friday, April 30th, 2010

SOE took a brave leap one year ago. They saw the writing on the wall, and decided to take their own stab at the free-to-play model. Perhaps not a major leap for upstarts and smaller gaming companies, but for Sony, this was a pretty big deal. Fast forward one year later, and SOE has successfully brought 10 million users into the fold, and for the first time, clarified a previous statement regarding Free Realms for the PS3 console.

Celebrating their one year success, SOE’s Free Realms team partied like it’s 1999, launching 8 individual in-game festivities, starting on the hour, every hour from 9AM – 5PM PST. And while the title certainly deserves to give itself the proverbial pat on the back, Kotaku raised a very valid question: “What happened to the PlayStation 3 version of Free Realms?”

SOE prez. John Smedley first gave out details regarding the PS3 version of Free Realms around the GDC 2009, indicating that Free Realms would be out mid-2010, with EyeToy support “likely”. Since this time, most of the coverage surrounding Free Realms has been about their rapidly growing user base. But other than that, Sony, and the gaming media in general has been rather tight lipped about the status of the project.

However, it appears as though a birthday party is enough to get the SOE folks talking about the PS3 version again, as they gave Kotaku an exclusive surrounding it’s projected release date. According to an SOE rep, “Free Realms for PlayStation3 is very much in development and, you heard it hear first, fans can be prepared to see the first demo in action in June at E3!”

ZOMG! If Sony garnered 10 million users on the PC platform alone (seriously guys? No mac version? Quasi-fail), what-oh-what will they be able to accomplish with a PS3 version? No longer chained to the desk or thigh roasting laptop, hanging on the couch playing a whimsical free-to-play MMO while viewed on the projector? Hell yes! Sign me up. Oh, and a microtransaction here or there? Ones that are already connected to my PS3 store credit card on file? Sold! Free Realms very much as the possibility to take over where Home failed. And moreover, there’s little to no risk involved for Sony, as they’ve already test the system backwards and forwards, and apparently 10+ million players agree: Free Realms is a hit.

The E3 expo kicks off this June 15th, and we’re chomping at the bit to get the skinny on Free Realms for the PS3. In the meantime, how about a recap of Free Realms’ banner first year. Congrats SOE/Free Realms folks – you’ve nailed it!

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Sony takes the Facebook plunge

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Sony announced yesterday that they’re getting into gaming outside the PC or console/handheld world. This marks the first time in over a decade that SOE has announced a title outside their own comfort zone.

PoxNoraThe popular turn based strategy game PoxNora is now available on Facebook. Obviously capitalizing on their own gaming expertise, not only is Sony jumping into the Facebook gaming world with PoxNora, but they also planning on bringing a number of additional games to Facebook based on existing franchises and new intellectual property.

PoxNora is a mix of strategy game play and a collectible card game. Set in a fantasy world consisting of mystic creatures, relics, and spells, Sony’s acquisition of PoxNora in January 2009 has since expanded and has reached over 2.5 million users to date.

“The Facebook platform offers gamers a new and powerful way to interact with and tap into their social communities,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “With the launch of PoxNora for Facebook, we are leveraging the expertise SOE has gained bringing entertainment to the online gaming community for over 10 years.”

Naturally when speaking of Facebook gaming, one must think of the microtransactions monetization aspect. To this end, SOE has customized the Facebook version of PoxNora to appeal to a wide social networking platform based audience. I.e., Sony’s obviously had a close eye on what current Facebook gaming superstars (Zynga, for example) have been up to, and will obviously adapt a similar approach. The current PoxNora version features some common social networking features including friend invitations and accomplishment updates. Presumably, Sony will roll out additional features to not only catch up to what a number of startups have been using to their advantage for a while now, but hopefully, innovate some new ones.

Sony points to Facebook’s virtual goods business as a major factor in the decision to jump on board. An interesting move to bring a relatively unknown title to a major platform. On the other side of the coin, perhaps bringing a relative newcomer to a major table may be a very smart way for Sony to test the waters. If PoxNora does well, then Sony is already building a playbook of what to do with a major title, and likewise, if it fails miserably, at least they’ll know what not to do with one of the “number of additional games” that they’ll soon be bringing to Facebook.

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Sony’s train keeps a rollin’ – 9 million Free Realms players in the bag

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Sony’s been after a smash hit MMO for quite some time now, with more than a few ‘hardcore’ MMO titles coming and going. However, when Sony took a chance on a family/kid friendly title last year, they also jumped on board with the free-to-play model. It looks like that gamble is not only starting to pay off – but paying off handsomely.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) recently announced that they’ve surpassed the 9 million player mark with Free Realms. “With Free Realms, we’ve been able to reflect the needs and wants of our players by keenly listening to their suggestions and feedback,” said John Smedley, president of SOE. “We believe the persistent exercise of capturing in-game research inside Free Realms has been a huge contributing factor as to why we’ve attracted over nine million players in less than a year. It truly helps us give our players a game where they can do and be whatever they want.”

SOE cites continuous development, as well as a sustained and targeted marketing approach as a strong factor in pulling in new players, as well as keeping current players satisfied and coming back for more. An example of this interaction can be found in SOE’s development of a player requested feature – Rides.

Rides allow Membership holding players to ride a T-Rex or Dragon, of their color and preference choosing of course, anywhere in the virtual world with a 150 percent speed increase. Sony says that Horse rides are in the works, as well as additional Rides (let’s just call them Mounts for common-speak sake).

And while Sony is enjoying a 9 million player success story, they are, however, a bit tight lipped about any revenue generated via Free Realms. Yes, the game is free-to-play, but obviously Sony is looking for revenue generating possibilities via microtransactions. On the other side of the coin, this is, after all, Sony that we’re talking about here, who are no strangers to sinking massive amounts of capital into developing and current (and sometimes not-so-current) projects.

To put Free Realms’ 9 million users in perspective, while not exactly in the same vain, Zynga’s Farmville counts over 80 million users, while free-to-play landscape dominator RuneScape has approximately 156 million registered accounts, with over 10 million active players per month. So while 9 million users is nothing to sneeze at, Sony’s still got a long road to travel to make Free Realms the king of the hill.

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Lucky number 7 for GDC Austin

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

It’s time again for the annual Games Developers Conference in the great state of Texas. Officially kicking off yesterday, the 7th annual GDC features a number of perennial standbys, but also adds a few new panels this year including sessions centered around Independent Game Development and iPhone Gaming. Featuring over 130 talks, panels, keynotes, and roundtable discussions, presented by over 200 leading industry figures, and 80+ exhibitors, this year’s Austin GDC is shaping up to be a showdown in the Lone Star state.

GDC Austin 09 LogoThree main keynotes are expected, with SOE President John Smedley kicking things off with his talk today. Titled, “From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts…It’s a Whole New MMO World,” Smedley is expected to not only address that rapidly changing landscape of today’s modern MMO, but also make official registered users numbers from SOE’s white-hot kid/tween hit Free Realms. The under 13 MMO has recently surpassed the ‘unofficial, industry certified, you’ve got a hit’ benchmark of 5 million registered users. While a number of industry analysts projected the 5 million milestone to find a home at Sony sometime in July, Smedley says that the actual time was sometime in August. However, no matter how you look at it, Smedley and the entire SOE team dedicated to Free Realms are doing an outstanding job marketing and delivering a free-to-play product to one of the toughest market segments on the planet.

Thursday will see J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce, Production Director and Co-Founder & EVP of Product Development, respectively, of Blizzard Entertainment. The two will deliver their keynote, “The Universe of World of Warcraft.” In this talk, the duo are expected to address the challenges not only in design and implementation, but how maintaining a player based and achieving sustain success requires a collective effort from all departments outside the development team. The two will share important lessons learned by one of the world’s largest MMO producers, and how other developers can learn from their miscues.

Rounding out this year’s Austin GDC will be Sebastien de Halleux, COO and co-founder of Playfish. Delivering his keynote, “A New Social Era for Games: How Your Friends Are Chaging the Way the World Plays Games,” Mr. de Halleux will share his insights into how and why Playfish’s innovative social games were created and how they’re attracting millions of players every month. The talk in particular should be of high interest to those in the free-to-play market, as de Halleux will address the current shift in the gaming industry and how it effects monetization and distribution. If these juicy bits of insider information into one of the most successful free-to-play gaming companies around wasn’t enough for you, de Halleux will also discuss how social emotions can be tapped to drive catalog-free distribution, how to make free-to-play titles profitable, and why your friends hold the keys to success in this new social era.

“GDC Austin 2009 is a must attend event for aspiring game developers to learn the craft from seasoned experts in the field, and a place for veteran developers to engage in the future of connected game development” says Izora de Lillard, Event Director at Think Services. “Beyond that, GDC Austin is a great opportunity for the game development community to come together and learn more about the developers and the titles that will define the future of connected games.”

Naturally, fatfoogoo will be in attendance, if you’d like to talk to Martin Herdina, our CEO, drop him a line at martin [at] fatfoogoo [dot] com

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SOE Prez John Smedley to deliver keynote at GDC Austin

Friday, August 7th, 2009

If you were in search of this years “The One” gaming convention, look no further. It seems like the gathering in the Lone Star State is shaping up to be a veritable industry ‘who’s who’. Yesterday, GDC Austin officials announced the SOE President John Smedley will deliver a keynote speech detailing the success and lessons learned regarding the recently launched runaway tween success, Free Realms.

john-smedleyHis address, “From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts … It’s a Whole New MMO World,” will detail how Free Realms has worked well for SOE, expanding the title’s base of players and how they engage with each other in online worlds. Smedley is also expected to “inform attendees about the challenges and lessons learned when creating a full-blown MMO for younger audiences,” and complete with research and insights. Ooo…pie charts?

This keynote is a so-to-speak homecoming for Free Realms, as the title was first officially announced at the GDC Austin in 2007. Fast forward to an April 2009 launch, and SOE has seen over 1 million registered users pass through their doors in only 10 days. According to a recent Comic-Con panel, Sony has recently past the 5 million user mark, with no signs of slowing anytime soon in sight.

If a keynote by the man behind EverQuest I and II and Free Realms wasn’t enough to get your feet moving in the right direction, remember, GDC Austin has also confirmed Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce and World of Warcraft production director J. Allen Brack to discuss the operating challenges and lessons in the talk “The Universe of World of Warcraft.” An naturally, one of our personal favorites, Rebel Monkey CTO Jeffery Kesselman will be on hand and discussing how CampFu “combined open source technologies to build an industrial strength platform for unified multi-player casual game-play and social web experiences” in his talk, “The Monkey Wrench: Design and Architecture of an Online Environment.”

The GDC Austin event takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18. This conference is the major focus of a larger gathering also featuring four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits. To find out more, visit the official GDC Austin website.

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This train keeps-a-rollin’: SOE’s Free Realms now near 5 million users

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Sony Online Entertainment pres John Smedley has got plenty to be happy about these days. After taking a risk with their newest offering, Sony set out to change the way the mass population of both gamers and non-gamers alike view free-to-play titles. Launching only last April, SOE’s Free Realms is quickly becoming the poster child for free-to-play success. Having garnered 1 million registered users in a blistering 10 days, the company hasn’t been short on celebrating it’s own success, with a press release coming out what seemed to be every few days indicating that yet another million users have past through the Free Realms doors.

Keeping right in line with this rocket to the moon success story, SOE President John Smedley announced yesterday at Comic-Con International in San Diego that the title was now close to having 5 million registered users participating. Obviously, Sony’s gamble with a free-to-play/microtransactions supported business model is starting to pay off. And it seems that the finance department has taken note as well, as Sony has now officially sanctioned the introduction of microtransactions into two of it’s oldest, and perhaps best known MMO titles: EverQuest and EverQuest II. Smedley comments, “We now have 34 percent of our EverQuest II users using microtransactions.” He also noted that fans of the original EverQuest are making microtransaction purchases at only a slightly lower percentage.

Free Realms’ success may be a great story in it’s own right, but the timing of the release couldn’t have been better. DFC analyst George Chronis, who served as a moderator of the panel that Smedley revealed these stats at cites, “right now, 33 percent of revenue generated by games in the United States is generated by people playing MMOs.”

“When something gets popular, like Ultima Online did and EverQuest did, everybody rushes in,” said Chronis. “And World of Warcraft added a lot of interest, but MMOs are changing,” he said, referring to other MMO models like the free-to-play approach taken by many Asian publishers.

Speaking to the Asian influence, Nexon’s Min Kim was also on the panel and describes the companies Asian games market as “truly massive.”

“When people started talking about it back in 2003 or 2004, people said Western games would never want to do this, to play a game for free and then buy and items. And now everybody is saying, ‘We’re going to have microtransactions as part of our business model.”

If the expression is something akin to, “the proof is in the pudding,” I’d say Nexon’s been in the kitchen for quite a while now, but it looks like SOE may just be the ones bringing the dishes out to customers. Close to 5 million of them.

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Why Free Realms has rocketed past 2 million users in under a month

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

A few weeks ago the numbers came out that SOE’s free-to-play, browser based title , Free Realms had surpassed the 1 million registered user mark.  Yesterday, Sony Online Entertainment stole the spotlight once again, by announcing that Free Realms’ growth isn’t slowing any signs of stopping, as they’ve skyrocketed right on by the 2 million registered user mark.   Not only are these numbers downright impressive, the marketing and demographic data to go with them is nothing short of jaw dropping.  It looks like the Denver based dev team working on Free Realms nailed it when they set out to target the 10-14 year old group, as SOE reports that 75% of players are under the age of 17, and 46% under the age of 13.  If that wasn’t enough to uncork the champagne, it looks like Sony might have just found appeal in the highly elusive female demographic, with the company claiming that 1 in every 3 Free Realms players is female.

“In less than a month, Free Realms has captivated a core player base of tween and teen gamers, while also strongly resonating with MMO gamers,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “We wanted to create a game to play with our families and are excited to have hit the mark with our intended audience.”

So what’s going on here?  Why has Free Realms started out with such a bang?

First and foremost, Free Realms includes simple mechanics, with a very, very low barrier of entry.  Basically all you need to get up and running, is a windows based machine (although it will run on Parallels and Boot Camp for mac users, I wasn’t able to test VMware), and a browser.  Browser based gaming is continuing it’s upswing, and I’m more than certain industry experts are certainly going to point to Free Realms’ success in future PowerPoint presentations.  Rated at E10+, the game is marketed at the 10-14 age ranged demographic, but this low target group can also provide hours of fun for those much older.

One of Free Realms’ greatest draws is the casual format.  Players, myself included, can log on or off at any time, and not be lost in what you were doing or where you where going.  How many times have you pushed an extra hour out of your ‘regular’ MMO, just because you knew you weren’t going to have a clue as to how to get back to such and such a place and do so and so for this or that quest?  Right.  Me too.  Jobs don’t take endless hours of grinding, and the hours of game play logged from your first level to last are relatively light, yet still challenging and fun.  Free Realms provides a safe environment, encouraging exploration, and perhaps most importantly, the game is solo friendly.  As a matter of fact, all content, both free and paid is playable, and can be accomplished without ever talking to, or playing with another player, should you so choose.  Raids are fun, but there’s bound to be some frustration when one player doesn’t know their role.  Not the case with Free Realms.

Speaking of raids, personally, I believe that Free Realms is exactly the type of MMORPG that kids should be playing, most probably with parents in agreement.  Parents, how many times have you heard over the years, “I’ll get to my homework later, my guild is doing a raid in a few minutes.”, or better yet weekends spend alone in a room or basement because players have the innate feeling that others are leveling up faster than they are, and they’re going to be left in the dust?  Oh wait, have I just crossed the divide from kid to adult excuses here?  Not that I’ve personally ever spend hours pouring over guides to dungeons, grinding out my herbalism to have the appropriate potions ready for Sunday night’s raid, and missed a family event just to level up one type of character simply to start all over again with a different one so that I could play a different role in group play.
What SOE has done here is really managed to land a title in that perfect sweet spot between truly addictive, yet something that I enjoy so much, I really don’t mind shelling out a few bucks here and there to enjoy even more.  Add the Topps trading card element, the ability to capture in-game movie and post directly to youtube, and the coming soon port to the PS3, and Free Realms may just be the flagship of free-to-play on a massive, commercial scale, produced by a major brand title that the industry has been in dire need of.  And although according to Nielsen, television viewership is down, did I mention that they’ve already got a network commercial spot running, with more scheduled?

Is Free Realms a WoW killer?  I doubt it.  Can Free Realms blow the doors wide open on an entirely new untapped avenue of gamers?  Looks like they’re doing a darn good job so far.

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SOE confirms launch of Free Realms: Early April 09

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Hot on the heels of our coverage of John Smedley’s interview with Virtual Worlds News, Sony Online Entertainment confirmed the launch date of the PC version of their highly anticipated family friendly, free-to-play title ‘Free Realms’ at a press preview in London yesterday.  Associate Art Director Sebastian Strzalkowski also noted that the beta testing phase will commence within “a couple of weeks”.

While this launch is only for the online PC version, Free Realms is on track for a PS3 launch in Q3 09.  Bringing the free-to-play online with the PS3 somewhere between July and September could be a very wise move for SOE, as this will give them time to properly spotlight the project, as well as enough time to work out any kinks or bugs before the holiday shopping season gets underway.  The PS3 launch of Free Realms is slated to include additional exclusive content in order to celebrate the console platform launch.  The PS3 version will be available as a free download from the PlayStation Store.

The PC version of Free Realms streams from a launch website, with the initial client download clocking in at around 25MB.  Sony sees Free Realms as a multi-platform title, and Strzalkowski stated that a Mac version was “definitely on the list of platforms we want to develop for”, but could not confirm any details.  Also on the SOE radar are Flash and/or Java based extension to make the game playable on mobile phones (want to watch how fast this one rockets up the iPhone app store top 25 list?)

Confirming what Smedley discussed earlier this month, microtransactions are priority 1 in the revenue stream department.  Free Realms is slated to offer almost everything but the kitchen sink: Cosmetic upgrades, racing vehicles, and consumable potions to name a few.  These items will be available exclusively via SOE’s Station Cash service.  And lest we forget, SOE is also bridging the gap between real and virtual worlds with a Topps collector card series that ties directly into the game.

While microtransactions are a key focus for SOE in the initial entry to the free-to-play market, they’re not selling themselves short, and are offering an optional subscription service for $4.99 that provides players with VIP access to premium content.  Again, this is an optional service, and not necessary.  Should players not choose a subscription service, they will be required to opt into seeing in-game advertising and sponsorships, which if done right could even heighten the experience and add a ‘real-world’ touch.

Sony Online Entertainment is aiming the title at the 10 – 14 year old market, but from what I’ve seen, this is a fun and engaging title that is fully capable of spanning  multiple generations.  But don’t take my word for it, have a view of what John Smedley and Creative Director Laralyn McWilliams have to say about Free Realms (try to ignore John’s announcement that the title is slated for a Q2 release.  Even the best of planning can sometimes goes awry).

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