SOE's Smedley: Free Realms Aiming 'A Lot Bigger' Than WoW

At a recent Sony Online Entertainment event, Gamasutra had the opportunity to speak with company president John Smedley about the evolving future of SOE, and the company's plans for change to target much wider markets.

[omansteveo]

SOE ruins MMO's Star Wars Galaxies was good until they got their hands on it same with Everquest they ran it into the ground...It's only a matter of time before they screw over Vanguard also

[VirtualGamer]

LOL..Star Wars Galaxies was created by SOE, same thing with EverQuest. Funny SOE saved Vanguard as it would have gone under had they not stepped in and bought the company.

[Odion]

bigger then WoW

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA A *gasp* HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA AH

oh man thats worse then the 4D statement

[ben hates you]

the forth demension is time!

[redmamoth]

... And they meant it!! We've been waiting ages for some more top class titles!!

[iballa]

SOE are the worst and Smedley is the man that lost Star Wars Galaxies thousands of subscribers. If you want killer titles then forget SOE.

[kewlkat007]

thats a bold statement.

Well I have so many friends and people I know that are hooked on WOW, well they want me to get into it but I just don't have he time for MMO's. So many woman play that game as well. I'll give an MMO a try some day but 4-player Co-op is for now...lol All I know is "WOW" is ridiculously popular. I wonder how Sony's new game will fare?

I hear, a lot of people waiting for the New War Hammer MMO---Well I hear it's suppose to do some things different---is that out yet?

Well Sony, you might as well shoot for the stars eh...

[Odion]

lets say if they try to get it to be twice as big, they would have to get 18 million subsricbers! 18 million!

[VirtualGamer]

There are no subscribers since its free to play. Did you even read the article?

[sajj316]

1. There is always something bigger and better than whats currently the best and biggest out there.

2. There is always something bigger and better than whats proposed to be the next big thing.

If SOE is saying its bigger, then so be it as it very well might be. What he isn't saying is that its better. We'll be the judge of that. Anyway, I think its still positive news.

[WTF]

Mmm yeah, Whatever makes you sleep at night SOE

[SafeRat]

Ummm, Sony. April Fools was a little while back now. Or do you seriously believe you can? ... Ohdear

[Premonition]

I dont think hes talking about User base BIG like WoW, I believe hes talking about the size of the online world of realms.

[VirtualGamer]

No he is saying they have the goal of Free Realms being bigger then what WoW has for subscribers.

[sixaxis]

I mean today is june 11th, so did i missed it. Wheres the big news?

[sixaxis]

where the big news, did i missed it, today is june 11th

[Violater]

People dont start what was the Key Word there??
"AIMING"

[Lex Luthor]

SOE should never be forgiven for what they done to star wars galaxies.

[Xi]

and EQ, started off so well, then sony took control and tried forcing out content and the quality dropped.

[iballa]

They made the biggest mess in mmo history. Nothing done before or since was as bad as wrecking the once awesome swg and turning it into an over patched, point and click WoW wannabee. Smedley needs to quit the industry. Although he seems to have a Negative Midas Touch(everything he touches turns to S**t)

[VirtualGamer]

Star Wars Galaxies was a mess from the start and a big part of that had to do with Lucas Arts since they hold the license to the Star Wars franchise and they had final approval on everything concerning the game.

EQ until WoW came along was considered the most successful MMO in history and it encouraged many companies to try thier hand and none of them could dethrone EQ until WoW came along.

EQ2 is a very good game. I have yet to play any MMO that did everything well. I played WoW got to level 60 and went back to playing EQ2 as it was a game that appealed to me more then WoW ultimately did.

SOE has made mistakes but then they have also been innovators to. First 3d MMO, first MMOFPS with Planetside, started fanfaires to have developers and fans meet and talk about the game and to gain feedback. First to come out with a SPY MMO. Now they are doing something way different with Free Realms. Will it work? Who knows but as much as people want to complain about them if it was not for them many of these games never would have been made, including WoW.

Oh and Xi, Sony was always the money behind EQ even in the very beginning and so was John Smedley.

[Fart_Bubbles]

was the lamest POS I ever played, and I am Sony fan...lol

I played that crap for two weeks and never looked back, talk about boringgggggggg.

maybe they will get it right this time.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

or a small fee or no more then 5 bucks a month with the content of wow and the depth of it ..it can happen

[id dot entity]

Well small chance that it will happen. Or they have to come up with an awesome product of course...