Our friends over at
Massively got a chance to talk to SOE's Director of Development, Matt Wilson, about the latest developments concerning
The Agency. Wilson reveals the following:
- They are currently in "full alpha" and the plan is for a beta in the fall. They are also working towards a demo.
- They haven't decided between a subscription based financial model or a microtransaction one. However, Wilson noted that the PS3 is a console, and "console players don't generally do subscriptions."
- The penalty for death will be "as lightweight as possible to begin with" since the player will die "frequently." Penalty will mostly be in the form of lost gameplay time, but Wilson cites an example of after dying ten times, you'll need to get fixed up at a field office, presumably losing extra time.
- World events are planned, and SOE is hoping for content that "is easily playable for everyone" and accessible to players who do not invest as much time into the game.
- Vehicle combat will take place. No other specific details are given.
With SOE coming out with
two MMOs in the near future, do you think the PS3 will dominate as a console for that genre? Read the entire interview over at
Massively.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
frankym @ Jul 23rd 2008 3:11PM
Never played an MMO but sure looks like Sony is headed for dominance in this area including innovations such as cross platform play (PS3/PC) with The Agency.
Xoviet chiK @ Jul 23rd 2008 3:12PM
I wish they would have shown more of this at E3. DCU looks awful, but this game might just get me into MMOs.
I hope it brings in big numbers, it looks really fun. I love the theme and the art direction, and would love to see more developers doing more than just point and click MMOs in the future, especially on consoles.
Rowdehaj @ Jul 23rd 2008 3:35PM
I hope to see more SOE games on PS3.
Rygar @ Jul 23rd 2008 3:39PM
Pay to play? No thanks.
jojo29 @ Jul 23rd 2008 4:16PM
"I wish they would have shown more of this at E3. DCU looks awful, but this game might just get me into MMOs."
I really don't think it looks that bad, it looks kinda cool. The whole "graphics aren't everything" is very prevalent in MMOs as it's hard to keep up the graphics with so much customization available within an MMO, just the character creation process in most MMOs literally take 1-2 hours, depending on how picky you are.
Also, if you look at the top MMO, currently, World of Warcraft, graphically speaking, it's ugly. BUT the reason why most believe WoW looks so good, it what GREAT developers do: Art Style and Creative Design. Blizzard has such high art directions that their art style more than makes up for WoW being a game built to scale over a broad range of computers. Blizzard's art style and direction are second to none in the PC industry and so far the only other developers, IMHO, that can even come close to an art style as original and creative as Blizzards are all under Sony's banner: Naughty Dog/Insomniac....and of course Nintendo themselves :)
Xoviet chiK @ Jul 24th 2008 4:09AM
I didn't mean that the visuals were bad, I mean the entire game and it's concept looks / sounds bad, IMO.
Plus, as for Art Direction, one could argue it is a mistake to stylize it after the campier aspect of DC Comics and not after the dark and gritty stylization DC is finding new popularity with. To be fair, I never got behind the Marvel MMO concept either.
The idea of Role Playing in strictly controlled Licensed Universes kinda tears away from the actual Role Playing aspect. Matrix Online worked because the concept allowed for the experience, and something like Star Wars KOTOR will work because it is only loosely based and developed independently of an existing property, and the developers have free reign on inclusions to the universe.
I hope Champions Online makes it's way to PS3, that looks pretty good.
wisconsinista @ Jul 23rd 2008 4:32PM
I replayed the DCU portion from the PSN E3 download and it looks horrendous. If you watch it again look for the last scene where the car explodes err evaporates and then a flame just shows up. I've been waiting for The Agency for sometime and it sounds sweet. Few trailers have ever been released and I don't think any gameplay has been revealed either.
Nate the Prophet @ Jul 23rd 2008 4:53PM
If this or DCOnline is subscription-based, I wont' bother. The nice thing about micro-transactions is that you are more free to play at your own pace. You can play like crazy for two months, but if you sit out the next two you're not out any money.
subscriptions suck, that's why I ditched WoW.
Nate the Prophet @ Jul 23rd 2008 4:56PM
If this or DCOnline is subscription-based, I wont' bother. If I pay $60 for a game, I don't want to pay more money than that unless I REALLY play a lot and love it, and the fees are minimal. Example--the COD4 map pack was good, but so far MGO seems to be having too many fee-based things for how crappy the server is run.
The nice thing about micro-transactions is that you are more free to play at your own pace. You can play like crazy for two months, but if you sit out the next two you're not out any money.
subscriptions suck, that's why I ditched WoW.
John @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:11PM
No idea what this DCU thing is. The important thing that I got from this, is that Sony will be trying to scale it to include players who are not hardcore-- thus, more accessible. If they work that on other MMOs, they could have a wedge here.
Dehshizknight @ Jul 24th 2008 3:21AM
Not only SOE but NCSoft is coming out with some MMO's as well.
kamiboy @ Jul 24th 2008 10:04AM
I think another retarded PC genre being shoehorned onto consoles to hasten the death of real console quality games of the days of yore is about as much welcome as a tumour to a healthy mind.
spyker @ Jul 24th 2008 11:53AM
So this will have a subscription? :(.... :(.... :(..........
Well I probably won't get it. Unless the subscription is like $60 a year and the game is free :P.
pekosROB @ Jul 25th 2008 2:32PM
I guess the game publishers/studio didn't want to pay Glock for using a Glock model gun on the cover art... because that looks like a Glock but slightly altered.