During his keynote speech at ION 2008, Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley talked at length about two games currently under development. One was The Agency, which in spite of its unique genre will probably appeal to the same crowd that is already playing other MMOs.
Free Realms, on the other hand, targets a much broader audience. Although it's being designed to appeal to all ages and genders, the target market is the 9 to 14 age range. Of course, the key to all this is accessibility. The game will be available through a download at SOE's web site, and players should be able to get into it and start creating their character within a minute of hitting the site. As such, the game will be lightweight enough to run on any PC out there. As Smedley puts it, "Kids who are going to Grandma's house have nothing to fear anymore." It is actually surprising how pretty SOE managed to make the game look despite this requirement.
A lot has happened in gaming, especially free-to-play gaming, over the last decade. Nobody could predict just how prevalent it’s become, and how some of the biggest games on the planet – League of Legends, Fortnite: Battle Royale, World of Tanks, and more – are all free-to-play.
PSU looks at the emergence of free-to-play games and how it relates to PS3 and PS4.
The Koalition: "Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) hosts an annual event to celebrate their massive stable of free-to-play MMO games, as well as an opportunity for them to finally shed some more light on the next Everquest game. SOE’s library of current offerings includes: DC Universe™ Online, Dragon’s Prophet™, EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, Free Realms®, PlanetSide®2 (review here,) PoxNora®, Star Wars®: Clone Wars Adventures™ and Vanguard® Saga of Heroes. With so many games on their roster, it’s no surprise that they host an annual event to celebrate the games and gamers. The event is being held at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Aug. 1 – Aug. 4, 2013."
"Eventually, fan sites and personal blogs will be able to earn money through referrals when people sign up for the game through their web sites. Calling it the Share the Wealth program, Smedley said, "We want the people that helped us build the business, to share in the proceeds they're helping us to make."
I hope they thought this one through.