Yarr The Pirate! :: View topic

SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT, SQUARE-ENIX AND BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCE CROSS-OVER GAMING DEAL

- In an unprecedented merger of gaming assets, online gamers will be able to take their existing characters into new and exciting adventures in other gaming worlds.

SAN DIEGO, CA - March 31, 2005 - Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), Square-Enix (S-E) and Blizzard Entertainment (Blizzard), the worldwide leaders in Massive Online gaming, have announced a joint venture where players of any of their games, including the enormously successful World of Warcraft, the granddaddy of online gaming Everquest, S-E's hugely successful online version of the Final Fantasy franchise, and the popular titles Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies, can take their existing characters and move seamlessly into new gaming worlds. Through new technology developed jointly by all three companies, your character will be converted over to the rule set and graphical look of each new game as you transfer back and forth, opening up literally tens of thousands of new gaming possibilities for every player. Players of all these games will suddenly be confronted with not just new zones to play in, but entire new universes.

"We have been looking for ways to add more end game content to World of Warcraft, and this just seemed a natural fit" said Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment. "This gives our players instant access to a range and depth of content that would otherwise take us years to develop through our current schedule. Now you can simply pick up and walk into another universe and open up an entire set of new and unique content"

"The enormous success of World of Warcraft proves that there is a large market for online gaming" said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "We decided that the best way to tap this market is to combine all of our assets into what is in effect one massive, massive-multiplayer game. By opening up more content and variety like this, our player base can only benefit and thrive."

The details of the agreement will be released in more details later. The current timeline calls for the merger to be completed by May 16th, in time for a complete demonstration at the Electronic Entertainment Expo held annually in Los Angeles. The companies have put together a transition team lead by venerable programmer Raph Koster of SOE that will finalize the details of the changes that will be needed in each game to make the transitions from game to game smooth and consistent. "Some things are going to have to change in each game to make this work" said Mr. Koster. "Expect each class in each game to get altered somewhat to allow them to fit into the new rule sets. We are excited about the possibilities of how this can improve the gaming structure of all our franchises."

Each company plans on releasing more detailed statements on their respective websites over the next few weeks explaining to the players the impact of this agreement on their specific games.

Author:	Eromenos [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:31 am ]
Post subject:	Game mergers?
Quote: SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT, SQUARE-ENIX AND BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCE CROSS-OVER GAMING DEAL - In an unprecedented merger of gaming assets, online gamers will be able to take their existing characters into new and exciting adventures in other gaming worlds. SAN DIEGO, CA - March 31, 2005 - Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), Square-Enix (S-E) and Blizzard Entertainment (Blizzard), the worldwide leaders in Massive Online gaming, have announced a joint venture where players of any of their games, including the enormously successful World of Warcraft, the granddaddy of online gaming Everquest, S-E's hugely successful online version of the Final Fantasy franchise, and the popular titles Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies, can take their existing characters and move seamlessly into new gaming worlds. Through new technology developed jointly by all three companies, your character will be converted over to the rule set and graphical look of each new game as you transfer back and forth, opening up literally tens of thousands of new gaming possibilities for every player. Players of all these games will suddenly be confronted with not just new zones to play in, but entire new universes. "We have been looking for ways to add more end game content to World of Warcraft, and this just seemed a natural fit" said Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment. "This gives our players instant access to a range and depth of content that would otherwise take us years to develop through our current schedule. Now you can simply pick up and walk into another universe and open up an entire set of new and unique content" "The enormous success of World of Warcraft proves that there is a large market for online gaming" said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "We decided that the best way to tap this market is to combine all of our assets into what is in effect one massive, massive-multiplayer game. By opening up more content and variety like this, our player base can only benefit and thrive." The details of the agreement will be released in more details later. The current timeline calls for the merger to be completed by May 16th, in time for a complete demonstration at the Electronic Entertainment Expo held annually in Los Angeles. The companies have put together a transition team lead by venerable programmer Raph Koster of SOE that will finalize the details of the changes that will be needed in each game to make the transitions from game to game smooth and consistent. "Some things are going to have to change in each game to make this work" said Mr. Koster. "Expect each class in each game to get altered somewhat to allow them to fit into the new rule sets. We are excited about the possibilities of how this can improve the gaming structure of all our franchises." Each company plans on releasing more detailed statements on their respective websites over the next few weeks explaining to the players the impact of this agreement on their specific games. Why does this seem like it just won't work without destroying the dynamics of the games in themselves? Unless when you move to the other game you start off as lvl 1 jobs like switching jobs in FF. I don't get how this would work, and even more so, scared of how they will try to make it work. What do you think?

Author:	Kametatsu [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:10 am ]
Post subject:
What I think is.... April Fools :p

Author:	Eromenos [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:25 am ]
Post subject:
Kametatsu wrote: What I think is.... April Fools :p you suck lol i got all the way through this "article" and sat there and thought about it for like 5 minutes before i remembered what day it was yesterday.

Author:	Ponuh [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:15 am ]
Post subject:
gay. I could have had a hot garka paradin on ffxi from WoW lol.

Author:	Arim [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:49 am ]
Post subject:
the hell? even if this was true how could it work? you would be changing your billing info to someone else or would you have to pay for both or all the games. i nono i hope this is april fools cause ima be pissed after i deleted my character and to find that i coulda transfered him

Yarr The Pirate! http://www.yarrthepirate.com/phpbb3/

Game mergers? http://www.yarrthepirate.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4189	Page 1 of 1

Author:	Parade [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:05 pm ]
Post subject:
haha, yaw arim thad suck... but i dont see why you deleted arim in the first place. y didnt you jes cancle the account but not delete him?

Author:	Arim [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:17 pm ]
Post subject:
cause im not coming back and i dont want something to make me come back too or w/e

Author:	Parade [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:25 pm ]
Post subject:
ok well good luck finding a new game man. and even if this was possible. and they did make it work, i think its a stupid idea

Author:	Kametatsu [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:41 pm ]
Post subject:
Quote: you suck lol i got all the way through this "article" and sat there and thought about it for like 5 minutes before i remembered what day it was yesterday. Don't worry Ero, it was the same way for me too :p

Author:	Ponuh [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:10 pm ]
Post subject:
Arim, just give up on MMOs all together. ANy other MMO won't be any better than FFXI, unless yoU REALLY REALLY REALLY love the ability to jump....

Author:	Parade [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:13 pm ]
Post subject:
ponuh wrote: Arim, just give up on MMOs all together. ANy other MMO won't be any better than FFXI, unless yoU REALLY REALLY REALLY love the ability to jump.... im on teh phone with arim and he says "yaw jumping is teh bests's"

Author:	Arim [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:14 pm ]
Post subject:
jumping is way fun

Author:	Eternus [ Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:23 pm ]
Post subject:
I like flying more like in City of Heroes (you can also make yourself jump higher too but fuck that if I can fly).. and WoW's interface is such a rip off of City of Heroes in many ways. WoW just had PvP built in while CoH is releasing City of Villians in the near future. I still would rather play FFXI more than both due to the strategy and challenge involved. Although FFXI's economy and way of obtaining items is a pain in the ass, finally obtaining the items is more rewarding due to the hard work and hours you put in no matter how insane it seems. Things in WoW come easy, I have never had to farm because I got items from quests and regular drops from monsters in said quests already give me the money needed to buy whatever I need. So when I get a new item/weapon in WoW I just throw away the old weapon/item or give it to a lower level player. This takes away from the excitement of obtaining stuff to me.. because well the stuff you get isn't special at all and you get it easily (you can solo almost all quests).

Page 1 of 1	All times are UTC - 5 hours
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group http://www.phpbb.com/