Sony Online Entertainment Announces Player Studio

Sony Online Entertainment revealed today their plans for Player Studio, a player-driven marketplace.

Player Studio will allow players to design, develop, and personalize items for several games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms, and Vanguard. Players will be able to download sample geometry and use third-party art tools, and then submit their item for review to be added into the marketplace. Selected items will earn the player a 40% share of the net sale from each item sold in the Marketplace.

Sony Online also announced new expansions for the EverQuest series. EverQuest will get Rain of Fear, its 19th expansion, which will raise the level cap to 100 and add new items, features, and content. EverQuest II will in turn get its 9th expansion, Chains of Eternity, which introduces prestige abilities, adornments, the spirit realm, new dungeons, and also raises the level cap (to 95).

EverQuest Gameplay Screenshot

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Sony Online Entertainment Announces New Innovative User-Generated Content Program — Player Studio™
NEW EXPANSIONS FOR EVERQUEST® AND EVERQUEST® II COMING SOON
Online Gaming Leader Expands Player Marketplace with New Program Designed to Unleash Players’ Creativity and Share in the Sales of Their Items

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Online Entertainment, LLC (SOE) today announced Player Studio ™, a new program that offers players the opportunity to create in-game items that can be sold in the marketplace of their favorite participating online game. The company also announced two new expansions to its long-running, landmark EverQuest ^® franchise with EverQuest^® : Rain of Fear™ and EverQuest ^® II: Chains of Eternity™ .

SOE’s Player Studio invites players to download sample geometry for actual in-game objects and through the use of third party art tools, learn how to develop, design and personalize items of their own. Players will be encouraged to name and create a description for their item, explain how the item fits into the prospective game’s ongoing narrative storyline, and submit it to SOE for review and possible inclusion in the SOE Marketplace. If selected, SOE will share 40 percent of the net amount it receives from the sale of these items with the player that created the item.

“For the first time in SOE history, players will be able to build and sell their own items, truly creating a unique, customizable online marketplace within our games,” said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment. “At SOE, we believe everyone is a gamer at heart, and our goal with Player Studio is to provide a platform on which our players can further explore their inner gamer while showcasing their passion for the games they love. We are looking forward to seeing our players’ creativity come to life in an entirely new way.”

Players and fans of the franchise will also be able to continue their Norrathian adventures with new expansions to the EverQuest franchise. Rain of Fear is the 19^th expansion for EverQuest, now in its 14^th year of continuous development. The ongoing story that started with House of Thule and the death of Cazic-Thule, will now take on a new twist in this upcoming expansion. Rain of Fear will offer new content for players to explore with all-new features, character customization, in-game items, and will now allow characters to level to an unprecedented max level of 100!

EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity is the ninth expansion of the franchise’s lauded title. This expansion will offer brand new features, including level increases, prestige abilities, adornments that become more powerful with players’ characters, and a new level cap of 95. The content in this expansion will feature two spirit-realm versions of overland zones to explore, as well as new dungeons; additionally, exclusive new in-game items will be debuted and will only be available with this expansion.

“Following two very successful transitions to free-to-play, we knew it was time to give our EverQuest community a rich offering of new content,” said Dave Georgeson, executive director of development of the EverQuest franchise. “The EverQuest team is committed to keeping the community enthusiasm high through continued content updates that dial up the player experience; the new features in these expansions are proof points of that continued commitment, and we have no plans of slowing down anytime soon.”

Preceding the launch of the two expansions will be SOE Live, SOE’s annual player celebration. Registered attendees of SOE Live will be treated with a complimentary copy of the standard editions of Rain of Fear and Chains of Eternity when they become available this November. SOE Live will take place at Bally’s in Las Vegas, Oct. 18-21, 2012.