Sony Online Entertainment Shows New ‘DC Universe’ Feature for First Time
Sony Online Entertainment publicly showed the character creation feature of its coming PS3 and PC game DC Universe Online for the first time Friday, at the New York Comic Con convention. The feature allows players to design the hero or villain avatars they select to play the game.
The title is to be the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game released for the PS3, said SOE Studio Creative Director Chris Cao. But that may end up not being the case after the game’s release was delayed from Nov. 2 (CED Oct 5 p9). The game will be released in Q1, Cao said. That means Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV Online, an MMO game expected to ship March 31 for the PS3 in North America, could ship on the same date. Feedback that SOE received from thousands of gamers during beta testing indicated that developers needed to polish the game more before releasing it, Cao told us.
The PS3 version will cost $59.99 and the PC SKU $49.99, Cao said. SOE will also field collector’s editions of each version, including a DC Universe art book and various other extras, at $99.99, he said. Players will have to pay a subscription fee of $14.99 a month to play it online, and SOE will also make money from micro-transactions, he said. New content will be added to the game each month, he said. Game play in both versions of the game “is the same,” and the only major difference is the user interface, he said. SOE opted against allowing PC players of the game to compete against PS3 players, because the set-up chosen will make it easier for the company to make any needed changes exclusive to each version after launch, he said.
SOE demonstrated other titles Friday in New York at a separate site near the convention. SOE Game Designer Chuck Kallenbach told us the coming online title Magic: The Gathering -- Tactics, based on the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, remains in its “alpha stage” of development but is “very close to beta.” It will launch for the PC in mid-November as a free download, he said. “We hope to port this to the PS3 pretty soon,” he said, without specifying when. Although the game will be free to play, he said the company will sell booster card packs probably at $4-$5, about the price of the physical trading cards.
The company is also readying a version of its kids-targeted online game Free Realms that Mac users will be able to play starting later this fall, said Global Marketing Manager Gregory Agius. The game has attracted more than 14 million users since launching for PC users in April 2009, he said. Extending it to Mac users represents “a huge opportunity for us,” because SOE believes about 20 percent of the game’s core demographic of 8-12-year-olds use Apple computers, he said. The game is free to play, but SOE offers several membership options that provide access to additional features. A “large chunk of our business” in memberships for the game is now on a lifetime option costing $34.99, Agius said. Since that option became available, “nobody buys” the $39.50 one-year membership, he said. But he said the “most popular” membership level is a month for $4.99.
SOE’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, meanwhile, has attracted about 2 million members since the game, developed using the same engine as Free Realms, launched in September, Agius said. The company said last month that the title, licensed by LucasArts, attracted 1 million players in its first week. Like Free Realms, it’s free to play, but membership offers extra features. The most popular membership option has been a month for $5.99 and the runner-up is lifetime for $49.99, he said.