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It's official: EverQuest goes free-to-play
Back in December, when EverQuest II made the transition to free-to-play across all servers, many gamers wondered whether its sibling, EverQuest, would follow. Today, the speculation has become reality, and EverQuest will officially go free-to-play in March, which also is the month that the game first launched back in 1999. As the game closes in on its 13th birthday, it's worth taking a look back at this game's amazing history.
GDC Online 2011: A nostalgia trip with the original EverQuest team
This year, GDC Online presented the Hall of Fame award to SOE's classic EverQuest. The game is currently 12 years old, and as legendary presenter Richard Garriott put it, "It perfected the commercial genre" of MMO games. Several members of the original team attended the awards ceremony, and Massively was honored to have a chance to sit and speak with them. Even if you aren't an old school vet, you'll enjoy this trip down memory lane with Brad McQuaid, John Smedley, and the rest of the team. Read on for highlights from the interview.
LOGIN conference hosting two panels on game addiction
It's been pretty hard, but after 45 straight minutes of arguing with ourselves, we were able to pull away from Imagine Babyz long enough to get some work done. And who woulda guessed it, the very first post we sit down to write happens to be about the upcoming Login Conference in Seattle, an event which includes not just one but two panels specifically dedicated to video game addiction. Author and psychotherapist Hilarie Cash will be presenting the (tautologically delicious) "Games and Addiction: The Addictive Power of Games," a panel that examines the correlation between addictive gameplay and "something that is truly addictive." The second panel again features Cash, this time alongside Entertainment Science's Darion Rapoza, with discussion moderated by EEDAR's Geoffrey Zatkin, and will further discuss the first panel's subject. For those of you looking to attend (and not stand up and shout during either of the panels), more information can be found on the conference's official website. [Via GamePolitics]
GDC 2010: EEDAR talks new IP strategy
Game industry analysis firm EEDAR dropped some interesting statistics during its GDC panel this year. The first half of the presentation -- hosted by EEDAR president Geoffrey Zatkin -- concerned new intellectual property in the games industry. According to Zatkin, the amount of new IP released has increased slightly over the last three years. Specifically, it was up to 22 percent in 2009, up from 17 percent in 2006. However, breaking it down by console, Zatkin stated that new IP currently comprises 27 percent of Wii software, while that number drops to 17 percent on the PS3 and 360. He added that certain genres see very few original properties, particularly fighting games. Furthermore, the relationship between new IP and ESRB ratings is different on various platforms. Most new IP on the Wii tends to be rated E, while new properties on 360 and PS3 tend to be rated T or M. Using data like this, Zatkin said, publishers can decide what sort of games to release on which platforms. The question, according to Zatkin, is whether publishers decide to follow the trends or fill the "holes" in their portfolios by releasing titles in underrepresented areas (any pubs up for a mature Wii fighting game?). Zatkin also discussed the best time for publishers to release new properties. A bar graph illustrated a slight trend away from the industry crowding all its releases into the holiday shopping season, though it still accounted for 37 percent of releases in 2009. Zatkin also pointed out that many publishers release their major titles at the end of their fiscal quarters. The lesson for publishers looking to release new (and risky) properties? Keep your games out of the fourth quarter and try to release them in the second month of any given fiscal quarter.
