SOE Fan Faire Kicks Off With EQ and EQ2 Expansion Highlights

After asking, "You want to see something new...something you've never
seen before?" John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment,
kicked off the excitement of SOE Fan Faire...with a Rick roll. But
after Rick Astley's 80s anthem displayed for a few moments on the
gigantic screen, and the crowd's cheers and jeers quieted, he began to
unveil some of the highlights we can expect to see coming out of Fan
Faire.



"We're not done with EverQuest," Smedley promised. He teased the
audience saying that SOE has been "working on something great for a
long time now," and invited everyone to attend panels taking place on
Friday and Saturday entitled "The Evolution of EverQuest." After asking
that fans come to the panels to provide their input, he made a promise
for the EverQuest franchise: "We're taking it to a place nobody's at."



While Smedley wasn't yet ready to officially reveal the widely rumored
future iteration of EverQuest (dubbed EverQuest Next), he did offer
highlights relevant to SOE's existing and upcoming games. We'll be
providing all the details as the event unfolds, but here are some
highlights:



style="font-weight: bold;">EverQuest

The next expansion is called House of Thule, launches
October 14 It will introduce player housing, a level cap increase to
90, and 13 new zones

style="font-weight: bold;">EverQuest II

The next expansion, Destiny of Velious, will launch in
February, 2011 It will add the continent of Velious and flying mounts to
the game

style="font-weight: bold;">Free Realms

The popular family-oriented free-to-play title now boasts
13 million players Free Realms is coming soon to the Mac and Playstation 3 It will be the first massively multiplayer game on the PS3

style="font-weight: bold;">DC Universe Online

Will be the second MMOG on the PS3 Will be launched for PC at the same time Preorder customers will be able to play as Batman

Keep an eye on Ten Ton Hammer's coverage of SOE Fan Faire this weekend
to keep up with the latest news on these and other SOE titles including
Magic:
The Gathering - Tactics and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2553">Star
Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. Don't miss a moment--stay tuned
to get the goods as our Fan Faire coverage unfolds.