SOE realized that they are done making good games, so they are going to concentrate on something else. The news comes from the same site that found Spore’s screenshots. I’m going to repaste the entry because it’s interesting:

John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, started the conference off with his keynote address and revealed quite a few interesting tidbits.

First the foremost, Smedley revealed that the PS3 will allow online microtransactions (just like the Xbox 360) and these transactions will become more commonplace in the near future.

Smedley then described a future where you could play an online game via your PSP, PS3, PC, and cell phone where you would be able to play the same game utilizing the same character on all platforms. The graphics and experience may be slightly different – for example, you would only be able to perform inventory management of your character on the cell phone version of the game while the PSP, PS3, and PC versions would play the same but have different graphic engines. However, it was important to note that these online games would not be separate games, they would all be the same game, using the same character, across different platforms, where you can play with the same people online. He also said we should expect to see this sort of gameplay within the next six months.

As for selling items within Everquest via Station Exchange, Smedley said that they were still figuring out the exact pricing but expect the Station Exchange to be live in June. He also warned that SOE programmed extensive monitoring tools which will alert SOE if players are excessively camping certain creatures or treasures and may ban these people from EQ.

As for new online chatting interfaces, Smedley explained that they were working on a single text and voice chat interface which would work across all platforms and games (PS3, PC, PSP, Everquest, etc.). So rather than having to leave Everquest to chat with your friends playing an online game on PS3 you could chat across platforms and games within a single interface. No timetable was given for this technology.

Darniaq wrote a comment to the previous news about the IGEization that also applies wonderfully here. In particular the last line:

SOE has always been about the a la carte service, from back in the days when they only had one MMORPG. They charge for name changes, character moves, premium servers, premium website services, and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised if they charge for this trade-facilitation service, either directly or by slightly raising the price of all of their other services.

They are a business first. As long as it works for them, great! But only when the rest of the genre picks up on their practices will I think SOE was successful with them. The money they make is fine for SOE. It doesn’t drive the genre. Only through emulation will the face of the genre actually change. It’d require Mythic, NC Soft, Blizzard, MSG, and the various one-game developers to try and leech players the same way.

If that ever happens, well, the genre was fun for me for long enough.

How many players there are left, out there, who want to just play games?