Gamasutra has an interview with Sony Online Entertainment’s president, John Smedley. They spoke with him at a recent SOE event about the newly announced free play MMO FreeRealms. While the title is initially free to access you will have to pay to play special areas and buy items such as in game clothes.
“FreeRealms is fantasy, but it’s whimsical fantasy. It’s not RMT per se, the idea of selling special customizations is key. You can play the game completely free. It’s ad-supported, you can customize your avatar to your heart’s content, then there will sort of be an additional catalogue of items we’ll be selling that will allow people to customize even further,”explains Smedley.
When asked what game play experiences gamers can expect, Smedley said they want to be more open ended than other more typical MMOs.
“One day you might be on a race track, one day you might be on a soccer field, the next day you might be playing chess â$¦ or, you know, you can go fight some trolls.”
User generated content is a huge issue. Players could be given guidelines to create content that fits in with the theme. However Smedley does mention the possibility of being able to create your own mini games. Advertising will use online sources with big names. SOE intends to take FreeRealms to a whole new level, much bigger than WoW or any other MMO. Smedley hopes to get the whole family in on the action.
FreeRealms is due out for the PC this winter and will hit the PS3 summer of 2008.
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