Next EverQuest game teased

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 9 August, 2010

Codenamed EverQuest Next.

Sony has teased the third edition in long-running massively multiplayer online role-playing franchise EverQuest.

It's tentatively titled EverQuest Next, and will have fewer classes and be "more like" EverQuest 1.

The "reboot", as it's been called, will be scaleable, too – playable on anything from a laptop to a powerful PC.

In a panel called "The Future of EverQuest" at the Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire 2010 event in Las Vegas, SOE president John Smedley called for feedback on the game.

"We want to make something that still keeps the flavour of the original and the lore and the core tenets of it, but we want to make something that is truly next generation. That means with the graphics.

"We want EverQuest players and EverQuest 2 players to feel like they're at home, but a new home, one that's really awesome."

The art style has been changed so that it's "distinctive" – the San Diego-based development team has looked back to the original EQ and its "flavour" and "charm" for some inspiration.

It's also more "colourful". The team has used its experience on fellow SOE MMO Free Realms to add colour balancing to create a "fantastical quality".

EverQuest Next's first "in-game art" is below.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Miths #1 2 years ago

    I read EverQuest Text. I guess that rules out an old-school text adventure then? :)

  • mechamonkey #2 2 years ago

    I'd love to return to EQ, I played the original for 7 years following its launch.

    I want crowd control, corpse runs and most importantly of all I want my Bard back in game!

  • jack_klugman #3 2 years ago

    and will have "less classes"

    "Fewer", surely?

  • Miths #4 2 years ago

    Maybe it should read "less class"? :)

  • Spekingur #5 2 years ago

    Scale better? So playable through a browser then. :D

  • linksdad #6 2 years ago

    Two struggling online games. Solution: make another one and cannibilise your existing playerbase.

    I cant really understand what they are up to here. The original everquest hardly had any quests and could cost you and your raid the whole night (like until it is time for work in the morning) trying to recover your corpse if you died somewhere unfortunate. I am not sure why anyone would want to go back to the bad old days. And if it is going to be so like EQ1 why not give it a graphical overhaul and spend the time developing new content for it instead of a full new game?

  • tenofspades #7 2 years ago

    can't really give old EQ1 a graphics overhaul as its a 10 year old engine. Though the screenshot of this looks like something in Ashenvale...

  • IonOnion #8 2 years ago

    @ link'sdad
    "And if it is going to be so like EQ1 why not give it a graphical overhaul and spend the time developing new content for it instead of a full new game?"

    EQ and EQ2 are both getting expansions each. EverQuest will get House of Thule and EverQuest II with Destiny of Velious. EG just deemed them not news worthy enough to mention compared to say a working title for a game that probably won't be released in the next 3 years.

  • Vyggo #9 2 years ago

    More like everquest 1 probably isn't going to mean loss of experience and full-on corpse runs because that would be commercial suicide. I hope it does mean a more deliberate pacing, more challenging gameplay, encreased group dependency than everquest 2. It's also good they change the artstyle compared to everquest 2 because most people (including me) didn't care for all the shinyness of the armor and the blandness of the world itself.
    Edited by 1 at 09/08/10 @ 16:33

  • Kilted_Moose #10 2 years ago

    I liked the corpse runs. Added a bit of spice. Nothing like swimming through the lava in Sol C naked with your group, desperately fending off mobs with a shitty stick. Those, my friends, were the days.

  • curtlikesmeat #11 2 years ago

    Those were the days indeed, I don't think there's any going back to Evercrack again though.

  • George-Roper #12 2 years ago

    This will be nothing more than a reskinned Free Realms. A far cry from the epic EQ we all know and remember.

    SOE running their franchises into the ground.

  • Vyggo #13 2 years ago

    The epic EQ you remember is different than the current EQ. There is a reason for that, most people don't have the patience to play oldschool EQ anymore. There as some private servers if you are into that though. I for one am happy with the modernization of mmo's, but I would enjoy a renewed focus on grouping versus soloing.