EverQuest II to get its own Cataclysm?

By Fred Dutton Published 3 December, 2010

Sony: "We are looking at it closely."

Sony's EverQuest II MMO could soon be following World of Warcraft: Cataclysm's lead and hitting the reset button.

Sony Online boss John Smedley told Kotaku that the publisher had been considering a Cataclysm-esque reboot for some time.

"We are looking at it closely, we have been for a number of years now," he admitted. "Is it something we would do within the next expansion cycle? Probably not. But I think it's interesting."

World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion, out on 7th December, sees the MMO's universe get a game-changing makeover courtesy of chaos-happy giga-dragon, Deathwing the Destroyer.

"I think World of Warcraft is looking great," Smedley added. "I think it's going to bring a lot of people back into the game; they hit the reset button."

"The reason I respect Blizzard so much is that they don't make massive mistakes. They have the goods and they know it. So why not take a risk like that?"

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (9) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Emmit_Assassin #1 1 year ago

    Well, every other MMO since WoW has been standing in its shadow, so this makes sense.

  • butler` #2 1 year ago

    "We are looking at it closely."

    translation

    "We are playing it daily instead of our own game."

  • Shinetop #3 1 year ago

    They have the goods and they know it. So why not take a risk like that?"

    Because it could ruin the goods, obviously.

    I don't get his reasoning. If Blizzard thought like that (and thankfully they don't) it'd make more sense for them to change as little as possible.

  • George-Roper #4 1 year ago

    SOE, once the leaders but now firmly the sheep of the MMO genre.

    Just shut up shop and fuck right off. We all know that EQ Next will be nothing more than Free Realms with a reskin. Waste of fucking time.

  • Daeltaja #5 1 year ago

    The fact that it IS a 'reset' is THE reason I'm not going back. I started in the beta 5 years ago and stopped playing 9 months back. I've been through the motions in every aspect, why on earth would I want to go back to square one?

    I just don't see the logic here! Personally I see it as a perfect time to quit anyway.

  • Kami #6 1 year ago

    The reset is why I got back into WoW, although to be fair it isn't a reset as such - it's a redesign of the first 60 levels worth of content, and some 80-85 content. It's pretty good, although you do wonder why Outland missed some love...

    Besides which, most of us are delaying the inevitable somehow... next year sees a couple more MMOs hit the shelves, and they could prove more interesting... but then, it is hard to shake off the feeling that whatever people do, whatever MMOs are put out there, WoW will continue to dominate for a while to come.

    Anyway, as for SoE - not interested. They've been playing catch-up for a while now, and it is about time someone woke up and smelled the coffee for some of what they keep running...

  • Wyrm #7 1 year ago

    Every expansion has been a reset. Just this one involves a little extra familiarity and lore.

  • BigJonno #8 1 year ago

    Nice to see someone in the industry speaking highly of the competition for a change.

  • Nephirion #9 1 year ago

    What is needed is a new genre of MMO not another fantasy one with elves, pixies and hobgoblins