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MMO in Tights: Will DC Universe change console gaming?

SOE boss John Smedley speaks out.

Eurogamer How big is the team you'll have working on DC Universe post launch?
John Smedley

The development team is 115 people right now. We haven't decided on the final team size and structure - a lot of that's going to depend on how this is received. But I would expect it to be 50 to 75 people. That would be a pretty good size.

Eurogamer What's the DC Universe post-release content plan like?
John Smedley

After release you can expect patches from us with new content and all kinds of fun stuff on a monthly basis. We'll actually be doing some patches on a weekly basis if we spot any issues.

But the plans are about a month out you can start expecting major pieces of content and major new features to come in. We'll be adding all kinds of cool stuff. We're not quite ready to reveal what our after-launch plans are yet. Needless to say we have a lot of content we're in QA on that players haven't seen yet.

The monthly subscription fee means players can expect a lot of new content from us. And I say a lot - I really mean that. This is something that we feel obligated to the players, because they are paying monthly sub fee.

Eurogamer Will there be any discrepancies between the updates on PC and PS3?
John Smedley

Largely we're going to try and keep them the same. There's some physical, practical differences in timing of release - maybe a day or two separating them. But they should be the same.

In the case of the PlayStation 3, as I said before, we don't just get to put things up - they actually have to go through the format QA team and SCEA and SCEE. That means that will take a little big longer. But what we'll do is hold the PC version until then.

Eurogamer I assume there aren't going to be any charges for additional content?
John Smedley

Absolutely not. We will have a micro-transaction marketplace demo on here, but for actual content no. In the future we may have expansion packs, but if you're talking about the regular monthly patches then no, we won't be charging for those.

Eurogamer Can you give us an idea of what future content will bring?
John Smedley

You'll get large new raids, new end-bosses to fight, new quests, new graphics, new features - we're looking at new voice features. There are many, many things you'll be getting, and a constant stream of it. That's why we'll keep the dev team so large, so we can continue to crank out content.

Eurogamer Who's the end-boss of DC Universe at the moment?
John Smedley

We've got several of them: you can go to the Bat Cave, you can go into Lex Luther's hideout, there are many.

Eurogamer How long until someone kills Batman?
John Smedley

Ooh, kill Batman. You know, I don't know that it's possible to kill Batman, exactly. To get into the Bat Cave and fight - it will open one wing at launch. Different people vary. There are some people who do nothing else but play the content.

I think it's going to take people a long time to get through. I'm hoping that the average gamer, three/four months from now, they can start experiencing that kind of content. For crazy, play-every-minute gamers, you can expect them to get through that a lot faster.

Eurogamer Will you be playing DCU?
John Smedley

We have a war room set up here at our headquarters here in San Diego that's right outside my office. So I'm going to be running back and forth between playing. I will be playing right from the minute those servers are open. I'm a PVP player very heavily and I look forward to it. I plan on racing to 30, so I'm looking forward to it myself.

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