NCsoft Carbine MMO announcement soon

The "next big MMO" from NCsoft is poised for a mid-August Gamescom reveal.

Developed by Carbine, the project claims to have made "some dramatic steps forward" in the genre.

"We have developed some new ways of making online games; games that can adapt to you instead of the other way 'round," wrote Carbine executive producer Jeremy Gaffney.

"We have a number of ideas we've developed over time about what we think is important in gaming - we think it's about letting players play how they want, when they want, and with whom they want.

"We're gamers that want more out of online gaming, and we're all ready for the next big MMO."

Carbine was formed by World of Warcraft lead developer Kevin Beardslee; Troika founder and Fallout producer, lead programmer and designer Tim Cain; and Turbine co-founder and City of Heroes executive producer Jeremy Gaffney.

When formed, the studio comprised 17 former Blizzard employees.

Tim Cain has since left Carbine Studios.

"We've been putting in some late nights and weekends at the studio - finalising features, getting feedback, tuning - getting the details right," wrote Gaffney.

"We've been working on our game in stealth mode for a long while - waiting for the day when we could finally start showing our friends, fans and competitors what all the secrecy was about.

"Hell, at this point our neighbours in the office building probably suspect we work for some particularly scruffy branch of the CIA.

"With that in mind," he added, "we'll just say that Carbine Studios will be attending this year's gamescom in Cologne, Germany, quickly followed by PAX Prime in Seattle, Washington."

We'll be at Gamescom and we have our eye on this one. Stay tuned.