14 DAY TRIAL // EverQuest Next was just announced by the team at Sony Online Entertainment and rumors are already suggesting that the game is being developed for the new PlayStation 4 home console in addition to the PC.
Dave Georgeson, the franchise director, tells ShackNews that, “We need to make sure that it’s a kickass game on PC before we do anything else. We’re going to nail down all our questions and design and everything like that so that it’s a really good game. Then we’ll talk about other platforms.”
Sony has already announced that DC Universe Online and Planetside 2 will be launched on the PlayStation 4 soon after it is out.
EverQuest Next is also already designed to use a small number of buttons, which makes it easy to adapt from a control perspective to a home console.
Georgeson adds, “That’ll be a cool thing if and when we get to. The fact that it doubles for controllers is just a bonus.”
SOE also says that the Forgelight engine it is using can scale down for older systems, which means that fans of the older EverQuest titles will be able to play and enjoy Next.
Final specifications for the MMO have not yet been announced by the developers, but they are aiming to make sure that even 4, 5-year-old computers will be able to play it, even if some graphical quality might be lost.
EverQuest Next was first shown late last week and the unique coming features include destructible mechanics, complex player roles with no pre-defined classes and choices that can change the world as the game progresses.
SOE is also aiming to launch a free-to-play companion game called Landmark in winter, which will allow fans to create content that could be included in Next with the same tools that the development team has access to.