14 DAY TRIAL // John Smedley, the leader of Sony Online Entertainment, says that the recently launched Planetside 2 MMO is already bringing in more revenue than their own titles, even if it saw strong competition from a number of other high profile releases.
During an interview with GamesIndustry.biz the executive states, “I can’t give away revenue numbers, but it is doing an order of magnitude greater revenue daily than any of our other titles, It is really doing very well.”
The company boss also talks about the wider push for free-to-play video games, addressing social game experiments like Facebook and upgrades for older titles like PoxNora.
He says, “I gotta tell you, I’m not a fan of the Facebook game. To me, they’re monetization vehicles and not the kind of games I want to play or make. That’s just me personally. So we’ll stick to what we do best.”
SOE has previously tried to enter the social games market, but the company has found that it has a better chance of performing well if it focuses on its strengths rather than on simple mechanics and connectivity between players.
Planetside 2 allows players to enter the game worlds, create their character and then join one of the three factions who are trying to control the continents of the planet of Auraxis.
The game is based on first-person shooter mechanics and encourages players to join clans, cooperate with other games and choose a tactical role and stick to it as they acquire more skills and equipment options.
The entire experience is free-to-play and gamers can enhance their experience by paying a monthly subscription in order to get access to bigger resource limits.
Planetside 2 is part of a wider push from Sony Online Entertainment, which has taken many other MMOs free-to-play and is delivering more content updates to keep gamers interested.