Sony Online Entertainment Interview

SOE president John Smedley hasn’t been available for comment since recent news that SOE has laid off 200 employees and cancelled the Agency, but Gamasutra has notes from an interview form Tuesday with him, on the future of the company.

“It’s too soon to talk about that [in depth],” he said. “When we do, I will say what we intend to show is not an evolutionary product. It’s a revolutionary product.”

“It’s going to change the way we think about how MMO games are played. . There will be a lot more information out before the end of the year.”

Despite a new version on the horizon, Smedley says the original EverQuest isn’t going away. Now in its 12th year, the game isn’t attracting a lot of new players, but the current player base is immensely loyal. (It’s also older, with an average age of 38.)

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Of course, the company’s biggest release lately has been DC Universe Online, a cross-platform MMO allowing PC and PS3 players to jointly occupy an online world. With a $60 million price tag, it came with high expectations. And Smedley says the company has been happy with its performance so far. The game has also given the company some insight into its audience’s demand for digital downloads.

“It’s doing very well,” he says. “We have about a 52/48 percent PS3/PC split. … And half of the PC sales have been digital. . With DCUO, a lot of people didn’t want to wait for the download, so they went to the store.”