First "Catwoman", now DC does this to itself

[UnSub]

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=2eb6ff56571006e50ec33d2997522886&threadid=36109

"By working with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment we will fuse the knowledge SOE has in the online space with some of Warner Bros.' phenomenal properties," said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. "SOE will work closely with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics to maintain the authenticity consumers demand from the DC Comics franchises. We will also take steps to continue the same high level of service that subscribers have come to expect from The Matrix Online game."

Looks like WB and SOE are getting cosy...

[HaemishM]

Mmmm, MMOG gaming in a highly fleshed out and popular universe that can never be changed by the players because of the continuity disconnect.

Sounds like a branding dream, and a player nightmare.

[Soln]

SOE will be creating a DC Comics game for the PC and next generation gaming platforms, and is currently planning on a fourth quarter release in 2007.

let's see... So far SOE was targeting EQ2 against WoW (not as a reaction, since they were first -- but now they will need a reaction based on WoW's success); SWG vs. EVE or other; it has an already-announced RTS SciFi FPS sim in dev (or something close to that), and now this vs. CoH.  That's a shitload of irons to have in one crappy development fire.  They are spreading themselves thin as WoW begins its march across the world.  If I was running Sony US I would have my shoe on Smed's neck asking when the solution for 1M+ subs was coming for one franchise.  Having >1M on all their titles combined I doubt cuts much anymore since recent Blizzard announcements. 

[Soln]

Mmmm, MMOG gaming in a highly fleshed out and popular universe that can never be changed by the players because of the continuity disconnect.

Sounds like a branding dream, and a player nightmare.

you presume they won't change it?  This one time in Theed, on Naboo, I saw like... a dozen Jedi outside the starport...  Continuity doesn't mean much if they can replace it with user $.  People will pay to be Robin/Nightwing even if there's thousands of other people just like them.

[HaemishM]

I presume that until they are saddled with low subscription numbers, they won't allow players to alter continuity in any meaningful way.

[AOFanboi]

Why not? It's just a matter of running a Crisis on Infinite Earths/Zero Hour/whatever armageddon du jour DC does next to clean up the mess that their Universe inevitably grows into.

- U NERFED MY CHAR! I CUNT FLY!
- No, we just reset the Universe to a new set of rules, which we sometimes do. In this version of the DC MMO Universe, we have decided flight rings never existed.

[schild]

I'm going to be perfectly honest here.

Working with the WB and looking to make a superhero MMORPG is the stupidest set of things SOE has ever done. Period.

[Morfiend]

Mmmm, MMOG gaming in a highly fleshed out and popular universe that can never be changed by the players because of the continuity disconnect.

Sounds like a branding dream, and a player nightmare.

I thought we all played SWG a few years ago.

[HaemishM]

Same as it ever was.

[Velorath]

you presume they won't change it?  This one time in Theed, on Naboo, I saw like... a dozen Jedi outside the starport... 

That doesn't change continuity so much as flat out ignore it.  Changing continuity to me would be allowing players to stop the Death Star from being blown up or something along those lines.  Not that I really care much about changing the DC continuity because superheroes tend to be more about protecting the status quo anyway despide all the stories where you're told that "things will never be the same."

Besides that, I'd be curious to know if they'll be going for a direct translation of the comic book universe making it easy to adapt current storylines, or if they're going to try to mesh it with the various movies, and TV shows/cartoons in an attempt to cash in on those audiences.  I also hope they'll have something similar to CoH's free monthly comic so they can actually try to increase comic book readership as opposed to the TV shows and movies which never do anything to advertise the comics.  A subsciption to a title of my choice (JSA) would be nice.  Of course the gameplay will most likely suck so it doesn't make much difference anyway.