Ten Years of EQ: SOE Talks up the Franchise's Future
Beyond showing its new wares at CES this year, SOE was proudly touting the ten year anniversary of Everquest. To commemorate the event, SOE commissioned a sizable painting featuring some of the game's high fantasy art by Donato Giancola. The scene shows the staple elf princess Firiona Vie, essentially the franchise mascot, in the midst of battle at the Swamp of No Hope. Joe Shoopack , Director of Artistic Development at SOE, talked about the franchise's future informally.
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Though he wasn't about to make any official announcements, Shoopack did hint at what's to come in the franchise's future. "We haven't solidified what our plans are, but we definitely have plans for the future of the franchise," Joe said. "The Everquest and Everquest II communities are thriving and vibrant; it's definitely not the end of the Everquest franchise, but we're not prepared to announce anything just yet." We prodded a bit further to inquire about a potential PS3 update to Champions of Norrath, but the question was dodged.
Though the current iterations of Everquest have become a bit dated, it's unlikely that SOE will surrender its marquee franchise. While the company may be struggling to keep the aging franchise up to date with its competitors, hope for further console hack-and-slash games could be more than enough to keep the series alive, well, and relevant for its double-digit years.
