UPDATE: Massively spoke with SOE and confirmed that Planetside Next is an internal working title and not the official title for the game.

In case you missed the news, Sony Online Entertainment recently confirmed that it plans to expand the Planetside universe with another game. SOE President John Smedley has referred to the new game as Planetside Next on his Twitter page and in his new LiveJournal. In fact, Smedley's newest blog entry is all about what Planetside Next means to him.

"To me, Planetside Next means we get a chance to take the essence of everything that was fun in Planetside and make it a lot better," Smedley said. "Massive battles on a scale no other FPS will touch. None of this 64 player stuff. REALLY MASSIVE. With much better organization, and a tight focus on making sure the action is always going on, with awesome graphics."

Smedley continues to use the word "massive" throughout his blog entry. We'll just have to wait and see if Planetside Next lives up to Smed's hopes for the game. You can read his full blog entry after the jump.

We all have our vices. For some gamers RPG's really do it for them. One of the things I've always loved about SOE is that we built our company on the core idea of making games across many genres, and that includes the world's first MMOFPS, Planetside.

I love Planetside. I really do. It's an amazing game. you won't find any other FPS where you can have a 100 vs. 100 battle raging. And we pulled this off 5-6 years ago.

There's a great description of a Planetside battle here:

www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/09/05/planetside-the-1/


I really couldn't sum it up any better than that. To me the idea of a massive firefight on that kind of scale is why I'm a gamer. 

Planetside had a lot of really great things about it, but it also had some frustrating things. The whole Sanctuary concept is something that slowed things down too much. We also didn't get people back into the action quickly enough.

But the core of Planetside - massive battles with vehicles and infantry was something we nailed really well.

To me, Planetside Next means we get a chance to take the essence of everything that was fun in Planetside and make it a lot better. Massive battles on a scale no other FPS will touch. None of this 64 player stuff. REALLY MASSIVE. With much better organization, and a tight focus on making sure the action is always going on, with awesome graphics.

Damn I love Planetside. I really do.

Smed