NEW ADDITIONS COMING TO THE WORLD OF EVERQUEST®II

New Expansion Pack, Echoes of Faydwer™ and New Adventure Pack, The Fallen Dynasty™ Currently In Development

SAN DIEGO, CA May 3, 2006 Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced details on its latest plans for EverQuest II, which include a new expansion pack featuring an all new playable race and an adventure pack introducing an Asian flair to the popular massively multiplayer online game. Echoes of Faydwer, the third expansion for EverQuest II, is expected to be available on or around November 14, both at retail and via digital distribution for a suggested retail price of $39.99. The Fallen Dynasty is the third adventure pack for EQII and will be available this June by digital download only for a suggested retail price of $7.99 or at no additional charge to Station Access subscribers of two months or longer.

“Kingdom of Sky offers something for all of our EverQuest II players,” said Laura Naviaux, senior brand marketing manager, Sony Online Entertainment. “For the seasoned EQII player, Kingdom of Sky increases the amount of high level content in a world filled with intrigue and the potential destruction of Norrath by the evil dragon lords. The second expansion pack brings the excitement of dragon battles and is timed to coincide with the newly-added Player vs. Player (PvP) action.”

Kingdom of Sky pushes the boundaries of character development and adventure to new heights. An entirely new form of advancement introduces a structured Achievement system of skills and abilities to further specialize and individualize your character, while level caps for characters, artisans and guilds are all increased. Kingdom of Sky expands the arena challenges with four deadly new arena champions and two new arena zones. Ten new adventure zones, from lush jungles to temples of unimaginable splendor, 25 new enemies and troves full of new treasures all open up fresh game play and visual experiences within the online world of EverQuest II.

SOE decides that maybe selling gear and characters isn't so bad after all...

Well, it was only a matter of time. Is anyone surprised that Sony was the first of the big contenders to do it? The following letter from SOE President John Smedley was just posted on EQ2Players.com:

Hello Everyone,

We have a big announcement coming out in the press in the next day, and I wanted to make sure you heard it from me directly rather than reading an article about it.

Starting in late June, SOE will begin offering a new service called Station Exchange. This secure service will allow EverQuest II players on specific servers to buy and sell the right to use items, coin and characters. To be clear, all we are doing is facilitating these transactions. We are NOT in the business of selling virtual goods ourselves....

I'm sure this is going to come as a shock to many of you, since for the past six years, we have held the line in not allowing these sorts of things to occur. I'd like to explain the primary drivers for this change from our perspective:

First: It's obvious that a large percentage of our players either don't mind this activity or actively participate in it. We've done a fair amount of homework on this subject, and we believe this is a $200 million dollar market worldwide, and there are a huge number of our players taking part in the buying and selling of virtual goods. We have conducted polls, and the vast majority of players either doesn’t care about it or would like to participate in it.....

Blackguard divulges a bit of information in an anti-platinum-selling thread over at the EQII forums.

As we have said many times, we do take action against those who break the Terms of Service. While we may not be very vocal about it most of the time, that doesn't mean that we are sitting idly by while players break the rules. We have banned thousands of accounts since release and will continue to do so as necessary.

Announcing EverQuest II: The Bloodline Chronicles:

Experience hours of new content in the rich, story-based realm of The Bloodline Chronicles, the first Adventure Pack episode for EverQuest® II.

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