A couple of weeks ago we reported on Sony Online Entertainment's plans to make a new MMOFPS. PlanetSide Next, as it's being called for now, just received a little bit of love in a new post over on SOE's John Smedley's blog. He explains exactly what PlanetSide Next means to him as 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.
Previously, Smedley had said that PlanetSide fans should all be watching for "big things" in the next 12 months, which suggests that the company is already hard at work on the new project.

Oldcore.



Bryn says: Since I wrote the last news article about PlanetSide Next, I've been thinking that it'd be completely awesome to see a Quake Live or Battlefield Heroes approach to this new project. The free-to-play model is popular for a reason, and those gamers who want to spend a little extra cash can feel free to do so.

On the other hand, for a project which will undoubtedly be a complicated one, perhaps this model wouldn't be robust enough to support the infrastructure required. What do you think?