Imminent PlanetSide 2 reveal hinted

Sony is preparing to take the wrapper off a PlanetSide sequel, comments from Sony Online Entertainment boss John Smedley suggest.

Smedley told The Escapist, "We have a very big launch coming in the month of March. It's a big first person shooter franchise that we're really happy with."

Might it be a sequel to widely-enjoyed 2003 MMOFPS PlanetSide, the interviewer asked? "Could be. We haven't technically announced it."

Smedley then told the interviewer that he could say that he had "hinted" that the new PlanetSide was imminent.

"This is the farthest I've gone [discussing it with the press] and the PR people are going to shoot me," he added.

We already know that a PlanetSide sequel is in the works. Last year Smedley revealed the follow-up features, "Massive battles on a scale no other FPS will touch. None of this 64 player stuff. REALLY MASSIVE. With much better organisation, and a tight focus on making sure the action is always going on, with awesome graphics."

Smedley also revealed in The Escapist interview why the game won't simply be called PlanetSide 2.

"We don't have the official name for it. PlanetSide Next is kind of the working title," he explained.

"We've learned some lessons with Everquest II - not one of the better moves that we've ever made. We should have called it EverQuest Something. Having Everquest I and II sit on the shelves at the same time, in hindsight, was probably not the the brightest of moves."