Looking back through the archives, it’s been a while since we’ve done a proper Planetside Producer letter, so let’s get rolling!

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Andrew Sites and about a month ago I joined the Planetside Next development team as the Executive Producer. While I may be new to Planetside, I’ve been around the block a few times here at Sony Online. I’ve worked in production on several SOE projects, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms and most recently was the EP on Clone Wars Adventures. But enough about me, let’s talk about Planetside.

While combing through the Planetside forums, I can see that you’re not just amped about the promise of a sequel being developed, but even more so, you want some details. With Planetside now approaching its 8 year anniversary, it’s still easy to look back and see just how it set the bar for Massively Multiplayer FPS games. It was fun, fast-paced and most importantly, it offered truly MASSIVE FPS combat that hasn’t been recreated since. When we started designing Planetside Next, our goal was to build upon the original foundational elements that made it unique, while focusing heavily on the large-scale combat that set it apart from the competition. We’ve got some big shoes to fill, but as we begin unveiling the details, I think you’re going to be VERY excited to see what we have planned.

As you know, Planetside Next was announced by Smed via Twitter about a year and a half ago. Since then, the development team has been pining away on a new graphics engine, building art assets and designing new content. To support our ongoing development efforts, the team has increased in size significantly over the past several weeks. We’ve also brought back several team members from the original Planetside art, design and code team, as well as a ton of other talented, experienced MMO and FPS developers – many of whom I will begin introducing to you in my next update.

To say that the team and I are excited would be an understatement. Over the coming weeks and months, you can expect to receive a lot more detail about what we have in-store for PSNext. Much of this information will be presented to the PS community exclusively, because frankly, if your passion for the original didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be typing this.

Planetside set the bar for the Massively Multiplayer FPS market 8 year ago and we look forward to setting it again.