EverQuest Next Landmark: Sony’s Very Own Minecraft

Everyone attending SOE live in Las Vegas on August 2nd was excited about the reveal of EverQuest Next, the follow up to  Sony’s genre defining MMO EverQuest and its less successful sequel EverQuest 2. What people didn’t expect was the reveal of a completely new game in the series, Everquest Next Landmark.

How a sphere would look on “other block building games” and EverQuest Next Landmark

EverQuest Next Landmark is a Free-to-Play Block Building game with Similarities to Minecraft. Avoiding direct references to Minecraft SOE President John Smedley and his team often refereed to the innovations of EverQuest Next Landmark compared to “other block building games” but the intended message was clear, this is like Minecraft only better.

Among the innovations were the ability to change the Size, Textures and visible erosion of building blocks so more elaborate designs can be made. There is the opportunity to make real money selling your creations on Sony’s Player Studio Market Place (if you’re a resident of the US) and perhaps the most exciting thing for builders is the opportunity to have your creations find a home in Landmarks MMO companion EverQuest Next. This Doesn’t mean you have to build only fantasy style buildings of course, anything is possible including Sci-Fi and modern Structures.

One of the things evident from the reveal was how pretty the game is going to be compared to the graphically inferior but charming retro blocks of Minecraft. It was demonstrated how much you could really do with the tools provided to you on Landmark, which are the exact same tools available to the developers.

When asked if either game would make it to PS4 this is what David Georgeson told Shacknews “We need to make sure that it’s a kickass game on the PC before we do anything else. We’re going to nail down all of our questions and design and everything like that so that it’s a really good game. Then we’ll talk about other platforms.”

EverQuest Next Landmark is due to launch on towards the end of  the year before the release of EverQuest Next but both are accepting beta testing applications, here’s the link if you wish to apply – everquestnext.com/beta-registration.