SOE announces Steam Workshop-like ‘Player Studio’
James Archer September 7, 2012 - 12:22 pmNews: Sony Online Entertainment have unveiled the SOE Player Studio, allowing users to design and submit in-game items. SOE’s picks will then be put on sale, with each item’s creator receiving a 40% cut.
Much like the Steam Workshop, the newly-announced SOE Player Studio will let you, the handsome, creative consumer, design items for use in Sony Online Entertainment‘s MMO catalogue (Everquest, Everquest II, Free Realms, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and – after release – PlanetSide 2 are all confirmed as Player Studio-supported).
Once it’s up and running, SOE plan to pick the best submissions, work out some nice, balanced stats for them and sell them via the SOE Marketplace, with the items’ designers receiving a 40% cut. Right now, only a US launch is planned, but CEO John Smedley has tweeted that “We’re working on doing this for EU too. It’s very complicated due to tax and legal reasons. It’s coming!”
Here’s an official blurb:
“SOE’s Player Studio program invites players to download sample geometry files for actual in-game objects and through the use of standard third party art tools, learn how to develop, design and personalize items of their own – from re-coloring and re-texturing, to reshaping an item’s geometry. Once complete, players are encouraged to name and create a description for their item, describe how the item will fit into the prospective game’s ongoing narrative storyline, and submit it to SOE for review and possible inclusion in the SOE Marketplace.”
Smedley adds that “We will start with smaller items but our goals are ambitious. To allow users to create all kinds of cool stuff in games”, suggesting plans to move beyond simple weapons and cosmetic gear. Regardless of whether that happens or not, Player Studio seems like a great idea that’s bound to turn up some contentious stuff; depending on who you ask, the neverending addition of Workshop-submitted knicknacks into Team Fortress 2 has either ruined the game or kept it fresh for years.
We’ll be bringing you more news from SOE here on BeefJack.
