Sony’s “Free Realms” now available for Mac

In a world where games are being developed for Mac all the time now (especially now that Steam has landed on that platform), it only makes sense that free-to-play MMOs would be making that jump. Sony’s Free Realms has made the move. They, along with TransGaming, have released Free Realms for the Mac, so now you (or your kids, more likely) can play in the family-friendly online world – as well as buy things from the Marketplace. PC and Mac gamers play on the same servers and should have a consistent experience from platform to platform. To download the client or learn more, visit www.FreeRealms.com. 

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“Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures” gathers one million users in one week

After launching only a week ago on September 15, Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts have already registered one million users for Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, based on the Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. “We are thrilled to have hit the one million player mark in Clone Wars Adventures so quickly and look forward to seeing the player community continue to grow,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “Combining the technology, design infrastructure and lessons learned from Free Realms with the amazing Clone Wars brand, we knew we could make a great game, and we’re happy to see that fans of all ages are enjoying the content as much as we enjoyed creating it.” In celebration, SOE and LucasArts are giving all current players a special in-game Golden Mouse Droid pet. They’re also holding an in-game virtual party, which should be the first of many.

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Station Cash Mounts Now Available in “EverQuest”

Want the status and performance boost of a mount? Want to traipse around Norrath in style? Now, you can buy a mount with Station Cash, thanks to Sony Online Entertainment fulfilling many players’ demands. Four new Destrier mounts are now available for 2500 Station Cash apiece: Armored Planar Ardennes Saddle Armored Royal Ardennes Saddle Armored Battle Shire Saddle Armored Royal Shire Saddle Each mount offers a significant speed boost, and if players have a faster mount, it will match that mount’s speed. Players mounted on these horses will receive extra AC, Mana and Health. View each mount in the gallery below.

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Free Realms’ Virtual Summer Camp Will Keep You (Or Your Kids) Busy

Starting today, kids (or, you know, parents who are into it) can jump into Free Realms’ virtual Summer Camp. 13 weeks of organized events will keep you glued to the computer all summer long, and there’s always something to do. You can choose to join “Camp Chatty” or “Camp Robbie,” and protect your campground faithfully. Or, if you’d prefer, move back and forth between the two. Everyone has the same enemy: A Bigfoot in the forest. You probably don’t want him to stomp you. The event features 14 new camp land quests (about one a week), some of which are Members Only. Other fun times on the calendar include theme days like “Pirates” (ARR!) or “Pets.” Special Summer Camp-only items will be available in the Marketplace and Coin Shop, as well. Need to keep track of what’s going on? Print out the Summer Camp Calendar to keep up with it

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Interview with Sylvia Liu, Sony’s 2010 GIRL Scholarship Recipient, and Sara Kaplan, Manager of SOE Corporate Communications

Last week, I was lucky enough to get to interview the winner of this year’s Gamers In Real Life (GIRL) Scholarship (provided by Sony Online Entertainment) – Sylvia Liu, of Milpitas, Calif., who beat out 200 other applicants with her EverQuest II designs (pictured below) and an essay on women in the video game industry. The GIRL Scholarship has lofty (but attainable) goals: Get more women into the game development, so that video games are more enticing for women as a whole. Female students in the arts are typically encouraged to apply, though the requirements could expand in the future. Sylvia is the third recipient of $10,000 since the program’s inception. She will be using the money to finance her education in Entertainment Design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. She also has the opportunity to work for Sony in a paid internship at SOE headquarters

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Online Registration for SOE Fan Faire Starts Now!

In case you missed the last post on the topic, SOE Fan Faire 2010 will be at Bally’s Las Vegas from August 5-8, but registration? That starts now. Sony has expanded the pricing options this year to help fans get the passes that best suit their needs. Day, Silver, Gold, and Platinum passes, each with different levels/lengths of access, range from $39 to $139 in price. (It’s worth noting that the latter two are limited to 500 purchasers each.) All registered Silver, Gold, and Platinum attendees receive a complimentary copy of the 17th EverQuest expansion pack, as well as the 7th EverQuest II expansion.

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Free Realms Gets a Ring On It for First Birthday

That little Sony Online game that just won’t stop, Free Realms, has surpassed 10 million registered players in less than a year. Getting that kind of Diamond before your first birthday is kind of a big deal! Starting this month, players will see party decorations in various areas, and live community events, minigames, party hats, and avatar t-shirts will be available soon to help celebrate. Fifteen birthday quests will also be available. One of the funnest-sounding events will be a large-scale cake fight to prevent the bash from being ruined by Cakenstein, a giant cake monster! (I’m not sure how a giant beast made of cake could possibly be bad, but they say it is, so I’ll just have to agree.) SOE is also running a Double Station Cash Weekend where players pop into select retailers to purchase Station Cash cards (excluding Starter Cards), which can be redeemed between Friday,

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“Free Realms” Gets Its 8 Millionth Player, Starts Month-Long Festival of Hearts

Sony Online Entertainment today announced that more than eight million unique users have registered to play Free Realms, its free-to-play massively-multiplayer online video game (recently nominated for Best New Social/Online Game at the Game Developers Choice Awards). That's approaching 75% of the World of Warcraft userbase in less than a year, people.

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“EverQuest II: Sentinel’s Fate” Information, Screenshots, and More

Last night, Sony Online Entertainment hosted a virtual tour of some environments in its latest EverQuest II expansion, Sentinel’s Fate. I took the chance to take about a zillion screenshots of that (I apologize ahead of time for the quality, but the guy hosting had to turn his graphics down a fair bit for the stream). I put those in a slideshow with another zillion official Sony screenshots in the slideshow below. But now, a little more information about what I saw. The Sentinel expansion features a higher level cap (90), new overland zones (The Sundered Frontier and Stonebrunt Highlands), 12 new dungeons, 400 new quests (you will supposedly be able to have multiple active quests), five new Heritage Quests, more 2x and 4x raid zones, 2,000 new weapons/armor/items, alternate advancement abilities, and hundreds of new creatures. On our tour, we saw parts of a brand-new zone where you basically

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EverQuest Gamers Buy Items For Haiti

Last week, Sony Online Entertainment, home of blockbuster MMORPG franchise EverQuest, set a goal of raising $25,000 for Haiti relief effors. How long did it take? Only three days. Players snatched up special Haiti Relief items over the MLK Day holiday weekend to quickly raise the cash, which was donated to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development fund. This is SOE’s second charity project of the year. The first involved a month-long drive that resulted in raising over $26,000 for Child’s Play, which provides children with age-appropriate toys at over 70 hospitals worldwide. The Child’s Play drive took a whole month to raise what the Haiti drive got in three days. Gamers are clearly picking up on the gravity of the situation and responding appropriately (either that or they really wanted the exclusive items, but I sincerely hope it’s the former).

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