Sony is taking credit for the existence of the hottest MMORPG around, World of Warcraft, saying that had it not been for their Everquest, WoW would not have existed to wow the gaming world as it does today. Lead designer Ryan Barker shares some choice words on the matter.

A couple of days ago, Square Enix revealed that they will be showing three unannounced games at their E3 presentation. Today, we gathered word that one of these three games is actually an MMO title  -- exclusively for the PlayStation 3, as far as the consoles are concerned at least.

Earlier today, Sony Online Entertainment announced that the free-to-play, family-friendly MMO Free Realms now has more than two million registered users since its April 28 launch. As expected, Free Realms struck gold with young users, with 75% of registrants being under 17, and 46% under 13. More in the full article.

Enter the world of Free Realms - the colorful and magical free-to-play MMORPG for the the PS3 and PC. Taking us for a tour today are the masterminds at Sony Online Entertainment, and they talk about putting all the elements together to create the Realm, the gameplay features, what Free Realms has to offer in the face of all the other free-to-play MMORPGs out there.

EverQuest senior producer Clint Worley of Sony Online Entertainment is announcing that there's going to be a new server ruleset for the EQ fans. The decision for the new EQ ruleset was based on a poll which ended the other week - see, developers do listen! The new server ruleset now allows players to create level 50 characters for some high-end content on the get-go. Though this seems to be the most requested item on the poll, things don't seem to be all that peachy in terms of progression - progression server, that is.

Yes folks, the QJ Giveaway spree is well underway! SOE gave us a ton of beta keys so that people can try out their upcoming Free Realms MMORPG, and already, we've been able to roll out the first batch of keys to our lucky QJ.NET readers - congrats guys, you know who you are! More beta keys strung up on our belts and chains, meaning everyone's still more than welcome to join in on the fun! We've even included a full 10-minute dev walkthrough of the game in the full article, just to get you guys started. Have fun!

Everybody loves getting in on a game early, and what better way to do that than with beta keys? Since we love you guys so much, we're giving away the Free Realms  PC beta keys we have in our possession so that you can go and explore the game's extremely open world before anyone else.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) president John Smedley has said that he believes MMO gaming on the PS3 will bring in a lot of new players, and these players will in turn account for up to half of SOE's business. More from Smedley after the jump.

The New Year is just about here... which means the majority of the QJ news team is out boozing it up, getting tipsy and declaring their love for each other between spurts of uncontrollable giggling. That doesn't mean they haven't left a few coherent words. Our own Gino D wanted to make a statement detailing his thoughts on new IP's, this year, and looking into the next.

What are the lowly denizens of QJ looking forward to in 2009? We highlight the games coming next year (hopefully) that get us all hot under the collar.

Do you agree? Think we're raving loonies? Got suggestions of your own? Sally forth good readers, and let us know what you think.