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.

If things went differently, we could have actually been romping around Vana'diel and consorting with Shantotto on the PS3. Turns out that Square Enix had plans to release Final Fantasy XI on the PS3 as well. According to Hiromichi Tanaka, the PS3 version could have seen the light of day if only Sony didn't fall short on the bargain. More so, continuing plans of getting the MMORPG on the console are proving fruitless because PS2 backwards compatibility across all PS3 SKUs is looking quite impossible.

The end of physical media is nigh! That's according to Phil Harrison, at least. See, he's "pretty confident [kids] will never buy a physical media product" in the future - that's counting CDs, DVDs, games in boxes... Man, could you imagine talking to your future kid? "Err, daddy what's a dee-vee-dee? Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?"

Now they're truly your one-stop shop. 7-Eleven, the 24-hour convenience store, has announced that they are dipping into the gaming business by selling games in their branches. No, we don't mean those scratch-and-win types of games. Console ones. For real. Read up on it at the full article.

Good news for the PlayStation 3 crowd! Sony Online Entertainment has dispelled rumors that their upcoming spy-shooter MMO The Agency is canceled. The game is still alive and kicking.

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