Sony Unveils "DC Universe Online"

July 31, 2008

Sony Entertainment Online, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics is developing the massively multiplayer online (MMO) action game "DC Universe Online" (DCUO). Details were revealed at this year's Comic-Con International held in San Diego.

Sony's "DC Universe Online" Offers Unique Game Action and Customization

"DC Universe Online" will allow players to create their own customized super hero or villain - down to apparel and personality traits - while wielding amazing powers in the name of good or evil as they write their own chapter in the DC universe. Supporting the game's distinctive, dynamic look is a physics-based combat system that sets it apart from traditional role-based MMO games.

With "DC Universe Online" characters will have virtual powers and players will be able to create unique situations as they play, whether it's flying around or deciding to pick up a bus to toss at a foe - which will affect other players in the vicinity - shooting blasts of energy from power rings, or running with incredible speed on the sides of skyscrapers. There is also potential for team/raid-based content and player versus player interaction.

"The rich, storied world of DC Comics has never been available to players like this before," said John Smedley, president of Sony Entertainment Online. "For the first time, gamers can actually open tht door and step into the vast world of DC Comics and choose their own fate. Who wouldn't want to infiltrate Batman's cave or fly over Metropolis as you speed toward a mission to help Superman?"

DC Comics' Jim Lee Involved in Creating "DC Universe Online"

Jim Lee, executive creative director for DC Comics, added "This is a one-of-a kind type of game, and a lot of love has already gone into it. DCUO will be able to tap into DC Comics, which goes back more than 70 years, and use it in ways that comic and gaming fans have never seen before. DCUO is in many ways a reinvention of the traditional MMO; it's a hybrid between the traditional MMO and a button-mashing, console-action game."

"DC Universe Online" (DCUO) Features

Key Features of "DC Universe Online" include: * Design based on the artwork and designs of Jim Lee

* Iconic DC Comic settings and characters, from Gotham City to Arkham Asylum, Batman to Blue Beetle

* Players can enter a persistent DC Universe and fight alongside their favorite heroes and villains to play their own adventure in the mythology of these characters and locales

* DCUO will be an online world that stays true to the DC Comics property and allows players to feel and act like super heroes or villains

* Physics-based fighting turns vehicles, streetlights, and other players into weapons, resulting in dynamic combat scenarios that are different every time "DC Universe Online" is being developed for the Playstation computer entertainment system and PC.