Sony Online Entertainment just confirmed during their live E3 stream that Station Access will soon be dropping to $19.99 per month from the current price of $29.99 per month. That means you can get access to all of SOE's games for a little more than the price of one game subscription!
We expect SOE to release more details on the price cut in the near future. Will you be taking advantage of this lower Station Access price once it's implemented?
Want to get up close and personal with the Sony Online Entertainment booth at E3? Well, here's your chance! SOE is hosting their first ever Live Cast straight from the E3 floor! Hosts Linda "Brasse" Carlson and Aimee "Ashlanne" Rekoske will bring you live to the 2011 SOE E3 booth. Meet the folks giving game demos and hear all about the SOE titles being shown.
Tune in today, June 8 at 2:00pm PDT as the team streams the webcast live on the SOE Stickam channel. You can also watch via the Stickam tab on the official SOE Facebook page.
SOE's Memorial Mania Player Appreciation Event starts tonight! The event runs from 12:01am Pacific May 27, 2011 through 11:59pm Pacific May 30, 2011. During that time redeem any SOE Pre-Paid Game Card and receive triple Station Cash!
According to Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence (on the EQII official forums), this promotion is only for Station Cash. Any card that offers Station Cash is eligible, but must be redeemed for SC. If you have the All-In-One card that works for SC or 30 days, you must redeem it for SC or you'll just get 30 days added to your account. It will not triple the subscription time.
Sony Online Entertainment just announced the in-game items that 2011 Fan Faire attendees can receive. Items are rewarded based on active subscriptions to the games they are offered for. Here's the list from the official SOE Facebook page:
EverQuest®
- Marionette Puppet Strings - These puppet strings will allow you to own the contract for a Marionette Mercenary!
- Exotic Mount Whistle - This exotic mount is from a far away undiscovered land!
- Gnomish Welcome Sign - This phosphorescent painted mechanical sign welcomes guests to your establishment!
EverQuest® II
- "Prismatic Cloud" – This magical rainbowed mount is sure to carry you all the way!
DC Universe™ Online
- Vegas Baby! Sequin Jacket - Vegas style headliner sequin jacket sure to get you noticed!
Star Wars Galaxies™
- Galactic Civil War Space Battle House Painting - A dynamic depiction of a fierce space battle in the ongoing Galactic Civil War!
Free Realms™
- Fan Faire 2011 T-Shirt (NEW)
- 200K Coins
- Lake Tree Lot
- Fire Pegasus Pet
- Fire Pegasus Ride
Make sure you register for Fan Faire by May 31st to get the Early Bird pricing special!
Registration for Sony Online Entertainment's 2011 Fan Faire has finally re-opened! The Fan Faire will run from July 7th - 9th at Bally's Las Vegas. Events include developer panels, tournaments, live quests and much more.
This year registrants have the choice between a Friday only, Saturday only or an All-Access pass for the entire weekend. The All-Access pass includes digital copies of EverQuest and EverQuest II's next expansion pack, special in-game items and access to special evening events at Fan Faire. All three types of passes include access to the showroom and developer panels, gift bags and daytime events.
Register for the All-Access pass by May 31st and get the Early Bird Special pricing of $119 USD! Head over to the official SOE Fan Faire website for more information on pricing and a preliminary schedule of events.
According to a banner on Sony Online Entertainment's website, SOE is planning a triple Station Cash event! SOE's Memorial Mania Player Appreciation Event will run from 12:01 Pacific May 27, 2011 through 11:59pm Pacific May 30, 2011. During that time redeem any SOE Pre-Paid Game Card and receive triple Station Cash!
Amnerys on the EQII official forums further clarified details of this promotion:
This promotion is only for Station Cash. Any card that offers Station Cash is eligible, but must be redeemed for SC. If you have the All In One card that works for SC or 30 days, you must redeem it for SC or you'll just get 30 days added to your account. It will not triple the subscription time. The offer is only to triple Station Cash. Occasionally we run promotions to move the cards in stores, which is why we sometimes exclude credit card and other purchases of SC. In order for the stores to keep our cards stocked, they have to see them selling. The best way to get them to sell is to run a promotion. This will also show that there's a demand for the card and will aid in getting the cards available in more places. It's just one of the things that businesses must consider when they have a retail presence. I know it's not fun for those who can't get cards locally yet, but we're trying to get to the point where the cards will be more readily available so even more can participate. Hope that makes sense!
At 7am PDT on Thursday, May 19 all SOE login servers, forum account access and more will be unavailable during a 2 hour maintenance. Here is the official announcement:
Beginning at 7 AM PDT on Thursday May 19, 2011, the Login Server, SOE Account and Commerce flow and the Station Store will be unavailable due to maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 2 hours. This may also cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.
We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.
Source: EQ Players
Amnerys on the EQII Forums later included a warning about zoning:
Update: If you zone during this maintenance, you could lose connection and not be able to log back in.
Now that Sony Online Entertainment's games have been up and running for a few days following a hacker attack, it's time once again for the latest episode of the Official SOE Podcast. In this installment, Linda “Brasse” Carlson and Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske discuss Star Wars Galaxies' bounty hunter update, as well as Fan Faire 2011. They even have an interview with a real Norrathian Orc.
You can click this link to download an mp3 of SOE Podcast episode 109.
Sony Online Entertainment just announced that it will be providing a complimentary 12 month identity protection program through Affinion International Limited for its eligible Station Account holders in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. More details can be found in the full press release after the jump.
As a reminder, SOE is also offering 12 months of AllClear ID PLUS at no cost to Station Account holders in the United States. This all stems from the hacker attack that kept SOE offline from May 2-14.
UPDATE: Players have now been able to login through Launchpad 1 (original game launchers) and the Streaming Launcher (EQ2/EQ2X). Station Launcher was lagging behind the other clients but is now allowing players to login.
EverQuest Online Adventures is still not up at this time. From an announcement on their forums:
Unfortunately, EverQuest Online Adventures will not be coming online just yet. We are working on returning the service as quickly as possible. Station Account subscription time will be extended accordingly.
Sony Online Entertainment's login servers are throwing off a wide variety of errors today to those attempting to login. Amongst the errors players have seen:
These issues are currently being looked into, as reported by TSR-JoshuaM:
We are currently looking in to what is causing the underaged user error for our players. This is happening for my own accounts here in the office as well. I apologize greatly for the inconvenience and we'll have it sorted as soon as possible. I will post any updates to this right here.
