The game will feature huge persistent worlds that each support thousands of other players and varied terrain inspired by the environments of EQN. Most importantly, Landmark will provide anyone who wants to participate with the opportunity to actually build structures, and eventually create other types of content, to be considered for inclusion in EQN.

Whereas EverQuest Next uses a multi-classing system in which players collect and independently progress as many as 40 individual classes, EQ Landmark will have only one class - the Adventurer - which switches roles by switching weapons. A player might choose a sword and board to melee, and swap out to a staff for ranged DPS.

Player Studio support will begin for Landmark on or before May 1, 2014. As part of the rollout, for the first time ever, Player Studio creators in select regions outside of the United States will be able to submit in-game items across all Player Studio-supported games.

Player Studio offers enterprising gamers and creators the opportunity to create items that can be sold in the in-game marketplaces of their favorite SOE games and share in revenue generated by those sales. Previously, participation in Player Studio required that creators be based in the United States and skilled at creating items in 3D modeling software. With Landmark, SOE opens the door for many more players around the world to participate as they can build directly within the game itself, using Landmark's powerful and flexible toolset.

Creators in Landmark can save any of their creations -- a fantastic castle, a sleek alien space ship, or whatever they imagine -- directly to a template that, upon approval, can be sold within Player Studio. For players who dream of making a name for themselves as designers and creators, there is an opportunity for fame and fortune as they build their reputation within the community.

"Landmark offers powerful and intuitive tools that enable players to build just about anything they can imagine," said Dave Georgeson, Director of Development, EverQuest franchise. "Players who choose to participate will be able to make meaningful royalties by building in and playing the game they love. Our vision is that some prolific and talented creators will turn this into a full-time career."  

While the launch of Player Studio in Landmark has the potential to dramatically increase, by an order of magnitude, the number of players able to participate in the program, SOE is already seeing extensive participation from players in Player Studio as it currently exists in EverQuest, EverQuest II and PlanetSide 2.

Player Studio Quick Facts:

• Nearly 5,000 submissions have been submitted to SOE's Player Studio program as of March 2014.
• Players can currently create items across 17 different item categories in EverQuest, EverQuest II and PlanetSide 2. SOE is adding 18 more categories across all participating Player Studio games in the coming months.
• In PlanetSide 2 alone, Player Studio items represented more than 10 percent of total in-game item sales in January and February, and 35 percent of all cosmetic item sales.
• SOE players and creators are already making thousands of dollars in royalties from items they create in the program. 

Currently, participation in the Player Studio program is only available to residents of the United States. With the launch of Player Studio in Landmark this spring, SOE will introduce new updates to the program for all supported titles that will simplify and expedite the Player Studio registration process and also allow international players to participate. The program is planned to roll out soon to residents of Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and is expected to be available in additional countries later this year. An SOE Station account is required to create items for Player Studio.