Mac gamers hungry for multiplayer online role playing games rejoiced last month when it was announced that Sony would finally bring EverQuest, its hugely popular game, to the Macintosh. Now Station.com, the official home of Sony online gaming, has launched a Web page that offers some details about the forthcoming game.
The Web page is essentially a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list that offers some answers to questions you may have.
Sony said that the EverQuest for Mac package — due out for Mac OS X sometime next Spring — will include the original game plus three expansion packs, The Ruins of Kunark, The Scars of Velious and The Shadows of Luclin. That means that Mac games will gain access to more than 150 zones in the game from the outset, according to Sony, as well as benefit from upgraded and enhanced graphics only provided to PC users who have purchased The Shadows of Luclin expansion pack.
Sony added that the retail package itself will be priced similarly to “premium Macintosh games,” while Mac users will pay the same as PC users do for access to the game’s online world.
Sony also detailed its decision to segregate Mac users from PC users by putting them on different servers. Their top reason for doing was to put Mac EverQuest players “on an even playing field” with each other, rather than throw them into a world already populated by PC users with vast more experience and capabilities than themselves — a decision that has alternately drawn praise and criticism from Mac gamers.
Sony also said that Mac users who already have PCs and EverQuest accounts will not be able to import their PC characters into the Mac environment. “A fresh server set with existing rules provides the most balanced environment we can establish,” added Sony, “and we feel the gains in enjoyment of playability outweigh the potential negatives.”
Also, Sony outlined the projected system requirements for the game, which the company noted is being developed exclusively for Mac OS X. They estimate the finished game — still in the early stages of development at the studios of Westlake Interactive — will require a 600MHz or faster processor, 128MB RAM, and an OpenGL-compatible graphics system with 16MB of video RAM.
More questions and answers appear on the EverQuest Web site.