UPDATE:---

**PLEASE CHECK POST #2 for VIDEOS!!**

I will add a written explanation about the game's features soon.

ORIGINAL POST:

http://www.twitch.tv/everquestnext

***Click the link above to bookmark the announcement page***

The Big news in the MMO genre of late, has been the imminent announcement and first look at SoE's fourth installment on the EverQuest franchise that is set for August 2, 2013 at 3pm EST, 12pm PDT at their annual SoE Live. 

(Other titles in the EverQuest franchise include... EverQuest(PC), EverQuest Online Adventures(PS2), EverQuest 2(PC), Champions of Norrath(PS2), Champions: Return to Arms(PS2), Legends of Norrath(PC), and Lords of EverQuest(PC) )

During the August 1st opening of the event that showed off the monumental 20th Expansion for the original EverQuest that first released in March of 1999, John Smedley of SoE introduced Jeremy Soule to the stage to give fans a sneak peak at his work on the musical score for EverQuest Next.

Jeremy Soule is most famously known for his exceptional work developing the entirety of the The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim soundtrack.

Both Jeremy and Smedley stressed that the musical score (below) was no where near completion and was all Synth and not yet recorded with real instruments, but they just wanted give the fans in attendance a little treat.

  (Check the second post for the video, or click HERE:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zzgrFFnavY )

EverQuest Next has had an interesting life cycle.   EQN was originally announced back in 2009 along side several pieces of concept art, and players were told that the game was making excellent progress.  However, back in 2011, SoE Announced that it was scrapping its then current build for EverQuest Next because it was looking like, "Too much of the same thing" and that they did not want to make the same game as someone else with shinier graphics, they wanted to do something bold and revolutionize the industry in the same way that the original EverQuest did back in 1999. 

Interestingly enough, this was about the same time that Sonys started shipping in house PS4 development kits.  In the August 1 keynote address, John Smedley hinted that the PS4 was a huge part of the companies future plans for their most popular franchises, starting with Planetside 2.

Smedley also hinted that players in EQN would have, "Unprecedented control over the world of Norrath", far above anything that has been seen in any game before... So im sure we can expect alot of player customization and world building in the new title.

Below is a series of Concept images released prior to the 2011 reboot of the game, how close to these images the current build is, is unknown...but enjoy none-the-less!

THIS FIRST IMAGE IS VERY RECENT!...It is a reinterpretation of an Original EverQuest piece of artwork.

ABOVE:-  Is an Ogre (or Troll) Character concept

ABOVE:- Above is a Dark Elf charcter concept

(Above is an ingame character model from 2009)

Pre-Alpha EverQuest Next Theme

Nice. I will certainly try this game on the PS4 alongside Planetside 2.

Bump for conference start

Tagging thread and watching conference now.

Tagged.

Watching now

Reveal is pretty mediocre so far. Nothing really new about it.

Multi classing? Yay a FFXI / FFXIV / Runescape concept.

I really hope you kept watching because WOOOOOOOOOW...um...its revolutionary.

I watched for quite a bit more when they were talking about the AI and destructability. Also made it into the minecraft clone but gave up.

It's a collection of cool ideas that sound good on paper but will likely fail when hundreds of players gather up. It's still quite early in development which is quite evident from what they showed, but I don't think it's going to be nearly as good as they think it is. Time will tell.