Neowin.net

If you picked up the latest issue of PC Gamer then you already knew this, but Sony Online Entertainment has made it official today: EverQuest II is in the works. Scheduled for release in Winter 2003, EverQuest II will offer significant changes to the online MMORPG that is so addictive that its users have sometimes referred to it as crack (see this press release for more details). Among them are the following major changes:

• A brand new 3D engine which takes full advantage of a wide variety of recent technological advances in 3D hardware/software such as per pixel lighting, dynamic environment mapping, and a fully programmable surface shader system.
  
• More intuitive gameplay features appeal to both new and seasoned players.
  
• New branching class structure that players define as they advance through the game·
  
• Vast world of Norrath revisits familiar locations and introduces a variety of newly discovered areas in the Age of Destiny, a time period in the future of the original EverQuest.
  
• Increased character customization capabilities allow players to customize characters' faces, hair, and body types to create truly unique avatars.
  
• Deeper character development offering pacing options that cater to game players new to the role-playing genre as well as experienced role-players.
  
• Non-confrontational means of character advancement that including a completely new tradesman character class.
  
• Rideable mounts and vehicles to own and control, including horses and boats, make traversing the massive world of Norrath faster than before.
  
• Norrathian real estate for players to call their own.
  
• All-new tradeskill/crafting system.
  
• Completely new and tactically rich combat, spell and skill systems
  
• A completely revised and enhanced quest system
  
• Dynamic world environment shaped by player events.

News source: GameSpyDaily
View: Press Release

But underscoring the strength of its business, Overture raised its full-year 2002 forecast, predicting about half a billion dollars in revenue.

No financial details were released about the AOL deal, but Google Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called it a revenue-sharing model.

''This is an important endorsement of our advertising model and the way our customers view us,'' Schmidt said. He downplayed the speculation of an initial public offering, but said, ''Our business outlook is very good and this AOL deal will help us.''

Several analysts said Google needed a high-profile partner to boost its paid-listing business, which remains only a fraction the size of Overture's, while AOL hopes to leverage Google's immense popularity as a search engine to boost its business.

''They both got something out of the deal,'' said Safa Rashtchy, an analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. He estimated Overture, however, still retains about 80 percent of the paid-search business.

Unlike Overture, an all-commercial placement business, Google has spent most of its efforts on building a business based on returning relevant search results.

But as online advertising collapsed, some of the Internet's biggest companies have begun selling ads to appear next to search results.

The practice has been controversial, since the paid listings are given prominent placement and critics say often are not clearly labeled as advertising, which is confusing to Web users.

Overture allows advertisers to bid for best placement; Google uses the bid process, too, but considers relevancy and popularity, measured by click-throughs, as factors.

Google, which hired Schmidt, the former Novell CEO, in August, is among one of the valley's few remaining Internet growth stories.

It has doubled the number of employees to 380 in the past year, and is searching for new headquarters. After announcing it was hiring on its Web site, résumés flowed in at the rate of 1,000 a day. And its popularity among people who search the Web -- the No. 2 online activity after e-mail -- was underscored when ''The West Wing'' character Josh in a recent episode suggested a colleague use Google to do a search.

Google's ability to combine highly relevant search results and a money-making proposition for cash-starved Internet companies is a powerful business model, said Danny Sullivan of Searchenginewatch.com.

''It's an easy all-in-one solution,'' Sullivan said.

But even as Overture's stock price plummeted after the announcement, Rashtchy said Overture still controls 80 percent of the portal and non-portal paid-search business. ''This is all overblown,'' he said.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Paul Kim said while the AOL deal puts Google in the mainstream of paid search, the company remains ''a barnacle on a whale'' when compared with its much larger partners, casting doubt on the company's influence in deal making.

The biggest loser may be Foster-City based Inktomi, which is also being replaced by Google as a search provider to AOL's main site and its CompuServe arm.

While disappointed, Inktomi's AOL contract represents less than 10 percent of Inktomi revenue, a spokeswoman said.