Sony's online spy game 'The Agency' delayed until late 2011

07-Dec-2010 • Gaming

This week, exceedingly popular computer game World of Warcraft undergoes a cataclysm, reshaping not just the game's landscape but how you play in the game. But World of Warcraft's reboot is nothing compared to the turmoil the entire genre is undergoing, reports Kotaku.

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, once the home of fantasy, magic and swordplay, is increasingly diversifying to include not only new themes and settings to explore, but also new takes on what it means to role-play and how players interact.

"I think something very big is happening in online play in general," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment,

SOE is keeping a foot planted in the realm of big budget games with DC Universe Online currently in beta, preparing to go live soon. And spy versus spy MMO The Agency is still in the works despite significant delays.

Smedley says The Agency, which is now due out in the second half of next year (late 2011), needed a lot of work, so it was delayed.

"There was a moment in time in our company where we looked at our own stuff with a clear eye and saw we have to do better," he said of the delay. "DC Universe was held for a year-and-a-half from when we wanted to launch it and now I'm very happy with it."

MI6 Note: SOE launched the Facebook game "The Agency: Covert Ops" in May this year to help bridge the gap between before the game's release.