Boo! It's Time for a Super Spooktacular Halloween in the Free Online Game Free Realms™

Sony Online Entertainment's Online Gaming Catalog Offers Players Virtual Trick-or-Treating, Holiday Themed Quests, Spooky Decorations, and Ghoulish Minigames

PRNewswire
SAN DIEGO
10/16/2009

From ghosts, goblins and creepy cobwebs to candy corn costumes, Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) gears up for its biggest virtual Halloween event of the season. Today, the hit online game Free Realms™ introduces its latest game update, Super Spooktacular, featuring decorations, daily trick-or-treating, mummifying minigames, 14 new quests, 2 new trading card game Quest Packs and more than 35 new costumes for players and their pets.

"We are celebrating the first Halloween in Free Realms, with weeks of spooky activities and festive live events," said Andy Sites, senior producer at Sony Online Entertainment. "After a night of trick-or-treating the fun doesn't have to end. Dressed as a chicken, mummy, witch or any of the other crazy costumes available, kids can explore virtual neighborhoods with millions of friends from the safety of their own home."

Super Spooktacular is scheduled to run from October 14th through November 11th. For detailed information on Super Spooktacular, please visit www.FreeRealms.com.

Along with Free Realms, SOE's online titles, EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, Legends of Norrath® and Star Wars™ Galaxies are also scheduled to host a variety of in-game Halloween events:

EverQuest: Hungry halflings, wandering vampires and necromancers unite! Harvester's Haunt has arrived with brand new quests and holiday-themed rewards. Players can track down the gravedigger, Edmund Strangeways in the Plane of Knowledge who's been asking the brave to venture into Norrath and dig up corpses. Adventurers who seek more fun can try making candy apples or see a holiday merchant for costumes and special treats. Harvester's Haunt is scheduled to run from October 24th through November 7th. For detailed information, please visit www.eqplayers.com.

EverQuest II: Nights of the Dead returns to EverQuest II with an all new Haunted Hedgemaze zone in Nektulos Forest which also includes a new holiday collection! Get lost in the Haunted Mansion in Loping Planes, trick-or-treat in the big cities and enjoy decorations and haunted homes in both Qeynos and Freeport. Players can buy a costume illusion from holiday merchants and reap great rewards from Nights of the Dead events, including Ponchy's quest line in Antonica. Experience the midnight banquets and groovy ghoulies that wander the streets during Nights of the Dead. You may get more than you bargained for! Nights of the Dead is scheduled to run from October 16th through November 9th. For detailed information, please visit www.eq2players.com.

Legends of Norrath: Save the Halfling citizens of Rivervale from an invasion of brain-eating zombies. Anticipated to run between October 15th and November 11th, players will face a horde of zombies and their leader, Eater of Brains, in an all-new Legends of Norrath scenario, Brraaaaaainss!, created just for Halloween. New and existing players alike are invited to bring their best decks and try this free scenario that rewards with Halloween treats. Players who successfully keep the Halflings alive and destroy their opponent's avatar or who complete the four quests to win the game will receive powerful promo cards and helpful loot cards for EverQuest or EverQuest II. For detailed information, please visit www.legendsofnorrath.com.

Star Wars Galaxies: When the crypt goes creak and the tombstones outside the cantina quake, you'll know it's time for the Galactic Moon Festival! Scheduled to begin on October 20, residents of Star Wars Galaxies can take a shuttle to Moenia and Mos Eisley and celebrate the Galactic Moon Festival in style...if you dare. That's right fright fans, the Festival has returned! We have added several new costumes this year including Salacius Crum, Gamorrean Guard and that's right - by popular request the Burning Ewok costume! For detailed information, please visit http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/.

All throughout the month of October, Halloween-themed events are scheduled to take place in the virtual worlds of your favorite SOE games. Exact dates vary by title. Please log on to respective game sites for more information.

About Free Realms

Free Realms is a free-to-play, family-friendly online video game that has more than five million registered players engaged in the whimsical virtual world. In Free Realms, players can customize their characters and play a wide variety of minigames in a safe, online environment, packed with stunning visuals, distinctive environments, and social networking capabilities. Fun for the entire family, players are free to do or be anything: Become a ninja, cook a yummy meal, battle goblins, set out on epic quests or connect with friends through a safe, social networking page. Free Realms also features a trading card game playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and through a physical game available in the US wherever trading cards are sold!

Free Realms is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up with content descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence. To play Free Realms, visit: http://www.freerealms.com/.

About Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers around the globe. SOE creates, develops and provides compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchises and hit titles including EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, Champions of Norrath®, Untold Legends™, and PlanetSide®, as well as for developing Star Wars Galaxies™, SOE continues to redefine the business of online gaming and the creation of active player communities while introducing new genres on various entertainment platforms. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, with additional development studios in Austin, TX; Seattle, WA; Denver, CO; Tucson, AZ and Taiwan, SOE has an array of cutting-edge games in development.

About Star Wars Galaxies

Star Wars Galaxies, developed and published by LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment, is one of the longest-running and most popular online experiences, bringing gamers of all ages and skill levels together in the ultimate Star Wars journey. Begin aboard the Millennium Falcon helping Han Solo and Chewbacca fend off the notorious Darth Vader. Along the way, join with Star Wars characters on missions that span the galaxy. Ally with the Rebels to fight against the Galactic Empire, or join forces with the dark side and crush the Rebel scum. Heroic adventurers can seek their fortune in space or on the ground as a bounty hunter, smuggler, Jedi or a host of other unique Star Wars professions.

About LucasArts

LucasArts, a division of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd., is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide for video game console systems, computers and the Internet. Based in San Francisco, Calif., as well as on the Internet at www.lucasarts.com, LucasArts was created in 1982 by George Lucas to provide an interactive element to his vision of a state-of-the-art, multifaceted entertainment company.

LucasArts and the LucasArts logo are registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars Galaxies is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. © 2002-2009 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or TM as indicated. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

Star Wars™ and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

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SOURCE: Sony Online Entertainment LLC

CONTACT: Taina Rodriguez of Sony Online Entertainment, +1-858-577-3033,
trodriguez@soe.sony.com, or for assets, www.SOEpress.com

Web Site: http://www.freerealms.com/
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/
http://www.eqplayers.com/
http://www.legendsofnorrath.com/