EverQuest Continues Exponential Growth After Four Years With Record Setting 118,000 Simultaneous Users

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, announced today that it has seen significant growth in the number of simultaneous user base and recently set a new record of 118,000 simultaneous players, almost four years after the game was launched. In addition, the company is opening a brand new EverQuest® server, Maelin Starpyre, and for the first time ever, will offer full character transfers from existing servers including all equipment, acquired items and experience. Transfers are subject to certain restrictions.

"We have consistently hit over 100,000 simultaneous players over the last few months and see now as the perfect time to bring our user base to the next level with a new server," said Michael Lustenberger, director of product marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. "New servers expand the potential user base of the game, offering new EverQuest players an opportunity to enter our unique game world, while giving loyal players a different experience with a new group of people from around the world."

The new server, Maelin Starpyre, is a standard rules server with a non-standard character transfer service available. Normally, when a new server opens in EverQuest, there is a waiting period of six months before character transfers may be requested to the new server, and characters are transferred without any items or gear. For the first time ever, characters can be transferred to the new Maelin Starpyre server with all of their items.

The Maelin Starpyre server is scheduled to go live today before noon Pacific Standard Time. Please visit the Maelin Starpyre Character Transfer Service page for full details, fees and restrictions at: https://store.station.sony.com/eq_item_moves/index.jsp

About EverQuest

With more than 430,000 active subscribers, EverQuest, developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment Inc., launched in 1999 and has since become a gaming and cultural phenomenon. Continuing to grow with award-winning expansions The Ruins of Kunark®, The Scars of Velious®, The Shadows of Luclin™ and The Planes of Power™, EverQuest proves to be the largest 3D fantasy world ever created online. During peak periods, more than 100,000 simultaneous adventurers have explored the fully detailed fantasy world of Norrath filled with dragons, knights, wizards, and more. The active global EverQuest subscriber base is comprised of players from 40 different countries including the U.S., England, Canada, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, France, Italy and Australia.

About Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), the online gaming division of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, is a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming that creates, develops and provides online entertainment for the personal computer, console, wireless, and online markets. With more than 13 million registered users, SOE's award-winning website, The Station® (www.station.com ) hosts a variety of entertaining games and player communities spanning numerous genres. In addition to blockbuster hit EverQuest®, SOE has an array of cutting-edge online games in development such as PlanetSide™, Star Wars Galaxies™, EverQuest® II, and the world's premier online-only console game for the PlayStation®2, EverQuest® Online Adventures™.

SOURCE: Sony Online Entertainment, Inc.

CONTACT: Sean Kauppinen, +1-858-577-3387, skauppinen@soe.sony.com, or
Tamara Sanderson, +1-858-577-3362, tsanderson@soe.sony.com, both of Sony
Online Entertainment

Web site: https://store.station.sony.com/eq_item_moves/index.jsp

Web site: http://www.station.com/