Sony Online Entertainment Breaks New Ground With First 'Wikia Official Community' For Upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online First-Person Shooter Video Game PlanetSide®2

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, has joined forces with Wikia, the collaborative media company, home to some of the largest fan communities on the Web, to launch the first-ever 'Wikia Official Community' for the highly-anticipated MMOFPS PlanetSide®2. Under the new partnership, SOE and Wikia will collaborate with the player base through official Wikia communities to empower players to help each other succeed in games, and offer them another direct line of communication and support to SOE's Community and Development teams. PlanetSide 2 players and Wikia users will also be offered a wide range of exclusive and unique official content, such as videos, interviews, chats, game guides, and more.

"Teaming up with Wikia was the natural next step for us in providing the necessary tools to further embrace and empower our players," said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment. "This new partnership is truly about community collaboration, and Wikia's reputation and respect for its dedicated global network of players offered the ideal platform for SOE to further support its players and the community. We are excited and looking forward to the creative and compelling ways fans will utilize this custom channel to expand community engagement outside of the game."

By publishing official and community driven content alongside actual game development, SOE is forging new territory by endorsing fan communities to create, engage and collaborate around their favorite game with the developers throughout production. SOE and Wikia are working together to develop and design the official PlanetSide 2 wiki that will allow fans and gaming enthusiasts to contribute unique and valuable content on a regular basis to be seen by the community at large.  The partnership and official fan wiki will allow both companies to embrace and further empower their communities by creating a meaningful two-way flow of valuable information.

"We are thrilled that SOE, which understands the power of the community, is launching their first of many official communities amidst our very enthusiastic and knowledgeable network of fans," said Craig Palmer, CEO for Wikia. "As our lifestyle, gaming and entertainment communities continue to grow and populate, we look forward to an active PlanetSide 2 community as a model for the best user generated collaborative content on the web."

As part of its dedication to supporting existing community efforts, SOE has also designated EQ2i, one of the longest-running and well-populated Wikia sites, as its official Wiki for the popular MMO, EverQuest® II.

"We want to work with vibrant, existing Wikia communities at the grass-roots level," said Linda Carlson, Director of Global Community Relations, Sony Online Entertainment. "Partnering with sites such as EQ2i serves to recognize and support the efforts of thousands of dedicated fans on Wikia, be they individuals, guilds or fan-sites. It's about time, and we can hardly wait to get started!"

The Official Communities will complement Wikia's already recognized 250,000+ wikis on the site, ranging in subjects from pop culture, fashion, TV to sports.  Wikia Video Games, is the leading source of global video game content on the Web today and is home to some of the largest video game communities, accounting for over 50,000 gaming wikis and 2.48 million pages of gaming content, averaging over 25,000 user edits each day. The Wikia Official Community will utilize new curation features, while continuing to engage players in traditional wiki formats around large-scale and social video gaming.

About Wikia:
Wikia is a trusted and customizable platform designed for those who want to create and participate in collaborative media. It is the definitive place for people to collaboratively contribute to the assembly of original bodies of content that further people's understanding of the world we live in.

Using Wikia, anyone can form new communities around any subject they love or participate in over 250,000 existing communities by reading or contributing new content. With over 20 million pages of rich content, Wikia's communities are the most authoritative information about any topic on the Internet. 

Wikia's video game vertical (www.wikia.com/video_games) is the number one global video-game focused network on the Web. Its entertainment vertical (www.wikia.com/entertainment) is the fastest growing US entertainment destination around the world. Wikia Lifestyle (www.wikia.com/lifestyle) offers a broad range of collaborative content, from travel to food and beverage.

Launched as Wikia in 2006 by founders Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley, Wikia attracts more than 60 million global unique visitors per month and is ranked a Top 50 Internet site according to Quantcast.

About Sony Online Entertainment
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games.  Best known for its blockbuster hits and franchises, including EverQuest^®, EverQuest^® II, Champions of Norrath^®, PlanetSide^®, Free Realms^®, Star Wars^®: Clone Wars Adventures™, and DC Universe Online™, SOE creates, develops and provides compelling online entertainment for a variety of platforms. SOE is building on its proven legacy and pioneering the future of online worlds through creative development and inspired gameplay design for audiences of all ages. To learn more, visit www.soe.com.

SOE, the SOE logo, EverQuest, Champions of Norrath, PlanetSide, and Free Realms are registered trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Matt Clark/Courtney Greenberg
DKC Public Relations, Marketing & Government Affairs 
212-685-4300
[email protected] / [email protected]

Michele Sturdivant Cagle
Sony Online Entertainment
858-577-3167
[email protected]

SOURCE Wikia