The Agency, Sony Online Entertainment’s upcoming MMOFPS last seen at E3 2010, has met an early end as Sony Online Entertainment has announced its cancellation, in addition to the closure of several of Sony Online Entertainment’s studios.
Sony Online Entertainment has been since E3 2010 on The Agency‘s development; a tie-in Facebook game, titled The Agency: Covert Ops, was released in early 2010 and has been receiving infrequent updates since July.
With over half a year of silence, a cancellation comes as little surprise. Still, The Agency was new ground for Sony Online Entertainment, offering the developer a chance to break new ground into the still growing MMOFPS subniche and capitilize on the inner spy hidden in the minds of thousands of gamers.
It may be likely that we will see much of the same design and effort put into The Agency reappear in Planetside Next, a title that SOE has not left behind in the wake of today’s confirmed layoffs and intends to focus on, along with EverQuest, according to its official statement.
That's bad news for the people laid off and those who were looking forward to The Agency, but I think it might have been a good idea for SOE to pull back a bit and re-focus on their flagship titles.
The modern setting and spy theme seemed interesting, but I wonder if that wouldn't have put it in competition against The Secret World (modern setting and secret societies theme). There's a lot of market for fantasy and sci-fi games, but so far, the market hasn't been especially kind to "real life"/modern sorts of settings. I am not sure if there was room in the market for both The Agency and The Secret World.