Red 5 MMO is evolving, time-based

The heads of Red 5 Studios - a developer formed three years ago around a kernel of ex-Blizzard, ex-World of Warcraft staff - have given told Gamasutra a little about what to expect about their mysterious first project.

WOW team lead and chief creative officer Mark Kern said that the game - long in development, but still under wraps - would be more concerned with creating a world that would change over time based on player's actions, rather than a huge geographical space.

"We want players to actually change the state of the game over time. Time is a very important concept to our game," Kern said.

"We play with it in any number of ways. It is probably our key form of persistence, more than, say, geography... It's more about how this world evolves over time, versus how big your world might be."

Kern promised that the much-anticipated MMO would finally be revealed "in the coming months" and that the company does "intend to have a game that appeals as much to the East as it does to the West".

Chief executive Michael Weingartner added that the company wasn't worried about the difficulty other games, such as Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa and Warhammer Online, are experiencing launching against WOW - and implied they weren't in the same league as Red 5's title.

"We always think there is a market for a strong, triple-A title," Michael Weingartner. "I don't think that any of the titles you just listed really fall into where we're going, where our interests are. So, that said, I don't think the current trend... worries us too much."

Either way, Red 5's pedigree means that MMO watchers will be keeping close tabs on the game, along with the unannounced projects at fellow Blizzard refugees Carbine, and 38 Studios, formed by baseball player and EverQuest nut Curt Schilling. Expect all three to be revealed this year.