The Agency

UPDATE: SOE has officially announced that "it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios." The company is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can "focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties." Its current portfolio of games will not be affected. Check out the full announcement after the jump.

According to Kotaku, Sony Online Entertainment has closed three studios and will lay off nearly one third of its workforce. While SOE hasn't released an official statement, Kotaku says they confirmed through "a source familiar with the matter" that the closures affect the Seattle, Tucson and Denver offices. In addition, the source stated that numerous employees in the Austin and San Diego offices have also been let go from their positions.

The rumor began spreading last night when Goerge Broussard of Duke Nukem fame tweeted, "Word that Sony Online Entertainment Seattle is having layoffs and that studio closure is possible." He quickly followed that by saying, "To be more clear, the layoffs may be SOE wide and not just limited to Seattle. So, Austin, San Diego, etc..."

Broussard's latest tweet on the matter, which was posted 12 hours ago, said "SOE Seattle and other studios (Denver is rumored) will be closed tomorrow. Good luck to all impacted."

Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley has shed some light on the release schedule for the company's upcoming games. In an interview with Eurogamer, Smedley said that that the game codenamed PlanetSide Next doesn't have an announced release date tied to it yet, but SOE is "looking at late first-quarter, early second-quarter [2011]."

Smedley stated in his blog last month that SOE will make announcement about the PlanetSide sequel early this year, followed by a beta. He also apparently let it slip to the Escapist's Greg Tito last month that the game may be coming out in March 2011.

Smedley goes on to confirm to Eurogamer that The Agency is still expected to come out late this year, but declined to give a specific date since SOE wants "to make sure it's as good as it can be." He also said that he expects Free Realms to arrive on the PlayStation 3 next month in North America and in March in Europe. He emphasized that those time frames are only a guess and have not been confirmed.

Smedley ended the interview by hinting that SOE has "a lot" of unannounced projects in the works. "We're constantly in development on things. We are a company that wants to make new experiences for players so needless to say that we're working on that hard," he said.

News regarding The Agency, Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming spy-themed MMO, has been sparse as of late. The most recent bit of information we've heard about the game came from Skunkworks' Nathan Pearce at GDC Online in October, and he didn't have much to say aside that the team is hard at work on the game. Before that, we were treated to a short trailer at E3 in June. That's pretty much it.

Well, it turns out there's a reason for the lack of news. In an interview with Kotaku, SOE President John Smedley said that The Agency has been delayed until the second half of 2011 because it needed a lot of work:

"There was a moment in time in our company where we looked at our own stuff with a clear eye and saw we have to do better," he said of the delay. "DC Universe was held for a year-and-a-half from when we wanted to launch it and now I'm very happy with it."

So there you have it. It looks like we may hear some more Agency news next year. What are your thoughts on the game?

As part of GameBreaker TV's GDC Online coverage, host Gary Gannon had the opportunity to to talk with Nathan Pearce, the director of Skunkworks at Sony Online Entertainment, about numerous topics. Pearce acts as an internal consultant that keeps information flowing between the SOE studios. They talked about all sorts of SOE games, including DC Universe Online, The Agency, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, and EverQuest Next. Yes, that's right. EverQuest Next.

We saw more than 20 MMOs at the recent E3 2010 convention in Los Angeles. We participated in the spectacle by attending parties, touring booths and watching the booths babes ... and the games, of course. So that is why each year, we honor the best of the best from each show. Over the next few days, we'll unveil our winners. Here is the schedule:

Today:

• Best Real Life Game
• Best Fantasy Game
• Best Sci-Fi Game
• Best in Show

Day 1:

• Best Party
• Best Booth
• Best Family Game

Day 2:

• Best Trailer
• Biggest Surprise
• Best Demo

So stay with us all three days as we unveil the winners. In case you missed our coverage, you can check out the E3 index page.