A mysterious 18-day countdown clock appeared on the official Planetside Web site today, leaving the fan community to predict a sequel announcement is finally drawing near

It's been a long time since we've heard anything about the rumored Planetside sequel, based on the original MMO-FPS hybrid launched by Sony Online Entertainment in 2003. So when a mysterious 18-day countdown clock appeared on the official Planetside Web site last night, community fansites like Planetside Universe were buzzing with speculation; could this finally be the announcement of a sequel, or on the other hand, could it mean the official Planetside servers are about to be closed after all these years? Based on last year's interviews and press announcements from SoE, our money is on the former.

Last fall SoE president John Smedley confirmed that a sequel MMO (codenamed "Planetside Next") was under-development. "Planetside Next means we get a chance to take the essence of everything that was fun in Planetside and make it a lot better," Smedley wrote in his blog. "Massive battles on a scale no other FPS will touch. None of this 64 player stuff. REALLY MASSIVE. With much better organization, and a tight focus on making sure the action is always going on, with awesome graphics."

Coupled with earlier reports like this one, the Planetside fan community has remained confident that SoE is committed to a sequel, despite the lack of news throughout the past few months. Hopefully the nondescript countdown clock on the official site will end with a major Planetside 2 announcement, perhaps with in-game screenshots or even a teaser video. For more information about one of the industry's first MMOFPS titles, check out our retrospective editorial, "Planetside: SOE's Forgotten MMO?" and be sure to visit ZAM's Planetside portal site for more news as the countdown continues!