PlanetSide 2 lands November 20

The war is nearly here. Sony Online Entertainment has announced that its free-to-play online PC shooter PlanetSide 2 will launch November 20. Previously, the game was expected to release sometime later this year.

PlanetSide 2 was announced in July 2011 and features a backstory written by award-winning comics writer Marv Wolfman.

The game is successor to SOE's original subscription-based MMO shooter released in 2003. The studio is hoping to dramatically expand on that game's scope with this sequel, which will run on the newly built Forgelight Engine.

PlanetSide 2 will be a "reimagining" of the original, which chronicled a futuristic conflict on the embattled planet of Auraxis between three different factions: the Terran Republic, the New Conglomerate, and the Vanu Sovereignty. Players will advance through battle ranking levels while acquiring equipment certifications for both different weapon types and different classes of vehicle.

For more on PlanetSide 2, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.