Petroglyph's MMORTS due next year

It's been nearly three years since Trion Worlds first established itself by announcing a development slate of three games. Formed in 2006 by ex-Electronic Arts exec Lars Buttler and Heroes of Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, Trion announced one of those games would be a collaboration with the SyFy channel and another would be a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy title from Star Wars: Empire at War studio Petroglyph Games.

This week, Trion offered first word on its remaining mystery project, as well as dished out new details concerning its development deal with Petroglyph. Trion's MMORTS collaboration with Petroglyph is also expected to arrive for the PC next year. Titled End of Nations, the RTS features a persistent online world in which gamers can engage in solo or multiplayer combat with "thousands of other gamers across the gigantic battlefields."

Details on Petroglyph's latest effort remain light. However, Trion did note that players will be able to develop their own commanders and establish a headquarters. Gamers will also be able to unlock new vehicles, weapons, and technologies through combat, as well as crafting and researching.

Of its heretofore unspecified project, Trion said that the massively multiplayer online role-playing game will be titled Rift: Planes of Telara. Described as a dynamic fantasy MMORPG, the game is expected to launch for the PC in 2011.

As its title might suggest, the game's premise is that of "rifts" in space-time that are playing havoc with the land of Telara and threatening to tear the fabric of the universe. Trion noted that the world will be highly malleable, as these rifts can be triggered by players or the development team, and they can also occur spontaneously. Their arrival will apparently alter the landscape, as well as open up new areas for exploration.

Unfortunately, the game company remained largely tight-lipped about its ambitious project with the NBC Universal-owned SyFy channel. The action-oriented MMOG will be a new intellectual property that will have a presence in both the game and a television show simultaneously. It will offer a "shared universe of characters, alien races, organizations, environments, [and] technologies," where the actions of the players will impact events in the TV show, and vice versa.

Trion has yet to officially attach a platform or release date for the project. However, as part of a handful of job listings last year, the publisher indicated that its SyFy project would appear on the PlayStation 3.