Monolith’s FEAR Technology to Power Next-Gen

Monolith’s FEAR Technology to Power Next-Gen

Fans of the Wachowskis’ films must not know where to look at the moment – except for at the woman in the red dress. After all, yesterday, Atari announced their next Neo-focused foray into The Matrix, while today Sega are preparing to start the beta testing of their MMORPG, The Matrix Online.

Created by Monolith, and Larry and Andy Wachowski, The Matrix Online takes the story beyond the films into a persistent web-based world where each character can choose their tribe, pick their side and take part in bullet-time shoot outs and kung fu kick offs.

More importantly, Sega have finally confirmed that the game will launch in the US on 22 March and in Britain on 8 April. Developer Monolith is working on a next-generation console title using the technology behind its PC first-person shooter F.E.A.R, according to director of technology Kevin Stephens.

When pressed as to whether that meant Monolith had next-gen dev kits and were working on games for future consoles, Stephens joked, “You’d think so!” He then went on to elaborate a little further. “I should just mention we do have multiple game teams, and there is a game coming up that hasn’t been announced yet that will be announced. And that’ll answer your question,” he said.

That game is not likely to be a port of F.E.A.R, however. Having been restrained from answering a lot of specific questions about the PC version by a PR minder throughout the interview, it’s extremely unlikely that a comment potentially joining the dots between next-generation console development and currently PC-only Vivendi product F.E.A.R would be allowed to slip out in the same discussion.