During El33tonline’s recent visit to Sony Online Entertainment’s Austin Studio in Texas, we had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Wes Yanagi, Senior Producer on DC Universe Online.

We go behind the scenes to find out what differentiates DC Universe Online from other MMO’s out there, what kind of continued support you can expect for your monthly subscription fee and more!

El33tonline: Why is it DC Universe Online and not Marvel Online? Did you ever consider using Marvel instead of DC Universe?

Wes Yanagi: Well this is a little bit before my time [on the project], but obviously this is a license that we don’t own or anything like that, so it was really based on the business transactions that happened, I think, it was part of when the Monolith guys were doing Matrix Online, and I think they were originally developing the DC Online game too, so it was part of the acquisition of Matrix Online and everything – that whole bundle came over to SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) – and then as part of that, during that process that’s when Jim Lee signed on board when we started working on this game, and then I came on shortly after that, probably about six months after that started. So we carried on from there.

I think at the time…I believe the Marvel license was actually in Microsoft’s hands, too, because I was at Microsoft at the time, and that was being developed either through…was it Cryptic and then it went over to some other company…Sigil I think.

So yeah, I don’t know if we had any opportunity to [use the Marvel license] even if we wanted to! [laughs]

El33tonline: As DC Universe Online is a subscription-based game, what kinds of continued support and extra content can we expect in the future, for example, will you be adding new scenarios based on special events for holidays?

Wes Yanagi: Oh yeah, absolutely! Absolutely! It’s going to be like what you would normally expect out of an MMO game. We’ll have seasonal events, we’ll have monthly updates, we’ll have little things that we can add like [the ability to] play as ‘Iconics,’ so we want to have focussed characters, and when we have sections where we might be introducing, say, for Valentine’s Day, if it was like a Poison Ivy [event], or a Catwoman themed [event], and we would introduce that character.

And then we’ll also be adding events that would happen in the world and updates through that, and new types of content, like new sections or areas like, say, Arkham Asylum or things like that. And then we’ll have trimesterly updates which will be the bigger, meatier additions to the game.

El33tonline: A quick question I had leading on from the characters – you’ve just revealed Scarecrow, for example – can we expect more every few weeks? Are you going to keep on adding new characters to keep us entertained?

Wes Yanagi: Oh yeah! Yeah, absolutely! I think as more information comes out in-game, we have tons and tons of characters, like Chris Cao was talking about – we have the Teen Titans, and we showed Grodd, we showed Scarecrow, we have Mr. Freeze, we have Poison Ivy. I mean, there are just so many [characters] we have. We have Sinestro in the game, and there are so many different types of characters and all of them have these nicely crafted missions – high fidelity missions – that you can work your way through.

El33tonline: I just wanted to know if you could explain how the subscription will work. Have you priced it yet? I read a little while ago that it was $14.95, is that correct?

Wes Yanagi: Yeah.

El33tonline: And obviously that’s a monthly fee.

Wes Yanagi: Yeah.

El33tonline: Will you be offering microtransaction-based content for extra perks?

Wes Yanagi: We haven’t actually gotten into the details on that yet, but we do want to supply some things for that, but those will be more like vanity items or things like that, so [for example] you can have an alternate Joker-esque outfit or something like that, or convenience items. Those sorts of things.

El33tonline: So those will probably be more for the really hardcore players that want to customise themselves beyond what’s already available?

Wes Yanagi: Well yeah, it’s going to be something like that. We definitely don’t want to require you to buy ‘this item here’ so that you can be uber in PvP (Player VS Player) or anything like that.

Ultimately the best loot is really going to be in the game, [as players go through] the content in the game.

El33tonline: With the range of high-profile MMOGs going free-to-play recently, like The Lords of the Rings, did you ever consider making DC Universe Online a free-to-play game?

Wes Yanagi: I think back when we started the game – because it’s really hard to shoehorn in a new [subscription] model later on – and when we started the game the most successful models were the subscription-based games.

Those were the ones that were viable at the time, especially for us having familiarity with Free Realms, [that] was obviously free-to-play and [the developers] were blazing territory down that side. So for us we felt really strongly that we understood how the subscription model worked, but we had a good grasp of what type of content we wanted to add, how much content we wanted to build and deliver at launch.

So we really modelled the launch game with that in mind. But we did have discussions about [free-to-play].

El33tonline: Obviously DC Universe Online is competing, in a sense, with World of Warcraft. What differentiates DC Universe Online from WoW and how would you encourage MMOG players to come play DC Universe Online rather than WoW?

Wes Yanagi: I think all of the MMOGs and online games compete to a certain extent, but I do think we have a slightly different crowd, or demographic, that we would really appeal to [with DC Universe Online], that definitely has overlap with how ever many millions of [players Blizzard have], right? (Laughs) I’m sure [Blizzard’s] demographic is pretty wide too!

But really what I think we’re bringing to the table is this new style of gameplay, this really fast-paced action game with high-fidelity content. We’re really focussed on delivering on that ‘super hero fantasy.’ It wasn’t about a checklist of ‘these are the things you need in an MMO,’ or ‘these are the things you need in an action game.’

We looked at everything as a whole and said ‘OK, what would make the best superhero gameplay experience?’ “Picking up things and throwing them? Check!” That makes sense.

El33tonline: I think it’s very accessible. I must be honest I don’t play a lot of MMOGs, and I didn’t even play a lot of RPGs before [Gearbox Software’s] Borderlands – that sucked me in – so I find [DC Universe Online] very accessible. It’s an MMOG, but it’s definitely got those elements of action and RPG – it’s basically like a new genre. That’s why I’m quite excited about it!

Wes Yanagi: Yeah, and then on top of that we have the DC lore, we have the storylines, and as I mentioned earlier, it was just amazing seeing the [forum] threads for the internal testers asking, “What books should I read?” and “How can I learn more about these characters, I didn’t know they were so cool?”

El33tonline: It’s getting a lot of people excited to delve back into that world, which is great.

I just want to know some more about the ‘Sim Cards’ in DC Universe Online. You’ll be able to use them to play as iconic characters (like Batman, Superman etc.), but how will you go about collecting these cards, and will you be able to level those characters up?

Wes Yanagi: So the way [Sim Cards] work is that, those are actually going to be standard characters with load-outs at a certain power level – think of it as evening the playing field for PvP, so it’s pure skill.

The way it works is, initially you’ll be granted one of the base characters Harley [Quinn] or Robin (Batman’s faithful sidekick). And for launch we’re going to have; Harley, Robin, Nightwing, Bane, Huntress and Joker. If you pre-order [DC Universe Online], you get Batman.

So for the others, except for Batman, as you play more and more of these arenas – these Legendary or Battle Arenas – you’ll earn PvP currency from that, so once you get enough of that [currency] you can spend that on buying and unlocking Bane, or unlocking another character. And then over time with our monthly or trimesterly updates, we’ll be adding more characters to that list.

Each of those characters have different types of shticks or comic themes, and different strengths and weaknesses, so based on your play style or based on what you’re good at, you can take advantage of that.

Bane has a great one – I was playing him the other day – and he has these level-up shticks, so as you take damage and charge up, you can fire off his steroid juice and all of a sudden he gets bigger and his powers change a little bit on his power bar, and then he can get up to another level. So when you’re fighting against Bane, you want to prevent him from doing that, because once he gets to that third level he gets pretty tough, so you want to knock him out early.

El33tonline: You have some really great voice talent involved with DC Universe Online. Are the voice actors going to be limited to doing cinematics, or will they have a lot to say during missions as well?

Wes Yanagi: Yeah, they’re all over the place. I’m sure you’ve seen Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as The Joker, Gina Torres as Wonder Woman, Adam Baldwin…

El33tonline: Yeah, I’ve been watching the ‘Meet the Voice’ features, they’re really interesting!

Wes Yanagi: Yeah! So, we have all of those. These voices will appear, like Wil Wheaton is doing the voice of Robin, and so when you’re in the game, in the police station, and you go up and talk to him…

El33tonline: That’s going to be his voice, OK.

Wes Yanagi: That will be his voice, yeah.

El33tonline: We really enjoyed the ‘Who do You Trust’ cinematic, and we wanted to know if there will be more cinematics – I heard mention that there will be fifty? Is that correct?

Wes Yanagi: Well, yes, the cutscenes. [There will be fifty] cutscenes. The ‘Who do You Trust’ trailer was done by Blur, so we don’t have fifty of those! (laughs) You could do a full feature cinematic with that!

But we do have the comic cutscenes that talk about the stories of those characters and how they fit into this overall storyline through the game.

El33tonline: We’ve seen the Metropolis Police Department where the Heroes go. Is there a similar place for the Villains? I haven’t played as a Villain yet so I’m not too sure how that works.

Wes Yanagi: Yes, so the Heroes go to the Police Department, and the Villains have Safe Houses, and those can be nightclubs, or bars, or speakeasies, or things like that, and those are sprinkled around the city as well.

Then obviously the Villains have the ‘Hall of Doom’ as their major, central HQ…

El33tonline: I’m going to have to play as a Villain now just to go and see what it’s all about!

Wes Yanagi: (laughs) Yeah yeah!

Oh and then the Heroes have the Watch Tower in space [as their HQ].

El33tonline: I just wanted to know if you have a more concrete release date than ‘Quarter One,’ or are you still sticking with ‘Quarter One’ right now?

Wes Yanagi: [Says in affected voice] “We’re still sticking with ‘Quarter One’ because we have a lot of marketing people out there who will throttle me if I say anything!” (laughs)

El33tonline: No it’s fine, I just wanted to ask so that our readers know we asked you.

Wes Yanagi: No, we’re still targeting quarter one. Honestly the whole thing was that we wanted to make sure that we had enough beta time to polish the game and really take care of the bugs. We’re getting a lot of good feedback from beta players, and we’ve made a lot of changes already based on their feedback, and the game is getting better every day.

El33tonline: And when does the PlayStation 3 beta go live? Is it the 24th of November? Or…

Wes Yanagi: We’re working on it as we speak, so…

El33tonline: Oh, so it’s not set in stone yet?

Wes Yanagi: Yeah, hopefully soon. This is our first time to go through that whole process, so we’re trying to get that out as quickly as possible.

El33tonline: And is there any way to get access to the beta, unless you pre-order? Is that the only way in? How else can people get into the beta?

Wes Yanagi: So we had the beta sign-ups earlier…

El33tonline: So it’s already done and dusted?

Wes Yanagi: Well, no, we had a lot of sign-ups! (laughs)

El33tonline: I’m sure! (laughs)

Wes Yanagi: So we’re trying to just poll what we can based on the populations that we need and that we’re trying to promote. The pre-order stuff was the special thing for folks who pre-ordered, so the timing on that is still pending, but we’re hoping to get those guys in soon!

El33tonline: Awesome. Thanks very much for your time! I appreciate it.

Wes Yanagi: Sure!