I’m thrilled to finally announce that Origin Crisis, the seventh DLC for DC Universe Online – goes live today. Origin Crisis is one of our most action-packed and, easily, our most challenging DLC to date, introducing some amazing group and solo missions. It is the culmination of many important events, and represents some vital new practices for DC Universe Online. The storyline is fantastic, and reminiscent of some of the great comic book story arcs involving alternate universes and the characters that originate within them. Who wouldn’t want to meet the Council of Batmen or Council of Lex Luthors, and alter the origin of the most iconic characters in the DC Universe? Origin Crisis picks up where our third DLC, The Battle for Earth, left off – after heroes and villains united against Brainiac, stopping his plans to remake the multiverse in his image. After Brainiac’s defeat, Future Lex Luthor’s designs on the Nexus of Reality and its promise of near-infinite power were revealed. The last we saw of that story, Future Batman arrived to stop Lex. It’s been fifteen months since those events, and now we get to see what has happened since, and the real story behind Future Lex Luthor and Future Batman.

But of course story is only a part of the overall package. What do I get to play? The story weaves through challenging new cooperative four-player Operations and eight-player Raids. Travel through time and visit locations such as Crime Alley in Gotham City, or the House of El on Krypton, and play a major role in the origins of Batman or Superman. How different would Gotham City be if Bruce Wayne were corrupted and he controlled the city with the assistance of his Evil Batman alter ego, or if Bruce’s parents weren’t killed? What would a Metropolis be like if Lex Luthor controlled it with the aid of an evil Superman, or if Lex was a force for good? More importantly, your actions will decide the course of these events. Find the answers and more in Origin Crisis.

What we may be most excited about in this new DLC is our new Quantum Power set. It has been almost a year since we have introduced a new power set to the game, and this one delivers in a big way. A new Controller power, Quantum introduces the concept of manipulating Time and Space. Control the flow of time and manipulate the futures of your adversaries, manipulate space and generate graviton fields, and combine these new abilities for some very devastating attacks. The signature ability in Quantum has to be Quantum Tunneling. This allows the player to “blink” or teleport while simultaneously breaking the player out of control effects and preventing damage. Combined with its awesome new effects, Quantum may just become your favorite new power.

Speaking of power, how about test driving a legendary DC Comics character in a solo mission? Origin Crisis’ new Iconic Anomalies let you do just that. Iconic Anomalies are high-end solo simulation missions that allow players to battle through the origins of iconic characters Huntress and Bizarro. Finally, Origin Crisis will include a wealth of new gear, weapons and mods to earn that will make your hero or villain more powerful than ever.

For current players, we look forward to seeing you in game enjoying the new adventures. Don’t play DCUO yet? Why not? It’s FREE! Download it now from the PlayStation Store, create your own hero or villain and start kicking butt today!

Today our latest DLC pack – Home Turf – went live! Home Turf is our sixth DLC and brings with it the biggest addition to DC Universe Online since the launch of the game two years ago – Player Bases. Bases are a player-created and controlled space that can be used as a venue of self-expression in addition to being a place for combat. Perhaps the most important part of your Base is the Mainframe. Through it, players can unlock several new abilities. In a lot of ways it’s like having your very own Bat Computer.

The thing you’re likely to notice when you first enter your Base is a terminal on the wall next to the front door. This is your Base’s Control Panel, and by interacting with this you can relocate or rename your Base, or enter Decoration Mode. Decoration Mode pops you into a first-person camera, allowing you to easily zoom around your Base, placing and moving items and amenities. The latter can include things like an R&D Station, Broker, Mailbox, or Bank. Basically, the things that you otherwise would need to visit a Safehouse or HQ to use – in the convenience of your own home. When you first start decorating, you will have to use pre-defined markers to place objects you’ve collected. The markers will only accept compatible items – ceiling objects on ceiling markers and so forth. There are pink markers that signify an amenity location. Aside from teaching players the basics of item placement, these markers will also serve another purpose – only items placed in markers are visible during Lair PvP Battles. Once you’ve placed at least 20 items in markers you unlock Free Placement Mode – allowing you to place items just about anywhere you want.

Lair Battles need a bit of explanation. They’re a new addition to Arenas: PvP that takes place in your Base – a multi-round 1-on-1 PvP contest. Lair Battles are set-up much like a fighting game, with a best of five rounds format, and short cut-scenes before and after each round. You can earn PvP rewards just like in other PvP Arenas.

The Mainframe is a major addition to the “player package” – everything that makes up a player’s abilities (power, weapon, movement mode). Leveraging the Utility Belt introduced in DLC 5, The Hand of Fate, the Mainframe is the heart of your Base, and offers several new abilities and a new class of mods. You can unlock some pretty amazing Upgrades such as Orbital Strike, Supply Drop, a powerful Sidekick (Accomplice for Villains), a group of Back-Up (Henchman for Villains), and Tactical Mods using Marks of Triumph. Orbital Strike is a powerful AOE attack from the heavens, from your own killer satellite. Supply Drops are similar, but instead drop a variety of power-ups (health, etc.) from the sky.

Sidekicks are powerful allies that can provide health and power buffs in addition to being a competent battle companion. Using Back-up will summon three less powerful companions, perfect for those occasions when quantity is more important than quality. Tactical Mods are a new type of mod, fitting into the white sockets that started showing up on some gear in our last game update. They do more than just incremental stat-buffing. For instance, Absorption Adapter is a Tactical Mod that fits into weapons that has a chance of activating a shield while attacking, reducing damage by 75% until its damage threshold is reached. Focused Restoration, a neck mod, increases Restoration until you’re hit by an attack. There are a lot of these and they offer up some really fun and interesting combat mechanics.

Though Bases are getting a lot of the attention in Home Turf, there is a good deal of new content to play through, too. For the first time, we’re offering Tier 4 solo challenges. These are set in and around four of the most iconic locations in DC Universe Online: Ace Chemicals, Steelworks, Arkham Asylum, and Stryker’s Island. All of these missions will have an open world component in addition to instanced content, and will allow players to collect Marks of War for the first time solo. Of course, we have new gear sets for each location.

As you can see, there are a ton of new features and content in Home Turf that will keep you happily busy for months, so dive in and check it out!

See you in game!

Tomorrow, DC Universe Online‘s latest DLC pack, Hand of Fate, will go live. Hand of Fate is our fifth DLC pack, and it will be unlike anything we’ve offered to date. We’re incredibly excited for you to check it out.

We have designed this DLC to get you and your friends fighting again in DCUO’s open world. We want you back out there, battling in the DC Universe’s most storied locations – Gotham City and Metropolis. With the massive open world areas in the game, we felt it was time that we enriched these areas in unexpected ways to give you a deeper gameplay experience as you encounter the world and other players.

The content is high-fidelity, but serial in nature – our high-end players will definitely enjoy this. We have new group missions we call Operations, as well as more than 60 unique side missions. Additionally, we have added the Utility Belt Attachments feature. This is a fun upgrade that will give you more flexibility in combat by allowing you to use more than just a single trinket or consumable item in your loadout, and will also give you more freedom to use some of those fun toys you’ve had stashed away in your inventory. The producer’s letter I posted when we announced the DLC pack goes into detail about Operations, Side Missions, and the Utility Belt.

What I didn’t dive into in my letter is some of the DLC’s back story. Hand of Fate focuses on two of the most powerful magic users in the DC Universe, Doctor Fate and Felix Faust. The storylines that weave through the DLC are classic tales of magic and mystery, and as we all know, when there is magic involved, anything can happen. In this particular case, at the bidding of Doctor Fate (heroes) or Felix Faust (villains), you will undertake three new Heroic and three new Villainous episodes. Each episode will start in the inner sanctum of these legendary characters, where the story begins with an intense encounter against the episode’s adversaries. After you defeat them, Doctor Fate or Felix Faust will instruct you on the next step of your mission, which will take place in the open world.

For the first time in DCUO, Heroes and Villains will have unique content, with three new missions for each group. If you’re a hero, you’ll align with Doctor Fate, and help the Lords of Order protect innocent souls from the forces of darkness. In the Operation “A Black Dawn” – Tala, the mistress of Hell, uses her demonic powers to unleash an apocalyptic army upon Gotham City and Metropolis. It’s up to you and seven of your heroic allies to stop her. In “With a Vengeance” – Eclipso’s rage flows through the streets of Metropolis, and only those brave enough to stand against him will save the city from his wrath. This is also an 8-Man Operation. In the 4-player Operation “Wayward Souls” – Felix Faust is raising spirits and stealing souls to bargain for more power; but he foolishly stored them inside the behemoth Solomon Grundy and created an even bigger threat to Gotham City.

If you’re of the Villainous persuasion, you’ll join forces with Felix Faust and reap the rewards of his contracts. In “Unpaid Dues” – Faust has drawn the ire of the League of Assassins for defiling the Lazarus waters in Kahndaq. Now Ra’s al Ghul himself seeks revenge for this offense. This is an 8-man Operation. Another 8-man mission, “Seeds of Rot” – sees Faust attempting to create a sapling from the Tree of Rot. But Swamp Thing, defender of the Green, tries to oppose him before the tree’s influence falls into Faust’s hands. Finally, “Soulful Alchemy” is a 4-man Operation that starts with Faust making a bargain that has gone awry, now he must pay a debt — or the ultimate price. Countless lives hang in the balance as Faust tries to sacrifice innocent souls to save his own.

In addition, there will be 60 Side Missions – 30 for each side – for players to uncover while they tackle the six new episodes in the DLC. These missions will drop as rewards, and will be added to the mission journal when used. These missions will take players all over Metropolis and Gotham City as they attempt to accomplish the goals set before them. Players will feel the power of their characters as they return to some of their early adventures in the city streets – only now the old foes before them wither under their might. But new dangers have arisen, and they should not be taken lightly.

As you can see, there is tons of new content in Hand of Fate that will keep you entertained for hours, so dive in and check it out. See you in game!

So maybe you need to stock up on Replay Badges, re-spec your Power Type, or finally get some Prometheum Keys to open up those Lock Boxes that have been cluttering your inventory – now is the time! From Style Items to Vault Tickets, everything in the in-game marketplace is half off starting with today’s PlayStation Store update.

So tell us what you think in the comments below, or track us down and Like us at Facebook. We love to hear what you guys have to say because it’s the community that helps make DCUO better. Have a great summer, and we hope you enjoy the sale. We’ll see you in-game!

Welcome back from E3! I’m sure you all are pretty pumped for what’s to come this year in the video game world. A slew of new AAA titles, new features, and new announcements from our favorite games. Speaking of our favorite games, as the executive producer of DC Universe Online, it is no surprise that what I’m most excited about coming out of E3 is DC Universe Online’s new DLC pack! That’s right, more new content for a game that is already free-to-play! And the best part is…you don’t have to wait much longer to jump into battle.

Tomorrow, we launch DCUO’s highly anticipated fourth DLC pack: The Last Laugh. We are greatly anticipating the release of this new pack as it is the first time we have created a major update almost entirely focused on player-versus-player (PvP) combat. The Last Laugh will include hours of multiplayer gameplay in the Safe Houses and Headquarters, an all-new weapon, and new Light-Powered and Kryptonian Legends PvP characters.

The story revolves around The Joker, who decides that the Heroes and Villains has been working too closely to defeat Brainiac. His solution? Create some chaos! The Joker hacks into the security systems of the Hero and Villain Safe Houses and Headquarters, thereby allowing for invasion scenarios. With The Last Laugh, we’re introducing Safe House PvP battles, which are four-on-four battles that take place in new maps created using the in-game Safe Houses. What’s more, there are three new game modes as part of the Safe House battles, each with its own unique strategies and objectives. We’re also introducing Headquarter Battles, which are massive eight-on-eight battles that take place in either the Justice League Watchtower, or the Hall of Doom. In all of these battles, iconic DC characters and other NPCs will join the fray to add another challenging layer to the chaotic battles. Lastly, we are giving players a new brawler-style weapon, The Shield, to take down opponents!

We created The Last Laugh purely for the players that like to take the fight to each other in DCUO’s amazing PvP combat. It’s going to be a lot of fun and add so much more to the gameplay experience. I hope you take the opportunity to prove to the world whether heroes or villains will be triumphant — see you in-game!

This is my first blog post as a member of the DCUO team and I could not be more excited. As a life-long comic book fan and game developer it’s a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to work on a game that includes my two all-time favorite characters: Swamp Thing and Batman.

Tomorrow we are launching our largest, most impressive DLC pack yet with The Battle for Earth. There’s a lot to like in this new pack: three Duos, an Alert, two Raids, new gear and rewards and an incredible new power set – Earth Powers – that lets you deal damage or play the Tank role in an exciting new way. My personal favorite new Raid is set in Themyscira, the ancestral home of Wonder Woman. Our team of talented artists did an amazing job crafting this beautiful new zone, and the design team went above and beyond in creating a cooperative combat experience that is fun, challenging and rewarding. You and your friends will need to use all of your skill and a lot of strategy in order to conquer this Raid and take down Brainiac’s Avatar of Magic. The Battle for Earth culminates with a major showdown against Braniac, and sets the stage for a new chapter in the game’s ongoing narrative. I can give you one hint: Future Lex Luthor and Future Batman will be key players in the future of DCUO.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of our players, and welcome all of the new folks. We continue to grow and attract thousands of new players every day. That’s good news for everyone as far as I’m concerned. The more people that play the game the richer the experience we can offer. The team is working hard to address feedback from the community and will continue to issue regular game updates, along with quarterly DLC pack releases. It is an incredibly exciting time for DCUO as we’re going to be introducing some great new features this year and I can’t wait to share the details with you. See you in-game!