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!

The Mortal Kombat development team is proud to announce a first time opportunity for members of our Kommunity to come online and face us in Mortal Kombat! We’ve never done anything like this before, and we’re looking forward to facing some of the top Kombatants on PSN. Maybe we’ll learn a thing or two! ;)

We invite you to fight against the developers of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, including franchise co-creator Ed Boon, tonight, Jan. 23 from 10:00 P.M. – 12:00 A.M. (EST). Meet us in the MK room we created for this occasion and look for the following PSN IDs: Kamidogu, MKNoob, MKHornbuckle, MKABACABB, MKHanzoHasashi, MKBlindKenshi, MKTundra, MKApep, MKKetchup, MKMustard, MKSkully, FreezeGoroSweep.

Some of the scheduled attendees include:

• Ed Boon – Creative Director/Team Lead
• Paulo Garcia – Senior Designer
• Brian Lebaron – Designer
• Ryan Rosenberg – Environment Artist
• Eddie Ferrier – Designer
• Adam Hernandez – Design Support
• Hector Sanchez – Producer
• Dave Bulvan – Lead Software Tester
• Derek Kirtzic – Gameplay Tester
• Shaun Himmerick – Producer
• Hans Lo – Producer

Once in the room, you can invite one of the guys to into a match, or one of the devs may challenge you! See you tonight!