Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) know a thing or two about making popular and addictive games, as the developers of EverCrackQuest look to have come up with another winner in the shape of Free Realms. First featured on TSA eons ago, Free Realms is one of three MMO’s in development by SOE for the PC and exclusively on consoles on the PS3, the other two being The Agency and DC Universe Online. Back in April around the same time as the PC launch we got chance to have a look at the range of mini games featured in the title, and people must have liked what they saw, because over a million people signed up within eighteen days for the free to play MMO.

The rate of growth didn’t stop there however, because during a Q&A session at San Diego’s recent Comic-Con event came the news that almost five million people have now signed up. SOE’s President John Smedley went on to point out that micro-transactions where behind the success of the game. The use of micro-transactions appears to be a cornerstone of Sony’s long term business plan, as subscription based gaming falls out of favour, it is the same strategy that Sony employ in the PS3’s Home.

Although the PC version has been available since April, there is still some time to wait before we can get our hands on the PS3 version with Q4 being the expected release date, so if you want a piece of the action head on over to www.freerealms.com or take a peek at the trailer below:

Source: Digital Spy.