Sony showing EverQuest Next this week

Sony Online Entertainment will reveal first details on EverQuest Next at SOE Live on Friday beginning at 12 p.m. PDT, the company announced through the event's website.

The August 2 debut event will be hosted by SOE president John Smedley, development director Dave Georgeson, and other members of the production team.

The EverQuest Next event will last 90 minutes and will be streamed through the SOE Twitch channel.

EverQuest Next was announced in 2010 during SOE's Fan Faire, now known as SOE Live.

Unlike 2004's EverQuest II, the new title will not be a continuation of the events that began in the 12-year-old original. Instead, the studio is positioning EverQuest Next as a "reimagining of the EverQuest universe," one that will have "familiar faces, races, and places" but operate as an alternate dimension and with a "clean slate."

"Our task now is to take the game and evolve it and make it into something new for today's fans. And I would liken that to the brilliant job J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek…the reimagining of it," Smedley said in 2011. "That's what we're doing, and we've got some cool new things in store for players with the next one."