Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley revealed today that the company has been developing a free-to-play MMO called H1Z1

"It’s a massively multiplayer game in which players fight for survival in a world where death is the only sure thing," Smedley said. "The H1Z1 virus devastated mankind and left nothing but death and destruction in its wake and a world nearly empty of human life where the remnants of humanity are in a fight against extinction against those infected with the virus."Smedley addressed the similarities between H1Z1 and other survival/zombie titles by pointing to many of the features that SOE hopes will make H1Z1 rise above the rest. Some of the features Smedley spoke of include multiple servers with different rule sets that can hold "thousands of players," crafting, an in-game economy built around a trading system, and many more."It uses our proprietary next-gen Forgelight engine and that means we’ve had a lot of really cool technology to work with to make the game we wanted to make," he added. The game will also use the roadmap system from Planetside 2 to "clearly communicate what features we’re working on."Smedley also stated that the game is designed to allow players to become part of the design process."We’ll be opening it up for Player Studio creations too so expect player-created items to make their way into the game," he said. The design team is putting emphasis on "player ownership and building."The game's newly formed subreddit is "very open to answering questions," and the team will be doing a livestream of a playtest session next week. Be sure to keep checking back to IGN for more news as it develops.Seth Macy is a freelance writer and podcaster who wants to form a roving band of marauders at PAX East. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy and MyIGN at sethgmacy