Everquest Underfoot Delayed Until December 15

Underfoot, the latest add-on for Sony Online Entertainment's unimaginably prolific massively multplayer online roleplaying game Everquest, has been delayed until December 15.

Originally scheduled for release on November 24, EQ Underfoot marks the 16th expansion for the original Everquest. Though it has fallen by the wayside in recent years, Everquest was the game that really established the concept of the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game in the eyes of the general public, thus leading to the wildly lucrative market shared by current heavyweights like Champions Online, Final Fantasy XI and of course, World of Warcraft.

"To ensure that we can give our players the best possible gameplay experience and the amount of content that they've come to expect, we felt it was necessary to move the launch date for Underfoot to December 15, 2009," reads the official announcement splashed on the website of Everquest operator Sony Online Entertainment.

In an effort to avoid fan backlash, SOE is offering players a chance to access the expansion content a full week ahead of schedule, if they are able to complete the three "Road To Underfoot" events by December 1.

Tis' truly noble of SOE to try to appease fans who might be incensed by the delay, but realistically, anyone still playing the original Everquest -- a game that is now more than a decade old -- is going to exhibit the sort of terrifying brand loyalty that drove the Marlboro man to die of lung cancer.

You'd have to beat these people off with a stick to convince them to stop playing Everquest.