The SoE FanFaire convention had some excellent news about the future of their massively successful title FreeRealms! This summer FreeRealms will see the addition of a new mini-game; soccer. Soccer will allow several players to play together and compete on a soccer field with excellent goal-scoring moves, ball handling, slide-steals, and more. The announcement of the soccer mini-game also coincides with several other FreeRealms additions expected this summer.

Other additions include a new desert zone that will be one of the largest releases for FreeRealms to date. The game will also receive a new race, dwarves, and a massive game-play expansion for players who enjoy Demo Derby and Cart Driving! Players will also be pleasantly surprised later this year when they'll be able to take their in game avatar and put it on a physically playable card used for the FreeRealms trading card game!

During the event tonight it was announced that the game has officially hit 4 million registered users and is continuing to grow!

We've set up and are nearing the launch of our Free Realms Wiki fansite dedicated to bringing people the most current information available for FR! If you haven't had a chance to check the game out there's no better time! Join 4 million registered users and see what all the fuss is about!

FreeRealms announced today that they have had 3 million people signup to play the the free-to-play, family-friendly online video game that launched on April 28, 2009. The game hit the 2 million user mark near the end of May and have acquired another million users or so in the past two weeks. To celebrate the rapidly growing community of players, SOE will grant its first three million Free Realms registrants the “3M Pet Party Pack,” filled with goodies for use with their virtual pets, both cats and dogs. Players have until the 19th to redeem the party pack!

If you haven't tried FreeRealms out yet here's a list of features and some media for the game:

Features

Here's a list of features available to Free Realms Players:

• Play Free or Upgrade: At its heart, Free Realms™ is free to play, but players who want to break through to the next level can purchase a monthly membership for only $4.99 USD. Members and free players can purchase a variety of items through micro-transactions.
• Rich Character Creation: With over 30,000 wearable combinations, you can blend fantasy and reality to create your perfect avatar.
• Be Whoever You Want: Be a ninja one minute and a kart driver the next! With fifteen jobs available, you can find your perfect job, or try them all! Member Jobs available at launch include: wizard, blacksmith, medic, archer and warrior. Free Jobs include: ninja, brawler, chef, miner, demolition derby driver, kart driver, card duelist, adventurer, postman, and pet trainer.
• Kid-Safe: Parental controls allow for the customization of safety options, including pre-canned chat, reporting and filters for younger players.
• Fun for Everyone: With so much to do and see it’s easy to find something for you!  Start by playing one of 14 different styles of minigames like cooking, kart racing, mining, demolition derby and music conducting. The action doesn’t stop there, as there are over 460 quests for everyone with an additional 240 available to Members.  Even though combat is optional, there are 80 free battles and 15 additional Members Only battles—plenty of action for those eager to fight fierce creatures!
• Vibrant, Deep Environment: Eight distinct, unique and breathtaking environments for gamers to explore for launch.  Areas include the snowcapped mountain villages of Snowhill, the dark and mysterious Blackspore, and real fun in the sun at Seaside.
• Connect with Friends: Whether you’re meeting up with old friends or finding new ones, Free Realms™ lets players stay connected through its social networking page. Just log in, see what your friends have been up to, click their avatars and join them in the game!
• Trading Card Game: The Free Realms™ Trading Card Game lets players pit a variety of fun characters and creatures against one another in fun, fast-paced combat. Half the game is collecting new cards, to arm yourself with the best line up of attacks and defenses. You can even prove your might in online tournaments!

Free Realms Videos

Here's two videos from Free Realms:

Character Screenshots

There are currently four character types: Human Male, Human Female, Pixie Male, and Pixie Male.
We've got a few unique screenshots from the character creation process showcasing these different character types:

 

 

Here's the press release about hitting the 3 million player mark:

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – June 12, 2009 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) today announced that more than three million unique users have registered for Free Realms^™ (www.FreeRealms.com), the free-to-play, family-friendly online video game that launched on April 28, 2009. Recently awarded recognition by Guinness World Records for conducting the first concert to take place simultaneously in the real world and a virtual space during E3 in Los Angeles last week, Free Realms continues to redefine the scope and pace of online games. 

“SOE worked diligently over the past four years to ensure that Free Realms would take the online space by storm,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “We are pleased to be able to provide such a vast, in-depth and, most importantly, fun world to an average of 500,000 new gamers per week.” 

To celebrate the rapidly growing community of players, SOE will grant its first three million Free Realms registrants the “3M Pet Party Pack,” filled with goodies for use with their virtual pets, both cats and dogs. In Free Realms, players are free to do or be anything, including donning the job of pet trainer to raise a pet! From the in-game Marketplace, players can choose from more than 20 different types of playful dogs and cats to train, feed, groom and dress up.  Players have until Friday June 19, 2009 (11:59 PM PDT) to redeem the “3M Pet Party Pack”.     

Free Realms also features 14 other fun jobs to master, as well as the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks sold wherever you buy trading cards.  

To support the initial release and launch of Free Realms, nearly one million Station Cash^™ game cards were made available across five major retail chains. Free Realms players can pop into select retailers to purchase Station Cash cards, which are used to redeem Station Cash and buy virtual goodies or upgrade to a Membership status in the game. 

Free Realms is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up with content descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence. To play Free Realms, visit: http://www.FreeRealms.com.