Greetings from San Diego Comic-Con! Here on the show floor we’re happy to be showing DC Universe Online’s first expansion pack – Fight for the Light. Light powers have been a huge fan request since before launch, and we’ve created an entirely new power set from the ground up with new abilities that deliver on the power fantasy of wielding light constructs in combat. We’ve put way over-the-top weapons that you could only imagine right into your hands! We’ve worked hard to build on the existing gameplay mechanics that players love, and to apply them in unique ways that give the new powers a look and feel all their own.

Exercising your creativity and bringing your imagination to the fight is a huge part of being a Lantern, and we wanted to bring that feeling to our players. With light, players will now be able to combine weapon-based combos and superpower abilities in way that just feels right for a Lantern. You can create things like hard-light boxing gloves and use them as a new “on the fly” weapon that comes complete with its own combos. Not only that, these combos can also link to other abilities and hard-light weapons. This allows players to create their own unique sequences of attacks as well as react to the changing face of the battle. These abilities don’t even have to be loaded out to be combo’d into! Open with a huge light whip to stun your enemy, call in the boxing gloves to work them over at close range, and then finish them off with the rumbling charge of a locomotive to mow them down. This is the stuff that Lantern lore is made of, and so far at Comic-Con, the smiles have said it all. There’s nothing quite like rolling in an Apache Gunship from your full super charge to make a Green Lantern fan happy, and I can tell you after three days of not-stop use it still brings a smile to my face.

In addition to the new Light Power set, players will also be able to experience all-new adventures that take them from Coast City to the Sciencells on Oa. Deep inside S.T.A.R Labs, players will gain more insight into the disturbance with the Power Rings. With light powers, players can create a new character where they receive their Lantern Corps reservist ring and begin to unlock its set of pre-programmed constructs, or to re-spec an existing character to experience the new controller class. With the depth of the combo linking, we feel like most players will want to explore this deep new power set from the beginning, but we wanted to give the players the option of jumping into the deep end straight away with the new content. We’ve seen fans light up when we tell them they’ll be meeting long-requested characters like Vice and Atrocitus from the Red Lanterns, see Lyssa Drak reading from the Book of Parallax, or hear the wise cracks of Guy Gardner as they fight back to back.

For a taste of the action, check out the brand new “Fight for the Light” trailer above

“Fight for the Light” will be available for $9.99 later this summer, and is the first of many downloadable expansions we’re preparing for DC Universe Online. The decision to go with a series of smaller expansions released periodically allows us to get new things to players faster as well as react to requests and the live game in a way that a more traditional larger expansion would not. We know that our players have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of light powers, and we had to get it right for our incredibly loyal community. We hope that you will feel that it was worth the wait!

If you’re lucky enough to be at San Diego Comic-Con this year, please stop by and say hi to us at the SOE BOOTH #4436, where you can be among the first to play through a hands-on demo of the new “Fight for the Light” DLC Pack. We’d love to have a chance to show you more and get your reactions. There’s nothing like being able to spend some time talking to our players face to face and to hear how your hero or villains have evolved, and we’re excited to do even more at our fan event on Saturday night. This will be live on Stickcam.com and the DCUO Facebook page…and I promise we’ll get those Facebook questions I didn’t get to in my last late night marathon Q&A in there, too.

We thank y’all for playing, and for making this one of the most rewarding experiences I can possibly imagine. We’ll see you in DC Universe Online! As always, be excellent to each other.