Sovereign

Sovereign is a cancelled PC MMO game by Verant Interactive. It was to be a big MMO RTS.

Gameplay
Sovereign was to be a persistent MMO RTS. The battlegrounds are planets that range from 4 player to 500 player wars.

Players can join matches after it has started if that option is selected prior to beginning. When you log out, AI NPCs will defend your empire.

There were six classes (referred to in-game as Traditions) to play as. You create these at account creation and play them in different servers. Only one character per server.

There would be around eight resources to obtain and trade:
 * Food
 * Gold
 * Iron
 * Money
 * Oil
 * Ore
 * Steel
 * Uranium

Victory depends on the match conditions, to which there are many. Victory conditions include reaching a certain amount of money or resources or conquest. Diplomacy is important for establishing borders and trade routes.

Sovereign was intended to be multiplayer only. You also could not host on your own server.

Development
Weather was not planned to be included in the final release but was considered for post-launch.

The planned subscription cost was USD$50 a month. They called this 'competitive' compared to their other MMO Everquest ($9.99 a month)

Cancellation
In early 2003 Sony ceased development of Sovereign. Their inexperience with RTS games, coupled with the 3.5 years of development, left little hope.

Timeline:
 * early 2000: development begins
 * June 1st, 2000: Sony acquires Verant and becomes the publisher
 * February 12th, 2003: Sony cancels Sovereign