We thought the first day of E3 2009 turned out pretty well, with announcements for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Final Fantasy XIV, and All Points Bulletin. That's in addition to the packed interview schedule we lined up so we'll have plenty more to show you in the coming days. While the Massively team frantically taps their fingertips down into little bloody tater tots to bring you more fresh E3 goodness, have a look at some highlights of what day 2 of E3 2009 brought in MMO news.

• Massively's day one video from the E3 floor

• In-game footage from The Agency

• Platform release info for Final Fantasy XIV

• The Dares concert in Free Realms sets Guinness World Record

• Hands-on with Global Agenda

• Friends fix coming to Free Realms

Want to see more? We've got E3 galleries to flip through for these titles and events after the jump.

As part of our extensive E3 tour through SOE's newest games, launched and upcoming, we got a fairly good look at some gameplay footage in The Agency. Of course, you know The Agency as the spy MMO that had everyone talking at last year's E3. With this new gameplay footage, you lucky readers (or, viewers) get to see what to expect when the game launches.

Click through after the jump to see the game's lead producer, Lorien Gremore, show us around a bit with combat, stealth, minigames and even a bit of female persuasion tactics*.

* Not from Lorien

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Massively is on the ground in Los Angeles this week and covering all the latest E3 MMO news coming from the convention. Check out our breaking coverage (or all the Joystiq network E3 reporting) and keep your eye on Massively's front page for the latest developments.

One of the new titles on the way from Sony Online Entertainment is The Agency which promises to bring espionage into the world of MMOs. There were no announcements for The Agency at today's Sony press event at the E3 Expo, but we've noticed that there's new content to be found on the game's official site.

A quick search of The Agency site reveals some new screenshots and wallpapers, concept art, info about both playable factions -- U.N.I.T.E. (spies) and Paragon (mercenaries) -- and a tongue-in-cheek 'evaluation quiz' for recruitment to each faction. In addition to the new art assets, they've also got their latest trailer up on the site as well. If you've been looking forward to some spies-and-mercenaries gameplay in an MMO, check out what's new on The Agency's revamped site.

Last month, Hi-Rez Studios announced a special video contest where fans could create their own representation of a promotional video for Global Agenda. The results are now in, and they're happy to announce the winners for each category*. On their official blog, they've compiled a list of the winners, including a combined winner's playlist video, also available after the jump below. The maker of the "Best Overall" video receives a $200 gift certificate to Amazon.com, with all other listed winners receiving a gift certificate to the Global Agenda merchandise store.

The folks at Hi-Rez have also announced today that they will be offering hands-on time with Global Agenda at E3 this year, as well as a chance to meet up with the developers themselves. They'll be located at the South Hall, Booth 2630. We look forward to seeing them again ourselves, and finding out the latest developments in Global Agenda as we approach the beta period, hopefully soon.

*We highly recommend the winner of Most Humorous!

Sony Online Entertainment could have a PC and console hit on their hands if their spies and mercenaries MMO The Agency lives up to expectations. The Agency has fallen off of the media radar of late, but development is moving ahead on the title.The last word we've received on when we'll be able to get our hands on the game is that The Agency will be released in 2010. Massively has some previous coverage of The Agency but we're always looking out for more info, and that's what we found today.

While we've touched upon some of this information in the past, SOE has released a brief fact sheet that explains the concepts behind The Agency and its "modern setting of bullets, bomb blasts, and betrayal." We're still hoping that there will be more info announced about the game at the E3 Expo in June, but until SOE declassifies their intel, you can check out The Agency fact sheet below the cut:

Hi-Rez Studios have updated their answer center for their upcoming MMO, Global Agenda, which enters beta later this year. The game, which they are describing as spy-fi, is set on a post world war three earth that is ruled by an oppressive global government and promises to feature 3rd person fast-paced combat.

Although most of the information has been previously available, the updated site does contain useful information such as reiterating that the game will be subscription based, contains PvE content as well as PvP and will rely heavily on instances in order to provide battles that will allow 10 players on each side. Perhaps most importantly, the site confirms that the game does not feature elves.

Global Agenda developers, Hi-Rez Studios, has released some fiction for their upcoming game. Global Agenda is a subscription based action MMO that uses the Unreal 3 engine and is currently slated for release at the end of the year, with a beta in Q2 this year. The game is set in the 22nd century and features fast paced PvP action in a world that has been devastated by the third world war and is now governed by a single world order, the Commonwealth.

The story chronicles Steven, who is a 17 year old growing up in Commonwealth Prime. This is a city where everybody is controlled down to the level of having a prescribed routine that they must stick to perfectly and without question. Steven tries to break this routine in little ways whenever he can but his actions, however, have consequences.

You can read the story over at MMORPG.com, and don't forget to check out our previous coverage of Global Agenda.

As Hi-Rez Studios prepares for Global Agenda's launch later this year, they've recently announced a video contest where fans can create their own promotional videos and win valuable prizes. This contest, which runs from now until May 10th, is supplemented by their Fan Video Kit, providing would-be directors with all the assets they'd need to create the best promotional video.

This contest will be done in conjunction with Hi-Rez Studios' YouTube channel, as all video submissions must be on YouTube. Winners will be judged on several different categories, including Most Humorous, Best Representation of the Game, Best 30-second Commercial, Best Produced and Most Viral. The "Overall Best" winner will receive a $200 Amazon gift certificate, and all winners will receive a special mention on the website and an upcoming press release. If you think you've got what it takes to make the best Global Agenda promotional video, head on over to their forums to read the complete rules. Also be sure to watch the team's promotional video -- for this promotional video contest -- just after the cut below.

When you think of Global Agenda, what do you think? Action-packed PvP, right? While that's a huge part of this upcoming game from Hi-Rez Studios, there is a story side that we don't hear much about. In the latest Game Trailers video from GDC, they interview Global Agenda's Executive Producer, Todd Harris, about more of the storyline and PvE aspects of the game. All the while, we get treated to some amazing in-game combat footage, showing off the updated look and animations in the game as it approaches its beta period.

In this video we learn about the primary entity in the game, known as the Commonwealth. Your character begins as a fugitive from the Commonwealth who escapes to join player-run agencies, where the real action begins. From here, these agencies (or guilds, if you will) fight for control over the scarce land and resources left after World War 3 wiped the slate clean. Wanna find out more? Check out the entire video interview embedded after the cut below.

Last year, we had the opportunity to visit Hi-Rez Studios to get one of the first press hands-on looks at Global Agenda. While the game is still in the alpha test now, closed beta is about to begin soon. In order to gear up for these next stages of development, Hi-Rez brought Global Agenda to the GDC audience to try it out for themselves. This is actually the first public hands-on of the game at GDC, so it was a key moment for the team.

So what has changed since our tour in October? Well, quite a bit, actually. This public showing brings out some exciting new developments from the Hi-Rez team, including brand new upgraded face customization and an improved tutorial. In addition, the AI, UI and graphics have all experienced quite a bit of tightening and polishing. With Hi-Rez implementing their own in-house motion capture studio, the character animation is among some of the best you'll see in an MMO. What hasn't changed? Well, I still get my butt kicked in the game quite frequently. But I love a good challenge.

You may have heard the recent news concerning MicroProse co-founder J.W. "Wild Bill" Stealey diving into the MMO business. You may have heard that he plans to get together with some of his old crew, like Fred Schmidt and Jim Bull, to make an action-based military MMO. Yet, did you know that this is simply the tip of the iceberg when to comes to what Wild Bill and his team have in store for us?

To find out more information on this newly announced project, we jumped at the chance to sit down with Wild Bill and get some more intel on his classified operation. If you were ever a big fan of the MicroProse age of military simulation games, or you're just tired of the same old fantasy MMOs, this interview may get your excitement levels up. Wild Bill Stealey has a passion for what he knows best, and it's evident in this interview. Could a massive, persistent, military PvP world be exactly what you've been waiting for? Follow along below for more on what the folks at Thriller New Media have in store for the MMO world.

As more companies develop for the non-fantasy MMO genre, Thriller Publishing of Austin, TX recently announced the formation of Thriller New Media, which will focus on the creation and operation of MMOs, books, movies and other popular entertainment media. Not only do they plan to launch services within the next year or so, but they also plan to create their own social networking platform for all Thriller content. It is said that this content will focus on "military and espionage-themed topics".

What makes this company so special though is the fact that it is created by such big names as J.W. "Wild Bill" Stealey, of MicroProse fame. In addition, the company's President and CEO is Fred Schmidt, who you may recognize from MicroProse, Origin and NCsoft. "We have a number of great game products under evaluation, some already under option agreements, and are looking for more," says Schmidt. "At the same time, we are developing our own social networking platform through which all Thriller content, and much more, will be presented. Look for specific announcements to be made later this year."

Are you eagerly awaiting Hi-Rez Studios' new spy-fi MMO Global Agenda? Are you so excited by the game that you'd create a fansite about it? Well, let Hi-Rez help you out a bit with a newly announced fansite kit and beta key contest. Simply download their fansite kit, promote it and enter their fansite contest for a chance to win tons of exciting prizes.

The top three sites will be chosen and announced on May 8th, 2009. These sites will win everything from exclusive Global Agenda artwork for their site, beta keys for the site's members, links to the fansite from the official GA site and credit towards the GA T-shirt and merchandise shop. This seems like a fantastic opportunity to give yourself and your fansite community a head start into this popular new MMO which is slated for release later this year.

As the Global Agenda team at Hi-Rez Studios gears up for their closed beta in Q2 of this year, they've made the announcement that their server technology will be in good hands. Internap Network Services Corp will be providing the "breakthrough experience" for Global Agenda with their Performance IP network and Managed Server hosting services.

"Given our game's fast pace and huge scale, we needed a solution that offers the lowest network latency possible, while giving us great flexibility in managing spikes in demand," said Stewart Chisam, vice president of game operations at Hi-Rez Studios. "The combination of Performance IP and Managed Server from Internap solves that problem for us and offers a scalable, secure and reliable technology platform to support the players of Global Agenda. Just a few years ago, network and server overhead precluded the development of this type of game. That has all changed. Global Agenda is a breakthrough game from both a technology perspective and a gameplay perspective, and we are very excited to bring it to market using Internap's infrastructure services."

The good people at Hi-Rez Studios continue to update us eager fans with more screenshots for their upcoming spy-fi MMO Global Agenda. At the end of every week we get a new batch of in-game imagery, and the last few have been exclusives courtesy of MMORPG.com. In them, we see some gorgeous action shots of characters both dishing out and patching up the battle damage.

Global Agenda is set to unleash a beta within Q2 of this year, and the studio is naming a launch window towards the end of the year. You can head on over to their website to sign yourself up for a chance at the closed beta, and be one of the first to experience the game first-hand.