The EverQuest franchise looks to be the big winner at this year's Fan Faire event, as several large announcements regarding the games in the long-running series were featured in SOE president John Smedley's community address. EQ2Wire's Feldon has the details on the short presentation.

In addition to restating the features coming your way when EQII Extended hits in mid-August, Smedley discussed the next EverQuest expansion, House of Thule, which adds several new dungeons as well as player housing and launches on October 14th. EverQuest II players will have a to wait a bit longer for their expansion, Destiny of Velious, which debuts on February 8th. The wait will likely be well worth it, however, as flying mounts will be introduced in many of the game's zones.

Finally, Smedley revealed a presentation slide labeled "The Future of EverQuest" and preceded to show off the first in-game arts from the cryptically titled EverQuest Next, which you can view in our gallery below. He also hinted that more information would be forthcoming as Fan Faire wraps up this weekend.