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Sony Online Entertainment (Everquest, Planetside 2, H1Z1) purchased by private firm

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ThinClient said:
What does that have to do with the company formerly known as SOE?
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Nothing. And that is the real shame of it since SOE actually was producing good stuff but their overhead just basically sent them on a path towards turning into feces and made money off it too despite the fact SOE was probably one of the few profitable subdvisions of Sony Corporation.
 
norseamd said:
Nothing. And that is the real shame of it since SOE actually was producing good stuff but their overhead just basically sent them on a path towards turning into feces and made money off it too despite the fact SOE was probably one of the few profitable subdvisions of Sony Corporation.
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What are you even talking about?

So you admit that your previous post doesn't have anything to do with anything and now you're making another one of those pointless posts that have nothing to do with anything.

Why are you even posting in this thread?
 
norseamd said:
overhead = business speak for overlords
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No, overhead is everything to do with human costs like payroll, including the lowest ranking or paid employee.

You should probably just stop posting. Are you stoned again? That would explain the inane babble.
 
SunnyD said:
Pulled from the PS2 thread... according to this Higby has left the company.

I'm also hearing word that EQ2 devs are being let go en masse with the possibility that the game itself might be shut down.

Like I said in this post, private venture firms when they do this generally quickly move to trim waste and underperformance in order to maximize profit, identify valuable assets and put them first while gutting the ones that aren't worth the effort. There's usually a 2 or 5 year plan to make the company profitable and attractive to potential buyers at that time. Basically, think real estate house flippers. That's what companies like this do.
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Exactly. They will 'trim waste' by laying off employees. They don't do this with an innate knowledge of who does what and what value they provide within the company, they just look at expense / income breakdowns.

This fund is not going to keep SOE long term. Funds are not in the business of running other companies, they want to make money and move on to the next investment.

There are really two options here :

1 - They cut costs and make it profitable, then sell it off.

2 - They divide up the IP and sell it off piecemeal. For example, they could take Planetside and sell it to EA, sell EQ2 to someone else, etc. Some of these buyers may buy the SOE IP for the express purpose of eliminating their competition. When EQ2 players log in to see ads of 'Get 2 free months if you sign up for X' ads, that's your sign.

It can get more complex. Funds have been known to invest heavily into one company, then buy out and dissolve that companies competition. For example, one might invest heavily in a company invests in real estate (REIT). Then buy out an undervalued retailer and sell their property to the REIT dirt cheap.

This stuff never works out for the consumers who like the company that is being bought out.
 
The saddest part is that Planetside 2 is the only real MMOFPS, and EA (at least DICE) has never wanted to make one. I mean sure, there's WW2 Online, and PvE things like Firefall, and some other pretenders, but Planetside 2 is the only thing that provides a less casualized version of Battlefield (IMO) but for hundreds of players (in a single spot, much more per entire continent).

Now, if someone bought the engine and used it to make a different kind of MMOFPS? Like modern theme instead of future, now that could be a bright spot from this.

But it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. And if EQN is lost, that would be terrible....every other MMORPG in the past few years has gone down a route that involves overcasualization, WoW cloning and whatnot.
 
This is one of the saddest things to happen to gaming.

PS2, though I didn't really play it, was a solid MMOFPS.
While EQN intended to lead the MMO genre into the future.
 
Don't think it's as bad people are expecting but time will tell. One of the SOE guys posted this on Reddit

Hi folks,

I apologize for the slow response. The layoffs sucked. I needed to give my friends some time to say goodbye to all of you first.

I wanted to clear up a few of the more serious rumors that I've read in this subreddit over the last few days

Columbus Nova is a US company comprised entirely of US citizens. The capital they used to purchase this company was generated from investment in US equity

Neither Columbus Nova nor Daybreak Games would be affected by ANY sanctions on Ukraine/Russia imposed by the US State Department

We (Daybreak Games) were responsible for the size and scope of the layoffs
Nobody from Columbus Nova is going to post in this subreddit, ever

Columbus Nova is not making games. Daybreak is making games.

Columbus Nova's involvement in the game making process can be summed up as: "Please give us a good return on our investment"

Our development team is now approximately the size of the H1Z1 development team. They have done amazing things in a very short period of time. Expect the same from us
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Having a capital fund with an axe over them saying 'give a good return' should encourage a lot of risk-taking and artistic creativity, not safe, samey cash grabs.
 
Craig234 said:
Having a capital fund with an axe over them saying 'give a good return' should encourage a lot of risk-taking and artistic creativity, not safe, samey cash grabs.
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Won't it cause them to go with the current industry flow which is to highly simplify/casualize and/or clone other games (WoWify, LoLify, CoDify), etc?
 
Scooby Doo said:
Not profitable enough!!! More more more....
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Haha. Yeah. Best to just preach gloom and doom the moment one of these business ventures occurs. They all go the same way with no exception. No company that's ever purchased ever survives! Daybreak is going to be destroyed! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! :awe:
 
Craig234 said:
Sorry, I was using sarcasm to make a point in that case.
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I know, I prefer to just be explicit in pointing out the design concessions game companies make.

On that note, is there any hope of another game company making a good MMOFPS like PS2 but better? Better design decisions in certain areas, better response to cheats, etc?
 
Hmmm another nail in the coffin?

http://www.mmobomb.com/news/storybricks-closes-ai-tech-eq-next-co-owned-daybreak/

In a rather surprising bit of news, artificial intelligence gurus Storybricks announced its closure on its website earlier this week, after being unable to find a partner to sell the company to.

Storybricks is most familiar to gaming fans for its work on the emergent AI in EverQuest Next. According to the letter, the closure is not related to the recent Daybreak Games acquisition by Columbus Nova, and had been in the works for some time. The letter states that the “Majority of the work we have done is about EverQuest Next and is co-owned by Daybreak,” though it’s clear that, with no dates regarding EQ Next’s availability, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
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