Sony Online Entertainment Becomes Daybreak Game Company

[Mystarra]

So looks like Sony games are no longer part of Sony.  Supposedly has to do with allowing them to offer their games on XBox as well.

https://forums.station.sony.com/everquestnext/index.php?threads%2Fsony-online-entertainment-becomes-daybreak-game-company.1106%2F

Dear Players, Partners and Friends,

Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company. Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more!

As part of this transition, SOE will now become Daybreak Game Company. This name embodies who we are as an organization, and is a nod to the passion and dedication of our employees and players. It is also representative of our vision to approach each new day as an opportunity to move gaming forward.

So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in.

Our games and players are the heart and soul of our organization, and we are committed to maintaining our portfolio of online games and pushing the limits of where we can take online gaming together.

Thank you for your continued support. See you in game!

The Team at Daybreak

[Notja]

Hmmmmm.... that's all I got..

 

[Oxillion]

Been reading up on this and not sure what to think.  We have been dealing with technical issues post the last patch on Landmark and maybe this is why.  Normally things pretty much come to a halt during transitions like this. 

Lets hope for the best though!

Hope everyone is well

Ox

[Notja]

I've been doing some reading up too.... and I'm very concerned about the future of these games.. mainly because of this: "an investment management firm"

[Oxillion]

I tried to find more about Columbus Nova.   Still digging.

Allot of people are asking questions and what it means for us the gaming community and SOE in general. 

MSN Money snip

"So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation," the developer said in a post on Reddit. "In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in."

 

This seems to be the general response from the Dev's and the SOE team.  We shall see. 

 

Ox

[Mystarra]

When I see investment firm, I can't help but think more things for sale in the cash shop.   Yep, we shall see!

[Notja]

Mystarra wrote:

When I see investment firm, I can't help but think more things for sale in the cash shop.   Yep, we shall see!

 That's EXACTLY my thoughts as well. Why, oh WHY are all my future hopes and dreams of a good P2P MMO always ruined! You guys already know that I'm the guy who always prefers to pay a monthly fee because I hate cash shops with a passion.

[Eyesadi]

At the severe risk of getting flamed to DEATH.......my .02........

This is a long running argument, money vs time.

I try to "understand" both sides, and I feel I do.....as I have experienced both.

Why, oh why, do you HATE cash shops?  You simply can choose NOT to use them.  When I was still a worker bee, I had two long time gamer buds who had virtually unlimited gaming time.  Damn they pissed me off!  It was SOOOOO unfair!  Why could they game 12 hours a day and poor me about 1 1/2.  I simply could not compete.  No way.

So.......my thoughts have come around to simple acceptance.  Unless you can limit EVERYONES game time to 90 minutes a day, I now feel cash shops are simply an equalizer.

God bless you if you have 12 hours a day to game.  So why hate those that do NOT have that luxury, but, perhaps do have a few extra dollars to spend?

Simply put..........I feel if we want to eliminate the cash shops.........we need to restrict play times a well.  Is not your "time" a form of currency?  I think so.

My uber days are history.  I now play cuz I just love the genre.  And I will play whatever game I can currently enjoy.

And the bottom line is we are all free to play whatever game we choose.

Final comment on the topic......We must never forget game companies need to make a profit in order for their games to continue to exist and expand.  

I was originally of the opinion, the cash shop games would quickly die.  Now they are taking over our genre!  What direction does that dictate we will be headed?

[Mystarra]

Well, I guess if the cash shops really were about money vs time, I'd be okay with that.  But from how I've seen the games I like evolve, I was seeing less and less major content and more furniture, mounts, etc.  I guess they see more profit in daily furniture sales than yearly expansions.  The expansions have gotten smaller with a lot of reuse of old content with a new paintbrush with daily quests as an excuse to keep you busy to make up for the lack of land mass and quests.

Cash shops brought about a degradation of content and to a lesser extent a degradation of the player base in some cases.  For the most part I was pretty much okay with LotRO's cash shop.   That really was about money vs. time mostly with not a huge loss of content in exchange.  But as the store expands, the games have lost quality and just gotten a whole lot crappier.  That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

[Notja]

Eyesadi wrote:

At the severe risk of getting flamed to DEATH.......my .02........ This is a long running argument, money vs time. I try to "understand" both sides, and I feel I do.....as I have experienced both. Why, oh why, do you HATE cash shops?  You simply can choose NOT to use them.  When I was still a worker bee, I had two long time gamer buds who had virtually unlimited gaming time.  Damn they pissed me off!  It was SOOOOO unfair!  Why could they game 12 hours a day and poor me about 1 1/2.  I simply could not compete.  No way. So.......my thoughts have come around to simple acceptance.  Unless you can limit EVERYONES game time to 90 minutes a day, I now feel cash shops are simply an equalizer. God bless you if you have 12 hours a day to game.  So why hate those that do NOT have that luxury, but, perhaps do have a few extra dollars to spend? Simply put..........I feel if we want to eliminate the cash shops.........we need to restrict play times a well.  Is not your "time" a form of currency?  I think so. My uber days are history.  I now play cuz I just love the genre.  And I will play whatever game I can currently enjoy. And the bottom line is we are all free to play whatever game we choose. Final comment on the topic......We must never forget game companies need to make a profit in order for their games to continue to exist and expand.   I was originally of the opinion, the cash shop games would quickly die.  Now they are taking over our genre!  What direction does that dictate we will be headed?

 It doesn't have to be a competition on who can play the longest. My schedule these days only allows me to play for an hour or two a night, maybe 3-4 nights a week if I'm lucky. I consider that a bargain compared to other forms of entertainment.

The problem I see with cash shops, even those with only cosmetic items, is that if I choose to pay a subscription, the people that buy cash shop items will have way better looking gear than what I can find by actually playing the game and adventuring. It's all crap by these greedy, corporations. If you're going to have a cash shop, then you need to put items in there that can also be gained by adventuring.

[Notja]

Mystarra wrote:

Well, I guess if the cash shops really were about money vs time, I'd be okay with that.  But from how I've seen the games I like evolve, I was seeing less and less major content and more furniture, mounts, etc.  I guess they see more profit in daily furniture sales than yearly expansions.  The expansions have gotten smaller with a lot of reuse of old content with a new paintbrush with daily quests as an excuse to keep you busy to make up for the lack of land mass and quests. Cash shops brought about a degradation of content and to a lesser extent a degradation of the player base in some cases.  For the most part I was pretty much okay with LotRO's cash shop.   That really was about money vs. time mostly with not a huge loss of content in exchange.  But as the store expands, the games have lost quality and just gotten a whole lot crappier.  That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

 I completely agree with Myst here. Until then, I'll continue to pay and play WoW until something better comes along. I was a huge WoW hater until recently... and if WoW decides to put in a real cash shop, then I'm outta there as well.

[Oxillion]

I fall in the anti-cash shop camp for sure.   It has been my experience that quality and quantity falls shot when that type of business model is deployed. Gw2 is one of the better ones but that is my opinion and I don't buy anything on the stores for these games.   I fear the days of just going in to play content to take a bit longer to get gear or finsh questing are pretty much on the way out.  The DLC model is popping into more AAA  games and its huge on MOBO games.  Then the stores are all over you for content or the latest garb.  It's offensive to pay $50 for game to be hammered like that all the time.  

I am hoping EQNext won't follow that but I fear the dev groups are already infiltrated by type that want this.  

I will use Microsoft as an example.  I now work on the team that developed HoloLens and the gaming developers are told to build the games with the DLC or the like in the game.  XBox games are loaded with it now.  Age of Empires has been reduced to a rts MOBO game.  Completely destroyed it.  What's worse I was orders to play it to promote it.....with that sort of game all I wanted to do is flush it.  

 

steps off soap box

 

hope everyone is well

Ox

[Mystarra]

Rumors that some things will be happening with EQ1 and EQ2 with this ominous statement in the official forums from a staff member:

Daybreak and Columbus Nova management teams are working together closely to evaluate the situation and will make adjustments if needed.

Saw this post from Feldon of EQ2Wire which really explains a lot about why there has been such little content for EQ2:

Despite the devastating staffing cuts to EQ and EQ2, they remain sufficiently profitable to support Smedley’s extravagant cash burn rate in trying to get another game off the ground. EQ and EQ2 paid for 3 failed attempts to get EQNext launched, The Agency, and FreeRealms which never made its $40 million back.

If EQ2 were staffed up by 50%, we’d see Kunark sized expansions again, if not bigger, and the customer base would start growing again, while still turning a profit. Staffing is not EQ2′s biggest expense by far. It’s executive waste.

 

info from EQ2Wire

[Paetryn]

Hmmm, I see more job cuts coming with that so called "Executive Waste" statement.  This would mean something has to give from somewhere.

[Eyesadi]

You are a wise man P......

VERY wise.....