Too bad but not enough people are willing to pay a monthly fee for a FPS game.
The agency should have been a B2P game like any concole FPS that you play online.
It is at least good that they keep working on EQ Next.
Only if the Agency had a development schedule that would allow SOE to recoup the cost in a B2P model. But, it's been in development for like 4 years now....they just are not making money back on that. A sunk cost is a sunk cost and, as the saying goes, never throw good money after bad.
This was probably a good business decicison, because I'm not sure the demand for The Agency was all that high. Though, if it does turn out to be the right call I'll assume it was just luck, because $OE did it.
shame on SOE.... the only mmo i would actually pay to play from SOE.... oh well, thats a sign that i must never sub to a game from SOE
edit: i hope K2 buy the Agency project just like they did with All Points Bulletin to release it as F2P.... at least the game will be saved from SOEs bloody paws and stay alive
I doubt it. They are probably using the tech for Planetside Next. And since a spy MMO is timeless, they can probably res it somewhere down the line when they figure out what to do with it.
We wanted to share this information with you here, rather than having you read about it on another site. The EQII community is a large part of the ongoing success of SOE, and the game is in a strong position to succeed. Development continues unabated on EverQuest II, and you can look forward to a Producer’s Letter next week with more information about what lies ahead for the game’s development in 2011.
For those who wish to comment, please use THIS thread. It will remain unlocked as long as conversation remains constructive and polite. Our CMs and Mods have been asked to redirect all other related posts to this one as well.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.
Linda "Brasse" Carlson
Director of Global Community Relations, SOE
---------~~========~~---------
I have a Qlu'Stiq and I'm not afraid to use it.
Taken from the EQ2 forums. I have highlighted the important part
This might actually be what SOE needs to turn things around. SOE is notorious for making more MMORPGs than Hitchcock made cameos. Shifting their developers focus to longer running and (arguably) more successful titles instead of taking uncessary gambles on new IPs is a logical choice IMO. Remains to see what will happen, though. Not a fan of SOE, but I don't hate them either.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
Is this really surprising? It is Sony we're talking about here. They've screwed up more MMO's than have been successful. You hear more about Everquest 1 than Everquest 2, until recently I didn't hear anything about Planetside for years, I didn't even know Vanguard was still around, they screwed up Star Wars, they totally screwed up The Matrix. Did I miss any?
I was hoping The Agency would be good but I'm not surprised they stopped working on it. Its just to bad they didn't sell the IP to someone else like so many other game devs have done (look at Mythos, and APB, and others). Sony believes so little in their product that they won't even try and sell it to someone else and maybe recoup some of the money they lost.
Wasnt this one just about done? I thought it was originally to be released at the end of 2010 but got pushed back a bit for some last minute tuning up. Really sad that it was so close to being ready for Beta and then gets closed down.
Nah it was nowhere near ready after they decided to rehaul the game because it didn't really work out as planned, which is one of the biggest reasons you never saw much coverage in the first place. They changed directions with the game and overextended their time and budget on this project to try and make it work and it's now a half-assed steaming pile of garbage. SOE probably pulled the plug now so they don't end up like Realtime Worlds. I mean think about it, if they won't even release the thing to earn back some captial they spent on it... it must've been unplayable.
It's a shame really, I remember wanting to play this when they announced it early on.
Too bad since this was the only interesting looking game in SOEs stable. Oh well, while I can never be happy when the news is about people losing their jobs, I will say that SOE's upper echelon have made some drastically foolish decsions over the past few years and it is unsuprising to see them coming back to haunt them. And I for one can't help at least a slight bit of grim delight seeing Smeghead Smedly's gravy train derail a few more box cars. Maybe this time he won't be able to deflect all the blame to other sources.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
The only thing Sony does half way decent now is make movies and TV. There games suck and there tech is becoming second rate too. Now is the time for Samsung, and LG, so long Sony. Get rid of all your top management and get people who care about gaming and tech.
Clever move. It's sad it has to be done with layoffs but that's just about what drives companies further: restructuring. It's not new, it's a necessity, and SOE isn't the first and won't be the last. I'm happy to see they are investing in the EQ franchise and still keeping VG alive (I do hope they take some of the bright features from that game for implementation in EQ Next).
Wasnt this one just about done? I thought it was originally to be released at the end of 2010 but got pushed back a bit for some last minute tuning up. Really sad that it was so close to being ready for Beta and then gets closed down.
Nah it was nowhere near ready after they decided to rehaul the game because it didn't really work out as planned, which is one of the biggest reasons you never saw much coverage in the first place. They changed directions with the game and overextended their time and budget on this project to try and make it work and it's now a half-assed steaming pile of garbage. SOE probably pulled the plug now so they don't end up like Realtime Worlds. I mean think about it, if they won't even release the thing to earn back some captial they spent on it... it must've been unplayable.
It's a shame really, I remember wanting to play this when they announced it early on.
weird read people claim it was almost done, that it were playable at last years SOE fan faire....had my own theory crafting going on them just rename the game to planetside 2
Jeeez, if only someone had given us a common sense approach and point of view based on SOE's continued and consistent historical business practices / managerial decisions - we might not be this surprised or disappointed about the whole thing.
Comments
Only if the Agency had a development schedule that would allow SOE to recoup the cost in a B2P model. But, it's been in development for like 4 years now....they just are not making money back on that. A sunk cost is a sunk cost and, as the saying goes, never throw good money after bad.
"etc." ( ' ;
This was probably a good business decicison, because I'm not sure the demand for The Agency was all that high. Though, if it does turn out to be the right call I'll assume it was just luck, because $OE did it.
Joined - July 2004
shame on SOE.... the only mmo i would actually pay to play from SOE.... oh well, thats a sign that i must never sub to a game from SOE
edit: i hope K2 buy the Agency project just like they did with All Points Bulletin to release it as F2P.... at least the game will be saved from SOEs bloody paws and stay alive
I doubt it. They are probably using the tech for Planetside Next. And since a spy MMO is timeless, they can probably res it somewhere down the line when they figure out what to do with it.
Fellow Adventurers,
We wanted to share this information with you here, rather than having you read about it on another site. The EQII community is a large part of the ongoing success of SOE, and the game is in a strong position to succeed. Development continues unabated on EverQuest II, and you can look forward to a Producer’s Letter next week with more information about what lies ahead for the game’s development in 2011.
For those who wish to comment, please use THIS thread. It will remain unlocked as long as conversation remains constructive and polite. Our CMs and Mods have been asked to redirect all other related posts to this one as well.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.
Linda "Brasse" Carlson
Director of Global Community Relations, SOE
---------~~========~~---------
I have a Qlu'Stiq and I'm not afraid to use it.
Taken from the EQ2 forums. I have highlighted the important part
This might actually be what SOE needs to turn things around. SOE is notorious for making more MMORPGs than Hitchcock made cameos. Shifting their developers focus to longer running and (arguably) more successful titles instead of taking uncessary gambles on new IPs is a logical choice IMO. Remains to see what will happen, though. Not a fan of SOE, but I don't hate them either.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
Is this really surprising? It is Sony we're talking about here. They've screwed up more MMO's than have been successful. You hear more about Everquest 1 than Everquest 2, until recently I didn't hear anything about Planetside for years, I didn't even know Vanguard was still around, they screwed up Star Wars, they totally screwed up The Matrix. Did I miss any?
I was hoping The Agency would be good but I'm not surprised they stopped working on it. Its just to bad they didn't sell the IP to someone else like so many other game devs have done (look at Mythos, and APB, and others). Sony believes so little in their product that they won't even try and sell it to someone else and maybe recoup some of the money they lost.
Nah it was nowhere near ready after they decided to rehaul the game because it didn't really work out as planned, which is one of the biggest reasons you never saw much coverage in the first place. They changed directions with the game and overextended their time and budget on this project to try and make it work and it's now a half-assed steaming pile of garbage. SOE probably pulled the plug now so they don't end up like Realtime Worlds. I mean think about it, if they won't even release the thing to earn back some captial they spent on it... it must've been unplayable.
It's a shame really, I remember wanting to play this when they announced it early on.
Too bad since this was the only interesting looking game in SOEs stable. Oh well, while I can never be happy when the news is about people losing their jobs, I will say that SOE's upper echelon have made some drastically foolish decsions over the past few years and it is unsuprising to see them coming back to haunt them. And I for one can't help at least a slight bit of grim delight seeing Smeghead Smedly's gravy train derail a few more box cars. Maybe this time he won't be able to deflect all the blame to other sources.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
@Mr. SOE shill man.. SOE is a "Global leader" of two things, and "jack" left town.
Hopefully Smed will be next.
The only thing Sony does half way decent now is make movies and TV. There games suck and there tech is becoming second rate too. Now is the time for Samsung, and LG, so long Sony. Get rid of all your top management and get people who care about gaming and tech.
Clever move. It's sad it has to be done with layoffs but that's just about what drives companies further: restructuring. It's not new, it's a necessity, and SOE isn't the first and won't be the last. I'm happy to see they are investing in the EQ franchise and still keeping VG alive (I do hope they take some of the bright features from that game for implementation in EQ Next).
weird read people claim it was almost done, that it were playable at last years SOE fan faire....had my own theory crafting going on them just rename the game to planetside 2
Jeeez, if only someone had given us a common sense approach and point of view based on SOE's continued and consistent historical business practices / managerial decisions - we might not be this surprised or disappointed about the whole thing.
Oh wait...
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/140108/page/1
mmhhmmm...
/popcorn