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General: SOE Goes Indie - Now Known as Daybreak Game Company
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
UPDATE: No SOE Live (or DGC Live) for 2015
SOE Live will take a hiatus as we focus on our exciting transition and the future of Daybreak Game Company.
— Brasse (@Brasse) February 2, 2015
Sony Online Entertainment has been acquired by an investment management firm that specializes in technology, media and entertainment companies. Called "Columbus Nova", the move effectively makes SOE an independent games development studio. Of keen interest is the fact that, as an indie developer, SOE will now be able to create games across multiple platforms including XBox, mobile and more. As part of the acquisition, SOE will now be known as Daybreak Game Company.
From the company statement, there will be no interruption in games or other services provided by the company formerly known as SOE. In the long term, it means more games, more platforms, more genres.
We'll keep you posted as the story develops.
Read more on the SOE forum (or more accurately, the DGC forum!).
Comments
Interesting times were living in...
Curious to see the changes that are coming. Only question is, will they be good or bad?
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
that does not sound good..because why SONY as parent company of soe ,,sold the soe to this new company columbus nova.. if the soe was profitable enough why would big sony sell it?? considering sony is not doing well in general..then why they sold the profitable part of it??
unless they basically get rid of it because it was not good for them anymore.
Daybreak Games?
So... DBG?
As in D-Bag?
Uh oh...
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
Much needed capital.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
So now SOE is owned by a venture capitalist company.
I expect allot of layoffs in the coming weeks and more intrusive microtransactions.
Grats? Sorry not sure how to take this lol
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2015/02/02/sony-online-entertainment-sold-to-investment-firm-now-daybreak-game-company/
QUOTE PLS READ
“Sony Online Entertainment, newly rebranded as Daybreak, is a great addition to our existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. We see tremendous opportunities for growth with the expansion of the company’s game portfolio through multi-platform offerings as well as an exciting portfolio of new quality games,” said Jason Epstein, Senior Partner of Columbus Nova, in a press release. “The recent Early Access launch success of H1Z1 is just one testament to the talent and dedication of the studio’s developers to create great online gaming experiences.”
SOE president John Smedley will remain president at Daybreak.
“We are excited to join Columbus Nova’s impressive roster of companies. They have a proven track record in similar and related industries and we are eager to move forward to see how we can push the boundaries of online gaming,” Smedley said in a statement. “We will continue to focus on delivering exceptional games to players around the world, as well as bringing our portfolio to new platforms, fully embracing the multi-platform world in which we all live.”
HAD TO DO IT, HAD TO!
Agree!
I'm just going to go there.... First massively, then Sony, I predict the next big news item to be wow going f2p.
Won't be remotely surprised if you're correct! It's the crony-capitalist way.
Who ever said SOE was profitable?
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
Personally I think that Sony needs to get back to what they knew best: Hardware.
This allows for fresh air into their software/game development.
Only time will tell, but to be honest I think it speaks well for where the company is going. Investment firms generally don't put money into companies that are ready to go belly up or doing crappy work. Company's that do generally don't make it very far as an investment firm.
Not always as it depends what they want out of SOE. Do they want to strip as much out of the company as they can over 6-12 months and than abandoned the shell or do they want to add online gaming to their clients investment profiles? The latter could mean new investment capital and new games although it could also mean heavily monitized ones at that as well but that wouldn't really be any different than the SOE of old.
Why is this being called Indie? It's far and away not what I would consider a Indie company. It's moving from one big corporate owner to another.
Oh.. hes done..
Don't want to belabor the point but I wish you'd use the full word "independent" when using it in the generic sense.
"Indie" in the context of game studios has come to mean something much smaller scale... whoever the parent company is, this does not make SOE or DBG and indie studio in the way we think of the them.
Although, I suppose, with enough layoffs they could get there.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
SOE has nothing to do with Sony's PlayStation.
SOE provided all of the infrastructure for the PSN... they were the backbone of the network.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.