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John Smedley Interview over at Eurogamer
Lowdos
Member Posts: 644
Perhaps worth a quick read -
www.eurogamer.net/articles/soes-john-smedley-interview
Regarding micro-transactions -
"...Well, things are changing. We feel that the gaming industry as a whole is reaching out to new consumers - games like Rock Band are a great example. It's not so much to do with casual gamers as it is to do with bringing in completely new gamers, it's broadening out. Currently, online games are played by a clear demographic: the 35-year-old male. In fact, they make up 85 per cent of all online gamers..."
" I think that micro-transactions are part of our future. In fact, since we introduced them to EverQuest II, 40 per cent of our customers have invested in them. We see it as an increase in business by simply offering players what they want and giving it to them for a reasonable price."
"We researched our own players in depth to find out how they'd like their micro-transactions, what they'd want from them, and even if they liked them. There were actually a lot that didn't. It took us over four years of research with our player-base over many titles to make the decision - we'd rather do that than rush into it - but after a gut-check about a year ago, the results were such that we felt it was the right time about a year ago. Ultimately it was an evolutionary process for Sony Online. Many of us were really against it, to be honest, and we really made the decision based on a great deal of consideration of both the company and the player-base."
Apart from FreeRealms, DC Online and Agency Online, he also mentioned another PS3 development title, that has yet to be announced.
Comments
I don't know why they keep developing new games. Their "only" really successful game has been EQ, all the rest were flops.
It's mathematically impossible to create MMO every year and expect them to survive, they won't be massive anymore since you can't divide the playebase every year, most people will stay with an MMO they like.
This goes for every MMO developer, you can keep churning out the MMO, this is a bubble waiting to burst.
In other words, the beans gained due to RMT shops seem to counterweight the beans lost due to the implementation of said RMT shops.
Short term. But rarely to most of these companies today think long term with respect to customer retention. If they are, their actions sure don't show they are.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Not a big SOE fan, SWG vet and all. However I do not know what you mean by "all the rest were flops". SWG was number 2 for quite a long time, EQ2 has had a decent amount of success. Free realms has as well.
Everything else they have released was not developed by them. Hell SWG wasn't really either, nor EQ just aquired like 90% of their games.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Not a big SOE fan, SWG vet and all. However I do not know what you mean by "all the rest were flops". SWG was number 2 for quite a long time, EQ2 has had a decent amount of success. Free realms has as well.
Everything else they have released was not developed by them. Hell SWG wasn't really either, nor EQ just aquired like 90% of their games.
True, you're right about SWG, although generally, all games released past SWG and EQ haven't been able to have numbers even near those games, so I don't know what Smedley is trying to do.
How can MMO be massive if you keep bringing new ones out...people do not change MMO on a whim, you can't keep making new MMO and expect them to stay true to the MASSIVE of MMO.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were released with just this intention.
Consider:
It makes sense to me that a company might prefer repeated MMO releases over single player games. Look at WAR as an example. It was hyped to b'jesus, accumulated a fistful of awards and had somewhere in the region of 1.2m box sales within two weeks of launching. It's still running. It's still profitable.
But it's crap. They made their profit by farming the fanbois.
Can you do that with a single-player game?
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Sadly enough I suspect that this exactly how the big development companies look at it now. I suspect that they have mostly given up on attracting a large long term player base so it's all about the <flash in the pan> profit they can make from initial sales and the first few months of subscriptions. Then it's on to the next game, hype it up, tell everybody it'll be the greatest thing since sliced bread, rake in your money, forget about it and move on to the next game.
Hasn't anybody ever wondered why developers are so willing to allow accelerated rates of character progression in games these days as compared to older games? It's not just to please the people who want to race through the games it's because the companies don't really give a damn anymore about long term viability. If long term retention was a high priority then fast leveling would be contrary to the interests of the company.
If they get lucky and people stick with the game anyway, well that's just gravy and they will pile some more content on at the high end to keep them busy for as long as possible but they no longer count on retaining customers long term or try to build games with long term retention in mind.
Yeah, I find it funny he forgot to mention that they lost roughly a 1/3 of thier playerbase implementing the Station Exchange in EQ2.
Then again, I guess it doesn't look so good on the press release when you say, "we lost 1/3 of our subs so we could facilitate RMT for 40% of the remaining playerbase".
Based on the anecdotal evidence I have, a good percentage of players do not want RMT's in their games, yet these big gaming houses like SoE just don't get it and continue to try and shove it down our throats.
Only in Smedley's world could losing 1/3 of your subs = success.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
I think the real eyebrow raiser here is 85% of online gamers are 35 year old males. So men of other ages and women acount for the other 15%? If true those numbers are really startling.
This guy has something of a cynical aproach to games. This interview is nothing but sugarcoating the idea of console MMOs as a way to reach the underage market. I don't think children and MMOs mix and this isn't just because i'm annoyed by 12 year olds bogarting my style, but because the adictive nature of these games requires the coping mechanisms of an adult to deal with them. Add RMT to the mix and this is just the industry basically profiteering off of kids.
It's just sad. And the way this guy's trying to come off as sympathetic to those of us who are against micros is nothing but bull...
Just to make things clear...
I speak for myself and no one else, unless i state otherwise mine is just an opinion. A fact is something that can be independently verified, you may challenge such but with proof. You have every right to disagree with me through sound argument, i believe in constructive debate, but baseless aggression will warrant an unkind response.
To focus your point even more SOE with Smedley as the head fits this description perfectly. The guy is a clown who can't develop his way out of a wet paper bag but definitely caught lightning in a bottle with EQ. Everything else this guy has touched he has all but destroyed.
The mmo market to me is no different than saying the video game market so I don't think the market has really peaked but what is true though is that the amount of gifted developers are certainly weighted to the console and offline pc market.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Smed is the sole reason why SOE games don't have that many subscribers. In an effort to make more money, they are gambling by losing subscribers. But their thinking is that since they make so much money from microtransactions, they are willing to lose subscribers and long time loyal fanbase.
That's such a dangerous thinking, a dangerous strategy, it's a big reason why SOE games don't compete well in today's MMO market. He's right many people have tried their online cash shops, I have. But he isn't mentioning how many people who used them actually enjoyed it, how many people used them once and ended up leaving the game afterwards. He isn't mentioning someone in EQ1 recently who spent $300 in Legends of Norrath to try and get some loot cards, and the guy ended up not getting any and it left a bad taste in his mouth.
But to Smed, the guy who spent $300 just gave them 2 years worth of monthly subscription money, in 1 night. So they are willing to lose however many subscribers in exchange for people spending that much money on these microtransactions. To a corporation, the suits that make decisions, they may think this is the right way to do business. Unfortunately if you look at the games they run currently, they're all sub-200k subscriber games (not counting Free Realms since it's f2p and nobody knows exactly how many people are playing & paying).
I'm torn & sad because I like EQ1, came back early in the year and having a great time ingame. But at the same time, I realize SOE stretched their resources too thin by pumping games out, buying games, and they don't have enough resources (coders, developers) to handle them all properly. So you got a farm of SOE games where SOE is happily milking money from people willing to spend $300 a night on something. They don't concentrate their resources & effort on just 1-3 games like most MMO companies do. Instead of concentrating on a 1-3 games and make them great, their strategy is to pump more games out and give them little dev resources.
Smedley, bad for SOE games, bad for the genre.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
I am waiting for the bubble to burst so that garage studios can rise up and take it over again.
Amen to that. It can't come too soon.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Smedly again never talks about what actually makes a game fun, but he cannot shut up about how to MONETIZE his customers. He seems to think it is important to balance microstransaction vs totally ruining the game. I guess it is ok to just ruin them a little if the end result is more money.... How little he has learned.
Funny enough, whenever smed talks about success in the industry he has to point outside of his own company. Rock band, wow, etc. He never talks about the huge successes in soe except the one game they bought (EQ).
If he was so pleasently surprised by the success and revenue from free realms, then why are they changing it to not be free to play anymore?
It is always snake oil with this guy.
Not just this guy, that's the big problem.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
That will never happen. The only reason that MMOs started out the way they did is because the only people who had computers and Internet connections that could play them were the hardcore crowd. Now, everyone has a broadband connection and a high-end computer and virtually anyone can play these games. In order to go back to the garage studio days, you'd have to throw 90% of the people off the Internet.
Time to deal with reality as it is, not how you wish it would be.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
What I find amusing that Smed takes great pride in using RMT for EQ2. Selling shortcuts is just as bad as gold sellers and to make matter worse this is on top of the biannual expansions that the EQ players always have to pony up.
SOE knows how to rape every crying Lincoln out of their players wallets. Nice.
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I've been a long time defender of SOE's current level of cash shop implementation, but given the knee jerk reaction of this community and MMORPG fans as a whole towards any form of RMT, I think Smedley should certainly be a bit more careful with his words. After what we've seen with players' reaction to Blizzard's "cash shop," the last thing Smed really needed to do was make dumb comments like that. In fact, When I read what he said, it sounds as if it's only a matter of time before SOE turns their games turns into a cash shop game with a monthly fee, and while I'm skeptical that this is, in fact, the case, it is a cause for concern.cern.th players' reaction to Blizzard's "cash shop," the last thing Smed really needed to do was make dumb comments like that. In fact, When I read what he said, it sounds as if it's only a matter of time before SOE turns their games turns into a cash shop game with a monthly fee, and while I'm skeptical that this is, in fact, the case, it is a cause for concern.
At this point in time I'd hardly agree that this website's members as well as those of the many other various websites have a "kneejerk" reaction to the idea of RMT. By now any avid MMO gamer knows what RMT is enough (as it has various variations but one central theme) to have formulated an opinion on it and to make a decision as to whether or not it is a option they want to engage in. "Kneejerk" reactions happen when exposed to something for the first time. When something has been smeared on the "MMO house walls" and "rubbed in your face" you tend to have gotten a good whiff of what it is. Some people like the smell, others think it stinks.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I find that hard to believe. Every EQ2 guild I know is vastly different in age and gender structure than this.
Smed is like the Emperor in "The Emperor's New Clothes" fairy tale, only that HE is the only one left who didn't realize than if fact he is naked.
Nothing in this interview about visions! About dreams! About coolness and fun. He is an awful bean counter.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I find that hard to believe. Every EQ2 guild I know is vastly different in age and gender structure than this.
Obligatory Smed shot:
Come on guys, this is the Smedster we're talking about here. You're not seriously contemplating figures that he drops as being remotely accurate or researched, are you? You know his signature on every forum post and appended to every comment reads "brought to you by Carl's Jr.", in invisible ink, right?
We now return you to your regularly scheduled conversations.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Everytime I see this man I want to beat him with a sack of oranges......
At this point in time I'd hardly agree that this website's members as well as those of the many other various websites have a "kneejerk" reaction to the idea of RMT.
See below the quote
By now any avid MMO gamer knows what RMT is enough (as it has various variations but one central theme) to have formulated an opinion on it and to make a decision as to whether or not it is a option they want to engage in.
You say RMT trading has variations (or at least I think you do), but you fail to acknowledge that people never take those variations into consideration before condemning the business model. RMT as exhibited in games such as Everquest and Everquest 2 in no way divide the playerbase, and the cash shop has absolutely no bearing on someone's ability to advance when compared to another. It would take the average player about two or three months to reach the max level in Everquest 2 (mainly fighting through the last ten to twenty levels) and about a month or two to reach the cap in the original EQ. XP potions are sold in the shop, but they are in no way necessary like they are in various foreign F2P MMOs. If you want an extra boost in XP, it's there for you, but it's not like you don't level fast enough or have various forms of boosted XP whether it be from veteran rewards or vitality XP other than what you buy off the item shop. Everything else is simply cosmetic and has absolutely no bearing on gameplay whatsoever, making it absolutely laughable when anyone (as they do) ties to paint SOE's games as RMT with a monthly fee.
This is what most of those who voice disagreement with RMT in Blizzard or SOE games fail to realize. They fail to actually take a look at why RMT trading is viewed as the evil that it is and instead of actually taking the time to consider exactly what it does and does not effect. They immediately consider RMT trading itself as the problem (which it isn't really) without considering the effects of the RMT as the issue, hence the term "knee-jerk reaction."
"Kneejerk" reactions happen when exposed to something for the first time.
Not really, see what I've written below the quote for an explanation.
When something has been smeared on the "MMO house walls" and "rubbed in your face" you tend to have gotten a good whiff of what it is. Some people like the smell, others think it stinks.
what?
Actually, a knee-jerk (needs a hyphen because if we're going to disagree on the meaning of a word, we better get technical with our spelling) reaction is just an automatic response to something, and I find it hard to believe you would deny that any mention of RMT trading of ANY sort (as exhibiting in Blizzard's selling of what is it, cosmetic pets for a charity) is met with almost immediate disdain from the majority of this community without any sort of real thought as to what exactly the implications are.
Ah yes, the old school "had a car accident" insurance scam....
In Smed's case, be sure to throw the oranges in the freezer for a couple days first.....