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SoE
CalmOceans
Member UncommonPosts: 2,437
Why are they still around. Isn't it time Sony just shut them down.
Cancelled projects like The Agency, closed down SWG, Vanguard hasn't been updated in years, DC Universe which underperformed, Fan faire didn't even sell out, all their servers hacked, half of their staff fired, half of the community actually hates them.
Doesn't Sony care about their reputation, SoE is doing them so much more harm than good.
Comments
indeed
While I'm not a fan of SOE by any means, it was more than just SOE that got hacked. Also, many people who buy sony products dont really know about SOE, not to mention they are ran by two different people. Everyone fired people during these times, look at the major banks that came withen inches of failing, people still use those banks. Or how about how GM went bankrupt, aparently it doesnt matter that the cars sell poorly for a reason people still go out and decide they are better than other options so they buy them.
As long as SOE is making them a decent amount of money it wont be shut down. What they need to do is get rid of $medley. When you think of it, SOE is doing a hell of a lot better than Cryptic games is and even they were apparently good enough for PWE to buy.
I would never base my decision to buy a Bravia or a Viao on how SOE performs. Thats like saying comcast phone service is terrible so I wont use their television. Two different products.
(I'm sure there are much better examples, but I can't think of any at the moment)
I think you are lowballing that number:D is SoE paying you to be nice to them?:D
SoE will remain in business so long as their competition remains the caliber of say...
FUNCOM. AoC is a great game, but since it's run by them.... It's the suits that are ruining the game. With this latest fiasco of telling a player that all the people based outside they US have been exploiting by paying in USD for the last 3 years, and that they should be grateful to not be backcharged.... Europeans are going to be abandoning that game now that their prices have virtually doubled. And they way they did it- no announcement, no warning on the accounts page. Just if you attempt to buy something, it shows in USD, but when you click to CONFIRM the purchase, it suddenly pops in the Euro symbol. Shady business.
Blizzard pulled that social network attempt and got fragged for it- another greed driven coporate attempt to sabotage their own game.
EA Games- Sims Online failed because of the managerial side, not the devs or player base. Every expansion they come out with on the non-MMO side is a bug ridden fest. They're as bad, if not worse than Firaxis. I mention EA Games, because they'll be the ones providiing the actual access to SWTOR. Their game launcher Origin (trying to be like Steam) is going to be the only way to access SWTOR- and it's a broken piece of garbage. I had to spend a couple hours fixing the mess it made of my computer. It still doesn't show all the titles I previously purchased from EA, from their own store.
Origin will ruin SWTOR, if Bioware doesn't.
Firaxis- We'll never get to see a Civilizations MMO. They can't even release a base game thats playable out of the box ( I bought the expansions for Civ IV, and they wouldn't even play without me finding a patch out on the net), let alone something that has to be reprogrammed on the fly, like MMOs have to be.
By comparison SoE isn't so bad. Sure, they went with the NGE- for which they all must die. You also forget they're coming out with Planetside 2- I'll totally pause playing GW2 to play that. It looks like it will give me my PvP fix. EQ and EQ2 still have healthy populations, and EQ2 went F2P (sort of), bringing in even more. Unlike anyone else, they also offer a single sub (pass) to play any of their games. I did that for a couple years.
Now I'm playing Istaria again (played it when it was Horizons) and AoC. There was some sort of dev drama in Istaria recently and AoC- well it's run by funcom. I'm really looking forward to a secret world, but I may never get to play it because it's a funcom title.
Sure you will. It's just on Facebook:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/07/civilization-world-launches-on-facebook-global-productivity-thr/
All the hate toward SOE baffles me. Forget the NGE already move on it was one game and no one can even claim they know it was SOE who approved it. Can we really call SOE a failing company ? What other company offers access to 7 games for 15$ a month ? I suspect the OP has some bias toward SOE and cant look at things without that biased point of view.
Had to go look up station pass pricing. I remember it as $29. Thanks for making me look. It's now $19.99 and 14.99 if I buy it for a year (no thanks). When Planetside 2 comes out, yeah, I'll be up on that:D
HAHAHHAHAHHA. *immediately runs out to sign up* Hey, I'm what they call a hypocrite. However, looking at the app's home page, it's full of apologies for bugs that are making it unplayable for most people- like a complete lack of access for several days. Hmnnnnnnnn.....
SOE is a company that lost it's focus years ago when they implemented the quanity over quality attitude they have had for awhile now. I believe they do not see their customers as anything but a cash cow that needs to be milked dry.
I am fine with them being a business and needing to make money. I understand how the whole system works. However is there a reason why you need to crap on your customers in order to do this?
Look at VG. What a shining example of how much SOE cares about their paying customers. Its just sad.
It's got issues for sure, but I've wasted an embarrassing amount of time playing it this past week. It's ridiculous how easily you can get sucked into it.
I still won't pay for the CivBucks, or whatever they call the currency that costs real cash, but it's fun.
Yeah, I just tried. I get a frozen page, no access. Ahh Firaxis, way to prove my point.....
I still play the base Civ IV game, without the broken expansions (I have to do a fresh install every time to get them to work, even with the patch).
Yeah, I think it's over 90% that hates SOE.
There are people sitll playing their games, especially EQ1. There is no legit reason to have them shut down any more games on paying customers who are still having fun.
EQ still makes money.........yes a 10 y/o game, and still their best game.
It is sad SoE lost the plot since WoW launched.
SoE needs to go back in time if they want to survive
EQ3 is their last chance.
If they make another Eq2, Rift, WAR, AOC, SWTOR then Sony will shut the studio all together
I can understand why people dislike SOE (especially if they play Vanguard or SWG). The problem with SOE is they've bitten off more than they can chew in terms of number of products. It seems to me that they don't have enough staff to support all of their somewhat underperforming MMOs. EQ and EQ2 aren't doing bad, but they get 90% of the attention whereas the other games get almost none. If they streamlined their product slate and provided better support, they'd have a lot more faith in them.
I'm looking forward to Planetside 2. If they market it correctly (SOE's marketing is usually terrible), and don't make some bad choices, it could become pretty big, which would force them to actually support it. Similarly, the talk of the EQ:N being a sandbox and returning some of the old school flavour we saw in EQ1 to the genre sounds promising. Perhaps SOE has had an epiphany, we'll see over the coming years.
One could speculate that Sony Corp uses SOE as a tax write down...
However, with the reality of how badly Sony Corp has been doing this is unlikely.
Honestly if you look at most of the Sony shareholder meetings, comments from previous CEO's and their market performance. SOE is 100% performing on par with the rest of the companies divisions. So why would they do anything with that part of the company?
It could also be that SOE which was moved out of Sony Pictures and into the same division as the Playstation (which is where it was to begin with tho insterad of soe they called it 989 studios and/or Verant take your pick they were all sony companies tho somehow many don't realize that).. is making a profit.
Before Howard Stringer took over as CEO.. I think it was the previous CEO that stated Sony had become out of touch with its customers. So it sounds like SOE belongs as part of Sony to me!
Well it looks like SOE for some strange reason manage to get a brain and seeing the potential of how good Vanguard can really be if they put some manpower into it.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Why are there such selfish people into MMORPG's that create topics like this?
I don't get it, just because some person(s) doesn't like SOE or it games means that the company must close even though we all know for a fact there are people enjoying SOE games.
This is regardless how I feel about SOE, cause they made some stupid decission in my opinion, but then again it aint my company to demand what I want as they are a company build for entertainment, so obviously everyone has a choice to either play or not play their games, still the wallet speaks louder then words.
And of course the fact they are still making new content for some of their games, releasing new games only proofs they must be doing something good for the company, that alone shows how wrong topics like this are.
as much as SOE has made me nuts over the years, i dont wish them to be closed down. the more options for the consumer the better i believe.
Vanguard was an excellent game. It had a great community and economy due to one of the best crafting systems I have ever seen. Then they ruined it. Crafting became obsolete to the point that the only player made products that would sell were furniture and building mats. Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg? Ill never know. However like most VG players, I voted with my wallet and left.
The company will continue as long as subscribers support it. Obviously some people still enjoy their games. If you are angry with them there is no need to shut them down. Cancel your subscription and go elsewhere. There are plenty of other games to chose from
i think theres a game called free realms with millions of subsribers, also clone wars which seems to be doing well so much so theres a tie in with mcdonalds happy meals.
I think the big issue with SOE is they've managed to break so many of there games by not listerning to the players, PS with TH BFG's, SWG and NGE, VG and crafting.
But if they wernt' such good games we wouldn't be so annoyed at them ruining them, lets hope they've lernt the lesson for PS2.
Every time there is a thread on SOE we see this argument;
"It was just one game years ago..."
"Just get over it already. NGE saved the game..."
The problem with this argument is that it assumes that everyone who has 'issues' with SOE is fueled by SWG angst.
Well, no.
If you want another completely seperate example of SOE at work have a look back in the Pirates of the Burning Sea forum here.
In that game SOE (Platform Publishing) was only the publisher and distributer.
They made a complete mess of that. Not talking a couple of little mistakes here. Talking a complete mess of the whole thing to the point where their client (Flying Lab Software) had to step in and actually do some of the jobs they were paying SOE to do for them!
Not to mention the lies they told to both their customers and client duing the whole fiasco (which they were caught out on - more than once).
And none of that has anything to do with SWG:NGE.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Me neither, I would like Smedley replaced by someone from Turbine or Blizzard...........or God forbid Arenanet.
Someone from Blizzard please!! Leave Turbine alone, we need them for the excellent job they do with LOTRO
But... what are we talking about here? They won't listen to us, they never do so Blizzard is safe too 