Originally posted by Thebeasttt Daybreak is already making SoE better simple because it's wiliing to trim the fat in a company that's been happily swimming in a sea of mediocrity for I don't even know how long.
Expecting half the staff to now be responsible for twice the work isn't going to result in a better company.
Prior to half the staff being cut, SOE was incapable of developing and releasing a game beyond alpha status. This wasn't fat being cut. SOE was cut to the bone.
There is no way the current staff is going to be able to keep support for existing games at previous levels while also continuing development of existing projects... and add Xbox and other platform development to the list.
Something has to give. Either old games are going to suffer or unreleased projects will. Possibly both.
Pretty much an accurate article except one idea.There is still the spike in money earned,H1Z1 being the proof,they made a ton of money already and will not be making much in the future no matter how much content they add.
I'm not sure SOE made a ton of money of H1Z1 as some speculate.
Lets just assume that H1Z1 was SOE's fastest selling game in history. Say 500,000 accounts sold in a couple of months. More the EQ, SWG, EQ2 or DCU at their population height.
500,000 x $20 = 10 million in revenue.
factor in a 30% cut for steam
---------
$7 million net revenue for SOE
and that is a best case, fasting selling game in SOE history.
Pretty much an accurate article except one idea.There is still the spike in money earned,H1Z1 being the proof,they made a ton of money already and will not be making much in the future no matter how much content they add.
I'm not sure SOE made a ton of money of H1Z1 as some speculate.
Lets just assume that H1Z1 <snip>
Doesn't matter. The money from H1Z1 was made by SOE not Daybreak. It will have been factored into whatever price CN paid. Same deal as with the severance packages.
For Daybreak it is a new dawn, a fresh slate; old development costs wiped away - but no rainbows with crocks of gold under them on the horizon.
I would suspect EQ3 to culled, with parts of its tech sold off or licenced.
EQ2 and EQ, are headed for life support. I already have an open ticket thats been open for 3 days on a problem and its not been open. I suspect we no longer have a customer service team to speak of and they are so backlogged its not funny. I would suspect that EQ and EQ2 have not been making enough money for a while, with over 60% of the eq2 team fired is tell tell to the fact we not been making money. I suspect eq2 is already in maintenance mode, and were headed for sunset by the end of the year.
DCUO, Planetside 2 are probably going to be ok. H1z1 who knowns.
However the old guard EQ IP were done, the writing is on the wall.
MMO's are dead, and its because you stupid people embraced the F2P model instead of fighting it. Plain and simple.
The thing is I wonder how many of those 'stupid people' are still with us? Sure we have our long term F2P advocates on here and the fact MMORPG decided to get Richard to do F2P articles all those years ago.
But I think the majority of F2P lovers may not even be in gaming now, they had limited time for the genre in the past, do they have any time for it now? They have been replaced by teenage newcomers to gaming, of which there is a never ending supply.
MMO's are dead, and its because you stupid people embraced the F2P model instead of fighting it. Plain and simple.
Obvious troll post from you but I will bite:
the MMO genre is nearly dead for the people that play SOE games, they have like only EQ2 running as a main title, and a few on the way, but not released.
That said, if you like good MMOs, for example I play one that is 10y old and still growing, challenging, scares children that want to reach "endgame" in 1d away AND is a sandbox, not a levelbased spoonfed themepark, yes, if you are playing those then you areplaying in the golden age of gaming.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
MMO genre isn't dead as some are saying, and there is no need to depend heavily on microtransaction. The problem with SOE was mismanagement by Smedley, Georgeson and others at the top of the SOE food chain. They went off on to many tangent projects (Free Realms, DC Universe, Star Wars, etc) each of those projects cost quite abit. They fueled all these dead in the water projects from thier core games, EQ and EQ2, which left resources scattered all over the place in each department thinning out resources.
That made players unhappy in each game as the games weren't improving due to bad resource management. The SOE bunch are complete idiots when it comes to business, instead of specializing in a niche market they tried to corner every type of MMO genre, fantasy, sci-fi, first shooter, kiddy mmo.
To bad Smedley wasn't on the list of layoffs, be glad that Dave Georgeson and a handful of other idiots are gone. There is still complete lack of vision in this company so be careful if you invest to much time into any of their games.
MMO genre isn't dead as some are saying, and there is no need to depend heavily on microtransaction. The problem with SOE was mismanagement by Smedley, Georgeson and others at the top of the SOE food chain. They went off on to many tangent projects (Free Realms, DC Universe, Star Wars, etc) each of those projects cost quite abit. They fueled all these dead in the water projects from thier core games, EQ and EQ2, which left resources scattered all over the place in each department thinning out resources.
That made players unhappy in each game as the games weren't improving due to bad resource management. The SOE bunch are complete idiots when it comes to business, instead of specializing in a niche market they tried to corner every type of MMO genre, fantasy, sci-fi, first shooter, kiddy mmo.
To bad Smedley wasn't on the list of layoffs, be glad that Dave Georgeson and a handful of other idiots are gone. There is still complete lack of vision in this company so be careful if you invest to much time into any of their games.
Speculation of course...but i would go down this route of speculation as well.
I think SOE had got themselves tied up in lengthy contracts with all the "Management" and needed a way to cut their losses. Best way to get out of that situation...sell off the company, and let the new company fire/layoff your problems.
Strip down the deadweight, see if you can start fresh and make a profit with a much smaller staff to keep things running at an even keel for a few years. Then sell off the pieces and move on.
Sounds like a business deal to me. Not the apocalypse.
There are so many problems with MMOGs that are dragging the genre into a deep pit, but I believe the biggest is how business and profit have redefined and changed it so it's not even recognizable from its beginnings. I'm talking about the simplicity of Ultima Online--exploration, open-world everything, being able to be whatever you wanted and change it at any time, harvest and manipulate almost everything in the world, and literally build everything you needed. That model is what massive online gaming should be based on and if UO had kept up with technology and better graphics, it would still be an awesome game. I've been searching for a game like it ever since but even when they start off with great promise, they digress into what "the company" feels will bring in more profit. The decision makers don't go into the games and talk to the real players to see what the game needs or the players want. It's all decided in a board room by people who have a degree in business but don't know squat about gaming.
I don't see how being purchased by an investment/capitalist firm to be good news for any game that hopes to gain a voice with the powers that be or increase in resources for a better game. Investment = increased profit = less of everything that makes a game better. Their sole purpose will be to look for a way to profit, which means cut, review, stabilize, sell. All we can do is cross our fingers that the game we love, for whatever reason, finds a buyer who cares.
I'd like to point out that you can call any game trash but there are people who play it who enjoy it for their own reasons. That doesn't make it a bad game. The games are usually full of great ideas but fail because they are being run as a corporate model, not with the expectation that they have satisfied customers who do not have to deal with the frustrations of bugs that take months or years to fix, half-baked ideas never fleshed out, and an economy built around those who can and will spend a lot of money to lord it over those who cannot. You also have huge changes in the player population as well. Today's generation is accustomed to instant gratification, everything now. I come from a time where we were willing to see results over time and the road traveled was as important as the goal. The players I see now want to go from level 1 to 60 in a day and they're not interested in reading any story--just get me to end game and great gear. There's no way for any game to gain lasting success with that kind of player base. I fear we are in for a rough ride in MMOs until we also gain a change in attitude, which can take a few years, and who knows what kinds of changes this will bring to the industry. I can't see it ever going back to its Origins though.
Comments
Expecting half the staff to now be responsible for twice the work isn't going to result in a better company.
Prior to half the staff being cut, SOE was incapable of developing and releasing a game beyond alpha status. This wasn't fat being cut. SOE was cut to the bone.
There is no way the current staff is going to be able to keep support for existing games at previous levels while also continuing development of existing projects... and add Xbox and other platform development to the list.
Something has to give. Either old games are going to suffer or unreleased projects will. Possibly both.
I'm not sure SOE made a ton of money of H1Z1 as some speculate.
Lets just assume that H1Z1 was SOE's fastest selling game in history. Say 500,000 accounts sold in a couple of months. More the EQ, SWG, EQ2 or DCU at their population height.
500,000 x $20 = 10 million in revenue.
factor in a 30% cut for steam
---------
$7 million net revenue for SOE
and that is a best case, fasting selling game in SOE history.
Doesn't matter. The money from H1Z1 was made by SOE not Daybreak. It will have been factored into whatever price CN paid. Same deal as with the severance packages.
For Daybreak it is a new dawn, a fresh slate; old development costs wiped away - but no rainbows with crocks of gold under them on the horizon.
I would suspect EQ3 to culled, with parts of its tech sold off or licenced.
EQ2 and EQ, are headed for life support. I already have an open ticket thats been open for 3 days on a problem and its not been open. I suspect we no longer have a customer service team to speak of and they are so backlogged its not funny. I would suspect that EQ and EQ2 have not been making enough money for a while, with over 60% of the eq2 team fired is tell tell to the fact we not been making money. I suspect eq2 is already in maintenance mode, and were headed for sunset by the end of the year.
DCUO, Planetside 2 are probably going to be ok. H1z1 who knowns.
However the old guard EQ IP were done, the writing is on the wall.
MMO's are dead, and its because you stupid people embraced the F2P model instead of fighting it. Plain and simple.
The thing is I wonder how many of those 'stupid people' are still with us? Sure we have our long term F2P advocates on here and the fact MMORPG decided to get Richard to do F2P articles all those years ago.
But I think the majority of F2P lovers may not even be in gaming now, they had limited time for the genre in the past, do they have any time for it now? They have been replaced by teenage newcomers to gaming, of which there is a never ending supply.
Obvious troll post from you but I will bite:
the MMO genre is nearly dead for the people that play SOE games, they have like only EQ2 running as a main title, and a few on the way, but not released.
That said, if you like good MMOs, for example I play one that is 10y old and still growing, challenging, scares children that want to reach "endgame" in 1d away AND is a sandbox, not a levelbased spoonfed themepark, yes, if you are playing those then you areplaying in the golden age of gaming.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
MMO genre isn't dead as some are saying, and there is no need to depend heavily on microtransaction. The problem with SOE was mismanagement by Smedley, Georgeson and others at the top of the SOE food chain. They went off on to many tangent projects (Free Realms, DC Universe, Star Wars, etc) each of those projects cost quite abit. They fueled all these dead in the water projects from thier core games, EQ and EQ2, which left resources scattered all over the place in each department thinning out resources.
That made players unhappy in each game as the games weren't improving due to bad resource management. The SOE bunch are complete idiots when it comes to business, instead of specializing in a niche market they tried to corner every type of MMO genre, fantasy, sci-fi, first shooter, kiddy mmo.
To bad Smedley wasn't on the list of layoffs, be glad that Dave Georgeson and a handful of other idiots are gone. There is still complete lack of vision in this company so be careful if you invest to much time into any of their games.
Speculation of course...but i would go down this route of speculation as well.
I think SOE had got themselves tied up in lengthy contracts with all the "Management" and needed a way to cut their losses. Best way to get out of that situation...sell off the company, and let the new company fire/layoff your problems.
Strip down the deadweight, see if you can start fresh and make a profit with a much smaller staff to keep things running at an even keel for a few years. Then sell off the pieces and move on.
Sounds like a business deal to me. Not the apocalypse.
There are so many problems with MMOGs that are dragging the genre into a deep pit, but I believe the biggest is how business and profit have redefined and changed it so it's not even recognizable from its beginnings. I'm talking about the simplicity of Ultima Online--exploration, open-world everything, being able to be whatever you wanted and change it at any time, harvest and manipulate almost everything in the world, and literally build everything you needed. That model is what massive online gaming should be based on and if UO had kept up with technology and better graphics, it would still be an awesome game. I've been searching for a game like it ever since but even when they start off with great promise, they digress into what "the company" feels will bring in more profit. The decision makers don't go into the games and talk to the real players to see what the game needs or the players want. It's all decided in a board room by people who have a degree in business but don't know squat about gaming.
I don't see how being purchased by an investment/capitalist firm to be good news for any game that hopes to gain a voice with the powers that be or increase in resources for a better game. Investment = increased profit = less of everything that makes a game better. Their sole purpose will be to look for a way to profit, which means cut, review, stabilize, sell. All we can do is cross our fingers that the game we love, for whatever reason, finds a buyer who cares.
I'd like to point out that you can call any game trash but there are people who play it who enjoy it for their own reasons. That doesn't make it a bad game. The games are usually full of great ideas but fail because they are being run as a corporate model, not with the expectation that they have satisfied customers who do not have to deal with the frustrations of bugs that take months or years to fix, half-baked ideas never fleshed out, and an economy built around those who can and will spend a lot of money to lord it over those who cannot. You also have huge changes in the player population as well. Today's generation is accustomed to instant gratification, everything now. I come from a time where we were willing to see results over time and the road traveled was as important as the goal. The players I see now want to go from level 1 to 60 in a day and they're not interested in reading any story--just get me to end game and great gear. There's no way for any game to gain lasting success with that kind of player base. I fear we are in for a rough ride in MMOs until we also gain a change in attitude, which can take a few years, and who knows what kinds of changes this will bring to the industry. I can't see it ever going back to its Origins though.