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General: SOE to Open Studio in India
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
Gamasutra is reporting that SOE has plans to open a new development studio in India, which will primarily focus on producing local content. The move is not entirely unexpected as SOE, in collaboration with Virgin Comics, announced earlier this year that they would be producing an MMO based on Ramayan 3392 A.D., which is a comic based on the Indian epic, Ramayan.
Officials from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) have announced plans to establish a development studio in India for online games. The studio will focus on producing local content and SOE already in discussion with local developers concerning future collaborations.
In an interview with the Associated Press SOE vice president of business development and international operations David Christensen indicated that SOE, developers of EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, would contribute its own technology to the joint venture.
The company’s prospective parnters would provide their own creative talent and share in the costs of setting up the studio – expected to be in the southern city of Bangalore.
Read more here.
Comments
Interesting. Well alot of 3d and programming work is already outsourced from America and the uk to India at present anyway. Sounds good to me.
Hmm... I hope if it's done well enough it might be available in the U.S. I'm already interested in mythological/historical referenced games.
I wonder if other departments of SOE will now be outsourced to India?
This isn't outsourcing. Outsourcing is hiring outside people to work on a project specific to another area. This is creating a studio to hopefully wrangling in a large Online Gaming market present in India. Instead of using North American or Asian developing houses to try and capture a market that has its own local tastes its using the locals. Who better to design for a picky nation than the nations occupants.
Personally I think outsourcing to other countries on certain jobs and projects usually leads to some of the worst products and customer service.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
Yes true this is a brand new studio. I was just giving an example of how much work at present is already done in india for international companies and countries. Hopefully we here more about this mmo.
I highly doubt this will be a FFA PVP, india and indian people are steeped with history and culture, so i would assume this game would be very rich in story and quests, as it is taken from the play ramayan,which is rich in lore none of the mmos or any game can ever hope to achieve.
Edit: lol actually Ramayan story had lots of large scale battles in it, you never know pvp may happen yet:)
I think it's funky that peeps think of SOE or anything Sony related is american to begin with.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For a wounded man shall say to his assailant:
"If I live, I will kill you, If I die, you are forgiven."
Such is the Rule of Honor.
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Yep, that is one reason why I so respected Sigil and was going to be a long and faithful customer of Vanguard. You hardly ever find a company that handles GM responsibilities themselves. Most of the NA game developers outsource most functions to 3rd party contractors that are American owned who then outsource to India and other countries. That way we can't backlash on Turbine, SoE, and all the rest because as far as they care, they've done their part at keeping jobs "at home".
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
Jesus christ get over yourself, India is the 2nd fastets growing econoy behind China, India has some of the cleverest people in the world. their cities are like Banglaore culcatta and bomaby are advanced. Like all countries you will get poverty. Without indians the worlds computer networks would cease to exist and some of you so called advanced western societies would crumble in 2 mins without indian expertise. India has the faste growing moblie phone sector of any country and their computer infrasturcture is probably far more advanced then you can hope to imgaine, so please dont try to patronise them and still thnking they are some 3rd world country.
So it has changed since I lived there for 24 months on assignment 10 years ago? My point is that I feel SOE will pay Indians less and that is wrong!
Jesus christ get over yourself, India is the 2nd fastets growing econoy behind China, India has some of the cleverest people in the world. their cities are like Banglaore culcatta and bomaby are advanced. Like all countries you will get poverty. Without indians the worlds computer networks would cease to exist and some of you so called advanced western societies would crumble in 2 mins without indian expertise. India has the faste growing moblie phone sector of any country and their computer infrasturcture is probably far more advanced then you can hope to imgaine, so please dont try to patronise them and still thnking they are some 3rd world country.
And most people in the western world have all dealt with companies at one time or another that outsource customer service to companies in India. Sorry but it just does not work.
India is not the back bone of the computer world as you have tried to state and I am sure beyond a doubt that the world would not come to a screeching halt without them.
SOE is opening a studio in India...........Anyone want to bet that customer service for all SOE titles goes there as well? So in the future you can expect a couple of changes. Instead of getting hardly in customer support, you will get some but not be able to understand a word that is said or typed to you.
this gives me hope actually.
at least sony understands we dont produce, manufacture, or support ANYTHING well anymore. now if we can just get them to roll back that nge =p
Games i'm playing right now...
"In short, I thought NGE was a very bad idea" - Raph Koster talking about NGE on his blog at raphkoster.com
I hope it all works out for the best for everyone.
I have been there just at the beginning of 2007 and let me tell you something, it has changed drastically. Now the last I went there before my latest trip was over 4-5 years ago and the difference is unbelievable. There is of course still many poor people there but it seems if it has lessened, I remember a while back when I had went there, there would be a lot of them coming to you at each stop but it feels like that has decreased. Another major change was basically all of the places developed like crazy. They have huge malls there with restaurants that serve American/Italin/etc. foods. Plus basically every person and their grandmothers have cellphones, even many of the lower class. I went to Hydrabad so I cannot imagine the changes that occurred in other places. Even the infrastructure improved.
Don't get me wrong though, it has a long way to improve such as improvements in hygiene factors (sewage systems and homes shouldn't be so close or should be cleaned up drastically, main reason is the lack of space). It is still very busy and the noise pollution is immense.
Anyway, I am glad to see MMOs are starting to hit the market in India, I know RO and A3 went there which have maybe a few thousand subscribers, that is nothing compared to the potential market they can achieve with India's population. By the way, what about the game Tantra? Wasn't that somewhat based on a version of the Vedas?
~Greatness~
Currently Playing:
Nothing
Jesus christ get over yourself, India is the 2nd fastets growing econoy behind China, India has some of the cleverest people in the world. their cities are like Banglaore culcatta and bomaby are advanced. Like all countries you will get poverty. Without indians the worlds computer networks would cease to exist and some of you so called advanced western societies would crumble in 2 mins without indian expertise. India has the faste growing moblie phone sector of any country and their computer infrasturcture is probably far more advanced then you can hope to imgaine, so please dont try to patronise them and still thnking they are some 3rd world country.
And most people in the western world have all dealt with companies at one time or another that outsource customer service to companies in India. Sorry but it just does not work.
India is not the back bone of the computer world as you have tried to state and I am sure beyond a doubt that the world would not come to a screeching halt without them.
SOE is opening a studio in India...........Anyone want to bet that customer service for all SOE titles goes there as well? So in the future you can expect a couple of changes. Instead of getting hardly in customer support, you will get some but not be able to understand a word that is said or typed to you.
Let me tell you something my uneducated friend, Indians can probably speak english better than most of you americans. And yes India is a major computing nation, most of americas computer networks and financial systems are located in india. Infact without indian programmers America would probably cease to exist.
I have to disagree. While there are plenty of Indians that can speak english perfectly well, the fact remains that the ones they hire for customer support cannot. At least not any that microsoft ever hired. For many months I had to talk to them every day for one reason or another..and I could never understand a damn thing they said, though it was easier to con them into things than someone who understood me better, I'll give it that much.
There are many jobs that can be outsourced. Any job involving speaking to customers should in no way ever under any circumstances be outsourced.
And by the way...link or your statements are bs. Prove it.
D.
India, cool I guess, At least they will understand each other when they have to call tech support. I just hope soe doesn't kill everyone in inda as fast as they did in swg, that would just be a bloody mess
By the way Reccoo is overreacting I would have to say he/she is Indian or of Indian descent? The previous poster said more than once "not to be rude" after all. Since typed text cannot convey tone, what I got from that posting was he was asking a question in a non-insulting way.
It also didn't help that Reccoo lumped all americans as "trailer trash nation". That is a stereotype which doesn't reflect the country at all. Watching "The Simple Life" does not show an accuracte reflection of american "reality".
Back on topic, I gathered that they are opening a studio there to make a game there for them. I'm sure things have changed since the 10 years a previous poster was there. India tested a nuclear bomb I think 2 years ago? Surely shows that the country had progressed tech-wise. I don't think SOE would pay the monies to open a studio there, unless they were outsourcing customer service, which I didn't get from reading the press release.
So let's not turn this into some kind of racial rants. Some Indians do not speak english well and are hard to understand. Some speak it quite well and are easy to understand. That varies with the individual and doesn't necessarily depend on their ethnic group.
Let me tell you something my uneducated friend, Indians can probably speak english better than most of you americans. And yes India is a major computing nation, most of americas computer networks and financial systems are located in india. Infact without indian programmers America would probably cease to exist.
Networks and financial systems for American companies and banks located in India? Most of them as you put it.
Not clue what reality you live in but you are not close to the truth. What you have said makes no sense or has any basis for truth.
India is a country who outsources its people to do customer support work for a lot of other countries because the wages are far less than what they would have to pay at home. That is fact. Microsoft, Turbine and SOE all do it.
This leads to SOE being able to cut the middle-man company that supplies customer support out and save them more money.
India as a game market has a very large disadvantage. It is why no one has really touched it yet. Money. India has not yet shown it can support a large game itself. You can see the breakdown of subscribers and paying customers at a couple of different sources.
Before you climb back on the soapbox and scream India is God's gift to the internet, software and every other technical field you may want to support your claims with proof.
As for how well they speak English. Call Microsoft, Turbine, Verizon, etc and speak to customer support.
As a side note.
If India were everything you claim then why would you live in London? If India were everything you claim you would be there working.
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Ill give you that there alot of indian programmers and sorts maybe enought in number to rival those in customer service. But there are lots of russians germans africans japanese chinese british american programmers and software personal around the globe. Another point , someone has to have taught these fine Indian men and women the tools of the trade. Britain and US. And if they are teaching Abroad students you can bet theres just as many americans taking those courses.
IF india were to go up in smoke one day, all it would warrant is a peace summit with our dancing monkey Bush giving a well stuttered speech. Sure stocks would slump. But most of the workload would be pushed onto chinese manufacturing and we would be right as rain in a few years i would bet.
SOE to open studio in india ?
great, so they can piss off the other half of the world as well
but who knows what they are really up to, I cant imagine "the big deal" with computer games in india...
hmm what are you up to mr. smedley? ^^
"You must be either retarded or a fanboi..."
The move to India is going to be a combination sweat shop for farming items for aftermarket sales, outsourced customer service center, and low wage development studio. The guy SOE hired from IGE set it up.
Lol this statement made me laugh, first tests started all the way back in 1974 I believe, a long time ago
.
Anyway, ya customer service may be difficult because of their broken English but atleast they can understand themselves. English is the main language India uses basically because there are so many languages that it is hard for everyone to communicate.
Their English is more British English which atleast for me also seems very hard to understand as well
.
Anyway, hopefully SOE does not mess up entire games after going relatively strong. I am sure with SOE being a high profile name, that this game will do fairly well, probably even better than RO and A3 who tried to break India's market.
~Greatness~
Currently Playing:
Nothing
Aye, India had The Bomb some 30 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiling_Buddha
And anyone who thnks this SOE opening is anything other than a move to set up a low wage outsourcing studio is naive about computing and game dev.