Some of you guys who think that no announcements for EQN means "business as usual" for EQN really have no idea what it means to be acquired by an investment firm.
Logically it is extremely silly to think that new company will kill EQ NEXT, one of the biggest and most anticipated MMO by SOE in years since EQ.
There is no sense in that. What else SOE got anyways worth investing money into?
Agreed. The "sunk costs" related to the past years of EQ:N development are not an issue for the new owners. Those were costs already absorbed by Sony during the years that they were incurred.
I doubt SOE was bought for their existing MMO stable only. The "in development" products would have been a major feature.
And as for buying SOE to use them to make mobile and console games ? Which fool would do that ? If that's what you want, then buy a company that at least has expertise and a proven track-record in that area.
No one is saying they are going to scrap the project. But timelines are going to be...... shall we say......"agressive" now? If anything it's going to speed up the process, However, it's going to be ALL about the profits. If that means changing EQN and cutting massive corners to get it out the door ASAP....that's what it means.
Some of you guys who think that no announcements for EQN means "business as usual" for EQN really have no idea what it means to be acquired by an investment firm.
Logically it is extremely silly to think that new company will kill EQ NEXT, one of the biggest and most anticipated MMO by SOE in years since EQ.
There is no sense in that. What else SOE got anyways worth investing money into?
Agreed. The "sunk costs" related to the past years of EQ:N development are not an issue for the new owners. Those were costs already absorbed by Sony during the years that they were incurred.
I doubt SOE was bought for their existing MMO stable only. The "in development" products would have been a major feature.
And as for buying SOE to use them to make mobile and console games ? Which fool would do that ? If that's what you want, then buy a company that at least has expertise and a proven track-record in that area.
No one is saying they are going to scrap the project. But timelines are going to be...... shall we say......"agressive" now? If anything it's going to speed up the process, However, it's going to be ALL about the profits. If that means changing EQN and cutting massive corners to get it out the door ASAP....that's what it means.
Some of you guys who think that no announcements for EQN means "business as usual" for EQN really have no idea what it means to be acquired by an investment firm.
Anyone who thinks everything will stay the same is nuts, from what I gamther SoE Live is cancelled for 2015. But scrapping EQN would be like chucking out money. #1 anticipated MMO of 2015. That may change with other games coming out but as it stands EQN = Money. Lots of if done right.
I think it is entirely possible that development of EQ:N will be impacted in some way. But the new company may not like / agree with the decisions to license specific technologies to be used by EQ:N. Specifically, voxel technology and Storybricks. I don't know, and I certainly don't believe it is widespread knowledge, exactly how much SOE was/is paying for these licenses. The licensing agreements may also have other obligations against future earnings. These agreements may be an on-going expense the new company is unwilling to maintain. I would expect DBGC to take some time to evaluate these costs and align these with financial goals of their parent company. Maybe they go forward with EQ:N development as we know it. Maybe they decide to go a different direction with less/cheaper third-party software expenditures. Maybe they try to renegotiate their deals with the license holders. Maybe they decide to cancel the EQ:N project entirely. Only time will tell.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Landmark will be canned before EQN IMO. That is what I am expecting. Very few people play LM and even fewer buy anything off the cash shop meaning the game isnt bringing in enough new money. Either it is going to be cancelled or it is going into open beta (release for f2p) far earlier than it should in an attempt to get more players and money.
I had actually forgotten about EQN until I saw this thread ... I think Landmark may have ruined the hype for EQN. It seems there is more hype for indie niche games with more sandbox elements than for the AAA garbage that has been produced over the past few years. A maturing (agewise) mmo gaming community has brought with it a major shift in play styles. People who started playing MMO's like Everquest and SWG as teenagers are adults now with families and careers. For many of us, we simply don't have the time to put 12-24 hour gaming sessions. I hate to admit it, but the shift appears to be towards more casual friendly games... even though we think we want something "hardcore".
Some of you guys who think that no announcements for EQN means "business as usual" for EQN really have no idea what it means to be acquired by an investment firm.
Anyone who thinks everything will stay the same is nuts, from what I gamther SoE Live is cancelled for 2015. But scrapping EQN would be like chucking out money. #1 anticipated MMO of 2015. That may change with other games coming out but as it stands EQN = Money. Lots of if done right.
I think it is entirely possible that development of EQ:N will be impacted in some way. But the new company may not like / agree with the decisions to license specific technologies to be used by EQ:N. Specifically, voxel technology and Storybricks. I don't know, and I certainly don't believe it is widespread knowledge, exactly how much SOE was/is paying for these licenses. The licensing agreements may also have other obligations against future earnings. These agreements may be an on-going expense the new company is unwilling to maintain. I would expect DBGC to take some time to evaluate these costs and align these with financial goals of their parent company. Maybe they go forward with EQ:N development as we know it. Maybe they decide to go a different direction with less/cheaper third-party software expenditures. Maybe they try to renegotiate their deals with the license holders. Maybe they decide to cancel the EQ:N project entirely. Only time will tell.
Second: The investment group that bought SoE has said, they want Daybreak Gaming Company to be independent. This was a quote on Forbes so its no hearsay. Fact that Smed is still running things says they like what he has been doing and want more of it. I am sure some things will change, I read SoE Live is cancelled for 2015 but I dont think its going to be a left turn people are going on about like EQN being dropped.
EDIT: I think SoE Live is cancelled because having 3 MMOs in production and pulling away your key devs to take a month (prep time for the show) away from development is not the right direction. But thats just my guess.
Anyone who thinks they know what this means for the long term future is just fooling themselves. This could be good, bad or indifferent. Unless you happen to work for the company that bought them you have no clue so stop pretending you do.
Some of you guys who think that no announcements for EQN means "business as usual" for EQN really have no idea what it means to be acquired by an investment firm.
Logically it is extremely silly to think that new company will kill EQ NEXT, one of the biggest and most anticipated MMO by SOE in years since EQ.
There is no sense in that. What else SOE got anyways worth investing money into?
Agreed. The "sunk costs" related to the past years of EQ:N development are not an issue for the new owners. Those were costs already absorbed by Sony during the years that they were incurred.
I doubt SOE was bought for their existing MMO stable only. The "in development" products would have been a major feature.
And as for buying SOE to use them to make mobile and console games ? Which fool would do that ? If that's what you want, then buy a company that at least has expertise and a proven track-record in that area.
No one is saying they are going to scrap the project. But timelines are going to be...... shall we say......"agressive" now? If anything it's going to speed up the process, However, it's going to be ALL about the profits. If that means changing EQN and cutting massive corners to get it out the door ASAP....that's what it means.
Your inside info comes from?
It's not inside info. This is what investment firms do.
Eh, so be it. There's a ton of MMOs out there right now offering tremendous diversity in play styles, setting, payment types, etc. The genre doesn't need a lot of new games coming out at this point because it's in a good place, despite what the naysayers who pine for the days of EQ say. To those people, I say go play one of the many asian MMOs where you grind countless mobs for days on end to level up, since that's all you did in your precious EQ anyway.
MMO gaming is awesome right now. Sure there's crap games, but every genre has those; it's nothing new.
I look forward to giving Landmark a try on release, as well as EQN.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
List all AAA MMORPGs that are in open development right now with release window of next 2 years.
But filter it by : Not developed by Chinese or Asian company , must be true mmorpg and not lobby mini mmo.
Let me answer this for you, the list is not very long : Everquest Next
Thats it... Except of that one MMO, nothing else is planned or will come in long time from now, by any company that actually has experience or resources to produce massive MMO game.
Remember we used to have 2-3 AAA MMOs being released each year.
[mod edit] And nothing else is on horizon, not even in development.
I never dreamed mmorpg genre will hit the rock bottom like this ...
Your problem... and I meant that literally... is that you expect more than can ever be delivered.
You WILL NOT get endless content from ANY GAME either in this millennium or the next.
What's wrong with the games that are out now... have been out...???
You are bored... like duh, this post is just a scream out loud for something new to do. Well if there are no games worth your time to play right this very instant (as you can actually play them right this very instant), than maybe you need to discover something else to do with your free time because beating this dead horse isn't going to bring it back to life.
Well there is that one but yes it is Asian,Black Desert,to me it looks like we might have one more added to the better looking games ..MAYBE but for game play i have VERY little hope,so little that i am not really even paying attention to the game.
You know what ruined the market right?First of all Wow created this super easy system to get end level,that right there locks players in because we know how players won't let go of their max level toons.So what that does is not allow any new games to have a snowball chance at a decent market share.When i say that i mean in a subscription model.
So once every single developer that comes along has to abide by a f2p system,they are NOT going to be making a triple a game,just the basics.So now the market is FLOODED with competition but not quality.You would think competition would spell devs having to step it up but nope,the opposite because nobody is willing to risk a long term quality game with a large budget.
So now you have a market that is flooded with VERY small budgets,welcome to the age of Moba's,browser games and of course f2p games.You will NOT get one single triple A game out of those developers not one.Instead we are looking at MMO's returning to the single player game design of 2-3 years maybe less, no longer the 5-6.The ONLY reason a game now days might take longer is because they have so little resources going into it,no employees no money,more like a we will build it a little at a time.
The latter is actually an Indie way of designing,we have all seen in in forums,person asks ."Wow i remember hearing about that game 7 years ago,i can't believe it is still in development".Of course i don't know for fact but my gut leans heavy on EQ:Next being a VERY low budget build,it might take them 5 years but the result will look like a 2-3 year game.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Sorry to burst your bubble. I myself work in gaming industry and have been long following MMO development.
Studio aquisition by another company almost never turned out good in past - even the largest most profitable Studios became "slaves" and lost both indentity and creative say. And their projects rushed in order to make quick investment turnaround.
EQ:Next was already too ambitious for its own good. And only money loaded company like SOE could even imagine taking such big risk.
And ambition is the only thing that can take this genre out of mud and stinking stale bog.
Unfortunately it seems it was too ambitious even for SOE. And now its unloaded , probably for small money ( Notice how usual bragging about price it was bought for - so popular for many such acquisitions is in this case carefully avoided )
We can only expect that the continuation of development will be done under the whip and minimal maintainance mode investment - and the release date agressively pushed forward.
Sorry to burst your bubble. I myself work in gaming industry and have been long following MMO development.
Studio aquisition by another company almost never turned out good in past - even the largest most profitable Studios became "slaves" and lost both indentity and creative say. And their projects rushed in order to make quick investment turnaround.
EQ:Next was already too ambitious for its own good. And only money loaded company like SOE could even imagine taking such big risk.
And ambition is the only thing that can take this genre out of mud and stinking stale bog.
Unfortunately it seems it was too ambitious even for SOE. And now its unloaded , probably for small money ( Notice how usual bragging about price it was bought for - so popular for many such acquisitions is in this case carefully avoided )
We can only expect that the continuation of development will be done under the whip and minimal maintainance mode investment - and the release date agressively pushed forward.
And that is the good scenario for EQ:Next
I think people really need the proper perspective of what just happened here.
The accurate picture would be similar to a real estate investment firm acquiring a rundown property. They aren't buying it to live there, and make it their dream home. they aren't buying it to rent it out for long term profits. They buy it to rehab it as quickly and cheaply as possible and flip it for quick profit.
I am sure Smed had to make some extremely aggressive promises and sacrifices in order to keep his job as part of the negotiations. It's just how this process goes. I've worked for a software development firm that was acquired in this manor.
Of course, because a game that is PvP focused is a niche. If it was FFA only PvP, I'd be in agreement, but they're attempting something new, and that includes RvR & faction-based PvP as well. We can't really state how a market reacts to a game that attempts to bring all the PvP types under a single system yet.
All games become niche now a days, it has nothing to do with a games overall play style. The gaming population is spread out to thinly for a title to take command like WoW and EQ did in the past. It seems all developers of new titles are attempting something "new", so imo this one will be niche as well pvp or pve.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Seems to me that the MMO developers are looking for that feature that is innovative that will make them stand out from the rest, yet are constantly shocked that it doesn't really matter in the end. Why is this? Because there is a fundamental problem that MMO developers have, that content will bring players. Give them tons of stuff to do and they'll stay, that's all good and well, but they WILL finish the stuff you give them, and what then? What is the longevity? The answer is that it's not the content that brings the players. The players themselves become the content.
Almost everybody's best MMORPG experiences occured while they were interacting with other players, raiding together, pvping together, or just doing hikinks that defy normal game play. These are the experiences that players come back for, not your stupid dungeon run, not killing the same monster over and over again. They come because they want to interact with other people, to do things with other people, slay monsters together.
I think that if MMOs start focusing on creating the means for players to want to group together, to be interdependent, and to create a thriving community, everyone benefits. Right now, games make it so most of the content is solo-able by players - and that only high level monsters, dungeons, or tiers depend on having groups. This needs to change.
List all AAA MMORPGs that are in open development right now with release window of next 2 years.
But filter it by : Not developed by Chinese or Asian company , must be true mmorpg and not lobby mini mmo.
Let me answer this for you, the list is not very long : Everquest Next
Thats it... Except of that one MMO, nothing else is planned or will come in long time from now, by any company that actually has experience or resources to produce massive MMO game.
Remember we used to have 2-3 AAA MMOs being released each year.
Now it looks like EQ:N might be either cancelled before release, or turned into something else, much more casual oriented. And nothing else is on horizon, not even in development.
I never dreamed mmorpg genre will hit the rock bottom like this ...
You know I thought the same several months ago - that there were no AAA MMORPGs in the works by any western company - and I was wrong.
There are 2 yet announced AAA MMORPGS in the works by 2 major studios.
won't say more for obvious reasons, and no I don't have any written proof so its simply my word at this point - due to policy here at MMORPG - please treat this as unsubstantiated rumor.
I am just putting that disclaimer so I don't get locked/deleted boss
Bottom line - if EQN never gets completed - it will have zero impact on othet studios making their own AAA games. The real issue currently that all AAA studios are trying to get a grasp on is - how to make a AAA MMORPG that doesn't cost $100mil and 6 years to make.
Build it faster and cheaper without sacrificing quality is the holy grail right now.
That's still only 2 and they obviously haven't gotten off the ground yet, I hear there's a fallout mmo of some sort in the works (if that's not one you're talking about), that still doesn't change anything, games that early aren't games yet, and may never see the light of day.
The bottom line is right now there is not a whole lot going on in terms of AAA MMORPGs. There are a lot of indies in development right now though.
The genre is most definitely in a period of transition.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Sorry to burst your bubble. I myself work in gaming industry and have been long following MMO development.
Studio aquisition by another company almost never turned out good in past - even the largest most profitable Studios became "slaves" and lost both indentity and creative say. And their projects rushed in order to make quick investment turnaround.
EQ:Next was already too ambitious for its own good. And only money loaded company like SOE could even imagine taking such big risk.
And ambition is the only thing that can take this genre out of mud and stinking stale bog.
Unfortunately it seems it was too ambitious even for SOE. And now its unloaded , probably for small money ( Notice how usual bragging about price it was bought for - so popular for many such acquisitions is in this case carefully avoided )
We can only expect that the continuation of development will be done under the whip and minimal maintainance mode investment - and the release date agressively pushed forward.
And that is the good scenario for EQ:Next
Worked well enough for EQ...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
It's not inside info. This is what investment firms do.
A bad investment firm would acquire a company and immediately begin screwing around with it. ("Rushing buggy products to market is the best path to a strong long-term return on investment, right guys?!")
A good investment firm would acquire a gaming company and try to figure out how it could foster the next Blizzard.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Look this is the investment firm that is led by the guy who bought Harmonix. This purchase had no effect on their future sales and the year after the sale they posted a $100M profit.
This is not a property you buy to tear apart. They have no good income stream atm and the power of the company is in 3 titles still in development that have heavily been hyped. Sony the parent company is having financial issues so they want revenue now, not a year+ from now when the games release. My guess is this company found a good spot to buy low and went for it.
But it is a guess, just like the people who think this is some huge loss that is going to shut down the company are just guessing.
Some of you guys who think that no announcements for EQN means "business as usual" for EQN really have no idea what it means to be acquired by an investment firm.
Logically it is extremely silly to think that new company will kill EQ NEXT, one of the biggest and most anticipated MMO by SOE in years since EQ.
There is no sense in that. What else SOE got anyways worth investing money into?
Agreed. The "sunk costs" related to the past years of EQ:N development are not an issue for the new owners. Those were costs already absorbed by Sony during the years that they were incurred.
I doubt SOE was bought for their existing MMO stable only. The "in development" products would have been a major feature.
And as for buying SOE to use them to make mobile and console games ? Which fool would do that ? If that's what you want, then buy a company that at least has expertise and a proven track-record in that area.
Ah yes.... but it all makes for juicy forum gossip, no room for common sense here who better to make a mobile phone/tablet game than a MMORPG developer... guess when you think of it, they do have the "online" experience.
Second: The investment group that bought SoE has said, they want Daybreak Gaming Company to be independent. This was a quote on Forbes so its no hearsay. Fact that Smed is still running things says they like what he has been doing and want more of it. I am sure some things will change, I read SoE Live is cancelled for 2015 but I dont think its going to be a left turn people are going on about like EQN being dropped.
EDIT: I think SoE Live is cancelled because having 3 MMOs in production and pulling away your key devs to take a month (prep time for the show) away from development is not the right direction. But thats just my guess.
Thanks for the links. I had not seen Smedley's twitter.
One objection: Fact that Smed is still running things says they like what he has been doing and want more of it. That is pure conjecture. Smedley could be running things because he is familiar with the existing staff. He could be there to do nothing more than facilitate a smooth corporate takeover. He is there now, but I do not know that his longevity is assured. Staff assessment is one of the first things that happens with any takeover / buyout.
Even if Smedley remains as President of DGC, he will not be an independent authority. He will report to someone, either a CEO/CFO at DGC, or someone at CN. If he doesn't have some reporting obligation to CN, he will have successfully convinced a very large organization to give him an undetermined amount of cash with no controls or promise of repayment. I don't believe in altruistic deals, not in the modern business world.
I think dropping SOE Live is most likely a tactic to buy the new company time. I expect simply changing the corporate brand from SOE to Daybreak would overlap the time frame for the event. It cuts immediate (2015) expenditures for staging this event. There is every possibility that this would be resumed after the new brand is established, and all of the corporate software portfolio has been evaluated. SOE Live was a pretty good marketing tool for their products. And the one I attended was actually fun.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I think that if MMOs start focusing on creating the means for players to want to group together, to be interdependent, and to create a thriving community, everyone benefits. Right now, games make it so most of the content is solo-able by players - and that only high level monsters, dungeons, or tiers depend on having groups. This needs to change.
Not those who don't care about interdependency with others. The games are solo-friendly preciously because the other way has been tried (like EQ) and found not to be as popular. Why do you think MMO devs are marketing "solo-ability"? That is not an accident.
Comments
The investment group that bought them said they want Daybreak Gaming Company to remain independent. Fact Smed is still running things says a lot.
No one is saying they are going to scrap the project. But timelines are going to be...... shall we say......"agressive" now? If anything it's going to speed up the process, However, it's going to be ALL about the profits. If that means changing EQN and cutting massive corners to get it out the door ASAP....that's what it means.
Your inside info comes from?
I think it is entirely possible that development of EQ:N will be impacted in some way. But the new company may not like / agree with the decisions to license specific technologies to be used by EQ:N. Specifically, voxel technology and Storybricks. I don't know, and I certainly don't believe it is widespread knowledge, exactly how much SOE was/is paying for these licenses. The licensing agreements may also have other obligations against future earnings. These agreements may be an on-going expense the new company is unwilling to maintain. I would expect DBGC to take some time to evaluate these costs and align these with financial goals of their parent company. Maybe they go forward with EQ:N development as we know it. Maybe they decide to go a different direction with less/cheaper third-party software expenditures. Maybe they try to renegotiate their deals with the license holders. Maybe they decide to cancel the EQ:N project entirely. Only time will tell.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I had actually forgotten about EQN until I saw this thread ... I think Landmark may have ruined the hype for EQN. It seems there is more hype for indie niche games with more sandbox elements than for the AAA garbage that has been produced over the past few years. A maturing (agewise) mmo gaming community has brought with it a major shift in play styles. People who started playing MMO's like Everquest and SWG as teenagers are adults now with families and careers. For many of us, we simply don't have the time to put 12-24 hour gaming sessions. I hate to admit it, but the shift appears to be towards more casual friendly games... even though we think we want something "hardcore".
First
https://forums.station.sony.com/soe/index.php?threads/sony-online-entertainment-becomes-daybreak-game-company.11500068269/page-3
https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/562352848390733824
Second: The investment group that bought SoE has said, they want Daybreak Gaming Company to be independent. This was a quote on Forbes so its no hearsay. Fact that Smed is still running things says they like what he has been doing and want more of it. I am sure some things will change, I read SoE Live is cancelled for 2015 but I dont think its going to be a left turn people are going on about like EQN being dropped.
EDIT: I think SoE Live is cancelled because having 3 MMOs in production and pulling away your key devs to take a month (prep time for the show) away from development is not the right direction. But thats just my guess.
Anyone who thinks they know what this means for the long term future is just fooling themselves. This could be good, bad or indifferent. Unless you happen to work for the company that bought them you have no clue so stop pretending you do.
It's not inside info. This is what investment firms do.
Eh, so be it. There's a ton of MMOs out there right now offering tremendous diversity in play styles, setting, payment types, etc. The genre doesn't need a lot of new games coming out at this point because it's in a good place, despite what the naysayers who pine for the days of EQ say. To those people, I say go play one of the many asian MMOs where you grind countless mobs for days on end to level up, since that's all you did in your precious EQ anyway.
MMO gaming is awesome right now. Sure there's crap games, but every genre has those; it's nothing new.
I look forward to giving Landmark a try on release, as well as EQN.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
Your problem... and I meant that literally... is that you expect more than can ever be delivered.
You WILL NOT get endless content from ANY GAME either in this millennium or the next.
What's wrong with the games that are out now... have been out...???
You are bored... like duh, this post is just a scream out loud for something new to do. Well if there are no games worth your time to play right this very instant (as you can actually play them right this very instant), than maybe you need to discover something else to do with your free time because beating this dead horse isn't going to bring it back to life.
Well there is that one but yes it is Asian,Black Desert,to me it looks like we might have one more added to the better looking games ..MAYBE but for game play i have VERY little hope,so little that i am not really even paying attention to the game.
You know what ruined the market right?First of all Wow created this super easy system to get end level,that right there locks players in because we know how players won't let go of their max level toons.So what that does is not allow any new games to have a snowball chance at a decent market share.When i say that i mean in a subscription model.
So once every single developer that comes along has to abide by a f2p system,they are NOT going to be making a triple a game,just the basics.So now the market is FLOODED with competition but not quality.You would think competition would spell devs having to step it up but nope,the opposite because nobody is willing to risk a long term quality game with a large budget.
So now you have a market that is flooded with VERY small budgets,welcome to the age of Moba's,browser games and of course f2p games.You will NOT get one single triple A game out of those developers not one.Instead we are looking at MMO's returning to the single player game design of 2-3 years maybe less, no longer the 5-6.The ONLY reason a game now days might take longer is because they have so little resources going into it,no employees no money,more like a we will build it a little at a time.
The latter is actually an Indie way of designing,we have all seen in in forums,person asks ."Wow i remember hearing about that game 7 years ago,i can't believe it is still in development".Of course i don't know for fact but my gut leans heavy on EQ:Next being a VERY low budget build,it might take them 5 years but the result will look like a 2-3 year game.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Sorry to burst your bubble. I myself work in gaming industry and have been long following MMO development.
Studio aquisition by another company almost never turned out good in past - even the largest most profitable Studios became "slaves" and lost both indentity and creative say. And their projects rushed in order to make quick investment turnaround.
EQ:Next was already too ambitious for its own good. And only money loaded company like SOE could even imagine taking such big risk.
And ambition is the only thing that can take this genre out of mud and stinking stale bog.
Unfortunately it seems it was too ambitious even for SOE. And now its unloaded , probably for small money ( Notice how usual bragging about price it was bought for - so popular for many such acquisitions is in this case carefully avoided )
We can only expect that the continuation of development will be done under the whip and minimal maintainance mode investment - and the release date agressively pushed forward.
And that is the good scenario for EQ:Next
Only Camelot Unchained is an possibly an MMORPG, but it is not AAA.
Rest of those games are either not an MMORPG (or not even an MMO in some cases). H1Z1 and Warhammer 40k online are definately not AAA as well.
So preety pointless list unless you're also going to add upcoming Battlefleld Hardline or Starcraft 2 part 3 as an examples of MMO(RPG) health.
I think people really need the proper perspective of what just happened here.
The accurate picture would be similar to a real estate investment firm acquiring a rundown property. They aren't buying it to live there, and make it their dream home. they aren't buying it to rent it out for long term profits. They buy it to rehab it as quickly and cheaply as possible and flip it for quick profit.
I am sure Smed had to make some extremely aggressive promises and sacrifices in order to keep his job as part of the negotiations. It's just how this process goes. I've worked for a software development firm that was acquired in this manor.
It won't be pretty.
So SOE was bought by another company and this leads people to believe that EQ:N wont happen?
Is this why everyone in this thread is bent out of shape?
All games become niche now a days, it has nothing to do with a games overall play style. The gaming population is spread out to thinly for a title to take command like WoW and EQ did in the past. It seems all developers of new titles are attempting something "new", so imo this one will be niche as well pvp or pve.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Seems to me that the MMO developers are looking for that feature that is innovative that will make them stand out from the rest, yet are constantly shocked that it doesn't really matter in the end. Why is this? Because there is a fundamental problem that MMO developers have, that content will bring players. Give them tons of stuff to do and they'll stay, that's all good and well, but they WILL finish the stuff you give them, and what then? What is the longevity? The answer is that it's not the content that brings the players. The players themselves become the content.
Almost everybody's best MMORPG experiences occured while they were interacting with other players, raiding together, pvping together, or just doing hikinks that defy normal game play. These are the experiences that players come back for, not your stupid dungeon run, not killing the same monster over and over again. They come because they want to interact with other people, to do things with other people, slay monsters together.
I think that if MMOs start focusing on creating the means for players to want to group together, to be interdependent, and to create a thriving community, everyone benefits. Right now, games make it so most of the content is solo-able by players - and that only high level monsters, dungeons, or tiers depend on having groups. This needs to change.
That's still only 2 and they obviously haven't gotten off the ground yet, I hear there's a fallout mmo of some sort in the works (if that's not one you're talking about), that still doesn't change anything, games that early aren't games yet, and may never see the light of day.
The bottom line is right now there is not a whole lot going on in terms of AAA MMORPGs. There are a lot of indies in development right now though.
The genre is most definitely in a period of transition.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Worked well enough for EQ...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
A bad investment firm would acquire a company and immediately begin screwing around with it. ("Rushing buggy products to market is the best path to a strong long-term return on investment, right guys?!")
A good investment firm would acquire a gaming company and try to figure out how it could foster the next Blizzard.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Look this is the investment firm that is led by the guy who bought Harmonix. This purchase had no effect on their future sales and the year after the sale they posted a $100M profit.
This is not a property you buy to tear apart. They have no good income stream atm and the power of the company is in 3 titles still in development that have heavily been hyped. Sony the parent company is having financial issues so they want revenue now, not a year+ from now when the games release. My guess is this company found a good spot to buy low and went for it.
But it is a guess, just like the people who think this is some huge loss that is going to shut down the company are just guessing.
Ah yes.... but it all makes for juicy forum gossip, no room for common sense here
who better to make a mobile phone/tablet game than a MMORPG developer... guess when you think of it, they do have the "online" experience.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Thanks for the links. I had not seen Smedley's twitter.
One objection: Fact that Smed is still running things says they like what he has been doing and want more of it. That is pure conjecture. Smedley could be running things because he is familiar with the existing staff. He could be there to do nothing more than facilitate a smooth corporate takeover. He is there now, but I do not know that his longevity is assured. Staff assessment is one of the first things that happens with any takeover / buyout.
Even if Smedley remains as President of DGC, he will not be an independent authority. He will report to someone, either a CEO/CFO at DGC, or someone at CN. If he doesn't have some reporting obligation to CN, he will have successfully convinced a very large organization to give him an undetermined amount of cash with no controls or promise of repayment. I don't believe in altruistic deals, not in the modern business world.
I think dropping SOE Live is most likely a tactic to buy the new company time. I expect simply changing the corporate brand from SOE to Daybreak would overlap the time frame for the event. It cuts immediate (2015) expenditures for staging this event. There is every possibility that this would be resumed after the new brand is established, and all of the corporate software portfolio has been evaluated. SOE Live was a pretty good marketing tool for their products. And the one I attended was actually fun.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Not those who don't care about interdependency with others. The games are solo-friendly preciously because the other way has been tried (like EQ) and found not to be as popular. Why do you think MMO devs are marketing "solo-ability"? That is not an accident.