Sony Online Entertainment Becomes Daybreak Game Company

I'm afraid the Sony Board of directors wouldn't agree with you. The parent company is ultimately responsible for the performance of ALL their business units.

Way to miss the point. I was responding the other poster who suggested Sony was mistreating SOE.

PvP is good if not forced (too many games make it possible to get ganked etc. and that's why many don't like it...rightully so).
But if it's all can and no must (aka only happens in zones designed for it, without PvE content inside), it does attract different players. And offers something new when you are bored of grinding mobs.
You know, that's the whole problem...Eq1 had nothing new for years now.
There are not many players who are satisfied with sitting in their own little world, boxing in an instance for always the same gains.

This needs to be turned around, and fast or the new mother company will see no potential.
And you couldn't even blame them.

I just want to say, being married to someone who works with computers for a living (hardware, programming, security, etc.) I know how difficult it can be. The long hours, the anything that can go wrong will go wrong, the finding a fix that won't break other stuff, etc. It's A LOT of work. So, kudos on what you've accomplished so far.. and best wishes for your future endeavors. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Quote: I disagree Sony is to be blamed for all the decisions SOE has made these past 10-15 years, which lead to a slow bleeding of player base across of all SOE games, including EQ1. Enquote

Just how am I missing the point again? Words matter!

And I was never saying Sony was mistreating SOE, I was saying that Sony was never that interested in improving or investing in SOE to grow it; generally because Sony has always been primarily a 'hardware' based company.

Yes and no.
They had their products valued at "X" million dollars on paper, and then they pulled the plug on them because they weren't worth a dime (no one would pay money to play them).

There's no money to be had in MMORPGs as they are now.

I go and buy GTA5 and I have a massive world with massive detail in it, persistent characters, tons of content, sandbox play, and multiplayer. That's more than what EQ, Vanguard, etc offers.

Why did SOE go the Sandbox / Minecraft route?
It's the only way the MMO industry is going to stay alive.

I get that there's a sector of the EQ playerbase that despise PvP. But realize that PvP was alive and well in EQ during the early days, back before SOE decided to end support for the Zek servers. PvP was on their own special ruleset servers, it didn't bother anybody who didn't want to be a part of it. I don't get why people have to get so defensive whenever the word "PvP" is mentioned around here. Nobody was asking for forced PvP. I myself like a bit of both in my MMO's, which is why I can never stay in EQ1 for prolonged periods of time because you simply churn through PvE content too quickly then find yourself with nothing to do for 8 months out of a year.

Personally I think the lack of PvP shows you how out of touch SOE is with the genre. You look at all the popular MMO's today, from subscription games like WoW, to F2P/B2P games like GW2 & ESO, they all have optional PvP. And not surprisingly, all these games have good player population, because these gaming companies know PvP is too large of a fanbase to ignore.

I don't count EQ2 just because EQ2's PvP is a mess, it shows you how much SOE didn't know how to support PvP even if they tried (they had 1 dev assigned to PvP balance in EQ2 for awhile). Either way, they really should've spent resources and hired people who knew how to please the PvP crowd, and embraced it in their games. I guess they're finally realizing it since Smed did say they're tired of PvE-only MMO's during last year's fan faire. But it's really a bit too late, now they're scrambling to keep PvE fanbase around in their games, while having to reach out to PvP fanbase & newer generation gamers.

Interesting read on the future of PC gaming vs Console !

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2014/07/14/the-console-war-is-over-the-pc-already-won/

Yup the PC will never be beaten by consoles.
The new shinies will wear off at some point, good PCs are just more awesome.
I would never replace mine, it's still the full package and instead of a console you can buy a comfy "gaming chair" and be all set.

Concole games are also expensive, and the variety of older games on the PC is 100x bigger.
No chance.

PC vs. Console leaves out a huge factor, Mobile. The announcement of the buyout was filled with the word Mobile.

We've got to consider all three platforms and how things will shake out.

Just because "pc beat console" do you think they won't port to Xbox now that they can? A new revenue stream no matter how 'weak' in comparison to pc is more money than not doing it.

And it seems pretty clear they are going to push out into mobile as well.

At least "pc beat console" is encouraging to the hope that they continue to develop for PC while they expand into the other platforms. Because it's pretty clear they are intending to expand into console and mobile.

While I love PC games and PCs in general I think console games are a much hotter commodity these days AND mobiles. I don't think I will ever play a game on a mobile.... nothing made for them appeals to me but its a big market *sighs*

David Georgeson, Director of Development for Landmark and Everquest Next and Terry Michaels, Senior Producer for Landmark and Evequest next briefly discuss the newest changes.

I'd just like to point out that nothing like this has been said about EQ1 or EQ2.

Just tune in to the EQ1 twitch stream dev chat for updates....

It's because the devs on EQNext havethe most resources. Or it least appears that way.

Ponytail makes for a good comedian, yep yep.

Ill tell you all what this is a blatant cash grab EQN on the verge of being launched all this is is a shark attempt to make some quick money off of the back of the launch of EQN from a company that has not spent a dime developing it Columbus Nova is an investment company they just want to turn a fast Buck on the products SOE was about to release. Very likely they will just break up the other titles and sell them on.

This is not a good thing for us as the population of Norrath who have a history of being shafted by SOE I can't imagine Columbus Nova intend to treat us any better. Despite what Smedley claims about bigger investment in the games I strongly suspect we are being bullshitted since SOE has a tradition of being less than honest with its customers about what is actually going on this seems like just another half truth where what is really happening is kept behind closed doors. I mean no one knew the company was up for sale till it was actually a done deal they hardly kept their paying customers informed did they?

This is absolutely 100% a shaft job engineered by Smedley jumping ship just before his was about to be sacked over the screw up of EQN.

This isn't looking too good folks. I have a feeling EQ has a game wide DT with a random duration. Better double check that your change.org bookmark is up to date and familiarize yourself with the seven stages of grief. This could really be it.

I remember a few years ago when IL 2 Cliffs of Dover flight sim was dead in
the water. The developers just closed the doors and walked away from it.
The small flightsim fan base got together and volunteer coders starting working on the unfinished game.
Today you can buy the sim for a few dollars and fly solo or go online to the
FREE ATAG server and fly with and against many other people from around
the world.
So with the much larger fan base of EQ , something like this could happen and it could turn out to be better than ever.
Visit the ATAG forums and click on the sim theater . You'll find awesome videos made by the pilots , that show just what can be done when so many were saying all is lost.
The only money the server or developers receive is monthy donations from
anyone who wants to give five dollars or more or you can play for free without
any limitations.
The donations are always far and above the server costs and development and improvements continue.
After seeing that first hand I feel EQ will be around a long time