ProSiebenSat.1 is the Exclusive Partner of Sony Online Entertainment in Europe

LOL if I am not mistaken, the Mayan calendar is off from ours. They did not have "Leap Year" and they went by "lunar months". I read somewhere that what they calculated as the "end of the world" was on August 17 or 19 of 2011 according to our calendar

Given Massively's reported interview with John Smedley, it would appear that the announcement does in fact cover all the games due to transition to ProSieben.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/19/soe-live-2012-smedley-assuages-prosiebensat-1-concerns/

Piestro, could you please now confirm that Massively's report is accurate and that players of eg Vanguard will be able to opt to stay with SOE when that game transitions, assuming of course that they have a Station Account at that time.

Can you also please confirm what action, if any, needs to be taken to activate the option to stay, other than simply holding a Station Account - I have EQ, EQ2 and VG registered to my Station Accounts, for example, and have previously subscribed to them but am currently inactive in all of them although I retain F2P entitlement of course. Do I need to do anything beyond opting out of any transition when the time comes?

Lastly, can you please confirm when European players will once again be able to take out Station Access subscriptions?

Apart from DCUO, which is a big disappointment.

And as usual, Smedley ignores the utter lack of support from PSS for UK (and English speaking expat customers living in Europe). I strongly recommend British customers to stick with SOE - unless/until PSS can demonstrate competence in English, evening hours support and local marketing.

Indeed Borek, DCUO having already transitioned it is excluded from the announcement, and from my comment above about titles due to transition.

I don't see ProSieben ever living up to the promise of better customer support and billing options, so in practice all existing customers will stay with SOE permanently (especially as it's been emphasised than any transfer is strictly one-way only). I'm sure that both companies know that, and recognise it as being a better option than the only alternative which was to lose those customers permanently. If the forums and the cancellations didn't spell out the community's message clearly enough then doubtless the pre-sales for the forthcoming releases did, and thankfully the ProSieben deal is for all practical purposes dead in the water other than as a marketing exercise of which there would seem to be no present sign outside of Germany.

That makes my wedding joke much less funny. I'm getting married on December 22 of this year.

Hi there

While my reply is a little while after the great announcement about not being forced to move to PSB7 I still feel that the questions I posted on the first page are still unanswered, especially if it is a one time move to PSB7 and never returning to the SOE fold.

Will I remain a SoE customer without having to click a box within a certian time frame that I for whatever reason I may miss ?

I don't want to repost all the questions but Piestro, could you please look at them again and give some answers?

Especially the ones referring to

Pre ordering expansions equal goodies to all or PSB7 accounts to miss out?
Marketplace items same items for all or not and at the same price or near enough not to matter?
Will Player studio items be available to be bought by PSB7 accounts?
How much will PSB7 charge UK customers for Station Cash,monthly subs and expansions?
What happens if customers are very disappointed with the PSB7 customer service who do they request help to?

While I am glad to stay a SoE customer, others may want to transfer(for their own reasons) and I beleive some of the answer you may provide would be helpful to all.

Thanks for listening and I hope the wedding planning is going smoothly (do you get to choose any thing)

Bitefiends

Just my opinion...

But any UK customer would have to be beyond crazy to sign up with PSS. Support: language and hours of availability are two issues that kill PSS stone dead. The total absence of UK marketing is almost immaterial; when PSS offer localised support, then that discussion can be opened.

FYI, This is basically the same post I made on the EQ2 thread.

I attended the P7 panel at SOE Live.

As expected, they were spinning this deal positively, and Smed's tweet before FF certainly defused a lot of the potential trouble before it began.

At the panel, they explained how they had grown from 20 people at the start of this deal to 110+ people currently (and growing) to support the SOE products.

They stressed that overall everything will be staying with SOE until they both (P7 and SOE) feel they are ready to take over, and even then SOE will always be available to help.

One of the things I stressed, and they were well aware of, is that they know they have a huge mountain to climb as far as trust goes. Hopefully we'll start seeing them more active in general, to start putting names and personalities to the company. SOE's had (for better and for worse) 14 years to build up its reputation, which is part of the reason so many of us want to stay with them (Not that I'm directly caught in this mess since I'm a Canadian); P7 hasn't had time to build up any reputation (and what rep they do have isn't all that good so far, at least in the gaming community).

Another feeling I took from their presentation, is that P7 seems to be after the FPS/PS2 market, and the MMORPG market was along for the ride. FF this year was (understandably) focused a lot on PS2, and the people it brought come across differently from the RPGers that EQ/EQ2 bring. The P7 reps were younger, and a bit more crasser (they felt like they were trying to come off as 'hip') than the reps we're used to having.

EQ and VG in general tend to have very mature audiences; even EQ2's audience while not as mature (old fogey) as EQ's is still more so than the FPS audiences. The reps P7 had were, in hindsight for me, felt very much like FPS players and not so much RPG players.

I did ask if All Access would be restored, and the answer I got, like the answers we're still getting here, were muddled.

The simple question that needs to be answered now, one way or another is this:

Is there any difference between an SOE account in Europe and an SOE account in America, as far as what they can access, payment options (within reason) etc.... If there are any differences, then there's still a fight to be done.

Finally, one thing to keep in mind.... Things like Player Studio, in order to expand to Europe, will probably need to be done through P7. The financial issues of a US company paying a European (or anyone outside the states) are too challenging otherwise. (Also why contests are limited to US only). Basically for a Euro to submit using Player Studio, would probably involve a 3 party contract with SOE paying P7 with their existing channels, and P7 paying the player directly and handling the tax/financial regulations that may apply.

With that in mind, and given how SOE's pushing Player Studio now, it is very likely that SOE's going to be looking for more partner companies to take over more territories in the future. Europe is the first, but Australia, Japan, Canada, etc... will probably follow in the years to come. So it is important to make sure we get the details worked out properly for all of us (SOE, Partner Company and Players) now before things get too baked in.

I understand that we get fed that line about competitions and payments from the US to Europe a lot. But I have to point out that it is wrong: I get payments often from US entities (with only a little hand holding), and for competitions all that is required is for the SOE lawyers to check through their overseas partners what is involved for each country, and stick to the rules. Some countries (a few) may not permit gambling/competitions, but its not rocket surgery.

For Player Studio it is the fact that it would be a (potentially) recurring payment and not contest prizes that would be the concern. They're basically planning on making P7 their partner to handle all that mess.

Recurring payments are far less of a problem than competitions/gambling; there really isn't a legal mess, just accounting (for taxation) as normal.

Hello,

So Pro 7 tries to take over the world.....

I have one thing that imediately poped into my mind.....

I have characters on the Antonius Bayle and Drinal Servers. What happens, if I switch over to Pro7?

Regards,

Cfreining

That won't be a problem; you will still be able to access them.

well actually Prosiebengames.de does not stick with Everquest, only with Everquest 2:
http://www.prosiebengames.de/alle-spiele

I am still playing my bills at SOE for my gold account as well as buying the latest expansion over there...
I do not understand the deal with Prosiebengames and the effects towards EQ1 relevant for european/german customers.

just to prove a point about p7 games on the link above notice there is NOT an option to change language to english so unless they change that soon it just shows that they really dont think much about english players,that is why i will stay with soe if at all possible as my german is terrible.
tanz mit mir ein norrath.

Try the "com" language or country

But yeah - their website(s) not working properly is nothing new. Since they launched their accountmanagement sites for the SOE games more than half of those pages are bugged and they seem not to care despite several bugreports along with screenshots. so ...

I know its old news but did anyone actually come to this game from EQOA if so what server and characters (classes names etc.)

This certainly will be a joyous occasion for everyone.

Alas, I just tried to sign up for the Everquest Next beta. SOE read my account info, noted me as being in the United Kingdom region, and offered me the choice of staying on the American EQNext website ("optimised" for North American players) or going to the European EQNext ("optimised" etc). So I went to the European site, where it told me I needed a PSS1 account to sign up. Well, that's never going to happen (see fully justified reasons passim, which will apply to hundreds of thousands of SOE's now lost potential customer base). So I tried to "stay on the American site" - and it wouldn't offer me the option to join the Beta.

So it would appear I will never have the chance to look at or play EQNext, as SOE do not want my money or custom.

My wife's and my EQ1 gold accounts are now dropping to Silver (three dropping now, last one in a month or so when the long term prepay runs out, after 10 years of continuous custom) as there is no point in paying SOE any more money ever, as they have decided they do not want it in the future.

Goodbye, EQ.

PS before someone asks, no, you can't have my stuff, as it's virtually all no trade and prestige, of course. Otherwise you could have ...

did anyone manage to go to the PSB 7 panel at all this year, if so could they post any info they have please, or post a link to it

Ta in advance

bitefiends