Sony Online Entertainment Becomes Daybreak Game Company

They could do some cool live stream thing, similar to Landmark's stuff. Announce the expansion LIVE for everyone to see !

Things to consider:

Sony wouldn't have sold off SOE if it was generating ROI (return on investment) at appropriate levels.

Venture capital companies won't tolerate acquired entities that don't meet their ROI hurdle rate.

$medley has on his desk, today, ROI expectations from his new employer (ie: goodbye Fan Faire).

$medley won't get a dime of capital / expense monies from the Parent Company that he can't justify by ROI expectations.

Just because you have customers doesn't mean you have a viable business (see first sentence).

Basically ...

Beside the fact that Fan Faire is VERY expensive, there is also the fact that it is usually effectively finalized around this time of year. Which means contracts need to be drawn up, budgets made and so forth.

With the Daybreak announcement, the entire company is effectively thrown into disarray (that happens any time there is a major change no matter how well it might be prepared for). Internally, they can probably keep doing business as usual for the most part; but anything dealing with outside company stuff has just become more difficult. They don't even have a LOGO yet, but if they wanted to put on a Fan Faire, they'd need to be making contracts with the Vegas hotel, arranging room blocks and discounts, contacting moving companies, shipping companies, bus companies, etc... to get the gear and people out there, get the advertising going and figure out what sort of budget to put on the whole shebang. All those things can be a PITA to sort out normally; and a hundred times harder when your own company's legal and PR and accounting teams are busy trying to create a new company out of the old one. It's no wonder they have to take a year off from FanFaire; in light of everything that would have to be done, their options probably amounted to "No Fan Faire" or "Hold it in December and hope we're mostly sorted out by May so we can arrange it."

As for the news itself, I'm waiting and seeing. The coming weeks/months will be very telling. At the very least we should have a few more years of the game(s) regardless. Beyond that? It's as certain as it's always been.

Frankly, considering how much Sony in general is hemorrhaging lately, this is probably a really good thing. The new company is basically in the same position that Sony was with SOE as far as I can tell, and probably has just as much/as little say in the running as Sony does. (Actually, they're probably in Sony Computer Game's position; or whatever that division was). Going forward, I'm honestly not expecting all that much different once the dust settles, save the potential of seeing these games on more platforms.

Can't sell to others what others don't see a profit in having it. The issue I see is are they long term investors or quick lets make a buck. roll with the changes and see what happens.
EQ is a great game still.

On your responses, change "guess" or "assumption" to Econ 101 and I agree with your comments.

VC companies care about one thing ... return on investment. That's why their usual model is to purchase controlling interests in non performing companies, and either; 1. turn them into performing companies (usually by hack and slash), or 2. sell off the assets. Most entities that are acquired by VC companies have been targeted because of poor management and the VC company believes this is holding down the "true" value of the company.

My bet is that one of these two options is in play.

Actually I disagree here. I think Sony's selling of SOE was more about concentrating on core businesses and selling off some profitable concerns that were not part of that core business. And in this case SOE is actually more valuable to a company that will develop Xbox titles in addition to ps4 and PC. That makes SOE a better deal away from Sony then with it.

The only part that sucks is it will be all about consoles I suspect.

Hmmm after some though I guess I should not say disagree as much as I think there are other possible reasons for Sony to sell SOE.

It could be this. It could be a cash flow issue. It could be the business unit is under-performing.

Either way, if you have a goose laying golden eggs it's generally difficult to give it to someone else.

I suspect this goose has been dropping something besides expensive eggs.

Oh wth might as well... lol =)

"fan faire is back and better than ever" is a better story after skipping a year (especially since they don't seem to have anything interesting to show about EQ Next).

Realistically though, they can just increase their presence in several other conventions, and leave organizing events to the professionals.

EQ Next's youtube/twitch presence is a total snooze fest right now. I hope they bring in some more young blood here to spice it up. It's like watching c-span right now.

Game developers are good at developing, not necessarily everything else from marketing to broadcasting, etc.

Good luck developing for consoles/multi-platform, seriously. I desperately want my Dark Souls I/II clone set in the Everquest world. Singe player with multiplayer co-op and PVP ranging from 1v1 to 1v3 to 3v3 or 6v6. Good stuff. Combat that can be done with lock-on or free target, and advantages to both depending on the situation.

I hope to see better mobile action games that act as teasers to the Everquest lore, and quick cash with pay2playlonger / pay2win elements.

Lastly, completely drop the Everquest name from all current and future products. It's terrible. Use some lore elements in the title.... Norrath... something. The current title is just really dated, going back to the 80s and 90s reminding me of games from Atari and the NES. Not to mention, Everquest has had plenty of negative press over the years, and mmos in general, so I'd dump it.

Everquest is still the best mmo on the market imho but some things need to change / get ahead of the curve instead of reacting well after the time to act has passed.

Is that yes, there will be another expansion late this year?

And while you are getting ready, please rip off Kunark, some of the best dungeons ever are in that expansion, revisiting would be fantastic.

Ruven

SOE was given away because it did not make money.
Don't kid yourselves, the numbers are all out there and on reliable sites as well.

There have been many bad decisions made, and for Eq1 too before you ask, i have hope that changes with new money pouring in but that remains to be seen.
Let's see if these people still have a vision, or if they also fell to the low current industry standards.

May I suggest a little google search and lite reading. It may clear up some misconceptions.

http://fortune.com/2015/02/04/why-sony-sold-its-online-games-division/

Can you post some of these reliable sites?

lol Roshen responded by not directly answering the question, he gets a +1 for PR training. And you won't know whether there will be an expansion until they decide to announce it one way or another, because likely nobody besides management knows right now. I wouldn't be hard on any of the community rep folks right now, they are doing their job at damage control at the moment, including the reps posting on facebook. I know I certainly don't want to be in their position after a strange buyout like this.

Speaking of the next expansion, I'm not sure if this change bodes well for those wishing for a comeback expansion after the TDS mess. I'm not too sure if EQ1 playerbase can continue to get disappointed by another expansion cycle, 3 years in a row. EQ1 playerbase is a resilient, but fragile group right now. What they do for this next expansion, whenever it may come out, will greatly affect the population and future of EQ.

http://recode.net/2014/05/14/sony-misses-fiscal-year-expectations-with-profits-down-88-percent/

We don't know what was said between Sony parent company and Columbus Nova. If last year's loss was an indication, the future might not be as bright as the optimists say it will be.

Sure @Lionheart, happy to help (i like all others hope it's getting better again)

http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/14/sonys-dead-weight-divisions-drag-down-playstation-4/
(paragraph 2)

http://recode.net/2014/05/14/sony-misses-fiscal-year-expectations-with-profits-down-88-percent/
(paragraph 4)

Right, ZenMaster was faster.
But here are some sources, and these sites have no reason to spread false information.
It does not help closing your eyes from the truth, you don't get sold if you are doing well this is not how it works in the real world.

Which supports what I have been saying all along. Sony decided to concentrate on its core business. The big question now is what does this means for Everquest? Sounds like PC games will be taking more of a back seat to other platforms.

Actually you do get sold if someone else comes to you and offers you a good amount of money. Sony is consolidating their company and Columbus nova saw a potential to get SOE for a decent price on their terms because they know they can make money off of it. A win win for both companies.

Columbus Nova understands that they can make money by porting new games to multi platforms, something SOE didn't do in the past because it didn't want to give rights to their competitors.

As to the others saying the $60 mil loss last year, that was due to the sun setting 3 games, so they got to "write off" that $60 mil. So while it is a loss, not one that really hurt the company because the money was spent years ago and they just never recouped the costs.

Doesn't sound very convincing to me...
past negative decisions are part of why bosses finally decide to pull the plug.
FanFaire was cancelled as one of the first steps as i read it, why?
Cause they were big spenders, i think we all felt first hand that the money didn't go where it should have been (aka into the development team of Eq1 i.e.

But i don't want to get involved further, happy discussing.

You didn't get what I was saying.
Sure... you all like each other and your game. You're all a bunch of old friends with old memories.

New players need to make those friends and memories, and it starts at level 1, not level 100.