Sony Online Entertainment Becomes Daybreak Game Company

I just wanted to add that as far as I know, EverQuest II is not shutting down and the team aren't quitting. As long as they continue making this game, I stand with EQ2.

to nox - not really. i have seen several companies sold and management replaced in my time. although we like to think of our favorite game as something else, when it comes down to it, this is a business.

i have never seen a buyout or a coup of any kind where there weren't massive layoffs and entire teams weren't replaced. not always for the better, but always because the new owners felt they wanted their own people in the leadership positions. lower level people were often kept and a few of the old management were promoted or kept, but a whole lot of the main teams were replaced.

as much as we hate to see it, that seems to be what is going on here. hopefully, after the chopping is done and the bushes are pruned, we will see new growth. we are keeping our fingers crossed and trying to stay positive. we don't like seeing our favorites cut, but we have no say in it so we can only wait and hope.

I figured something was up when the Landmark twitter remained silent for more than 30 minutes. It's heartbreaking to see all of these wonderful people without a job. I can't believe they let Dave go. He was great with the community and I loved watching LM Live. I'm not sure where things are headed now. EQN shows a ton of potential and Landmark is very fun to play. I expected a "restructure" but this seems a little extreme. I'm 50/50 about EQN ever getting released now. I just don't understand how they could get rid of so many well known members.

Dave, Brasse, hell every Dev I talked to was always super cool! So many people attached to these titles it just doesn't feel right. I hope the best for our family and friends but I am honestly scared for the future of eq and eq2 now.

I have a toon for every mood swing. I'm a woman and bi-polar so as you can imagine that's a lot of frikkin toons. I am not going anywhere unless they make me. Now give me more fluff dangit I got money to spend.

doesn't look like they are planning to sunset anyone. just usual corporate pruning that follows any buyout.

i feel for the loss of jobs and how it affects everyone- but no less than christmas before last when soe announced a massive layoff right at christmas time. i was very sad then because i thought of how it would affect those families. i am sad for the same reason now and i will miss those i came to know.

but i don't think eq2 is dying yet. i am still waiting to see if it has the same increase in growth that trees and bushes do after pruning

This.

I expected layoffs. I expect some other changes. Nothing has happened yet that tells me to jump ship (not like there is anything to jump ship to...). And I still feel getting away from Sony at this point was probably the best thing that could have happened.

What's needed now is a no-nonsense, no-CorporateSpeak message from Smed laying out candidly why things were done, what he sees the immediate and intermediate future looking like, and what his feelings are towards existing titles on a going-forward basis.

Remember that supposedly, the EQ and EQ2 franchises ARE turning a profit! This is not a drag on your new company, but rather a plus and a strength!

So please, be straight with us. We've supported you for 15 years now. We deserve that much.


As for this:

Despite my kvetching about my Eve-Online account, I will say this for my part:

"Until the servers are shut off!"

ok so chicken little did have one thing right- the sky fell. it has been known to do that from time to time. but the world is still here. i don't think it is going anywhere. if they come out and say they are ending it, then i will find another planet to land on- perhaps middle earth since i keep a stake there. but right now, norrath still exists and as long as it does, i am here to stay. i will hang onto my bow until they pry it from my cold, dead hands, then i will revive and move. but not until then.

maybe he or some other spokesperson needs a bit of time to gather their thoughts and confirm their facts before presenting such a statement. it would be nice to have it sooner rather than later. but right now, things are kind of up in the air.

with any big change, it takes time for people to get everything lined up so they can share it with us. i don't think they owe us an explanation of why. that is their business. what i would like to see is the reassurance and some plans revealed on how our game will be affected in the near future. i really don't care about the multiplatforms because i don't play them. i only play eq1 and eq2. those are the games i am interested in and those are the games that affect me directly.

i know that others do play multiplatform games. however lumping our fate in with statements about other games makes it seem more ambiguous. i would like to see our concerns addressed on our forums about our game.

i am patient however, i understand the need for time. so hopefully when the dust settles someone will talk to us.

lol thank you for your concern but there is nothing at all wrong with my reading comprehension, I'm not American.

Who else do you think they would of put in the job? Their soul interest in buying out SoE, as it stood, is making money. It does not mean his job is any more secure than their tea lady's.

This was posted over on Landmark but I think it bears reposting here. Read it and maybe think about what he is saying:

“Hey guys,
I came on to say goodbye to you guys (at least in my current role, prepare for lurking), but after scanning the front page I wanted to change the flavor of the post a bit.
Columbus Nova deserves no hate in all this. They are more like white knights than negative forces here. SOE needed a shake up/new direction, and CN provided that. They have done nothing but been gracious in their new ownership, and they went out of their way to make sure that Devs and support teams that got laid off were taken care of. Right now things seem ******, and of course for the folks that were let go, today was rough, but CN and DB were both very open about the need for restructuring. This wasn't a surprise to folks in the company.
Gaming is a tough industry, and not for everyone. I've seen lots of people come and go, both good and otherwise. The fact is, there are no (or at least, extremely few) permanent gaming jobs. If you want to have just one job in your career, don't pick gaming, or even computer software. It's just the nature of the beast in such a pioneering industry. But the flip side is that there is always a new opportunity awaiting, it just may require a move to a new location or some other sacrifice.
Most of the let go folks will be working in the gaming industry soon. The rest may decide to move on to other, less volatile lines of work. But no one I talked to regrets their time making games for folks to enjoy. It's a rare job that lets you bring pleasure to so many people's lives.
Back to the subject - if you guys feel angry or betrayed, it would be misdirected to place that at the feet of the new company. They didn't bring in new staff to replace us, or say we did a ****** job and treat us poorly - they looked at the bottom line and the numbers just didn't line up. The new layout lines up now, and the goal is that DB can be successful and move on from this and eventually expand again. Saying "I'm cancelling my sub" or "I'm never buying another thing in PS2" isn't the right tactic, as much as the former Devs appreciate the intent of your support. If you want to make a positive impact, then keep doing what you're doing - if you like the game, play it. Give feedback. Get your friends to play. Buy what you want to, and what you feel gives you value. If you aren't happy, tell DB through the means you do now, social media and /bug reports. The game will grow or shrink depending on how you guys act, which is how it should be. If you make a statement on principal for the dearly departed devs, you will be hurting the remaining staff who have worked just as hard to make you guys a game you like to play. They may not be all names you know, but trust me, they put their blood, sweat, and tears into this.
TL;DR - CN didn't do this, it was something that had to be done. CN is providing a chance for the games you love to continue going
-David C, former PS2 Producer
Edit: Ugh seeing the 'former dev' post header brought things home; I'll miss you and your well-meaning pitchforks :-(”

The layoffs were to be expected. However, shrinking down an already downsized team with no communication around mid-term or long-term planning for the game will obviously freak out customers.

We need clear communication around what direction EQ2 is going. Is it still worth to invest time and money?

I know I'll stick with the game and my guild till they pull the plug, however with no info I might decide to go f2p instead and others may be even more hesitant; therefore we need to know where we're going.

"If you don't know where you're going you're never lost" = too easy

Pruning is one thing (trimming fingernails vs. chopping off an arm), and so long as it was done by Daybreak itself, with plans to keep people useful to game development and maintenance (including support, and, hopefully, some community relations people) that they know of, well, it's better that they do it, rather than an investment company who knows nothing about gaming to do so (hopefully one reason why they left DG independent for gaming decisions, other than "Stop bleeding money." That, they'd probably be concerned about directly). Are they closing down in San Diego and Austin completely and moving everything to New York? :-/

Uwk

What I got out of reading that post is, Sony was going to shut the whole gaming section of the business down, and Smed engineered a buyout to keep it going.

I don't know if that's what actually happened, but from reading this guy's post, that's how it looks to me. I will continue to play, but if things come to an end, I'll finally go get a tan or something.

Kudos to you, sir! Hopefully most folks have the same approach.

Sadly, I can't say the same-- not because I'm up-in-arms or a doomsdayer... I just need to focus my priorities elsewhere and I'm a bit ashamed to admit that it took seeing a few talented folks let go to remind me of this. Plus, it's my birthday, so there's nothing like becoming old-as-**** to remind you "oh hey, wtf are you doing with your life?!"...

But, I feel like the vast majority of players aren't sacrificing their hopes/dreams to play this game... so... ride it out folks! A lot of fab folks are still there. Plus, you do actually like this game yeah? Play it! I'd like for it to be around in a few years in the off-chance that I pass a few more milestones in life and get the hankering to re-sub again. (Devfriends: This is your cue to make another PoW zone that remains relevant for many many expansions that I gleefully get to skip! Kidding!)

I'm not going to have a Dorothy moment, but...
G: TY for the bubbles. Much <3 (Even though you did make the Protector of Bones the new Munzok... Boo!)

I wonder what impact this has to the focused feedback threads and the quality of life issues.

Well, I decided to take it a step further and emailed Columbus-Nova to let them know exactly how I feel about the layoffs and to request that they actually take time out to address us, as their customers, to let us know what direction they intend to take with our game. I don't know that my email will make it to those at the top of the corporate ladder, but I think, with enough emails from others who game here as well, they would have to at least acknowledge us.

Btw, Moonpanther, thanks for posting that.

I suppose sadly it was always going to be the case regarding redundancies but i guess i am shocked most by Smokejumper going my gut tells me CN are looking at the zombie game,PS2 and EQN as the games to lead them into the next few years you have to wonder if they're happy with EQN devlopment? and while i fail to see the point of landslide i wonder if that'll stay the course,lots of questions yet to be answered thats for sure.

For any of you that watched the advertisements in the first quarter of the Super Bowl, you noted an ad from an app called 'Game of War". At Super Bowl ad rates, that shows you how much money is in the "pay to win" app games market.

Previously the only game to run a Super Bowl ad was WOW.

Under prior ownership SOE was pretty much restricted from the app market, and directed to concentrate on servicing the Play Station market. For those of you who followed Smed, he has dropped hints every now and then about the lucrative app market, even though Sony had no intentions of ever letting Smed/SOE explore that line of business.

Under the new owners SOE/Daybreak now has the opportunity to participate in the app and tablet markets, growing markets that, compared to MMOs, require little development and programing risk compared to potential reward. Consider the recent risk vrs reward of SWTOR and TESO. Smed is very much aware of these factors, and the developing markets, so it is not really unusual that he will remain at the helm of Daybreak.

This market expansion should be a money maker for Daybreak, who, hopefully, will remain in the MMORPG market with games such as the Everquest series, which IS still a valuable franchise, much more economical than building a new franchise. The greater the amount of money Daybreak can produce on it's own now (without the Sony name), the greater the variety of games they can offer.

Considering that Smed actually plays games, and his commitment to MMORPGs (like extending the life of Vanguard, from a failed game studio) I wouldn't look for Daybreak to depart the PC online market entirely.

Games like EQ Next, or an EQ 3 take cash. Daybreak is now positioned to generate that kind of cash, something they can no longer do using the Sony revolving credit line.