Sony Online Entertainment Becomes Daybreak Game Company

i emailed them to ask them to address us in the forums and to please reassure everyone. and to let us know some of their plans that directly affect us. i directed my requests to Wilcox, Brad <bwilcox@soe.sony.com>

let's hope he wasn't one of the ones let go. he is in customer service and had answered me directly the last time i emailed CN

I happen to work in software development and I wish it were that easy.

The numbers I'd heard yesterday were painful but liveable. WIth the revised numbers I've heard today, well, I'm going to stick it out til the end but EverQuest II can't help but be impacted by this.


By the way, I've got an opinion piece on all this from a company-wide point of view...

Daybreak Games: It Didn't Have to Be This Way

Have you actually played Landmark? The graphics are so intense my gaming computer has a hard time handling it. Limited hotbars, yes. Low end graphics, not a chance. Even with all of the optimizations they've made since alpha, my machine still chugs along and things take a decade to render. There's no console in the world that can handle the graphics the way they are now.

too bad no one made it here. i appreciate that moonpanther shared it with us

Landmark on a tablet? Can't see it. Nope, nada. Brilliant game, gorgeous...flawless movement, <3 it; if you have an uber PC. I've heard several mention Landmark on tablet, so thought I'd toss in my reality check.

I now have a pretty uber PC, thanks to Landmark I fried the GPU on my old PC during alpha, then bought this one. The only reason I don't stay in Landmark, my hubby's PC runs it, but runs hard; it however handles EQ2 and other MMO's fine. Besides, I love EQ2, I always come back....

EQ2, will you be my Valentine??

Kitty

Right now we need all the "cheerleaders" we can get and I stand right next to Feldon on this matter. I'm going to keep my sub, keep supporting our fabulous Player studio artist (planning on joining them btw). Proof is in the pudding, and money matters to these venture capitalists...so I'm going to keep on cheering and even more important keep on paying for the game that I love so very much. A game I might add that I cannot find a replacement for in the current market.

Don't own a playstation or xbox never will. Don't have a tablet and may once in a while if I'm really bored while traveling will play farmville 2 on my phone. But that "app" game doesn't get on red cent for me...it's not worth paying anything for. I do have a kindle for movies and reading lol but don't think that counts. Call me old fashioned but I love my PC's and always will.

And landmark or eqn on a phone or tablet....that had me rolling on the floor laughing with tears running down my face. Heck most top end computers are having issues running it....tablets? phones? PS or xbox....now that is funny!

i found that this list explained a lot - especially the "all contracted employees" at the end. this is the usual pruning that comes with a buy-out. a new company gets rid of the obligations that came from the old company. they usually offer a good severance package. then they bring in fresh blood with no expensive baggage like long term contracts. nothing to be worried about. business as usual in a corporate sense.

Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson (Director of Development for the EverQuest brand, @DaveGeorgeson)
Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Community Manager, @Brasse)
Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (Everquest II developer, @akilh)
Aaron “Gnobrin” Bisnett (Weapon and Armor designer for 12 years, @Gnobrin)
Douglas “Endymion” VanDerveer (Everquest II game designer, @douglastweets)
Annah "Amnerys" Bianchi (Community Manager, @amnerys)
Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske (Community Relations Project Manager, @Ashlanne)
Eric "Felgon" Smith (Associate Producer for EverQuest Next and Landmark, @F4Felgon)
Steve "Moorgard" Danuser (Lead Content Designer and Head of Story, @Moorgard)
Tiffany Spence (Social Media, @JustTiffy)
Kyle "Hats" Manchester (Community Manager, @Hats)
Racheal "Afista" McKenny ( Everquest II community Manager, @Afista)
Noah Watkins (Graphic designer, @noahwatkins)
Kelduum Revaan (Programmer for H1Z1, @Kelduum)
Katharine Anderson (Build master for PlanetSide 2, @katharinelilly)
Xander Clauss (Base designer for PlanetSide 2, @XanderClauss)
Taylor Dowell (Systems designer for PlanetSide 2, @Tayradactyl)
All contracted employees

Suka, I'm pretty sure it's not a complete list. At the very least, you've left out Tom Tobey.

i just copied it from another site. what i think explained a lot to me was the "all contracted employees". Tom was a contracted employee. I am sure there will be a number of names come in today. probably for the rest of the week.

when the house cleaning is finished, i am sure we will hear an announcement of what is next on the agenda. they are doing what all corporations do. one step at a time. daybreak is now a division of that corporation.

what eases my mind is that this is daybreak doing the cleaning, not CN. that means they have given thought to who they need and who they don't need for their new agenda. let's hope for some clarity on that agenda soon.

Excellent write up Feldon. Interesting reply from Smed.

Tom Tobey absolutely still works with SOE. Many others do not.

What am I contracted to do?

Good to hear.

Nothing we can talk about on an unsecured line.

I just received this and have permission to repeat it and to share his information with the forums.

Certainly. Also feel free to share my twitter account as that is a great way to communicate as well, see below.
Brad Wilcox
Vice President, Customer Service
Daybreak Games
www.soe.com
Phone: 858.577.3929
Email: bwilcox@soe.sony.com
Twitter: @thegreatmutato

On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Wilcox, Brad <bwilcox@soe.sony.com> wrote:
I can understand your worry. There were a lot of good people that we let go yesterday. Many that I have worked with for years and years, some of my closest friends. It is a sad time. But I can assure you that we will continue making the best online games and push the limits of online gaming while serving the existing dedicated player base. I am a gamer myself, have developed a great love for many games.

I continue to play and associate with the friends I made in the early days of EverQuest even though we are all no literally in different parts of the world. I love the community that these games bring and will work to make sure it continues.

-Brad

To continue being fabulous, darling!

If I had a contract, I would get that added! Contract employee Indeed! (said like Dr. Smith)

lol sorry tobey. i stand corrected. when someone said you were gone i figured they were more up to date than i was and you must have been contracted

so glad you are still with us though

Well, depends on the tablet. I don't think we're talking the usual cheapo $250 throwaway android tablet that plays little more than candy crush. Computers haven't really been getting faster, but they have been getting smaller, and there's a lot of Windows tablets out right now that may not be super gaming PCs, but they do have the guts of a very good laptop and are excellent for portable gaming.

Not that this is without problems. Currently, if I want to play a PC game on my Surface, I have to find a level space, flip open the keyboard, get out a mouse (stashed in my bag), etc. Even if the computer itself is very convenient, there's a bit of setup involved for anything that isn't a point-and-click adventure, puzzle game, or solitaire. If, however, it had a control scheme available that was similar to Order and Chaos (which is now on PC thanks to windows tablets), I might be able to skip all that and jump right into the game wherever I happen to be. Imagine doing that with landmark. Heck, I can imagine uses for the pen stylus even.

Today's desktops are tomorrow's laptops/tablets, and so I believe they're just preparing.