Planetside 2 was on a fast track to abandonment anyway. Now that the idiot Sony overlords (and hopefully the clueless upper management) aren't pushing for fast cash at the complete neglect of everything else, they can either fix the game and make it what it should have been by now or put it out of its misery for good.

No surprise at all. SOE customers, they pulled a fast one on you. It's the exact reason I have been boycotting SOE actively since they did the NGE in Star Wars Galaxies. Seeing as Smedley will remain president Daybreak, it is no surprise I will continue to boycott.

Rip verant. Their only particularly good game was the the first but I will remember them for all but inventing a genre I love(yeah merdian and uo came first but the vast majority of mmos are based on everquest).

And really rip since if they were owned by any other company but sony it would have been shut down a long time ago. If eqnext isn't a big hit either they will shut down or it will become another rare.

KS wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 18:36:
EverQuest balancing of classes early on consisted of seeing what classes were popular and nerfing them until people didn't like to play them anymore and moved on to something else.

Be fair, class and balance did not go together early on. Remember how necros could be afk feign death and their pet would kill mobs classes like warriors would struggle to kill for xp? Yeah.....

Agent.X7 wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 18:34:
Well, Smed is staying and still in charge, so there's hope for EQ NExt still. He seems pretty positive and says he can't wait to make games for the Xbox One.
http://tinyurl.com/n5pem8l

Can wait to make games for Xbox one... same as the rest if he hasn't noticed.

Mobile is easy to make money in, no one has noticed to develop for that platform.


Question: H1Z1 is getting a wipe shortly, so anyone who has paid for airdrops in alpha (gasp) do you get them back after a wipe? If not talk about even more of a useless waste of money. What is the 411 on this?

They dont care about PC gamers so I dont give a f f about this company that purchased Sony Online E. Btw RIP ps2.

SimplyMonk wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 18:09:
Whut? Sony/Verant is the creator of traditional and grindy MMOs.

Exactly, they were among the first to make that kind of game. It's not "traditional" if you're among the first to do it. They didn't just pump out clones like other companies have done since. They might not have always nailed it, but they at least tried to innovate. Maybe they still will, but who knows.

What's going to happen to Planetside 2?

ShakaUVM wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 16:28:
I was a beta tester for the first Everquest, and Smedley himself emailed me trying to work out a bug in their auto patcher. I don't get the hate for him. He seemed genuinely interested in figuring out what was going on and fixing it.

EverQuest balancing of classes early on consisted of seeing what classes were popular and nerfing them until people didn't like to play them anymore and moved on to something else.

Repeat ad nauseum until all classes were equally bland and about equal in population.

Oh, and most of the players also pissed at repeated nerfs to the fun aspect of popular classes which made you want to play them.

Lesson not learned by anyone: Boost boring or weak classes instead of tearing down popular ones.

Nerfs should be reserved for serious design flaws or unforseen massive advantages akin to a broken game.

Well, Smed is staying and still in charge, so there's hope for EQ NExt still. He seems pretty positive and says he can't wait to make games for the Xbox One.
http://tinyurl.com/n5pem8l

This comment was edited on Feb 2, 2015, 18:40.

Squirmer wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 17:38:
Wow this is surprising. A shame too. Say what you will about Planetside and H1Z1, SOE was one of the few MMO companies looking to do interesting things instead of pumping out traditional grindy MMOs.

Whut? Sony/Verant is the creator of traditional and grindy MMOs. Maybe EQ Next would of been different but EQ, EQ2 and Vanguard were nothing but grindy. Well... Maybe "waity" in EQs case since you weren't really grinding so much as waiting for something to spawn.

Planetside was pretty awesome though and for what it was, EQ was great in the day. Didn't really touch any of SOEs other titles.

EQ Next could of surprised me, but we'll see where it goes now.

jdreyer wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 16:49:
Everything SOE had in development was for both PC and PS4. So this is an odd move, not sure what prompted it.

I enjoyed Planetside 2 a lot and they really had a good connection with the community. Some of their ideas with regard to the Player Studio and some of their upcoming titles were about as close to innovative as the industry gets these days. Definitely a shame.

As for what prompted it, well, let me just say you are dealing with marginal operations where something has to be cut, and gaming (esp. online) has had a pretty rough image in recent times. The guys holding the purse strings don't necessarily know much about gaming but they definitely have social media gurus telling them which way the wind blows.

Sony Exec: "Hey guys... So... It turns out this 'online' thing is hard and we keep getting hacked. Seriously. We aren't very good at this 'security' thing or whatever. In light of that, we are just getting out of the online business all together and are selling Sony ONLINE Entertainment. Problem. Solved."

Lackey: "Sir. We still manage the PSN and other online services though..."

Sony Exec: "......"

Lackey: "Sir?"

Sony Exec: "Fuck."

This comment was edited on Feb 2, 2015, 18:05.

Redmask wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 13:36:
Gotta start milking that console MMO teat.

Damned shame, loved me some Planetside.

Well, planetside 2 was developing PS4 port for it already.. It's in beta testing.

Squirmer wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 17:38:
Wow this is surprising. A shame too. Say what you will about Planetside and H1Z1, SOE was one of the few MMO companies looking to do interesting things instead of pumping out traditional grindy MMOs.

This. I liked SOE.

Wow this is surprising. A shame too. Say what you will about Planetside and H1Z1, SOE was one of the few MMO companies looking to do interesting things instead of pumping out traditional grindy MMOs.

They also say the new owners still plan on releasing EverQuest Next as planned, though it sounds like supporting PCs is a low priority going forward

Going forward, SOE/Daybreak is low priority for me. Everquest Next looked kinda neat, too. Big ol' pass now.

Primalchrome wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 15:14:
EverQuest is primarily a PC gaming IP....and they want to concentrate on consoles. Maybe they're going to try to spin off EQN to help pay for the acquisition?

I'm kind of surprised at this move. I would have thought that Playstation, Sony Pictures, and SOE were the only profitable divisions left at Sony. Historically I only bought Sony electronics....but I took an about face on that one about five years ago. Similar quality at twice the price wasn't what I considered a friendly business model.

Everything SOE had in development was for both PC and PS4. So this is an odd move, not sure what prompted it.

Beamer wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 14:05:
Good ones, and there are lots of good ones, actually come in and fix things. Have you ever seen the show The Profit? That's a boiled down version of what good ones do.

Sadly, there are also an enormous amount of fleecers.

In this case, it's hard to see immediate advantages someone would have that Sony wouldn't. The good PE firms usually take over something poorly run, or something they have a particular skill at to run better. Here? The only thing that becomes an advantage is that SOE games can now be on more platforms.

Not sure that's good enough to trust.

Yeah, pretty much every startup, or anything making an IPO is financed by private equity. There's a lot of asset strippers and milkers too, so people are right to be wary. Adding to the bad reputation, there's all the companies that have failed then private equity comes in to save it but fails again, which is the final nail and the company closes after that so the equity firm takes the blame even though they just delayed it.

PS2... I don't think anyone would say that game shows signs of good management. Good intentions, great interaction with the community, sure. But that game launched way too early, hasn't developed nearly as much as it should (lots of patches, not so much real content) and has a lot of bugs that get swatted only to reappear a few updates later.

If this is the good kind of PE, it could be the best thing to happen to PS2. The bad kind would be the worst, but at this point I'll take the gamble. I'll be watching for staff leaving though.

Beamer wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 13:43:

HorrorScope wrote on Feb 2, 2015, 13:41:
Interesting to see what this does to H1Z1.

No clue what H1Z1 is, but I'd just point out that a PE firm buying MMOs can't be good for anyone involved.

I strongly doubt this particular one is looking to make a good game.

I guess Sony had an interest inasmuch as they wanted to make good games to encourage sales of the PS4. Surprising that they'd give this up at this point what with the buzz around H1Z1 and EQ Next.

And you sold one of your only profitable brands because...? By all means, sell off Playstation and Sony Pictures as well. (I hear Disney would love those X-Men and Spider-Man brands back.)