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Topic: SOE now Daybreak, bought by Columbus Nova, going.... "indie?" (Read 86882 times)
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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SOE and SCEI are two different things. They were never the same thing, ever.
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shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
the plural of mangina
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The good news for any of us still enjoying SOE games is that investment firms usually plan on selling what they buy to someone else at a higher price after several years. That is how they make money after all. Shutting games down and "milking" them is not a good recipe for increasing value.
Or I could just be spouting wishful thinking because I have 7000 Station Cash...
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I have never played WoW.
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Venkman
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11536
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This news was the most interesting thing to happen in MMOs in the last year, which explains a lot
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AlteredOne
Terracotta Army
Posts: 357
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« Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 05:29:02 PM by AlteredOne »
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Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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Whelp, glad the CC and address info SOE had are about a year out of date, then.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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UnSub
Contributor
Posts: 8064
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SOE is only becoming Daybreak because of the projects they've got in the pipeline - that kind of new revenue appeals to investors.
How happy they'll feel when it doesn't pan out, or gets delayed for a while, is an entirely different story. Plus Daybreak management is going to have to learn how to run a business outside of Sony, which could throw in some wrinkles.
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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My ejuice company has had a flavor named Daybreak for over a year. I wonder if this will negatively impact our sales.
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angry.bob
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5442
We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I.
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My ejuice company has had a flavor named Daybreak for over a year. I wonder if this will negatively impact our sales.
You could always proactively change it to the taste of vermuth, half digested pepperoni pizza, and stomach acid. I'm not sure which of those is the least bad taste, but start with whatever it turns out to be and slowly increase the percentage of stomach acid until the whole thing matches the flavor of one of little nervous vomits that pops up but you can swallow back down. I don't see this ending in an ideal place for all those former Sony people. Doesn't at least one person here work there?
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Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
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MahrinSkel
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10857
When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was bullshit!
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I don't think there's anybody here that survived the purge in August 2 years ago. I was one of the people that went when that happened. I don't know anything about what is happening now besides what has been announced, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who does is under about 6 layers of NDA.
--Dave
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--Signature Unclear
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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I know at least two others that left before then, and of course none of the higher level devs like Raph or Hartsman are still there. Not sure of anyone else, but probably not unless Smedley lurks here.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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Surlyboi
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10963
eat a bag of dicks
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After all the shit we've all said about Smed, I doubt he lurks here.
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Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something. We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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I doubt it, too, but you never know. Point being, almost everyone that was there during SOE's heyday are no longer there.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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Surlyboi
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10963
eat a bag of dicks
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One way to find out...
Smed? You still fucking goats?
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Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something. We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
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IainC
Developers
Posts: 6538
Wargaming.net
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Rumours of very large scale layoffs today. I know of one senior staffer who has definitely been let go. Hearing numbers like 300 being thrown around but no clarification on others yet.
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Ragnoros
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1027
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Yeah. I was going to post that I randomly played Magic last night against a guy who worked there and it sounded like the Sword of Damocles hanging above much of the studio.
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Owls are an example of evolution showing off. -Shannow
BattleTag - Ray#1555
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Shocking.
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IainC
Developers
Posts: 6538
Wargaming.net
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Shocking.
Well I don't think anyone expected it to be bloodless but the scale I'm hearing sounds like shit is being burnt to the ground.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42629
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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Doubly shocking. A game dev gets bought by an investment firm, you gotta expect there's going to be a wholesale, Romney-style strip-mining before the eventual resale.
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Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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Kotik has shown what happens when Investment/ Widget guys take over software.
Tech guys meet the reality of the workplace that the rest of us have dealt with for years. Produce or out the door.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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kaid
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3113
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Shocking.
Well I don't think anyone expected it to be bloodless but the scale I'm hearing sounds like shit is being burnt to the ground. From what I am hearing one of the big issues is over the last few years of layoffs from sony it sorta distilled down a lot of the teams to the point they were VERY management heavy. Sounds like they cut out almost all of the redundancy especially of higher level management types which means it hit a ton of people.
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Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11124
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
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I guess this really is goodbye EQ. Landmark or Next, both of them.
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Gimfain
Terracotta Army
Posts: 553
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I guess this really is goodbye EQ. Landmark or Next, both of them.
With georgeson, danuser and butler gone it feels like eq next in its current form is dead.
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When you ask for a miracle, you have to be prepared to believe in it or you'll miss it when it comes
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Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11124
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
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At this point, and with so many blunders under their belt and so little successes, it's crazy that Smedley keeps falling on his feet.
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taolurker
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1460
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I guess this really is goodbye EQ. Landmark or Next, both of them.
With georgeson, danuser and butler gone it feels like eq next in its current form is dead. Jeff Butler does still seem to be with Daybreak, and I have not seen reports of anything to the contrary.
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I used to write for extinct gaming sites details available here (unused blog about page)
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Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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At this point, and with so many blunders under their belt and so little successes, it's crazy that Smedley keeps falling on his feet.
CEOs fail up because they are generally sociopaths and know how to toss people under busses. Since their job is potting together connections and providing a vision, not actual production it's easy for them to shift blames to team leads. After all folks loved the idea of EQN and PS2 and La dark and the zombie game, right? How much involvement did Smed have beyond big picture approval. It often takes reporting to a board vs a person to make them fall since the board would have more people needed to be convinced that the vision was fine only the execution sucked. Or to ask why they didn't replace a failing team lead or get involved when the scope was spiraling.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Ginaz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3534
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I guess this really is goodbye EQ. Landmark or Next, both of them.
With georgeson, danuser and butler gone it feels like eq next in its current form is dead. Jeff Butler does still seem to be with Daybreak, and I have not seen reports of anything to the contrary. Jeff Butler is gone, too.
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Malakili
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10596
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This is basically exactly what I expected after learning of the sale, so not surprises. Kind of a shame I guess, but more from the standpoint that the makers of EQ, one of the defining games of the genre, are essentially being broken down for scrap (such that they can really be called the makers of EQ by now anyway, but I digress). It's more a statement about the condition of the industry than anything.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42629
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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At this point, and with so many blunders under their belt and so little successes, it's crazy that Smedley keeps falling on his feet.
Who do you think likely prepared the list of heads for the axeman?
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01101010
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12003
You call it an accident. I call it justice.
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This is basically exactly what I expected after learning of the sale, so not surprises. Kind of a shame I guess, but more from the standpoint that the makers of EQ, one of the defining games of the genre, are essentially being broken down for scrap (such that they can really be called the makers of EQ by now anyway, but I digress). It's more a statement about the condition of the industry than anything.
Wait till this happens to WoW. oh wait...
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Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
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Ginaz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3534
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I could see them selling off the individual IP's and tech to other companies piecemeal. I think the days of this organization making and supporting their own games is over. RIP SOE/Windbreak games.
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taolurker
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1460
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Still really don't see "confirmation" of Jeff Butler being among the cuts. The only thing the reddit list has is a Twitch stream with chat of Moorgard's saying "Jeff is gone", but I haven't seen his name linked anyplace else... Also, Jeff Butler's new Daybreak Twitter ( @JButlerDaybreak) still is the same and also has no message or change in status like other "former" Daybreak people. Also was a Planetside 2 Reddit with a former Daybreak dev (D Carey) saying "Don't hate on Columbus Nova/DayBreak". 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 shitty, 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.
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I used to write for extinct gaming sites details available here (unused blog about page)
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Fabricated
Moderator
Posts: 8978
~Living the Dream~
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I suppose they weren't all gathered in the parking lot and fired at least.
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"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
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LC
Terracotta Army
Posts: 908
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Is it too early?
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Hutch
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1893
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I was thinking more like
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Plant yourself like a tree Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning. The sun will shine on us again, brother
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Venkman
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11536
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It sucks. But I really doubt anyone let go was surprised. *I* have no idea how or when the first signs were noticable. But you need to go out of your way to not see the signs: leadership around less often, more new faces randomly walking around, more closed doors, inevitable rumors from the administrators, etc. No idea which of these were occuring at SOE before Daybreak, but I'd bet large at most of that was happening. Doesn't matter what a company does, it's always the same leading up to a merger or spin off.
And then AFTER Daybreak, you were either polishing your CV or you were told outright you had nothing to worry about (and if you weren't on that list, eventually you got a sense who was).
I hope everyone lands somewhere they want to be. SOE was the last of the old guard. Glad they limped along for as long as they could, to continue trying new things while they could still afford to. /memories.
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