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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  MMOG Discussion  |  Topic: SOE now Daybreak, bought by Columbus Nova, going.... "indie?" 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: SOE now Daybreak, bought by Columbus Nova, going.... "indie?"  (Read 85958 times)
schild
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Reply #35 on: February 04, 2015, 05:41:40 PM

SOE and SCEI are two different things. They were never the same thing, ever.
shiznitz
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Reply #36 on: February 06, 2015, 12:05:27 PM

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...

I have never played WoW.
Venkman
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Reply #37 on: February 07, 2015, 08:37:08 PM

This news was the most interesting thing to happen in MMOs in the last year, which explains a lot  Ohhhhh, I see.
AlteredOne
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Reply #38 on: February 08, 2015, 01:40:52 PM

Fascinating stuff, this Columbus Nova company is a US-based investment subsidiary of the Renova Group (see Wiki and Renova web site), owned by one of the top 3 richest men in Russia, a guy named Vekselberg.  Forbes has a great article this week called "The Four Hoursemen of Russia's Economic Apocalypse" http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2015/01/21/the-four-horsemen-of-russias-economic-apocalypse/2/ featuring Vekselberg as one of those four esteemed fellows.

Vekselberg is currently being sued in US court involving the takeover of a Siberian oil field using armed militia see http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/u-s-court-charges-renova-group-billionaire-duo-for-armed-takeover-in-russia/502610.html.  

Sony had its problems, but it would appear Daybreak will now be owned by one of Russia's top oligarchs.  Can't say that gives me the warm and fuzzies.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 05:29:02 PM by AlteredOne »
Merusk
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Reply #39 on: February 08, 2015, 08:09:28 PM

Whelp, glad the CC and address info SOE had are about a year out of date, then.

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Reply #40 on: February 09, 2015, 09:32:57 AM

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.

schild
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Reply #41 on: February 09, 2015, 09:34:18 AM

My ejuice company has had a flavor named Daybreak for over a year. I wonder if this will negatively impact our sales.
angry.bob
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Reply #42 on: February 09, 2015, 06:35:22 PM

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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Reply #43 on: February 09, 2015, 09:52:41 PM

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.

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Lantyssa
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Reply #44 on: February 09, 2015, 10:47:06 PM

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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Reply #45 on: February 10, 2015, 04:31:04 AM

After all the shit we've all said about Smed, I doubt he lurks here.

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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Reply #46 on: February 10, 2015, 07:56:17 AM

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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Surlyboi
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Reply #47 on: February 10, 2015, 10:32:45 AM

One way to find out...

Smed? You still fucking goats?

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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Reply #48 on: February 11, 2015, 11:38:21 AM

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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Reply #49 on: February 11, 2015, 11:58:10 AM

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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schild
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Reply #50 on: February 11, 2015, 12:26:55 PM

Shocking.
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Reply #51 on: February 11, 2015, 12:32:34 PM

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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Reply #52 on: February 11, 2015, 12:34:44 PM

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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Reply #53 on: February 11, 2015, 02:17:58 PM

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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kaid
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Reply #54 on: February 11, 2015, 02:54:38 PM

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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Reply #55 on: February 11, 2015, 09:17:59 PM

I guess this really is goodbye EQ. Landmark or Next, both of them.

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Reply #56 on: February 12, 2015, 12:29:30 AM

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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Reply #57 on: February 12, 2015, 01:46:23 AM

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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Reply #58 on: February 12, 2015, 02:22:54 AM

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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Reply #59 on: February 12, 2015, 04:29:08 AM

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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Reply #60 on: February 12, 2015, 07:10:56 AM

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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Reply #61 on: February 12, 2015, 07:33:34 AM

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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Reply #62 on: February 12, 2015, 08:15:07 AM

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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Reply #63 on: February 12, 2015, 08:50:33 AM

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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Reply #64 on: February 12, 2015, 12:51:28 PM

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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Reply #65 on: February 12, 2015, 01:58:24 PM

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".

Quote
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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Reply #66 on: February 13, 2015, 06:51:31 AM

I suppose they weren't all gathered in the parking lot and fired at least.

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Reply #67 on: February 13, 2015, 01:57:10 PM


Is it too early?

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Reply #68 on: February 13, 2015, 03:15:37 PM

I was thinking more like

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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Reply #69 on: February 13, 2015, 08:13:15 PM

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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