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Topic: So, About That Nasty SOE/Sigil Thing (Read 69205 times)
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Some people are expecting me to post something about this. So here goes.
There's a rumor going around that goes something like this:
1. SOE is going to buy out Vanguard. 2. SOE is going to merge down Vanguards servers. 3. Sigil is about to experience a massive... redundancies.
So, is there about to be a large influx of resumés floating around the MMORPG industry? Are some of them already flying about?
At this time though, I'm merely reporting what I've... heard. As such, do not consider this confirmation nor a denial.
That's all I have to say about it.
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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You know, I never thought I'd say 'Thank god!' about Sony taking over a game.
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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Jeff Kelly
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6921
I'm an apathetic, hedonistic, utilitarian, nihilistic existentialist.
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Farewell Vaguard, we barely knew you.
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Xerapis
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Well, at least a server merge might actually help that POS.
I lol'd.
Sounds like funny.
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..I want to see gamma rays. I want to hear x-rays. I want to...smell dark matter...and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me...
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Ironwood
Terracotta Army
Posts: 28240
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What's Vanguard ?
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"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
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Tannhauser
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4436
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I hate to see anyone lose their jobs but Vanguard is one bloated, goat-corpse of a game.
Maybe on their next jobs the programmers will tighten their skills and code.
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Yegolev
Moderator
Posts: 24440
2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST
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Is this going to make Vanguard playable, or will it just be used as a detention center for bad players in other SOE games? Now that would be awesome, cheaters and assholes from Planetside and EQ exiled to Vanguard. Somebody get Roosterteeth on the phone!
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Why am I homeless? Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question. They called it The Prayer, its answer was law Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
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slog
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8232
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Is this going to make Vanguard playable, or will it just be used as a detention center for bad players in other SOE games? Now that would be awesome, cheaters and assholes from Planetside and EQ exiled to Vanguard. Somebody get Roosterteeth on the phone!
You could just ask yourself "Is the Matrix Online playable?" and answe your own questions.
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Friends don't let Friends vote for Boomers
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Simond
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6742
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So SOE is going to buy out Verant Sigil and take over the development of Everquest Vanguard?
Wonder if Brad will get his old job back - Chief Creative Officer, wasn't it? Something like that, anyway; whatever translates to "You can come up with ideas all you like, just stay the hell away from actual development"
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"You're really a good person, aren't you? So, there's no path for you to take here. Go home. This isn't a place for someone like you."
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Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11124
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
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No. He's going on his own to create the defnitive MMORPG he always wanted to do. Right?
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Ironwood
Terracotta Army
Posts: 28240
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Yup. It's Going to be a Totally Unreal Revolutionary Dynasty.
I think he'll shorten that tho.
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"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
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Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542
The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid
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Once again...
Vanguard, lol
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Fear the Backstab! "Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion "Hell is other people." -Sartre
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Maybe he can join the Areola team with Raph. It can be a thejeni thing, all your old dev friends!
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Yoru
Moderator
Posts: 4615
the y master, king of bourbon
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This is all the more amusing because I know a guy who quit to take a design job at Sigil just three or four months ago. He was all starry-eyed about the game, too.
I tried hard not to laugh, but it didn't work so well. We don't speak any more. :)
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42629
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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Is this going to make Vanguard playable Ask the Matrix Online. EDIT: Fuck, Slog beat me to it. DAMN YOU, SLOG!!!!
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SnakeCharmer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3807
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Can SOE realistically afford another sinking ship?
Fook, the have (rumored) two MMOs in development (the DC online and the spy espionage), SWG is in the toilet, EQ doesn't appear to be doing all that great, EQ2 is steady I think. Planetside is, well...Planetside. MxO appears to be on it's death gurgle.
Sony as a whole seems to be tanking rather badly. What am I missing? Where are they getting all this cash?
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42629
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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The Station Access Pass can cover up a lot of stinkeroos.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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The Station Access Pass can cover up a lot of stinkeroos.
It really makes me feel dirty.
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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EQ probably costs next to nothing at this point and is probably bringing in at least a hundred million a year. I'm sure EQ2 is making a healthy profit also.
You can bankroll a lot of stinkers with that kind of cash flow. Not only that but it makes gambling on future cash cows very attractive even when you have just had a recent spate of stinkers.
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42629
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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Last I remember, SOE claimed to have 600,000 subscribers on all of their games (before they stopped giving out numbers). This was before Matrix and Vanguard came out. If half of those are Station Pass customers, that's almost $9 million a month in revenue. That can hide a whole lot of fuckups, especially when Matrix, Planetside and EQ1 are all likely operating on skeleton crews.
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Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542
The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid
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Well, EQ1 just had Another expansion, so I'm not sure how sparse their operations are at this point.
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Fear the Backstab! "Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion "Hell is other people." -Sartre
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SnakeCharmer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3807
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Yeah, suppose you're right.
Given that a publish takes 3 months to come out for SWG, it seems it's on the 'skeleton crew' roster as well.
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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Well, EQ1 just had Another expansion, so I'm not sure how sparse their operations are at this point.
EQ still has 100K plus subscribers right? Anyway you cut it thats around 100 mil+ a year into the system. EQ has long since paid back any investment of capital, it's all gravy at this point. Even if they are running a large team of developers and support and including the hardware support costs that still leaves a sizeable chunk of cash for (and lots of incentive to create) other projects.
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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EQ still has 100K plus subscribers right? Anyway you cut it thats around 100 mil+ a year into the system.
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SnakeCharmer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3807
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Well, EQ1 just had Another expansion, so I'm not sure how sparse their operations are at this point.
EQ still has 100K plus subscribers right? Anyway you cut it thats around 100 mil+ a year into the system. EQ has long since paid back any investment of capital, it's all gravy at this point. Even if they are running a large team of developers and support and including the hardware support costs that still leaves a sizeable chunk of cash for (and lots of incentive to create) other projects. 100 mil? O.o $15 x 12 months = $180 $180 x 100,000 subs = $18,000,000 /scratches head New math? Or am I doing something wrong?
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Rodivar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 57
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Does this mean the no central community service "find your own damn information" test is over?
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Does this mean the no community find your own damn information test is over?
Viklas?
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Mesozoic
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1359
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I imagine that Brad and company are standing around waiting to see if LOTRO will fall on its face. Since Turbine's latest effort seems to be widely regarded as decent (it's certainly more stable and feature-complete, with better word-of-mouth), there's really no chance of any significant migration of bored WoWers flitting over to VG. Not that people have been leaving WoW in significant numbers anyway, but in Brad's shattered, grieving mind, that was going to be a big source of revenue. And of course WAR is up next, with an actual PVP component and the expectation of a solid release a la DAoC. Things look grim. For Brad, I mean. Great for us.
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...any religion that rejects coffee worships a false god. -Numtini
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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Yeah, that was pre-coffee break. My bad. Some how when I did it in my head I came up with a much higher number. 18 mil isn't nearly as impressive but you can still fund a lot of crap with that kind of steady income.
Those 20 and 30 million dollar budgets aren't all at once, they are spread out over 5-7 years.
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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I don't know why people always assume SOE is hurting for money.
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stray
Terracotta Army
Posts: 16818
has an iMac.
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I don't know. Huge budgets. Game after game falling apart. Two modest successes that would seem to only have enough revenue for their own good.
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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I can't think of an SOE game that didn't at least break even if not make money. I could be wrong, but it's not likely.
Edit: Hell, they probably even broke even on MxO. And that's not even their game. They bought the stinker. Just saying though.
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Hutch
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1893
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I imagine that Brad and company are standing around waiting to see if LOTRO will fall on its face.
According to this brief review of the launch, things went well on the first day, at least in terms of people being able to create accounts and log into the game and actually play. Nothing about the dev team posting massive daily patch notes. So, at least from a technical standpoint, it's doing better than Vanguard. We'll have to wait and see how it stands up in terms of subscriber retention, of course.
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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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Simond
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6742
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I can't think of an SOE game that didn't at least break even if not make money. I could be wrong, but it's not likely.
Edit: Hell, they probably even broke even on MxO. And that's not even their game. They bought the stinker. Just saying though.
It's actually a pretty smart modus operandi, from a purely mercenary point of view: Wait for MMOG to begin imploding. Buy for a pittance when the original owners are desperate. Sack 90%+ of the dev team & put development on minimal life support. Outsource CS to SOE-Calcutta Drop onto SOE All-Access. Pretty much everything from then on is profit, minus a trivial amount of hardware costs and a handful of dev salaries (See: Planetside, MxO, SWG, etc).
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"You're really a good person, aren't you? So, there's no path for you to take here. Go home. This isn't a place for someone like you."
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slog
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8232
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I can't think of an SOE game that didn't at least break even if not make money. I could be wrong, but it's not likely.
Edit: Hell, they probably even broke even on MxO. And that's not even their game. They bought the stinker. Just saying though.
People also forget that it wasn't Sony that put all that money into Vanguard. MS wrote off millions.
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Friends don't let Friends vote for Boomers
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