SOE Now Part of SCEI

[SirBruce]

http://www.soepress.com/release.asp?i=182

SAN DIEGO, CA & TOKYO, JAPAN (March 13, 2008) — In a strategic move to closely align itself with the strong growth of the worldwide online gaming market, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) will report to Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCEI, effective April 1, 2008. The new structure is designed to mutually benefit both companies by further accelerating the PlayStation business through SOE’s strong online gaming expertise.

“I am excited to be able to work with SOE even more closely, as online games and services become a more integral part of the PS3 entertainment experience,” Hirai said. “This new structure will allow us to take full advantage of the extensive breadth of expertise of the two companies and increase our range of exciting entertainment offerings to our consumers.”

San Diego-based SOE is currently part of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Under the new structure, SOE will continue to develop its games for the PC and the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) computer entertainment system, and SOE President John Smedley will report to Hirai.

“We are thrilled to become a part of the incredible team that has made PLAYSTATION 3 the premier platform for next generation online gaming,” said Smedley. “This move is going to broaden our capabilities and expand the development of our products into new and exciting directions.”

Bruce

[malkav11]

So....Vanguard for PSP? ;)

[SirBruce]

Smedley already announced last year that SOE would be doing more MMOs on the PS3, so this move was inevitable.

Bruce

[beloved one]

Any credit to the rumor that they are planning a Planetside sequel on the PS3?

[CastOutDevil]

How many MMO's are they going to bring to the PS3? They haven't developed an MMO since EQ2. You can't churn them out every year like a Madden game. Unless they plan to add a bunch of Korean-esque grinders to a PS3 version of the Station Pass.

[SirBruce]

Umm, SOE already developed EQ: Online Adventures for the PS2. EQ2 came out at the same time as WoW, so you could say Blizzard hasn't developed an MMO since then either. SOE is currently developing The Agency and Free Realms for both the PS3 and Windows. And those two are just the announced MMOs; SOE has 4 studios (5 if you count India).

Bruce

[Talisker]

Any credit to the rumor that they are planning a Planetside sequel on the PS3?
I'd buy a PS3 for that.

[CastOutDevil]

Umm, SOE already developed EQ: Online Adventures for the PS2. EQ2 came out at the same time as WoW, so you could say Blizzard hasn't developed an MMO since then either. SOE is currently developing The Agency and Free Realms for both the PS3 and Windows. And those two are just the announced MMOs; SOE has 4 studios (5 if you count India).

Bruce

Ok, let me rephrase this. How many good MMO's are they going to bring to the PS3?

[SirBruce]

Ok, let me rephrase this. How many good MMO's are they going to bring to the PS3?

How many good MMOs is SOE going to bring to the PC? Hah, just kidding; I liked EQ II.

That being said, The Agency looks cool. Free Realms might be cool if you're a teenager.

Bruce

[Laralyn]

How many good MMOs is SOE going to bring to the PC? Hah, just kidding; I liked EQ II.

That being said, The Agency looks cool. Free Realms might be cool if you're a teenager.

Bruce

I'll be curious to see what you guys think of Free Realms when we're done with the first set of features. It's definitely being designed with tweens and teens in mind... but I don't think the audience is limited to those groups.

It really depends on the kind of player you are. If you like Animal Crossings, Nintendogs, Guild Wars, Puzzle Quest or Facebook, there's a good chance you'll like Free Realms. We haven't been revealing the big picture to the public yet, but we're doing a lot of things that are new for MMOs.

[SirBruce]

Sure, and I don't mean to put down the game by pigeonholing it so simply, but hey, that's what people do...

It's really hard for me to judge. I'm not a hardcore traditional MMO player, but I come from that culture. I'm also mid-30s, like many PC gamers. The Facebook, social mashup, free to play virtual world type MMO games are really beyond me. I suppose they are like MUDs for the younger generation, so I can see why they are popular in general; I just have no compass to judge whether or not a particular one would be popular over another. Why do so many people play Habbo and Club Penguin? Hell if I know. At least I "get" Second Life.

But The Agency, now that to me is a no brainer, and something I've been hoping to see in an MMOG for several years now. But whether or not it's actually going to be any fun is a completely different issue.

Bruce

[Laralyn]

I'm not a hardcore traditional MMO player, but I come from that culture. I'm also mid-30s, like many PC gamers. The Facebook, social mashup, free to play virtual world type MMO games are really beyond me. I suppose they are like MUDs for the younger generation, so I can see why they are popular in general; I just have no compass to judge whether or not a particular one would be popular over another. Why do so many people play Habbo and Club Penguin? Hell if I know. At least I "get" Second Life.

That's why it's so interesting to me. We haven't really talked about it much, but Free Realms is just as much of a full MMO as EQ2 or WoW. There are some differences that streamline your play, so I guess in some ways it's "EQ2 lite," but you can play a combat-oriented character, do quests, get loot, and level up in Free Realms just like you can in any other traditional MMO.

One of our core goals is that we support each of the play styles as being equally valid for character progression... so you can level up playing traditional MMO style, or you can level up playing Animal Crossing style. Or you can level up doing both. :-)

[SirBruce]

My knee-jerk cynical reaction is that you're likely to delive two mediocre games mashed together instead of one great one. But, my hopeful game designer reaction is positive encouragement that we'll actually see something innovative.

Bruce

[MyNameIsWill]

Always found it odd that Sony Pictures owned SOE

[Kunikos]

Other than a new Champions of Norrath game, I can't think of anything I would want from SOE.

[Stroker Ace]

But Kunikos, the Station Pass is the best value in all of gaming, better even than the Orange Box!

[Foxstab]

Always found it odd that Sony Pictures owned SOE

Smed been rubbing his nose with them long before SOE came to be.
He needed their money to fund his vision of MMOS dominating the world and making his pockets very deep (the movie division is, afterall, the biggest income generator in all of Sony Corp what with the Electro falling).
I bet he shiver 'n quiver in his timber ARRR to be torn apart from all those contacts he made there and get tossed into SCEI where it's a whole new set of people and ways of doing things.


The Agency is a third party dev, right?
Because I can't think of anything SOE done internally that ended up well (can I insert a snide remark here and say they're good at killing dev talent and motivation and make games die or am I going too far in my "critique" and should STFU for the next week?)
It does sound like a very cool aspiration of a mmo, remains to be seen how it's implemented, though.
As Bruce said, is it going to be fun in the end?

[SirBruce]

The Agency is a third party dev, right?

No, SOE Seattle.

Because I can't think of anything SOE done internally that ended up well

EQ II?

Bruce

[SirBruce]

More from Smedley:
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/interview-soe-president-discusses-sce-integration/?biz=

On SOE's focus with PC vs. console:

"We've been very much a PC house and we will continue to be, and we're adding PlayStation 3 to the mix of things that we're doing. And we've been developing PS3 games now for some time. We're basically a multiplatform company... so we're continuing to do that. If you look at The Agency, our DC universe MMO, and ever our Free Realms title, we're doing PS3 versions of all of those games."

On whether we'll see an MMO on consoles to rival the success of WoW:

"I absolutely do [think we'll see that], and in fact I think by having a stable platform where every customer has an online capable box is a huge, huge potential advantage in building an MMO because you've already got an online userbase. It's a massive advantage over the PC and we don't have to worry about graphics cards or things like that. It's going to be very big. Console online gaming in general I think is going to be one of the next huge phases of growth in the online gaming space."


Bruce

[Foxstab]

EQ II Bruce, or EQ II RMT Shop? eh? EH!?
;)

[MyNameIsWill]

He needed their money to fund his vision of MMOS dominating the world and making his pockets very deep (the movie division is, afterall, the biggest income generator in all of Sony Corp what with the Electro falling).

Sony Electronics is actually doing quite now (and has been doing so for the last few quarters). The losses are coming from the PlayStation group now.

[Foxstab]

Well, for a while there back in the day it was falling behind.
Happy for them that they worked it up.

And yes we all know that the PS3 sunked them...sucks to be Kutaragi.

[Laralyn]

My knee-jerk cynical reaction is that you're likely to delive two mediocre games mashed together instead of one great one. But, my hopeful game designer reaction is positive encouragement that we'll actually see something innovative.

Bruce

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I couldn't say much about Free Realms until we'd released more to the public... and we just did (although it's still kind of on the down low).

I gave a presentation at our "Influencer's Summit" that was recorded by one listener and was just posted as a podcast. He also posted pretty detailed notes from the presentation. It has far more info than anything else we've released, probably because I wasn't aware he was recording. I think the quote that became the title for the article says we're really committed to trying to break the mold.

http://www.mmognation.com/2008/03/25/free-realms-getting-rid-of-the-bullshit-in-mmos-pt1/
http://www.virginworlds.com/podcast.php?show=16&ep=6

[SirBruce]

Laralyn,

Thanks for the links. I have actually read up some more on Free Realms (I didn't realize it was already as far along as it was) since this thread and the new information is very much appreciated. It could certainly be innovative if your team can deliver on its promises!

I'm off to IMGDC tomorrow; feel free to say hello if you're there. If not maybe I'll see you at ION?

Bruce