Sony Online Entertainment, the MMO studio behind MMOs like Everquest Next, H1Z1, PlanetSide 2 or DC Universe Online, will no longer belong to Sony, but will continue as Daybreak Game Company.
Sony Online Entertainment has been purchased by the investment firm Columbus Nova, as the studio announces.
All games will remain, for the players nothing will change, as they write in a post to friends, partners, and players. This change means that they will essentially proceed as an “independent software studio” and will now also be able to develop on other platforms: Yes, also for Xbox and mobile.
At SOE, they expect even more resources from the transition.
New Name Daybreak Game Company
As part of the transition process, they will leave the name SOE behind and continue under the name “Daybreak Game Company”.
SOE’s president John Smedley repeatedly posted on Twitter that nothing will change for the players and that he is looking forward to developing for Xbox. Smedley later explicitly mentioned the possibility of H1Z1 and DC Universe Online for Xbox.
All of our games are still here and will continue to be 🙂
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) February 2, 2015
can’t wait to make Xbox One games!
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) February 2, 2015
As Jason Epstein, one of the senior partners of Columbus Nova, informs, John Smedley will remain president of the studio. They hope for much from the collaboration, considering SOE a valuable addition to the portfolio and citing the successful early access of H1Z1 as one of the many examples of the talent and dedication of SOE employees.
Smedley was one of the founders of Sony Online Entertainment in 1995. The studio established itself as an MMO specialist over the past twenty years with games like Everquest, Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies or Vanguard. At the moment, they have two hot projects with the survival MMO H1Z1 and the upcoming MMORPG Everquest Next.
Controversy over H1Z1 early access appears in a new light
Mein MMO says: Oops. How this will affect things remains to be seen in the future. It sounds positive, as it is presented. However, it has often been shown in the past that such extreme changes do not always bring only good things.
Now the repeated accusation of why a “huge corporation like Sony” relies so much on early access as SOE does with H1Z1 appears in a different light. SOE is not the “huge corporation Sony”, but just a studio under this giant roof. Or “was,” as must now be said. Good luck to Daybreak Game Company.
