Sony No Longer Owns Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment is no longer a Sony joint, according to an announcement released by the studio today. Venture capital firm Columbus Nova has purchased the developer from Sony, and rebranded it as Daybreak Game Company.

"We are excited to join Columbus Nova's impressive roster of companies," said John Smedley, president of Daybreak Game Company. "They have a proven track record in similar and related industries and we are eager to move forward to see how we can push the boundaries of online gaming. We will continue to focus on delivering exceptional games to players around the world, as well as bringing our portfolio to new platforms, fully embracing the multi-platform world in which we all live."

The studio, which had been a part of Sony since the mid-'90s, is best known for its work on the EverQuest series of MMOs, as well as Planetside, Star Wars Galaxies, and recent Early Access release H1Z1. In addition to H1Z1, the company had been working on at least two EverQuest-branded projects--EverQuest Next, and Landmark--which will continue to develop, albeit now with an eye toward multi-platform releases, according to a post by a Daybreak developer in the company's official forums.

So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in.

If you're specifically wondering if this will mean Daybreak titles will end up on Microsoft's Xbox One console, studio head John Smedley has a tweet for you.

So, there you have it. I ask you, Giant Bomb commenters, are you excited at the prospect of being able to play SOE Daybreak's games on new platforms?

I'll be playing whatever Everquest Next and H1Z1 turn into, on XONE, yea.

I'll just copy-paste what I said earlier, and..

I'll be very excited to try and see what Everquest Next and H1Z1 turn into, and play them on XONE. I could see myself finally getting into Everquest, doing giant raids, bigger than Destiny even. Or at least explore a bunch of stuff, and take some screenshots and stuff. It would be neat though if they would have a cheaper subscription play, for say like $5 a month, you get a solid set of costume items, and extra things every month. Maybe have a free mount every 6 months for subscribers, I dunno.

Even DC Universe looks old compared to Everquest Next at this point. I still don't know about H1Z1 much, though. So maybe that could turn into something good. I have both current-gen consoles.

Remember those days? From almost 2 years ago. Good times.

Sure. Just make a new Star Wars Galaxies and I'll be down.

/s

I feel like I'm back in the early 2000s: MMOs and online gaming, I heard they were popular!

I wonder if they'll keep offering Station Pass. I don't have it personally, but it seems like a pretty good deal for what you get.

Didn't they also make payday? Payday 2 was/is kind of a big deal and that H1Z1 has been on the top selling list since it came out i think. I would think SOE would make Sony enough money that they would want to keep it. But i could be wrong.

Never mind, i was wrong about payday

@anbilow: Agreed! I loved my time with early Galaxies.

Now you can pay to win their games on Xbox too!

I'm not sure I fully understand what the hell is happening.

So they keep making all of the games, but they're owned by a different company, and Sony just pays them as if they're a third-party developer? Does Sony own the IP still?

Confused as hell.

To be honest I often forgot they were the same company at all. "Oh yeah, the S in SOE stands for Sony".

Nice 2005 name by the way, Daybreak.

It's probably in the interest of all those games that they are multiplatform. MMOs need to cast as a big a nest as possible.

I have no interest in any of the games they are making.

I can't say I see why the bought them... seems like they sold off the least interesting part of their business so gratz to Sony. I have my doubts if the VC will make any money.

Payday is an Overkill joint.

Woah...That's something I didn't see coming. Thanks for the update Alex!

that's kinda nuts

So this is the first time Sony aren't developing any games for the PC since the mid-90s (barely after the PlayStation brand existed in the West).

That's a pretty significant change for that company, even if they were always keeping SOE as very much a thing separate from the main SCEx groups.

Like many others, I didn't see this coming. Though, I'm not really interested in anything they're doing right now.

Good on them for selling it instead of just closing the studio down but man, thats kinda nuts.

Have fun making survival sims for the rest of your lives, Star Wars Galaxy killers.

Come to think of it, SWG was a survival sim done right. Huh. Ah well, whatever.

@pimpsandwich: Which confused the heck out of me because I thought it was Starbreeze and figured they picked up some sequel work, but then found a quote from a Starbreeze bigwig about how focusing on their own IP was successful. In the end it all makes sense: Overkill is owned by Starbreeze.

Weird.

If H1Z1's current state (which they're selling access to) is any indication, I'm thinking Sony made out better on this deal.

I played Daybreak tho, so the naming might be apt.

Ugh I was really really hopeful for Everquest Next. It was really the last hope for a big AAA mmo to maybe succeed. MMOs developed for cross platform are not something I am interested in at all as I don't own a console and they always severely cripple the pc game so that it will work on consoles. Oh well life goes on.

Excellent! It's a nice change of pace to see a company spin out from a huge monolithic organization rather than the other way round.

Huh.... Yeah OK?? Everquest Next still looks neat.

my first reaction is: uhh, what?

This doesn't come to a shock for me nor should it be shocking news for anyone. SOE was never considered a PlayStation or first party studio. They were their own entity that occasionally put out console versions of their PC games.

The question now is how long will it take them to get their properties on to Xbox. They still haven't released Planetside 2 on PS4 and they promised that ages ago.

So what does this mean for like subscriptions and stuff?

Didn't see this coming. Usually they would just shut a studio down if it wasn't making enough money. Good on Sony for selling and keeping these people employed. I'm not into any of the games they make though, so good luck on Everquest and H1Z1 I guess.

I can see this being the beginning of the end for Everquest

Oh look, another engine caught fire. Quick, sell the plane to a regional airline!

What?

SOE feels like it's been a hollow brand for ages. Everquest and Galaxies aside, a lot of their MMOs seem flat.the matrix online, DCUO, just bland.

Will they rename Qeynos in EQNext if it's no longer Sony?

In the long run this could be a good decision for the company (Daybreak Game Company) since they can now develop games to all platforms meaning that their potential market is bigger than it was before by being exclusive to one single platform (although a lot of their games were released on pc). Though since gaming division is the only profitable branch in Sony at the moment it is a bit weird decision to sell one of their game development companies away.

It could be that mmo based games are now considered bit of a risky investment at Sony and so they decided to sell off that part of their business.

i don't care for EverQuest as i don't believe it will fix the major issues with MMO's and that the genre has been left to die a slow death. The only MMO even close to doing anything interesting was GW2 which looked like a step in right direction but no one has done anything else to push forward the genre except to add more gimmicky mechanics and copy parts of GW2.

And h1z1 just one of million early release survival crafting games.so either way doesn't matter who owns it

Mor lik neverquest amirite

I don't know how i should feel... I loved EQ, SWG, EQoA, and enjoyed EQ2 (before I got into WoW). I'm a total fanboy of anything EQ still to this day. If things continue unchanged then I'll continue to give them my support. I mean hell, I bought the $60 founders pack for Landmark and I despise minecraft style games just to support EQ.

Something tells me the "under performing" brands are about to be cut loose or "reworked" into more profitable products. If i was working there i would be filling out job resumes right now before some asshole VP fires me and everyone else on a whim.

Oh man, first order of business if you want to make a splash with enthusiasts? Re-launch Star Wars Galaxies as Star Wars Legacy of the Empire (Or something) Completely stock pre-NGE servers, $3-5 a month for a subscription, no up-front cost and just bathe in all that good will.

Weeeeird. As long as Everquest Next comes out fine that's cool, whatever.

@xeirus: If this worked like a normal studio acquisition then Sony likely sold some or all of SOE's IP along with the company, at the very least including all the games they are currently working on. And I would imagine that Sony is no longer involved in publishing the games meaning they won't be paying the developer. Being an MMO maker Daybreak doesn't need a publisher. They just put the games onto their online platform which they have already developed or on PSN/XBL, neither of which require developers to have an official publisher anymore. So I would assume this is a complete break. Retaining publishing rights to the games they are working on would be really crazy. Then they'll be funding the game but not reaping all of the profits.

And that's why Sony were wise to dump it

cool too bad they make mold melted mmo's and day z clones and nothing interesting

For the last 30 seconds I've just sat here saying "What!?! What!?! What!?!"

So, like, is Everquest Next completely detached from Sony now?? They were pushing that thing so hard.

I don't care who's in charge, I just want them to put out a game that actually fucking delivers on what they promise. Aside from EQ2 and PS2, everything else they've touched since the original EQ just sorta comes out, has a decent first few months, then slowly fades away until they decide to scrap it. SWG is the only other exception, but they managed to fuck that up tremendously.

DCUO is still trucking along I guess, but that game can only have so much life left in it. 4-5 years old and it's still somehow feels just as clunky and awkward as it did when it first came out and still lacks even a tenth of the customization that CoH/V and Champions Online had when when they first launched. If it wasn't for the DC license, I refuse to believe this game would have survived the first 2 years.

I feel like kind of the opposite; EQN is the first AAA sandbox MMO from a western developer to be coming out for the first time in like a decade at least. The focus will be on messing around in a virtual world again, not getting that next bit of gear.

And GW2 felt very much same-old same-old MMO, the combat was slightly more action-ey which appeals to some people but overall was more of the same IMHO.

Is Sony gonna be ok? D: