Sony Sells Off Sony Online Entertainment

donniebaseball23 writes Sony Online Entertainment is to become Daybreak Game Company and turn its focus to multi-platform gaming. The company has been acquired by Columbus Nova and is now an indie studio. "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," said Daybreak president John Smedley. But why did Sony shed SOE? Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter believes an online gaming company "isn't a great fit, particularly as games are shifting increasingly to a free-to-play mobile model."

Comments

The Zynga business model

[Orion Blastar]

Make social network and mobile games that are free to play but require you to buy in-game items in order to complete quests and become better.

Make sure you copy the ideas of other game companies.

When the game isn't doing too well, move it to the location in India and let the India division support it until it dies off and has an end of life.

Hire and fire developers all willy nilly, to save on research costs.

Release the first version all buggy so that people have to buy the DLC that changes the game and fixes the bugs for more money.

free-to-pay model

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, fuck the 'free-to-play/pay mobile model.' It has ruined gaming. Even better is when you find you paid for a game and the fucking thing is STILL free-to-pay if you intend on having a chance to win.

We have different definition of indie...

[aepervius]

If you get acquired by somebody, like say, colombus nova, and work under them, you are not an independent studio anymore.