Sony Online Entertainment Becomes Daybreak Game Company

[PSNews]

Dear Players, Partners and Friends,

Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company.  Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more!

As part of this transition, SOE will now become Daybreak Game Company. This name embodies who we are as an organization, and is a nod to the passion and dedication of our employees and players. It is also representative of our vision to approach each new day as an opportunity to move gaming forward.

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.

Our games and players are the heart and soul of our organization, and we are committed to maintaining our portfolio of online games and pushing the limits of where we can take online gaming together.

Thank you for your continued support. See you in game!

The Team at Daybreak

Source: Official News and Announcements

[JohnnyDread]

wtf?

[JohnnyDread]

So they have been sold (by Sony) to a VC firm called Columbus Nova.

Someone posted this on reddit and from my experience this is what usually happens:

This usually means large changes lie in the future (VC firms like to shake things up, maximize profitability, and resell the company). Some of those changes will be customer-experienced focused and we will like them.
Some will be monitization related and we may or may not like them. Things to bear in mind.

[MummelWurst]

My takes and opinions on this matter (written in red)

Dear Players, Partners and Friends,

Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company.  Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more!

overall a great situation, could mean more focus player driven development, but multi-platform including mobile games? seriously? come on, wtf cares for that, most developers sink more money and fail than actually having success :-/

As part of this transition, SOE will now become Daybreak Game Company. This name embodies who we are as an organization, and is a nod to the passion and dedication of our employees and players. It is also representative of our vision to approach each new day as an opportunity to move gaming forward.

hopefully they do that the way they already did and improve that, cause communication is and was great, but execution was more counterproductive lately

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.

i really hope so, PS2 could use some more devs and some creativity again, so please SOE... or DBC... or whatever

Our games and players are the heart and soul of our organization, and we are committed to maintaining our portfolio of online games and pushing the limits of where we can take online gaming together.

Thank you for your continued support. See you in game!

The Team at Daybreak

Source: Official News and Announcements

so i guess we have to wait how this really turns out, but my first impression is more positive
also interesting is, Sony was not that much interested in other markets than USA and Japan/Asia, so we europeans might experience most of the improvements
and regarding the reddit quote, you always have pros and cons of such a development, so we will see what happens

[Caya]

My first reaction: Is this a joke....? The Daybreak Game Company?

Ah well, we'll see how things turn out.

[Synho]

http://www.cntp.com/

BTW they were realy fast, on wikipedia they already mention Daybreak Game Company, and it already have its own wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Nova

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daybreak_Game_Company

Im kinda not sure this business is gona be good for the game...

[Atomise]

Daybreak Game Company - "THEY break game, company" =Ironic?

[Atomise]

So they have been sold (by Sony) to a VC firm called Columbus Nova.

Someone posted this on reddit and from my experience this is what usually happens:

This usually means large changes lie in the future (VC firms like to shake things up, maximize profitability, and resell the company). Some of those changes will be customer-experienced focused and we will like them.
Some will be monitization related and we may or may not like them. Things to bear in mind.

honestly Johhny, either way will "probably"{ be better then how SOE handled and fixed the problems. im willing to pay, just want a good, stable game to play with my friends and fellow reapers.i pay for membership anyway, so just want my monies worth.
also ladies and gents, this was coming for a while based on teh videos and interviews with Mat and the devs, on how they "not making money , until a few months ago" and also the World record made put PS2 in the lime light as a good "investment" opportunity. once they got the World record this was going to happen. im glad it did as we, players ad investors, will probably get better game and quality now. just my thoughts.