Sony sells Sony Online Entertainment, now Daybreak Game Company

[XtremelyBaneful]

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!

https://forums.station.sony.com/soe...iateId=i5o5sguj3e00ag8y01rgo&XID=A:6149513:CJ

EDIT: I forgot to finish the title of the thread. Silly me. Sorry guys.

 

[chicagodave]

I play dcuo religously and many are wondering if crossplay will be something down the road with xbox1.

 

[Orba]

Thats pretty big news, always had a fondness for SOE, for a start their MMOs didn't have region locks.

 

[zenith16]

General : John Smedley Steps Down as CEO of Daybreak Game Company

Posted Jul 23, 2015


In an unexpected move, VentureBeat.com is reporting that John Smedley has resigned as the CEO and president of Daybreak Game Company, formerly Sony Online Entertainment.

Current COO Russell Shanks will temporarily step into Smedley's place until a replacement is found.

“I can confirm that John Smedley will be taking some time off from the company for the near-term and transitioning to a different role to be determined,” a spokesperson for Daybreak told GamesBeat. “Upon finalization of his plans, further communication will be provided.”

While not confirmed by a company spokesman, the resignation comes on the heels of the recent Twitter war Smedley engaged in after Julius Kivimaki from Lizard Squad received what Smedley ascertained was a too-light sentence for his part in a bomb threat that caused a plane he was flying on to be grounded.
From our story on July 9th:

A day after the sentencing of a member of Lizard Squad and subsequent Twitter tirade by Daybreak Game Studio's John Smedley, it appears that all of DGS's titles and its website are under DDOS attack, with players unable to log into either.
The altercation between Smedley and remaining Lizard Squad members began after Julius Kivimaki, the now-convicted criminal of more than 50,000 counts of computer crimes, was sentenced yesterday. Smedley took to Twitter to express his strong feeling that the sentence meted out by the court in Finland was too light.

His parents need to be held accountable for his actions in addition to his going to jail. @what_security - So I'm coming for you Julius.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015​

A Twitter user claiming to be a member of Lizard Squad announced the attacks were imminent. Within minutes, the predicted DDOS began.
At this time, all Daybreak games are down and the team is actively working on a solution.

Shortly after this series of Twitter posts, and the subsequent DDOS attacks on all of Daybreak's games and its site, Smedley removed himself from the social network completely, leading, perhaps, to today's announcement.
Smedley has been a lightning rod of controversy over the years that he has been with the company, yet has been instrumental in the MMO and computer video games genres beginning with EverQuest, one of the first MMOs to hit the internet, and continuing through more recent MMOs including EverQuest Next, PlanetSide 2, and Landmark.
You can check out more at VentureBeat.com and a co-attendant thread on the MMORPG.com forum, as well as leave your thoughts in this article's thread.
Thanks PudgyBunnyBry!

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