Sony Online Entertainment headquarters
in San Diego
Sony Online Entertainment (
SOE)
is a
game development and
game publishing division of
Sony that is best known for creating
massively multiplayer online
games, including
EverQuest,
EverQuest II,
The Matrix Online,
PlanetSide,
Star Wars Galaxies,
Free Realms, and
Vanguard: Saga of
Heroes.
In 2008 Sony Online Entertainment’s game Everquest was honored
(along with
Neverwinter
Nights and
World of Warcraft)
at the 59th Annual
Technology &
Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of
MMORPG games.
History
Sony Online Entertainment and Verant's history can be seen as
starting with Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA), an internal
game development studio of Sony that formed around 1995. In 1996,
John Smedley (known to the
gaming community as "Smedley") was put in charge of SISA's
development of an online
computer role-playing game, or
MMORPG that would evolve into
EverQuest. Smed hired programmers
Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover who had come to
Smedley's attention through their work on the singleplayer RPG
Warwizard.
In April 1998, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) was formed by
merging parts of
Sony Online Ventures with
Sony
Pictures Entertainment'. Within a matter of months after this
change,
Sony Interactive Studios America was renamed
989 Studios.
Towards the end of 1998, 989 Studios shifted its strategy to making
PlayStation console games only. The company's
computer game/online development branch spun off, initially calling
itself RedEye Interactive and then soon after
Verant Interactive.
EverQuest was Verant Interactive's breakthrough success and the
franchise continues its popularity with Sony Online
Entertainment
EverQuest launched with modest
expectations from Sony on March 16, 1999 under its
Verant Interactive brand and quickly
became successful. Numbers continued rising at a steady rate until
mid-2001 when growth slowed. As of 2004, Sony reported subscription
numbers close to 450,000.
In April
2000, Verant hired former Ultima
Online developers Raph Koster
and Rich Vogel forming its office in Austin, Texas
to develop Star
Wars Galaxies for LucasArts. SOE acquired Verant in June 2000
and eventually promoted Brad McQuaid to be its Chief Creative
Officer.
EverQuest: The Ruins of
Kunark (March 2000) was the first in a long list of
expansions for its hit
MMORPG. In October 2001, McQuaid resigned and went on
to found
Sigil Games Online,
drawing many of the original developers of
EverQuest from
SOE to develop their
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
MMORPG, released January 2007.
Developed by Sony Online Entertainment,
LucasArts released
Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, which
saw rapid growth as expected.
Bruce Woodcock
estimates that
SWG reached nearly 300,000 subscribers
within the year before trailing off. LucasArts has released three
expansions for
Star Wars Galaxies,
Jump to
Lightspeed October 2004,
Rage of the Wookies May 2005
and
Trials Of Obi-Wan November 2005.
In 2003, the company also explored relatively untouched MMO
territory with the
MMOFPS PlanetSide and the
PlayStation 2 MMORPG
EverQuest Online
Adventures.
PlanetSide enjoyed a reasonably
successful launch, however the product never attracted wide
popularity. SOE has released two expansions for
PlanetSide, one a retail product called
Core
Combat, and a second free expansion titled
Aftershock.
PlanetSide can be played for free
under a "Reserves" program, that limits character advancement, but
otherwise grants full access to the game.
EverQuest Online Adventures was
not as successful but spawned an expansion
EverQuest Online
Adventures Frontiers, which is still maintained by SOE as of
2007.
In November 2005, SOE suffered a large subscriber loss, after
pushing the launch of the
New Game
Enhancements to
Star Wars
Galaxies, changing many of the game's core mechanics. This
caused an outrage from the players , many demanding their money
back for the recent expansion that was released just days before
the announcement of the changes . The refund was eventually given
.
The company continued the EverQuest universe through a sequel set
hundreds of years after the original with the release of
EverQuest II on November 9,
2004, which has seen similar success to the original phenomenon.
SOE has released several adventure packs and expansion packs for
EverQuest II, including
The Bloodline Chronicles March
2005,
The Splitpaw Saga June 2005,
Desert of
Flames September 2005,
Kingdom of Sky February 2006,
The Fallen Dynasty June 2006,
Echoes of Faydwer
November 2006,
Rise of Kunark November 2007 and
The
Shadow Odyssey November 2008. The next expansion
Sentinel's Fate is announced for February 2010.
Through 2007, the company experienced many technical support issues
causing a decrease in the number of players using their
services.
Recent history
EverQuest II is the sequel to the hugely successful original
MMORPG,
EverQuest
Currently,
John Smedley is
the CEO of Sony Online Entertainment.
SOE is headquartered
in San Diego,
California
, with additional game development studios located
in Austin,
Texas, Denver,
Colorado
and Seattle,
Washington
.
In January 2005, Sony Online Entertainment announced the creation
of Station Publishing, a new label for distributing titles made by
external developers.
SOE has produced numerous
EverQuest expansions and
spin-off
video games, including
Champions of Norrath
(for
PlayStation 2) and
Lords of EverQuest (Windows). They
published the sequel to
Champions of Norrath, called
Champions: Return to
Arms, in February 2005.
In August 2005 SOE entered a deal with
Warner Bros. Entertainment which saw the
acquisition and transition of
The
Matrix Online to the existing line up of Station
games.
In April 2006, Sony Online Entertainment, Inc. became Sony Online
Entertainment LLC, owned by
Sony
Pictures Digital and
Sony Computer Entertainment
America.
In May 2006, it was announced that SOE would be co-publisher of
Vanguard: Saga of
Heroes. However, Sigil retains full development rights,
and SOE's role is only that of marketing, distribution, technical
support and hosting the game servers. SOE also announced the
release of
Field Commander,
its third game for the PlayStation Portable System.
In August 2006, SOE announced the acquisition of developer
Worlds Apart Productions, renaming
the studio SOE-Denver. The studio has since released an online
version of the
Wizkids Pirates
Constructible Strategy Game.
In November 2006, SOE released its first
PlayStation 3 title,
Untold Legends Dark
Kingdom, within the launch window of the PlayStation 3
system, which was released in North America on November 17, 2006.
SOE also released
Pirates Online Constructible Strategy
Game, which is the online version of the
Wizkids Pirates Constructible Strategy
Game.
In January 2007, SOE announced that it has licensed rights from
Midway Home Entertainment to develop and release six classic Midway
games for PlayStation 3 Digital Download, including
Mortal Kombat II,
Gauntlet II,
Joust,
Rampage World Tour,
Rampart, and
Championship Sprint, which will be
available from the
PlayStation store. The
announcement came shortly after SOE released its second
PlayStation 3 digital download
GripShift.
On January 30, 2007, Sony Online Entertainment and Sigil Games
Online launched
Vanguard:
Saga of Heroes.
On May 15, 2007, Sony Online Entertainment announced that they had
completed a transaction to purchase key assets from Sigil Games
Online, including
Vanguard:
Saga of Heroes (described as Sigil's "tentpole
property").
On April 9, 2007, Sony Online Entertainment
announced a partnership with
Virgin Comics to create a MMO based on the
popular Indian-Mythology inspired
Ramayan 3392 A.D. graphical novel.
On June 11, 2007, Sony Online Entertainment announced that
The Agency was currently under
development.
On March 13, 2008, Sony Online Entertainment announced that
Sony Computer
Entertainment will have direct control over SOE.
On January 16, 2009, the company joined
Steam, selling
EverQuest,
EverQuest II and
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Also
on this day, the company purchased a massively multiplayer online
turn based strategy game called
Pox
Nora.
Games
Titles
Station.com
SOE's
Station.com is a portal to its PC,
console, casual and mobile games. Players can access and download
games such as
EverQuest,
EverQuest II,
Star Wars Galaxies,
The Matrix Online and
PlanetSide. Station.com also provides sneak
previews to new games for Sony
PlayStation
2,
PlayStation 3 and
PSP, including
Untold Legends: Dark
Kingdom November 2006. In August 2006, Station.com added
several games by Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment.
References
- Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
External links
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