SOE had over 800 employees in 2008.
July 2009 -41
July 2010 -35
March 2011 -205
August 2013 -70
March 2015 -140
April 2018 -70
December 2018 -70
Current staff: 170
It's an unbroken trend under Sony Online Entertainment and then Daybreak. This has to be a high blood pressure moment for the company. At this point, I just don't see how the company:
At this point the ship has taken on too much water. They've gone from a 2nd tier major studio to an indie with none of the agility or grace needed to survive at that level. 2017 was Telltale. 2018 was Trion. Is 2019 Daybreak?
- has the staff to initiate a new tier 1 project
- can attract the talent needed to develop and support such a game
- has the marketing and community staff to announce and support this game even if they had one
Serious question - why is wow finally going to topple? I played at launch and heard that shit until I quit, never seeing anything close to denting WoWs numbers. Just curious what the tl;dr is.This is really going to turn it around for Pantheon!
Seriously though, sell the assets to a company that gives a fuck please. With WOW looking to topple now is the time for EQ Next! Bring on the voxels, someone call poinytail and let's do this.
Come comrades sell those US assets while you still can!
SOE had over 800 employees in 2008.
July 2009 -41
July 2010 -35
March 2011 -205
August 2013 -70
March 2015 -140
April 2018 -70
December 2018 -70
Current staff: 170
It's an unbroken trend under Sony Online Entertainment and then Daybreak. This has to be a high blood pressure moment for the company. At this point, I just don't see how the company:
At this point the ship has taken on too much water. They've gone from a 2nd tier major studio to an indie with none of the agility or grace needed to survive at that level. 2017 was Telltale. 2018 was Trion. Is 2019 Daybreak?
- has the staff to initiate a new tier 1 project
- can attract the talent needed to develop and support such a game
- has the marketing and community staff to announce and support this game even if they had one
To be clear, you're right people having been calling the fall of WoW more or less since TBC. However the current climate seems different.Serious question - why is wow finally going to topple? I played at launch and heard that shit until I quit, never seeing anything close to denting WoWs numbers. Just curious what the tl;dr is.
Just so long someone buys the IPs at the auction and
a) brings back vanguard
b) brings back EQmac
c) releases a "hardcore" EQ server with the mechanics form the good old days (first person view, corpse runs, no maps, all that).
Honestly the best outcome would have to be that a bigger company buys out the IP and they pass it off to a subsidiary that actually gives a shit about game design.
It would be a from the begining start though, yes they can build out from the lore that 989/Verant/SOE/DBG all built out, but anything "new" would be years out, unless they hired some savants at game design..
Also this thread is full of a bunch of old men. Behold, the final form of Everquest: