Smed: ProSiebenSat.1 Forced Migration is Dead — Euro SOE Players Can Stick With SOE
Well, this should change the tone and tenor of the ProSiebenSat.1 Panel at SOE Live a bit.
From SOE President John Smedley‘s twitter:
[I] wanted to thank our players for continuing feedback. We’ve been listening along with our European partners at Prosieben.
We’ve found a way to let existing players of our current games that are migrating over to Prosieben (EQ, EQ II, Planetside 2) keep their SOE accounts and stay with SOE. Down the road we may offer an option to move over to Prosieben.
Just to be clear after these games launch on Prosieben’s service new accounts will be created on their sites. However all US and EU players can still play together no matter which service they are on.
I want to be clear that Prosieben will have better European CS and payment options IMO. That’s why we went with them in the first place. Also Prosieben has done a great job of listening and is working on changing some of their CS policies. More to come on that soon.
UPDATE
Just going back and forth with our partners at Prosieben. I can confirm that we WILL offer the ability to migrate to Prosieben. No word on timeframe just yet but shouldn’t take too long.
[I] want to make sure I’m crystal clear – after we launch Planetside 2 – new EU accounts can only be created on Prosieben.
This has subsequently been posted on the EQ2 Forums.
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Comments (55)
Karofin
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This is good news and nice to see SOE have done this. In fairness to them this would not have been easy at all and will have probably lost them money or concessions in the wider deal.
It won’t bring me back to EQ2 as I am still very jaded. A shame I feel that way about the game as I have been a loyal subscriber of 1 account since launch and a 2nd for probably 3 years until I left the game this summer, with whatever would have been the final nail (some weak content though for sure whatever it was).
Take any good news you can get in life and seiza the day I say. There is no point being negative about it. i don’t think SOE will have much interest in getting all of us old players back (in my guild probably 20-25 who left in the last yr) but that’s fine. They have a business model that I sincerely hope is successful for them. I will find somethign to spend my money on in the end and in the short term, have had fun trying all of the new MMOs out there and some old ones I never played.
Currently paying for about 6 MMOs that I dabble in but waiting for the next one that really grabs me by the socks and holds on. Will it be EQ Next ? Honestly, I hope it will. Until then my guild mates are in a few of the other games we play regularly.
Hopefully the model SOE uses at the moment will fail and they will go back to the greatness of KoS timeframes and the HQs and kind of character progression I felt so happy to be a part of back then.
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Karofin
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@ Sole
Many players have the wrong idea about the NGE and the Post CU SWG. It wasn’t actually SoE that made those decisions but instead was lucus Arts. They killed one of the best MMOs ever. Since we all have great memories of early EQ2, SWG and anyone who seriously played it, Vanguard, as we remember the put work in and get reward out mechanism, we can hope a MMO developer finds a way to make this work.
@ the MMO community.
I suspect that while they might not say it, many will be like me and willing to pay double the EQ2 subs model every month for a game of such quality. There are enough of us who are fed up with spoon fed dumbed down trash and who want a challenge, that can still be enjoyed with 10-15 hrs of gameplay time each week, to make it commercially viable.
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Sole
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@Karofin
Yeah i know, the direction and order of NGE was from LucasArts, i know that. But it wasnt only LucasArts only Idea, SoE announced a big combat upgrade for SWG only a few months after SWGs launch. If you remember the first leaked CURB, it was an awesome plan. In the end LucasArts wanted a WoWish like version and the NGE was brought to our Server.
I think both have made mistakes on SWG, SoE and LA. You cant give only one Company responsible for the NGE. SoE had to defend themselves instead of produce it.
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Karofin
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@ Sole
Thats a fair point re the CURB stuff. The trouble with the LA deal was that they had full creative license and could force onto the developer. Could they have fought more or did they get blinded by the possibility of a WOW clone ? Whatever the answer SOE have shown contempt since in many ways and in their own titles which is without defence. SOE used to be considered the godfather of this industry, now no serious gamer sees them as anything close.
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Kilum
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Too little too late. That’s my thought on this announcement. I left EQ2 in May after reading up on the deal and the company involved. I did not like the way this whole business was handled by either side in this ‘Deal’. I would NEVER trust SOE again. Once bitten twice shy as the saying goes. I am now playing Guildwars 2, a solid game from a company with good customer relations and support, there are also no subscription fees or restrictions on playable content after you purchase the original game. Which by the way costs just a little more than the upcoming expansion for EQ2. So I will not be playing EQ2 again or be puchasing any new games that they may release in the future. I am another customer SOE have lost.
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