Feldon 
It is now two weeks since the announcement that ProSiebenSat, a TV and radio broadcast firm based in Germany, will become SOE’s ‘Exclusive Partner’ in Europe. ProSiebenSat’s gaming division, Alaplaya, is mostly known for poorly supported region-locked free-to-play browser games.
The announcement immediately raised fears which, to date, have received no official (or unofficial) response from SOE beyond two posts from SmokeJumper asking for more patience:
I can’t give you the official answer yet. I’ve been specifically asked to wait until the full FAQ and everything is created for this.
However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with Proseiben.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.
I need to wait to talk about other details until all the p’s and q’s are arranged. (When we partner with folks, the discussions always take longer because it’s not just us making the decisions, and this is a big arrangement with many details to hash out.)
I am sorry this is taking so long, but the answers are coming soon.
After the jump, we address some of the issues that players are uncertain about:
Region Locking
The largest concerns have been over Region Locking, or the restriction of gameplay on certain servers to certain geographical regions via IP address checking. The only consistent workaround is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Players in North America, some of whom work odd hours, as well as a number of US military on assignment in Europe have always had the freedom to play on traditionally European servers like Splitpaw, Valor, and Storms. Likewise players from Europe have had the option to play on American servers such as the popular Antonia Bayle.
- Will players in Europe and the US be ‘region locked’ to only play on certain servers?
- Will server transfers be possible between US servers and Splitpaw (the remaining UK server) after the contract goes through?
- Will EU players be able to access Vanguard, a game with no current EU server?
Customer Service
When you reach the right person, SOE Customer Service has traditionally been very good to excellent.
- Will players in Europe be reliant upon Alaplaya staff for any technical or support problems with SOE games?
Accounts
A relevant passage from the announcement has this to say:
We are pleased to announce that the renowned developer and publisher Sony Online Entertainment and ProSiebenSat.1 Games agreed on a cooperation which means even more fun and diversity for the steadily growing portfolio of games which can be enjoyed with your alaplaya account.
also a post in German by a moderator was translated by an EQ2 player:
With regard to account questions etc. We are working with SOE on an FAQ. Everything will be easy and uncomplicated. Don’t Worry! More info soon. We will surely grow massively.
- Will players login to EQ2 and other SOE games through the current Station system, or will they be transitioned to Alaplaya’s login and forum systems?
- Will players keep their current StationCash balances, or will this get turned into a different currency?
Update Schedule
EQ2 servers geolocated in Europe (Amsterdam) are typically updated 14 hours after US servers. Will game patches take place on a different schedule or possibly be delayed?
Localisation
One of the problems with maintaining a text-heavy game like EverQuest II in the German and French markets is localisation. Some of the translations in EQ2 for certain items or quest text are legendarily bad. Could Alaplaya’s involvement lead to improved translations?
What do you think?
Is it time to worry yet?
Sitting in the U.K. I have been blithely assuming this won’t affect me, especially since I only play on U.S. servers. ProSiebenSat, whoever they are, have absolutely no presence in the U.K. so I hope we will be staying as we are.
SoE has traditionally been quite aggressively against compulsory regionalization and I.P. blocking but whether that will continue who knows? I hope at the very least there’s an option for existing subscribers in the EU to take a one-time opt-out to this change.
Not sure about IP blocking at this point. But you can expect your subs, Station Cash purchases etc (and mine in Australia) to go to ProSiebenSat who will pass on a license fee to SOE.
I also anticipate that all support calls will be directed to ProSiebenSat for those of us outside of North America.
If IP blocking occurs I also fear that Australian customers will be locked to European servers, recent contacts with SOE support suggested I play there as a ‘better’ timezone (its not and ping times are worse).
I’m very concerned and not really hoping for the best as I don’t trust SoE for anything anymore. So fearing the worst (aka everything summed above will turn bad).
Very good summary of all our concerns.
Forgetting any issues with the game if SOE hands over the payment system to a company i’ve never heard of then without a doubt i will end my stint in EQ2,no drama meant either i just dont trust ProSiebenSat.
As for SOE not telling us its nothing short of disgraceful to be honest,utterly indefenceable
Tv add’s you got to be kidding me, we dont even advertise eq2 in the states on TV,
@BADCAT; LOL that is what I thought! He must really think European’s are gullible, if he thinks they will believe that load of BS.
ProSiebenSat.1 integrated the licensed EA games on http://www.prosiebengames.de/ instead on Alaplaya. I am sure, this will happen to the SOE games too.
And thinking a little about a possible revenue deal made between Sony and ProSiebenSat.1 – there will be new servers.
What do you think?
No i dont think there’ll be much in the way of new servers for EQ2.
Alaplaya to me have taken on the current set of “old” games under duress,waiting for the bigger prize of the “new” games,(planetside 2 EQ3 etc) and free realms for real cash cows.
Smokejumper is frankly deluded if he thinks there’ll be “tv” ads for EQ2 which his post pointed too simply fantasy as he tries to sell the screw over that seems to be coming euro players way.
Maybe this is why it’s all gone quiet? Pro7Sat.1 is also from today publishing Maestia, which you might consider a direct competitor to EQ2 – http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/81809/Maestia_to_be_launched_on_alaplayanet.php
Perhaps that put the cat amongst the pigeons of negotiation lol.
Be good if a mod can change that to a link if mine does not work
They need a third party to give them access to television ads? Is this company larger than Sony, or SCE at least? This makes no sense at all, it sounds like a memo from a startup with no industry connections.
I went to that other companies web site, and wow their forums are just as ad eq2flames. Seams their customers are very unhappy about it as well.
Why does soe need to partner with a 3rd party, This makes no since, it almost sounds like they want to get out of the software business. Whats next are we going to sale the us version of the game to gamersfirst?
well, probably the situation will be like with EQII.ru where we have a localization team in Russia, servers in Netherlands and devs in the States.
– we have SOE accs but a different local version of EQII
– we have at 4AM local time schedule for regular updates and very often if updates are done at different hours we have no preliminary info about that (either SOE “forgets” to notify local team or the team fails to publish info timely)
– the accs are “region locked”. And we have troubles with creating new acc as doing this via SOE web site or SOE launcher makes the acc become flagged for US version rather than RU and no new chars can join any game servers. The only way is to use local version of the launcher
– we have some EQ features not available or available years after they had been introduced in US and EU (BGs started after one year, Station Cash became available just two months ago, no server transfer tokens yet etc.)
– text translation is of a very high quality (thanx to the localisation guys) but always late – as of today some of the LU62 and AoD texts here are still in English. The biggest problem are the world events that can finish before they get full translation.
– with all the bugs and tech problems that require dev’s attention one can never be heard from here neither responded. It’s not their fault but what the local TS can reply other that “we’ve passed your info to SOE. Please wait for an answer”?
I hope the guys won’t see those problems with Alaplaya, but they can still pop up at some moment…
I read through 17 pages on the forums about this earlier.When a “red name” did even bother to reply it was basically “Stay within forum rules,and stop speculating” after about 8 days.Basic question was will the European players be region locked?
Good ol Smoke finally dropped in and said “I know the answer,but I can’t tell you”
Wonderful customer relations there,Dave.And good to see all the devs and CR team so prompt! I think Davey boy’s post was 15 days or so in.
I’ve been in the same guild for 5 or so years..the 3 Leaders are all European,not to mention 3 of my best friends in the game.
That would be the final nail for me,and it’s already halfway in.