Feldon From Ark’s Ark:
As you know by now, SOE is selling its European players to a company called ProSiebenSat.1. OK, technically, they’re selling them the exclusive rights to run the games within Europe (including the UK), but that includes all the characters on the European servers, and the details of anyone with a character there. The value of the playerbase has certainly been accounted for in the deal, and so we have been passed like chattels to a new master.
So who are they, these folks that we suddenly find in control?
ProSiebenSat.1 is a German media conglomerate. Their main business is German language television for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Most important for us though is a little side-business called Alaplaya, which runs a number of online games such as Argo, Skylancer, and a number of other games that you’ve also only ever seen mentioned in cheap google ads.
Continue reading the article including the revelation that on December 15, 2011, ProSiebenSat.1 Group and Sony Pictures Television Sales Deutschland GmbH entered into a far-reaching output deal for the video-on-demand portal maxdome, a local competitor to Netflix.
Very interesting. It had been my assumption that this decision had been taken above Smedley’s level by his bosses at SCE but it looks like it goes higher still.
No chance of de-railing the deal, then, but the actual terms and conditions of day-to-day operation may still be in play. Those would presumably be decided at an Allaplaya/SoE level.
Why the hell a German TV network should get the rights outside of the three German-speaking territories they service in the first place beats me, though. Does Maxdome plan to expand across Europe too? Good luck with that in the U.K. media market!
Sounds like SOE had to or else if they wanted to get into the German market. I think they actually bit of more than the could chew. They could care less what happens to the game division were talking millions on the other side of the entertainment curtain.
This was PS1’s was of getting the game they been wanting and Sony at the top level fell for it.
Oh well were done here then. Looks like this is going down no matter what happens.
One thing is for sure folks are going to have trust issues with Sony and PS1 for a long time to come.
Shady back room deal indeed.
Maybe someone would like to look at the other games portal of PSS1: http://www.prosiebengames.de/
This site hosts some EA titles like need for speed world. The german website is freshly redesigned and other countries may follow.