Face it Tiger..
Banned
I feel bad for him.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
John Smedley Steps Down As CEO Of Daybreak Studios
- Thread starter BlackBuzzard
- Start date
If he needed to be sacrificed in order to get EQNext going the way they pitched it a few years ago, then so be it.
Lots of people in here saying Planetside 2 failed. Didn't it make a profit?
For what it's worth, Planetside 2 is the most ambitious FPS game in the past 5 years. Have to give Smed some credit for that.
Lots of people in here saying Planetside 2 failed. Didn't it make a profit?
For what it's worth, Planetside 2 is the most ambitious FPS game in the past 5 years. Have to give Smed some credit for that.
TetraGenesis
Member
Everquest Next is the one MMO I've ever gotten legitimately, enthusiastically excited for.
I've wanted it so bad for so long. I hope it still comes out. And I hope it's excellent. And popular. Landmark didn't take off like I hoped.
That's because they haven't even released Landmark yet. It's really insane since it has been in beta for like a year and a half. I was hoping it would be a Minecraft killer but now I am just hoping that it will release before I die.
D
Deleted member 471617
Unconfirmed Member
WTF??? 50,000 counts and all he got was a two year commuted sentence? Are you fucking kidding me???? *SMH*
Interficium
Banned
You are a sociopath.
Gen.Grievous
Member
Planetside 2 failure? What are you talking about? Planetside 2 has been profitable for months now.Amen, like I've been saying, the past few months, if not years, for SOE/DB have been a massive case of, well...
The above, in action.
H1Z1 is ultimately a good thing for DB, yes, but it's a good thing being weighed down by a million and one anvils and albatrosses that they've accumulated in the past few years.
(And seriously, if PlanetSide 2's failure wasn't a sign of things to come, then I don't know what is.)
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Did you not hear him say he was going after them?
What worries me about PS2 while I enjoy playing it a lot these days, is that I get the impression it's not going to be improve much in the future. Sure it got tons of Extremely expensive player made helmets but not exactly holding my breath on the new vehicle etc front. Maybe I'm wrong but the layoffs arent' exactly making me confident about the days to come.
It might be a good thing for the company, quite frankly.
What he had to put through sucks though..
Sony Corporation is a conglomerate. By definition, they don't focus on just one thing.
I don't think they would have sold SOE if it was a highly profitable company. I mean, from a business point of view, it's only a good thing to be in multiple profitable markets within the video game segment and to not put all you eggs in one basket (console).
They wouldn't have been founded and be part of Sony for 17 years if Sony just wanted focus on console games. SOE has always been mostly autonomous from SCE.
I think SOE just wasn't a financially very healthy company in its later years. John Smedley himself said a couple of months ago that PlanetSide 2 only started operating on a profitable day-to-day basis since a couple of weeks ago when he said that. (meaning they were losing money just with server costs, maintenance and support after launch).
What he had to put through sucks though..
Sony Corporation is a conglomerate. By definition, they don't focus on just one thing.
I don't think they would have sold SOE if it was a highly profitable company. I mean, from a business point of view, it's only a good thing to be in multiple profitable markets within the video game segment and to not put all you eggs in one basket (console).
They wouldn't have been founded and be part of Sony for 17 years if Sony just wanted focus on console games. SOE has always been mostly autonomous from SCE.
I think SOE just wasn't a financially very healthy company in its later years. John Smedley himself said a couple of months ago that PlanetSide 2 only started operating on a profitable day-to-day basis since a couple of weeks ago when he said that. (meaning they were losing money just with server costs, maintenance and support after launch).
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
They are basically saying Lizard Squad forced him out. This is not good and we shouldn't allow this to happen otherwise they win.
Azzurri
Member
You guys are thinking of Brad McQuaid, different person. There is an article about the huge failure of Vanguard which lead SoE taking it over.
Vanguard survived an absurd amount of time under SoE's wing as well. I think it was only shut down as late as 2 years ago or something. In the media it was made to look like a much bigger failure than games like Warhammer Online or that sci-fi one from Richard Garriot (Can't remember the name. Some latin phrase?) which didn't live nearly as long.
Most MMOs bleed players over time, though it will be interesting to see where (if) Planetside 2 plateaus.
Even as someone who plays the game nightly, and enjoys it, I do think they overpromised and underdelivered, and I would have been happier w/ Planetside HD than the Planetside 2 we have now.
Tabula Rasa. What a massive piece of shit. Seems like Garriots latest crowdfunded MMO is utter trash too. Who'd have thunk it huh?
RichiRamjag
Member
Man, to hell with all this "he poked the hornets nest too much" nonsense. He didn't want to take abuse at the hand at these guys and he stood up to them. He maybe didn't go about it in the best of ways, but at least he didn't take it on the chin.
Best of luck to the guy going forward.
Best of luck to the guy going forward.
diggmcbadass
Member
I think it started turning a profit early this year or late last.
And there still are no games that even tries to do what planetside does, which is a shame because it has been one of my absolute favorite games the past few years. Unfortunately it has also been evident for 2 of those years that player numbers weren't really going to increase. They've been too slow to fix technical and game breaking bugs, and too slow to roll out promised features. The game has been slowly improving the whole time, but probably too slow to make an impact.
Edit: Also, fuck the lizard idiots. People like that are the worst scum on the net, and it infuriates me that someone is more or less shit out of luck if they become a target of that kind of harassment.
Planetside 2 is incredibly boring and nearly unplayable if you're not in a big group of friends. Even with that though it's always felt so follow to me, like if I want to shoot people and use vehicles I'd rather be playing BF4. If there was some kind of player based command structure to PS2 with one guy ordering every person in the faction around and groups forming, that would be cool.
Dr. Kitty Muffins
Member
I bet Lizard Squad feels like they accomplished something today. I hope a group of hardcore MMO players track them down and turn them in.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
He's got a new job now, though. TAKING THESE ASSHATS DOWN.
So... if all servers were full of team players? That doesn't happen in Battlefield, nevermind a game of PS2's scale.
ServerSmash et al is as close as you'll get (and those are really fun).
Yeah I agree with you.
I do enjoy the game but it still feels like it's in a beta state because it seems like the game is supposed to have more content, not only that they still need to fix some kinks like the C4's detonation time being way too long.
razgriz417
Member
I played planetside 2 on PC for like 8 months, spent way too much on the game and got a handful of gaffers to play but idk, its just one of those games where you have to play with a dedicated group or else the game isn't amazing. Some of my favorite online shooter experiences were in Planetside 2 but the amount of coordination and planning required to get a good 1-2 platoons (48-96) players group to play is tough. I quit a few months before the hossin expansion because I needed a break and wanted to play something else (ps2 was taking too much of my gaming time lol) and by the time i came back, alot of the ppl I played with (including gaffers) had moved on
not that I know of. They cancelled SoE Live which is their big event in August. If we don't get an update by August of 2016 then it is dead.
I think that big ambitious project that they wanted for EQ Next is dead and they will just put out some sad mixture of a guild wars/wow clone and slap the Everquest name on it.
Excuse me? Something has been holding up EQ Next, as it was pitched two years ago with almost no news since. Shouldn't Smedley take the blame for this?
I think Smedley is a good guy, but they need someone that will get things moving.
Naa, I'm aware who is who. Actually Smedley gave money to McQuaid, imagine that..
Smedley-SOE were financing Vanguard, when they realise Vanguard was a train wreck of epic proportions, Smedley bought Sigil, smart move?
Not really
Ennosuke
Member
This NGE Update was one of the worst things ever happened to a game. Never will forget.
The talk about Planetside 2's failures, how Daybreak Games is starting to flounder, how Smedly ruined SWG whatever;
That's all irrelevant.
What needs to be focused on is the reason for his leaving, which was essentially due to harassment and terrorism including, but not limited to;
That's all irrelevant.
What needs to be focused on is the reason for his leaving, which was essentially due to harassment and terrorism including, but not limited to;
- DDoS attacks on the games
- Ruining his credit score by making false claims in in his name.
- SWAT teams sent to his house multiple times
- A flight grounded by a bomb threat
(source)
Not really, we are discussing his handy work as a video game executive in a video game forum, sounds very relevant to me.
That shit is disgraceful, no one is justifying that in here anyway.
Noup, I have my disappointment right were it should be after spending a decent amount of $ over the years on Smedley SOE promises.
lernt my lesson to late.
Nikkuthulu
Member
Hahaha. You guys think just Planetside 2 and SWG suffered? No no, DC Universe Online has suffered greatly as well and joined the battered brothers of online games club. And it was by SoE's own admission that it was the company's #1 profiting game. The poor game.
What happened with that game?
meh, no holy trinity, skills and everything made me believe it was guild wars 2 2.0
no thanks.....as soon as I saw that reveal of no holy trin and levels.....I said nope, GW2 was utterly lame compared to the first one, not falling for that shit again.
Incorrect, when MS dropped Vanguard is when SOE swooped in and got it for extremely cheap. SOE actually profited on Vanguard from what people said due to how little they paid for it.
The code and engine were so horrible for that game it was beyond fixing though. SOE gave it a shot though.
Nikkuthulu
Member
Where to start...
Well let's start with the basics. See, Daybreak and painted this picture that hey, we can let you get nicer helpings of DLC content for smaller prices. For example, instead of buying the 10 dollar DLC pack, they broke it down down further. So hey you just want maybe that power and one mission, you instead pay 3.50 each.
That's fine and dandy.. until you note they pretty much removed purchasing episodes, and now to buy all that content individually, it'll cost 45-ish bucks for some DLC packs. Now with the new 'episodic content' you have to buy 2 missions a month, instead of getting a full pack of things to do. It's increasingly more expensive if you're a premium player to the point you might as well just quit unless you're going to sub.
But of course that's not all. They recently just reworked the mission structure and content that stops rewarding you altogether for doing lower level content. Along with making it MUCH slower to progress without spending replay badges. (Hint hint, one of their better incoming items.) Basically you only get two tiers of relevant content to get rewards for instead of the entire end-game system. Which wouldn't be a problem if this game had say.. WoW levels of content, but all this game has is sitting around in hubs, and maybe four brief dailies per small open world area.
Now tie it in with the gear price changes and they want you to pay on average much higher then you did before with their new 'mark system', no more bonus monthly marks, and the fact the game still uses cooldowns on instances for weekly plus stuff so have fun spamming those same few instances over and over again. Then the recent change to the best gear being drop only now, vs the game's been since launch about vendor stuff. With the obvious guess that the drop rates are indeed awful..
They still have a habit of overbuffing powers when they're 'reviewed' then on schedule a month later after people respec to it they nerf it back to normal rates, and legends have been getting more and more overpowered to get more sales out of them. Shazaam and Black Adam for instance are on a whole other level compared to some who can't get any love like Superman who's one of the worst legends.
...And this is just the start. Me? I'm not even bothered by half these things. I'm a lifetimer, so I get all the content whatever, and I get replay badges that I've never spent and with how slow they release content stuff my Stipend lets me get whatever legend I want or whatever goofy marketplace thing they want. It's just these are some awful changes.