Sony Online Entertainment sold off to Columbus Nova

This is good news because Sony wasn't Leveraging SOE as one of PS's exclusive studios any way. Sony makes some money, sheds some fat and more people will have access to SOE's games. Sounds like a Win Win for every one.

Lol?

Also it's funny to see so many users in this thread are saying its a good move by Sony, cutting SoE loose. Which is basically Sony/Playstation cutting ties to PC gaming.

The thing is MS gets bashed for not doing enough for PC gaming constantly, unjustly. but here's Sony basically cutting ties to PC altogether and people are saying how its a great move and they approve...? The double-standards just don't stop I guess, good stuff lol.

SONY living by the gamers FOR gamers mentality.

Riiiiiigggghhhhhttttttttt

Didn't see that coming. Does Sony own Everquest or did SOE? Sony usually owns all ips they are involved with but I have no clue in this case as SOE wasn't part of SCE.

Well SONY is current gen 8 console leader with the world's most powerful video game console the PS4.

So first they lose Insomniac and now SOE, just sell Naughty Dog, do you know much money you'll get back for them? ha ha ha ha.

I'd give a shit if they were a truly exclusive gaming division of Sony to begin with (ala 1st party making software only for PS systems). I'd give more of a shit if I could think of any games I liked from them. Only game that appealed to me was Norrath in the PS2 days which I don't even think they made anyway but rather just published.

Regardless who owns them or what their name is changed to, I won't touch anything from them as long as Smedley is still there. I'm a former SWG player and I clearly remember how he treated our community.

Until he's gone, they get zero dollars from me.

EQNext is going to be amazing, on pc at least.

Sony has had to pay so many fines and settlements for their business practices,

MS let Bungie go their own ways but kept the rights to Halo (and maybe more of their library?? I cant remember). Basically they let the staff do their own thing

That's funny... I also love how many people suddenly don't care anymore about the studio on this forum :). Cows hyping the upcoming "exclusive ports" for the PS4.

Who on earth would want to watch a movie about Aunt May???

With this move Sony have cut all ties with PC gaming. They sold off there PC line and now this. Microsoft on the other hand is bringing PC and Xbox closer than ever.

lol Sony.

From 2010

Viacom has sold the Rock Band creator to an investment firm called Columbus Nova, it said Thursday. The New York-based Columbus Nova manages over $10 billion in assets worldwide, using what it calls “a value-oriented, long-term view to investing.” Harmonix will now be owned by Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC, an affiliate company.

http://www.wired.com/2010/12/viacom-sells-harmonix-2/

This venture capital isn't new to the gaming business.

This is System Wars and the posters here aren't really known for their command of the facts.

They just read the word SONY and assumed that this meant bad news for the manufacturer of the inanimate piece of plastic they hate so much.

This week on "The Adventures of Aunt May" .. May goes to the Bingo Hall and in an unfortunate accident steps on a radioactive spider and slips on it's goo and breaks her hip.

After Show

Tune in Next week when Doctor Octopus operates on May's fractured hip

I think Columbus Nova has more money than Sony.. so there's some hope for some good games.

Good, they should have cut ties with them a long time ago.

Hope they will invest the money from this deal in new console developers.

Not surprising, Sony needs the cash desperately, not that it's going to save them from their awful situation.

Sony will eventually go bankrupt and perhaps they can sell the PS division to a company that would care to make some good exclusives.

Sony now has officially no connection whatsoever with gaming on the PC platform.

Expect PlanetSide 2 on Xbox too, I guess?

does anyone really give a damn about Sony outside of video games and TV's?

This is probably why they're losing money.

You have to be willing risk millions to keep supporting a console. Maybe Samsung could buy it.

Actually, Sony TV is practically robbing Sony's banks with horrendous and massive losses, alongside their Mobile division.

Their gaming division makes a small profit, while the majority of their profit is from Insurance. If Sony sells all their divisions and becomes an Insurance company (of much smaller scale than the current Sony), then they'd make a lot more profit.

Sony is more than just video games and TV. There's Sony Music Entertainment ( Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston etc...), Sony Pictures Television( Breaking Bad, Seinfeld, King of Queens, etc.) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, etc.

Sony's only real bread winner those days is their insurance.

This is a sign of the times and I am surprised stuff like this hadn't started years ago, it probably means they don't have any more chaff to sell and need to start selling real asserts to stay liquid.

Guess they run out of buildings to sell...

But in all seriousness, wasn't SoE for the most part for PC development and not Playstation.

Sony is broke and have been selling off stuff for years such as their chemical division, Spiderman merchandise rights, buildings in Japan and New York, plus others. I can not even remember the last time they made a profit for a fiscal year. This is why two of the three major credit rating agencies have Sony in junk status.

I don't play SOE games going on a decade, so I'm good.

Is that because a Sony 1st party studio hasn't brought anything out worth playing for a decade.

Like that's going to continue when its sold off all its 1st party developers. Enjoy the stuck record while you can.

Except that MS actually has ties to PCs through Windows and actually has a reason to support PC gaming. Sony has no reason to do so, Playstation should be and is their focus. Just like you don't see Nintendo making PC games.

SOE had no reason to be a part of Sony anymore with Sony's focus and vision being centered Playstation. The core of Microsoft on the other hand is Windows. More funding going to Sony's 1st party studios rather than SOE is great news.

Since 12:10 AM on launch day brah :D

I have no idea what you are talking about but it has no bearing on anything I stated. I play plenty of PC games on my four PCs for decades, and SOE doesn't pump out games that interest me. I was there when Everquest was a thing way before WOW existed. I wasn't into it. I had limited fun discovering MMOs, but due to the vast time consumption I'd Much rather fire up a fighting game and play scores of games rather than sink into one giant MMO.

Sony console 1st party devs =/= PC developer SOE. If you don't like 1st party studios for any console, okay, that's nice? Do you want me to go off-topic and argue your opinion of console developers? No thanks.

I have no idea what that has to do with PC developer SOE which I commented on.

"I don't play SOE games going on a decade, so I'm good." (SOE = SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT, a primarily PC dev known for Planetside, EQ, Star Wars Galaxies, MMO games, etc).

Why are people talking like if this was a blow to PlayStation when they always been PC centric? If anything it would be a blow to PC because now they'll most likely make games for every device around.

Lol @ the XBoys trying to twist this into something bad for Sony. This gen has been absolutely brutal on those guys, and now they're just swatting around blindly. :P

On topic, considering Somy's history, I'm pretty surprised that the negotiations were kept quiet. Makes me think this was likely a situation where the buyers came to Sony with a proposal rather than Sony shopping the studio quietly, because Sony isn't very good at keeping secrets.

As far as the move, it's easy to see it makes sense. SOE was a game studio that had very little to offer Sony's primary gaming business, yet the ties to Sony limited their ability to take their PC or multiplatform titles to other consoles and emerging platforms.

Hopefully the new guys get Everquest Next out soon. Really interested in that game.

lol

Never really cared for anything from SOE. Seemed like an ok developer I guess.

It seems that Sony is selling off its companies as to save costs.

Samsung bunch of greedy cheap bastards.

Amazon is better.

With their network infrastructure PSN would be able to stay up more than a week.

Sony doesn't own the main OS to PCs... They owe nothing to PC gaming, yet SOE has been supporting PC gaming since the 90s and had the first successful mmo with Everquest. MS broke all ties and either stole the pc gaming divisons to fuel xbox or killed them outright. Some of my favorite devs, Ensemeble, FASA, Big Huge Games, Aces, Freelancer devs.

MS - "We are doing big things for PC gaming" ..

PC gamers: "Yeah... flight sim, new Age of Empires, Mech Warrior, Freelancer, it could be a great return to the classics."

MS -- "You can now buy an XBone and stream the 720-900p games to your pc, in glourious 720p"...

PC gamers -- "errrr.... screw you MS!".

That's why they get the hate, and rightly so. They don't push PC gaming at all yet it would be wise as they make the OS that PC uses. They abandoned all ties to PC when the made the 360. It's messed up, and I am still not over, and will never be ... over it. Sony doesn't owe pc anything as there is really no hertiage there. MS is windows... MS game studios was a staple in PC gaming for 2 decades... and boom dead once the 360 came out. Yeah I am bitter about it that.

I still get to play H1Z1 and Planetside 2... no reason to be mad with this move. Can I play Age of Empires 4, Mech warrior 5, Freelancer 2..... no because the devs don't exist and MS is hogging the IP.

How is did not bad for Sony? If they had the money they would've kept the company, to make games for them... They don't have the money, they are losing a lot of money, and that's why they are selling them, there isn't anything positive about this article for the cows...