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SOE Live tickets go on sale
It may no longer be Fan Faire in name, but SOE's annual fan festival still has the same spirit and focus. The newly branded SOE Live has opened up registrations for this fall's convention, and the studio is offering discounted prices if tickets are purchased now. SOE Live will take place from October 18th through the 21st at Bally's Casino in Las Vegas. The all-access pass for the event is $139, but if you register before August 1st, you can secure a discounted price of $119. Day passes will go for $39 if you're interested in just attending for a day, and evening passes, which allow access to just late-night activities, are $99 a pop. The studio welcomes families, as children ages 12 and below can get in for free. The festival has a full schedule, including dev panels, tournaments, giveaways, and parties. Players can shell out an additional $50 to have Sunday brunch with the devs or $40 for a laser tag event.
SOE renames Fan Faire, sets official dates
As corporate re-brandings go, this one isn't as wince-inducingly awful as something like, say, the Syfy Channel. Still, Sony Online Entertainment's Fan Faire had a nice ring to it, but now we're obliged to refer to the company's annual fan convention as SOE Live. Senior marketing VP Laura Naviaux says the change is due to SOE's MMO diversification. While the company is still known for its EverQuest and EverQuest II flagships, it's also put considerable time and effort into DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2, neither of which conjures images of ye olde renaissance faire. This year's SOE Live will happen at Bally's in Las Vegas from October 18th through the 21st. Naviaux says that SOE die-hards can relax, since the event will be the same Fan Faire they've been enjoying for years despite the name change. "Previous event attendees can rest assured that we are not removing any of our established activities in order to accommodate the new players; rather, they can expect even more to make this the ultimate SOE fan experience," she said. [Source: SOE press release]
SOE's fifth annual G.I.R.L. competition beckons to future game designers
Ladies and gentlemen, start your essay-writing engines! Sony Online Entertainment is sounding the call for this year's G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition and is now accepting applicants looking to win a $10,000 scholarship and a 10-week internship at SOE. The program, which is in its fifth year, is designed to promote and inspire female involvement in video game development by helping a talented student through undergraduate studies. Applicants have to currently be enrolled in a gaming-related program, have a 3.0 or higher GPA, be a resident of the US, and be 18 years old or older. If you meet all those standards and have a hankering to apply, you'll need to submit two pieces of original concept art "inspired by" PlanetSide 2 or EverQuest II, captions to go with the art, and a 500-word essay about women in the gaming industry. Applications are due by March 29th. SOE Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing Laura Naviaux hopes that this will be the biggest year ever for the scholarship: "Over the last few years, we have been nothing short of impressed with the hundreds of amazing submissions from talented students nationwide. Now in our fifth year, we can't wait to see the creativity that comes out of the G.I.R.L. program."
SOE VP talks microtransactions and the future
If you're a fan of Sony Online Entertainment and curious as to how free-to-play and RMT will affect its stable of MMOs in the future, ZAM's got a new interview that's worth a read. The piece features Laura Naviaux, senior VP of global sales and marketing for SOE, and she shares an interesting nugget relating to digital currency and real-money player markets. "I think everybody gets excited about potentially being able to create user-generated content to sell it to their peers, etc. There are a lot of different ways to slice and dice that, and it's something that we're watching," Naviaux says. She also speaks to the success of EverQuest II thanks to its free-to-play switch, as well as some of the more popular cash shop items (mounts currently account for approximately 25% of the game's revenue). Finally, Naviaux acknowledges the challenges inherent in the business model going forward, and how they stem in large part from knowing how much is too much. "I don't think that anybody wants a game where you can outright buy power that makes the game unfair and un-fun, and that is a line we don't want to cross. But there are a lot of shades of grey in there, and that's something we want the players to determine," she explains.
SOE awards 2011 G.I.R.L scholarship
Last February we told you about the opportunities to be had via Sony Online Entertainment's Gamers in Real Life scholarship program. The catch was that you had to be a girl -- no surprise given the title acronym -- and on track to graduating from a game-related undergrad program after the spring of 2012. Today SOE has announced the 2011 winner, and Alicia Crawford of La Quinta, California, has been awarded a $10,000 scholarship and a 10-week paid internship at SOE headquarters in sunny San Diego. The G.I.R.L. program is in its fourth year and shows no signs of slowing down. "Supporting the education and careers of young artists drives our ever-evolving industry forward by adding fresh perspectives and new innovative ideas that help shape the future of games as we know them," said SOE VP Laura Naviaux via press release.
Sony Online Entertainment opens annual G.I.R.L. scholarship program
For the third year in a row, applications are being accepted for Sony Online Entertainment's G.I.R.L. Scholarship Program, a program created to help educate and recruit more women into the field of video game production and design. The G.I.R.L. scholarship awards the recipient $10,000 toward tuition at the school where she is currently enrolled, as well as an optional 10-week internship at a Sony Online Entertainment studio. Laura Naviaux of SOE says "Our goal is to continue to encourage and reward women who share our commitment and passion for developing cutting edge online games for all demographic groups." Any student who is currently enrolled in an undergraduate program related to video games may apply by the deadline of February 15th, and SOE will choose a winner on or around May 20th. Information on how to apply can be found here, and more information on the G.I.R.L. program can be found here. Best of luck to all who apply!
Dispelling myths to launch Free Realms
The MI6 conference is an annual gathering in San Francisco which focuses largely on marketing in the video game industry. One speaker at the April 8th conference was Laura Naviaux-Sturr from Sony Online Entertainment, who discussed the upcoming kid-friendly MMO Free Realms.She addressed the challenges in shifting focus away from hardcore fantasy enthusiasts (largely male) to a younger demographic that includes more female gamers. Naviaux said, "Turning to a youth and female audience was like turning a ship." It required SOE to re-evaluate some of the 'myths' the company held, which was the focus of Naviaux's talk. She brought up several key areas that the company needed to address if Free Realms is to succeed, ranging from putting the backstory and creativity in the hands of the gamers rather than spelling it out for them, to the music in Free Realms, which is a departure from what SOE has done in the past. If you're curious about how SOE is approaching this new title, you should have a look at Chris Remo's article at Gamasutra titled "MI6: SOE's Naviaux on Dispelling Myths to Launch FreeRealms."%Gallery-12980%
Video game giants awarded at CES 2008
Several video games and their respective creators were honored at the fifty-ninth Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards at CES 2008 in Las Vegas. The awards spotlighted some of the most groundbreaking titles in development of massively multiplayer online graphical role playing games as well as user generated content or game mods. The winners of the first category for development of MMORPGs were Sony Online Entertainment for Everquest (Laura Naviaux), Blizzard for World of Warcraft (Mike Morhaime) and AOL/Time Warner for Neverwinter Nights (Don Daglow).And the winners of the second category for user generated content/game modification were EA for Pinball Construction (Bill Budge), Id Software for Quake (John Carmack) and Linden Lab for Second Life (Philip Rosedale).Pictured from left to right: Daglow, Budge, Carmack, Naviaux, Rosedale, MorhaimeWe really only have just one thing to mention. If you're the representative of a multi-billion-dollar international corporation like Activision Blizzard, shouldn't you consider something other than raiding your dad's closet for a 1970's brown polyester suit? Although, only really rich people can afford to look broke, because they buy good stuff and wear it forever. So when Mike got it, it was probably very chic... in the 70's.
