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SOE confirms studio closures, cancels The Agency
Following earlier reports of studio closures and mass layoffs, Sony Online Entertainment has issued an official statement regarding its "strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce." The company confirmed the closings of its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios and the elimination of 205 jobs. Additionally, SOE announced the cancellation of The Agency, the long-delayed, cross-platform spy MMO under development at SOE Seattle. The company said it's discontinuing production of the title to "focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games." SOE added that the Denver and Tucson studios' projects would be transitioned over to its San Diego headquarters. The company's full statement is posted after the break.
Report: Three SOE studios close, layoffs abound
Following a series of tweets from George Broussard, co-owner of 3D Realms, which indicated that Sony Online Entertainment would be undergoing layoffs and possible studio closures around its five locations today, Kotaku reports that a source "familiar with the matter" has confirmed the closures of SOE's Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. Additionally, half of the Austin staff has been reportedly laid off, along with a "sizeable" number of workers at SOE's San Diego headquarters. In all, the layoffs are said to affect nearly one-third of SOE's total workforce. Notably, SOE Seattle has been the lead development studio of The Agency, which had been slated to launch in the second half of the year (after a long delay). Neither SOE Denver nor Tucson has been working on anything as high profile as The Agency, though both have continued to operate a number of SOE titles, including Denver's Legends Of Norrath and other digital card games, and Tucson's PoxNora strategy game.U Update: SOE has issued an official statement confirming the report and providing further details.
SOE trademarks 'The Agency Covert Ops'
In the world of videogames, trademarks can mean just about anything. So when Sony Online Entertainment filed for the trademark to The Agency Covert Ops it's no surprise that rumors of a name change were floating around, especially since we haven't seen hide nor hair of The Agency for some time now. We contacted SOE for a statement. Here's their response: "We are always trying to plan ahead for our titles in development and at times that means acquiring TM's or URL's that we feel we may want to own in the future. At this point SOE has made no official announcement regarding this Covert Ops TM and any information in the marketplace about it is premature." What could this mean? Well, it could be a name change, but SOE has several studios from Seattle to L.A. down into Tucson and Austin, too. So, while it's very possible that Covert Ops could be a name change, our bet would be on either a wholly different game or potentially a future expansion. That's just our guess, of course. And there's always the possibility we may never know.
Massively catches up with SOE Tucson director Dan Kopycienski
Sony Online Entertainment surprised us recently with the announcement that they'd acquired Octopi -- creators of the collectible strategy game PoxNora -- and that the studio would now be known as SOE Tucson. We had some questions about what this acquisition might mean for SOE moving into the future, as well as what changes are on the horizon for PoxNora.Massively caught up with the former president of Octopi, Dan Kopycienski, who is now Director of Development at SOE Tucson. Although SOE Tucson is still very much a studio in transition, he was kind enough to speak with us about where PoxNora is today, and what it may become with the newfound backing of Sony Online Entertainment.
Sony Online Entertainment acquires Octopi, becomes SOE Tucson
Game industry news can be a bit depressing lately, with layoffs and shutdowns happening all over the world. Sony Online Entertainment's acquisition of Octopi is a refreshing change of pace. Octopi is known for their online collectible strategy game PoxNora. Under Sony Online Entertainment, they will operate as SOE Tucson.While this news doesn't directly affect PS3 owners, SOE is one of the biggest supporters of PS3 -- the studios have already released a variety of PlayStation Network games, and are currently working on The Agency, FreeRealms and DC Universe Online. We doubt it'll be long until SOE Tucson works on a PS3 game of their own.
PoxNora joins the Sony Online Entertainment family of games
Sony Online Entertainment has announced the acquisition of a new games studio, adding to their roster of development houses from Seattle to Austin. The Tucson, Arizona-based Octopi, LLC will now be the basis for SOE Tucson, a new studio specializing in online strategy-based gameplay. SOE now also wholly owns PoxNora, Octopi's online fantasy miniatures combat game. The release suggests that the corporate megapublisher plans to continue running the game, even as SOE Tucson positions itself for new projects within the SOE umbrella.SOE Denver, the studio responsible for the company's collectible card games, is an obvious ally for the newly acquired studio. Indeed, the official release notes that the two studios will be positioning themselves together to tackle new projects in the near future. "The new SOE Tucson studio will work closely with SOE's Denver studio on maintaining and expanding SOE's lineup of strategy games, as well as pushing into new genres and developing new projects." Definitely interesting to see the acquisition of such a great little game company; we'll keep you posted on the new studio's plans as they are announced. Read on below the cut for the full press release.
