SOE Announces More Game ClosuresJan 24th, 2014 at 4:01 PM by Cyliena

More Sony Online Entertainment games are on the chopping block this year.

This afternoon Sony Online Entertainment has announced that they will be closing Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Wizardry Online later this year. Closure dates are:

SOE President John Smedley held a Reddit AMAA this evening, which can be viewed in its entirety here. I took the opportunity to inquire about Free Realms on my daughter's behalf, and here is his response. EQ2 Wire has a breakdown of many of Smedley's replies as well.

Tags: FreeRealms, News, SonyOnlineEntertainment

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Not a surprise really...
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# Jan 27 2014 at 11:09 AM Rating: Good
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I just started playing Vanguard a few months ago and I can understand why they are letting it go. I also played Free Realms and am sorry to see that go. I was thinking of introducing that to my almost 7 year old son (he loves EQ2 and plays well with my husband and me). The Clone Wars was another one I was wanting my son to try but my husband told me that Disney killed the Clone Wars cartoons on Cartoon Network in mid season so I can see the game getting killed by Disney based on that. I think Disney wants ultimate control of Star Wars. I only hope they do not touch my SWTOR because I love that game as much as EQ and EQ2 ( I've been plying EQ since 2000 and EQ2 since beta). That being said, for those of you wanting an MMO for your kids, www.schoolofdragons.com is a neat game my son loves and is browser based. You raise your dragon from a hatchling and you must keep it fed and entertained to keep it's loyalty. There are also quests and guilds. My son is almost 7 and does great with this game. Smiley: smile. Sony has to do what they need to do to be profitable. I may not like it but I understand. The world has a ton more MMO's than it did when EQ started and competition is fierce. Those that are not bringing in the cash are doomed. Looking forward to good things with EQNext and Landmark.
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what to think for the future
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# Jan 25 2014 at 2:33 PM Rating: Default
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im scared peeps all this change and axe of stuff get me worried,how long befor the game ive played for 8 years gets the chop (eq1)we all no its coming and i guess soe do to...........:(
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what to think for the future
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# Jan 26 2014 at 2:29 PM Rating: Decent
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m scared peeps all this change and axe of stuff get me worried,how long befor the game ive played for 8 years gets the chop (eq1)we all no its coming and i guess soe do to...........:(


I have been hearing about Everquest being dead for as long as WoW has been out. Everquest will still be around for years to come.
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not surprised
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# Jan 25 2014 at 4:06 AM Rating: Decent
dhoust
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Vanguard, SOE kept it running at a loss for 7 years.
Clone Wars, Disney owns the rights and they are shutting down everything thats not on their network, (this is a guess)
Wizardry, Not as much population here as in Japan,
Freerealms, Kids don't spend much, and SOE was probably taking a loss on it as well,
SOE needs to show a profit to its parent Sony, and it can be hard to do so if it keeps titles that are not making revenue.
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not surprised
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# Jan 25 2014 at 6:02 AM Rating: Good
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dhoust wrote:
Vanguard, SOE kept it running at a loss for 7 years.
Clone Wars, Disney owns the rights and they are shutting down everything thats not on their network, (this is a guess)
Wizardry, Not as much population here as in Japan,
Freerealms, Kids don't spend much, and SOE was probably taking a loss on it as well,
SOE needs to show a profit to its parent Sony, and it can be hard to do so if it keeps titles that are not making revenue.


That sounds as reasonable as anything else I've read. You're probably right.
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not surprised
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# Jan 25 2014 at 9:45 AM Rating: Excellent
Cyliena
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Those are actually in Smed's words... here's EQ2 Wire's breakdown of his AMAA yesterday: http://eq2wire.com/2014/01/24/john-smedley-takes-to-reddit-to-answer-questions-teases-new-mmo-property/
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Didn't learn from NCSoft's mistake
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# Jan 25 2014 at 12:09 AM Rating: Decent
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Obviously they weren't paying attention to what happens when a game gets shut down..Should have seen how things were with NCSoft when they dumped City of Heroes. I won't touch anything they do ever again because of how they dumped that game. While I only play EQ2 and once in awhile DC..I had played Vanguard at one point but when I last tried it had changed so much I didn't care for it. Either way though it isn't fun seeing others lose the games they love to play. Especially kid ones. There are so few at this point. Disney dumped the ones they had that I found safe for my kids when they started out and I still have one little one left. I had thought about checking out Free Realm but guess not. I can see many who play those games now leaving any Sony games behind and moving on though after this.
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Disappointed and sad
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# Jan 24 2014 at 7:24 PM Rating: Decent
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Ugh, both my kids are heartbroken.

Heck, I'm pretty darn sad myself. I enjoyed playing FreeRealms with them & some of the Clonewars games were fun.

I'm really sad about Vanguard as well, though I had thought this day was coming a couple of years ago. I had thought things were looking up here lately there.

My son is angry enough about this whole thing he's sworn he wasn't going to play EQLandmark (which he was previously really looking forward too) or EQNext.

With shutting down the kids games they are peeving the next generation of gamers big time and certainly aren't making SOE game fans of them.
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Not good news.
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# Jan 26 2014 at 4:27 PM Rating: Excellent
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With Lego Universe gone too, the kid friendly MMO list gets shorter and shorter. Bad news :(

Edited, Jan 26th 2014 5:29pm by Aiomon
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#REDACTED, Posted: Jan 24 2014 at 7:00 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) POST on our boards... I am not going to search the damn internet for your LACK of Information "Information" Mr. Smedley get your act together. Do we go to a Garage to buy food, no we go to a damn store where food is sold SIR. Be nice if you got on board the SOE train and stop Tweeting Facebooking and using all other media outlets... and bring it to OUR forums. Why do you think we Pay for a Premium Account on ZAM.... to watch the flashy advertisements... that ZAM needs to keep our Premium cost realistic. Join us on ZAM we would LOVE to have ya! I give Everquest till December and the plug will be pulled.... we will be the last to go and BTW Everquest Next is going to be a hard sell, from the many I know... Not one person I know is going to buy it. Have a nice Day !
Piss On REDDIT
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# Jan 25 2014 at 9:57 AM Rating: Good
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Grodie wrote:
POST on our boards... I am not going to search the damn internet for your LACK of Information "Information" Mr. Smedley get your act together. Do we go to a Garage to buy food, no we go to a damn store where food is sold SIR. Be nice if you got on board the SOE train and stop Tweeting Facebooking and using all other media outlets... and bring it to OUR forums. Why do you think we Pay for a Premium Account on ZAM.... to watch the flashy advertisements... that ZAM needs to keep our Premium cost realistic. Join us on ZAM we would LOVE to have ya! I give Everquest till December and the plug will be pulled.... we will be the last to go and BTW Everquest Next is going to be a hard sell, from the many I know... Not one person I know is going to buy it. Have a nice Day !


This could very well be the dumbest post in the history of the internet. Well, maybe not internet, but probably Zam.
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Piss On REDDIT
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# Jan 27 2014 at 12:54 PM Rating: Excellent
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Baeddon wrote:
Grodie wrote:
POST on our boards... I am not going to search the damn internet for your LACK of Information "Information" Mr. Smedley get your act together. Do we go to a Garage to buy food, no we go to a damn store where food is sold SIR. Be nice if you got on board the SOE train and stop Tweeting Facebooking and using all other media outlets... and bring it to OUR forums. Why do you think we Pay for a Premium Account on ZAM.... to watch the flashy advertisements... that ZAM needs to keep our Premium cost realistic. Join us on ZAM we would LOVE to have ya! I give Everquest till December and the plug will be pulled.... we will be the last to go and BTW Everquest Next is going to be a hard sell, from the many I know... Not one person I know is going to buy it. Have a nice Day !


This could very well be the dumbest post in the history of the internet. Well, maybe not internet, but probably Zam.


Nah, we've seen worse :)
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Piss On REDDIT
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# Jan 27 2014 at 6:15 PM Rating: Default
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Calthine wrote:
Nah, we've seen worse :)


*shudder*

Smiley: grin
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Piss On REDDIT
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# Jan 26 2014 at 12:52 PM Rating: Default
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This could very well be the dumbest post in the history of the internet. Well, maybe not internet, but probably Zam.


I see Baeddon is in troll mode yet again. Leaving one or 2 sentences slamming some one as usual. He always does that crap. Making sure to avoid the actual topic which of course isn't as important to him as being a douche bag to others.

Personally i do find it funny that Smedley seems to be posting everywhere except on dedicated Everquest sites. I don't know exactly how SoE's infrastructure works but if they don't fire anyone it could mean that more attention will be put into the other SoE games. Getting 1 patch at the most every month really sucks. I want them to go back to patching Everquest every other week. Keep putting in things that simply make sense like they have been doing recently with the changes in Plane of Sky. I don't know why those changes weren't put in 10 years ago but im glad they were finally changed at all.

Edited, Jan 26th 2014 1:58pm by Rickymaru
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Piss On REDDIT
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# Jan 26 2014 at 5:27 PM Rating: Default
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Rickymaru wrote:
Quote:
This could very well be the dumbest post in the history of the internet. Well, maybe not internet, but probably Zam.


I see Baeddon is in troll mode yet again. Leaving one or 2 sentences slamming some one as usual. He always does that crap. Making sure to avoid the actual topic which of course isn't as important to him as being a douche bag to others.

Personally i do find it funny that Smedley seems to be posting everywhere except on dedicated Everquest sites. I don't know exactly how SoE's infrastructure works but if they don't fire anyone it could mean that more attention will be put into the other SoE games. Getting 1 patch at the most every month really sucks. I want them to go back to patching Everquest every other week. Keep putting in things that simply make sense like they have been doing recently with the changes in Plane of Sky. I don't know why those changes weren't put in 10 years ago but im glad they were finally changed at all.

Edited, Jan 26th 2014 1:58pm by Rickymaru


I'm going to ignore the blatantly false first paragraph and respond to the rest.

It doesn't matter where he posts. It really doesn't. Many executives of companies, including Bill Gates, choose reddit forum to interact with other people. It's not uncommon. The only point to take away from this is he interacted with his consumers.

I disagree on getting a patch every other week, I prefer less downtime which raises the value of my sub. Sure, we could be talking about only 3 extra hours a week, but it's time I paid for and would like to have it. Also, quality of patch is more important than the quantities of patches. THAT SAID, I'm glad we get patches at all.

I don't believe quarterly patches is a good idea. 6 patches a year... still seems too long. 8-15 patches per year would probably be a good balance. (And test the hell out of them before pushing it live!) I believe they're moving toward this model by releasing the expansions in bits now instead of all at once. They had an in game poll on this issue right before The Hack happened. I wonder what the final results were, I didn't get a chance to see them.

I agree, the Sky changes could have been made 10 years ago and probably should have been. I'm with you, this was a positive change and would like to see more of it. I'd actually like to discuss (DISCUSS, not pay for...yet) an xpac or a premium patch that goes back and updates old content; for example, expand shrouds (don't make them exploitable, but expand them somehow instead of relying on vitality to catch up to friends). Expand LDoN's, scale them up to level 100 and add some type of reward that a level 100 could benefit from. These are just ideas on the top of my head and only a quick brainstorming. There are many things that could enhance older stuff.

Of course, I may be getting ahead of myself. Take baby steps first, I suppose. Sky is a good start.

One thing's for sure: EverQuest isn't going anywhere any time in the next few years. And I stand by my original statement: that was one of the most imbecilic, nonsensical, moronic posts I've ever read. The difference between us, though, is I attacked the post, not the person doing the posting where as you attacked me personally.
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Piss On REDDIT
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# Jan 26 2014 at 11:21 PM Rating: Default
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I'm going to ignore the blatantly false first paragraph and respond to the rest.


Allakhazams only lets me see your last 3 posts. They are almost always one or 2 liners in response to another persons post though. Rarely ever having anything to do with the topic at hand. The majority of your posts that i have seen are like that. I admit i haven't seen them all though. The only false part was the "always" otherwise its fairly accurate. Feel free to check your own post history.

Quote:
The difference between us, though, is I attacked the post, not the person doing the posting where as you attacked me personally.


Apples and Oranges. You are right though. Instead of accusing you of being a douche bag i should say your posts are douche bag posts. I guess if it makes a difference to you I am willing to make that change. Smiley: smile

Edited, Jan 27th 2014 12:35am by Rickymaru
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Piss On REDDIT
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# Jan 27 2014 at 6:09 PM Rating: Default
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Rickymaru wrote:
Allakhazams only lets me see your last 3 posts. They are almost always one or 2 liners in response to another persons post though. Rarely ever having anything to do with the topic at hand. The majority of your posts that i have seen are like that. I admit i haven't seen them all though. The only false part was the "always" otherwise its fairly accurate. Feel free to check your own post history.


I try to keep a majority of my posts helpful, informative, or advancing narrative. Sometimes I thank a user when I feel an upvote isn't enough. A majority of my posts are either parse information on mobs that are missing that information (such as during fabled season when I ran PoTime last year, wondering whether I could handle it or not and finding no such information, added my findings), updating drops that I personally see and aren't listed, strategy information, etc. Some of my posts are like this where I discuss the topic of the day, such as this, and I probably even have a couple posts apologising where I have gotten something very wrong or even not 100% accurate.

Sometimes I read a post so stupid that I just have to call it out or feel like I've done a disservice to myself. If you were able to see my entire post history, not just 3 most recent at any given time, you'd think much differently of me. If I only insulted people and added nothing to the thread, that would certainly qualify as douche in anybody's book. This is not the case.
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player levels
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# Jan 24 2014 at 6:24 PM Rating: Excellent
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Had the player-bases for these games been high enough to warrant maintaining staff and infrastructure to support them, you can bet SOE would have continued them.... Don't get me wrong I have hated on SOE plenty in the past and imho for good reason. However, we must all remember, as a publicly traded company they must make a certain level of profit to justify continuing any business venture. They do have to answer to their stock-holders after all and continuing profits make them "happy" and keep the stock price up. This in turn enables the company to have cash in their coffers to hopefully create games that not not only make us gamers "happy" but also make enough profit to keep the stockholders "happy" as well.
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bummer i wanted to play some of these some day when I retire
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# Jan 24 2014 at 5:15 PM Rating: Decent
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bummer i wanted to play some of these some day when I retire..

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quite surprised
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# Jan 24 2014 at 4:51 PM Rating: Decent
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Ok, Vanguard I get it, but I'm shocked to see Wizardry in the list. Didn't it launch 2 years ago with lots of hype?
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quite surprised
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# Jan 25 2014 at 6:01 AM Rating: Good
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Whilhelmina wrote:
Ok, Vanguard I get it, but I'm shocked to see Wizardry in the list. Didn't it launch 2 years ago with lots of hype?


It was open just under a year (January 30, 2013 was the launch.) I am a huge wizardry fan, but fan of the Dark Savant trilogy. The game was based more on the Japanese versions of Wizardry so it never held the appeal for me. I would have played it if it was based in the worlds and lore of those games (with maybe a side quest to Werdna's dungeon).

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It funny how
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# Jan 24 2014 at 4:31 PM Rating: Decent
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It's funny how they are closing these game to fund EQ Next but loosing thousands of players because the communities of the closing games will probably never play another SOE game again.

Great going guys. You did make us "happy"
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