“In a move to better align the company’s resources against areas of growth that meet consumer demand in today’s online market as well as improve operational efficiency, Sony Online Entertainment has eliminated just over 4% of its full-time workforce, equaling 35 people. The changes will better position SOE to deliver against its emphasis on developing games for a wider, more diverse audience and remaining a worldwide leader in online gaming.”
I would put my money on Vanguard being one of the games to lose at least one person. With the economy the way it is, I don’t think anyone can blame Sony for having to do some restructuring, following a number of other MMO developers who have had layoffs these past few years. Hopefully those thirty five employees were not from Sony’s account services sector.
On that note, security is a day to day issue with MMOs, with potential account thieves never sleeping in their quest to take your stuff. That being said, I make a note not to talk about security as much because it seems as though when any small group of people have their account stolen, at least one of them will presume that there is some massive wave of account theft going on or, in the case of Aion, that the company is working with the account thieves. When the developer itself releases a security alert, however, I pay attention.
Sony this week announced a security alert for Everquest II and Station, warning players of emails being sent directing users to URLs that look virtually identical to the actual Sony website: http://auth.station.sony.com
If you feel your account may have been compromised by one of these emails, you can contact Sony through their chat, email, or directly through their phone customer support.
MMO Fallout 