By the time you view this video, PSN may be activated in your area. Today begins phase 1 of Sony’s restoration services for the Playstation Network, rolling out in various countries and states one by one. Players will be able to sign into the Playstation Network and download a patch and reset their passwords (this is mandatory). Gameplay services are also being restored on the PS3 and PSP, as well as access to services like Hulu, Netflix, the friends system, and Playstation Home.
If you live in the states, check out this page to see if PSN service has been restored in your area.
On the Sony Online Entertainment side of things, service appears to be restored. Those of you with subscriptions will see that your next billing period is listed as “45 days,” from an unknown billing source. For your games you do not subscribe to, you will see 45 days free game time listed as “pending.” I was not subscribed to DC Universe at the time of the shut down, and I still received 45 days free.
There are a few perks not mentioned in the previous announcement players can take part in. In Everquest, for example, housing decay has been deactivated for 30 days. Either way, welcome back everyone! PS3 users have a bit more to wait, but PC Station users can dive right in.
By the time you view this video, PSN may be activated in your area. Today begins phase 1 of Sony’s restoration services for the Playstation Network, rolling out in various countries and states one by one. Players will be able to sign into the Playstation Network and download a patch and reset their passwords (this is mandatory). Gameplay services are also being restored on the PS3 and PSP, as well as access to services like Hulu, Netflix, the friends system, and Playstation Home.
If you live in the states, check out this page to see if PSN service has been restored in your area.
On the Sony Online Entertainment side of things, service appears to be restored. Those of you with subscriptions will see that your next billing period is listed as “45 days,” from an unknown billing source. For your games you do not subscribe to, you will see 45 days free game time listed as “pending.” I was not subscribed to DC Universe at the time of the shut down, and I still received 45 days free.
There are a few perks not mentioned in the previous announcement players can take part in. In Everquest, for example, housing decay has been deactivated for 30 days. Either way, welcome back everyone! PS3 users have a bit more to wait, but PC Station users can dive right in.
Good morning, folks. Those of you attempting to log into any of Sony Online Entertainment’s games may be asking yourself, “why can’t I log into my favorite SOE game?” or “why am I asking a non-Sony blog why their services are offline?” Of course those of you who came here before checking Sony’s website will have missed the following announcement:
We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday).
I call the joke on Sony Offline Entertainment, it’s mine. I’ll be watching for further announcements later today.
“The monthly subscription fee means players can expect a lot of new content from us. And I say a lot — I really mean that. This is something that we feel obligated to the players, because they are paying a monthly sub fee.“
Sure, John Smedley was referring to DC Universe online when he said Sony Online Entertainment felt an obligation to churn out regular updates for their subscription based games. Sure, Vanguard is a subscription based game operated by Sony Online Entertainment. The question that has been hitting the blogosphere is quite simple: Why is it that Sony continues to charge a subscription despite there being no Vanguard-devoted developers left at Sony, and despite the latest official update coming out in Spring 2010.
A great pianist can only reach his full potential with a piano of equal quality, and Vanguard and Planetside are on the list of Sony Games that are not so much dumped in the trash as they are hooked up to life support machines until the population levels hit zero of their own accord. While the other games in SOE’s lineup receive regular updates, expansions (in the case of Everquest and Everquest II), and new content, assuredly players of Planetside and Vanguard would take issue with Smedley’s promise on their subscription based games.
In an interview at last year’s SyndCon, John Smedley said:
We’re thinking about specific next steps for Vangaurd, but we’re not shutting it down or anything like that. We want to add more stuff to it. Will we change the business model? That’s the question people keep asking me. Will it go free-to-play? I don’t know – we’ve discussed it. What we’ll decide? I’m not sure yet. We’re going to see where EverQuest II Extended goes. But certainly if we make a decision like that, it won’t be without deciding to add more content to the game.
So depending on the success of Everquest II Extended, Vanguard could receive the free to play treatment priority over outright pulling the plug, however as John Smedley promises this will not happen without new content, which undoubtedly means pulling developers from other projects, and spending money for what Sony may determine too high of a risk.
So there we are. Vanguard will likely choose free-life over death, and Planetside may or may not bite the bullet when Planetside Next launches (John Smedley has stated that Planetside Next is being specifically designed so computers scaled back six years can play at minimum settings, which means Planetside players should be able to run it fine).
“The monthly subscription fee means players can expect a lot of new content from us. And I say a lot — I really mean that. This is something that we feel obligated to the players, because they are paying a monthly sub fee.“
Sure, John Smedley was referring to DC Universe online when he said Sony Online Entertainment felt an obligation to churn out regular updates for their subscription based games. Sure, Vanguard is a subscription based game operated by Sony Online Entertainment. The question that has been hitting the blogosphere is quite simple: Why is it that Sony continues to charge a subscription despite there being no Vanguard-devoted developers left at Sony, and despite the latest official update coming out in Spring 2010.
A great pianist can only reach his full potential with a piano of equal quality, and Vanguard and Planetside are on the list of Sony Games that are not so much dumped in the trash as they are hooked up to life support machines until the population levels hit zero of their own accord. While the other games in SOE’s lineup receive regular updates, expansions (in the case of Everquest and Everquest II), and new content, assuredly players of Planetside and Vanguard would take issue with Smedley’s promise on their subscription based games.
In an interview at last year’s SyndCon, John Smedley said:
We’re thinking about specific next steps for Vangaurd, but we’re not shutting it down or anything like that. We want to add more stuff to it. Will we change the business model? That’s the question people keep asking me. Will it go free-to-play? I don’t know – we’ve discussed it. What we’ll decide? I’m not sure yet. We’re going to see where EverQuest II Extended goes. But certainly if we make a decision like that, it won’t be without deciding to add more content to the game.
So depending on the success of Everquest II Extended, Vanguard could receive the free to play treatment priority over outright pulling the plug, however as John Smedley promises this will not happen without new content, which undoubtedly means pulling developers from other projects, and spending money for what Sony may determine too high of a risk.
So there we are. Vanguard will likely choose free-life over death, and Planetside may or may not bite the bullet when Planetside Next launches (John Smedley has stated that Planetside Next is being specifically designed so computers scaled back six years can play at minimum settings, which means Planetside players should be able to run it fine).
Earlier I reported on Sony handing out the pink slips to 35 unnamed employees dispersed to several different projects (to ensure the public that they were not targeting one specific game), and if you assumed Vanguard was among the layoffs, you would be correct. A few ex-Sony employees have chimed in on the forums, confirming the layoffs and reporting that among the games affected are mainly Everquest II, Vanguard, and The Agency. Only a few of the employees were actually named, including Joel Sasaki, the Vanguard Community Manager, as well as Brett Scheinert, the man responsible for the Everquest II: Sentinel’s Fate raid design.
Best of luck to those affected. MMO Fallout will continue covering MMO developers, through the good and bad.
I have decided to retire the Month In Review sessions in replacement for what I call “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” essentially a recap of the month and a look forward into the coming month.
June, like any decent bridging sequel, brought more questions to the table than it did answers…
My favorite picture of the month.
I have decided to retire the Month In Review sessions in replacement for what I call “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” essentially a recap of the month’s highlights.
June, like any decent bridging sequel, brought more questions to the table than it did answers. There was plenty of recaps to be had, such as this one! All in all, June was an excellent month for information regarding previously low-key MMOs. We received a lot of information on Warhammer 40k, the new Star Wars MMO, an upcoming Mummy MMO, Jumpgate, Lego Universe, Project V13, among others.
Foremost, happy birthday to some of our old geezers who are still running around.
WWII Online: Battleground Europe (2001-Present)
Anarchy Online (2001-Present)
Star Wars Galaxies (2003-Present)
Sony kicked off the month with the “official” announcement of Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. Intending to offer players an experience more akin to Free Realms (and built on the same engine), Clone Wars will follow a similar pricing format, with a multitude of mini-games, activities, pets, and houses for players to engage in. Aimed at a slightly lower age group than your Star Wars Galaxies or The Old Republic, Clone Wars is aiming to hit the net sometime later this year.
Lord of the Rings Online and Global Agenda are getting a lot more accessible, with the announcement of both games changing subscription models. Lord of the Rings Online will be taking on a freemium model, with the original game offered for free with bonuses, expansions, and more content available in one time purchases, or for a subscription fee. Global Agenda, on the other hand, is going the Guild Wars route, offering the entire game after purchase for no subscription fee.
June 9th saw the launch of Mortal Online, after a number of delays on the part of Star Vault, with issues of desynchronization, among others, plaguing the servers. Server stability is still an issue with Mortal Online, with a form of compensation on its way from Star Vault.
All Points Bulletin launched this month, with lead designer EJ Moreland taking a shot at the MMOs opening cash shops, by claiming that APB would not feature a cash shop, ever, before quickly retracting on his statement and saying that Realtime Worlds would only consider cashing in if the community asked for it. Given the response to other cash shop inclusions, expect a cash shop coming to a police department near you.
Darkfall still loves you, and here at MMO Fallout we love us some Darkfall. Since the title launched last year, Aventurine has been working around the clock trying to bring in new players, and keep them. Those changes have removed the $50 paywall and introduced initially a paid, now free limited time trial. New players will find themselves offered extra protection during their first days of game time, as well as the game constantly being balanced to lower the time it takes for players to become competent in PvP combat.
And while we’re on the subject of tweaking content to balance gameplay, how about removing a chunk of content for the sake of balance? Such is the case when Flying Lab Software announced that the higher end ships will be removed from Pirates of the Burning Sea for the sake of balancing the lower tiers of ships.
Not all was great on the western front, however, as this month marked the grand server merger in Everquest, leaving just fourteen of the original servers remaining. With what may just turn 2010 into a year for mergers, Sony later announced mergers for Vanguard, with NCsoft announcing Aion server mergers, both game’s mergers to occur in July.
There is plenty more that occurred in June, and you can read all about it in the MMO Fallout archives. Until next time, this is Looking Back, Moving Forward.
Despite my hope that this announcement won’t come for another few years, I don’t think there will be many shocked faces when the shut-down notice is given for Vanguard. Late last year, Sony announced in a pretty solemn notice that several features had been canned completely, including alternate advancement and various dungeons, among other things. We were informed at the time that server mergers were planned, with no additional information at the time.
Fast forward almost six months, and the announcement is here: In July, more specifically the 7th, Vanguard will begin the process to merge the remaining three US servers into one, with the Halgar server being merged in August. Each server merger is expected to take 24 hours.
On the plus side, however, this is expected to be one of the more user-friendly server merges than you would normally find. Guild names are not affected, even guilds with the same names will be able to transition over with no issues. Players will be reimbursed for their houses, both in the cost of the house and the materials used to build it. Mail, friends/ignore lists will be kept, and items on dead players will be available to them at altars. Items in escrow and at the market will not be merged, however.
I must question, for another time, why Sony is performing a double merger, requiring players to make the same land rush twice for housing space.
Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.
It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.
But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:
Vanguard is a tale of high expectations and the giant corporate belly. In fact, it only took four months after Vanguard’s release for Sony to gobble up the developers, Sigil. When Vanguard released in 2007, it was awarded the “Biggest Disappointment of the Year” award by Gamespy, noting the title’s lack of content, buggy performance, and the fact that the title was shoved out the door before completion.
It’s been a rocky two years for the title that was once touted as the Everquest 2 Killer. On the plus side, if anything just to get the good news out first, there will be more frequent (yet smaller) updates this year. Vanguard is looking at 2010 as a year to fix bugs, crush bugs, and fumigate the house. The developers are also looking at focusing on the story elements of the game, starting and ending chunks of storyline.
But the bad news, and there always is some, is that some planned updates have been shelved indefinitely:
MMO Fallout 