$OE bought by the Indians.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:02 am

Dots not feathers.

Quote:

NEW DELHI: Zapak Digital entertainment, the online gaming company promoted by Anil Ambani-led ADAG group, is all set to buy out Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) for around $300 million (Rs 1,200 crore).

According to sources close to the development, the deal will be finalised within the next few days. Sony Online was on the block for the past two weeks and Zapak, which has been looking for acquiring international studios, is finally said to have reached a consensus over the valuation of Sony Online.

“The deal is almost through. It is in the final stages of negotiations and by next week, Zapak will have a full right to all content, owned and published by Sony Online,” sources told SundayET.

Sony Online Entertainment is the game development and game publishing unit of Sony and posts revenue of around $ 150 million (the company doesn’t reveal the exact details for the division). It has in the past come out with popular games such as Everquest, PlanetSide, Star War Galaxies and Vanguard. SOE’s headquartered at San Diego, California, with additional game development studios located in Austin, Texas, Denver, Colorado and Seattle.

This acquisition is in line with the future plans of Zapak Digital, which is planning to enter the gaming space in China by early next year. “This makes perfect sense for us, as around 80% of content in the gaming industry is manufactured internationally. Buying out Sony, will not only give us access but also expand our reach in the global market,” said a senior Zapak Official.

The major expenses in the gaming industry is on content and marketing, and Zapak aims to reduce the cost of publishing a game by buying out those studios and relocating them to India. “This will reduce the cost drastically from $30 mn to $10mn, which will give us the advantage to channelise our funds towards marketing and other activities,” the official said.

In the recent past, Sony has aligned with Virgin Comics, a Bangalore-based collaboration of famed, self-help guru Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Richard Branson of Virgin Group. After the proposed acquisition, Zapak plans to retain control over all the deals, which has been signed by Sony Online.

According to the latest IMRB report, there are about 2.8 million online gamers in India and the online gaming industry is worth Rs 21 crore. Zapak is one of the top players in the Indian gaming space.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Zapak_set_to_buy_out_Sony_Online_for_300_mn/articleshow/2643807.cms

First of all... a sell off of the company as a whole does NOT mean they're doing well.

Second of all.. it's nice that the game developers will be in the same place as the customer service department.

Third of all, there's MANY quotes above that are just fall-down laughable.

IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!!

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:20 am

*sniff* Merry Christmas, one and all!

Aaaand... now for the obvious question. Do they inherit all licensed IPs? Any changes? Come on, juicy gossip, rumor and conjecture! Smile

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:26 am

Quote:

It has in the past come out with popular games such as Everquest, PlanetSide, Star War Galaxies and Vanguard.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAA

/breathe

HAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA

/fall down

HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

/pass out.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:26 am

LOL

They couldn't find a legitimate buyer so they sold it to a company with no knowledge or experience in the field.

Newsflash to HQ over there in Bombay: You just bought a bag of shit for the price of a bag of gold.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:42 am

As I just put on my blog...this is the final piece of the puzzle.

Bioware won't talk about their MMO, and won't discuss their joint project with LucasArts, which has been speculated to be because they can't discuss a Star Wars-based MMORPG project while SWG is still going.

The probability is fairly high that Lucas won't allow a company with no experience, and in India no less, to take control of his bread-and-butter IP, and will therefore pull the licensing rights when the sale is completed.

This is known to SOE and Zapak (notice that the Lucas deal isn't specifically mentioned in that story), and therefore the future life of SWG as we know it is just a few weeks long.

Bioware has said they'll discuss their MMORPG project after the first of the year, which would be after the sale (and one would assume the pulling of the IP, killing SWG), freeing them to talk about it.

Makes sense now.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:46 am

The article says $OE has only been on the block a couple weeks. I think they already knew they were losing the IP and decided to sell while they still had i to make the company look more successful.

Real question is will they lose the DC IP. The article SCREAMED outsourcing of all development.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:49 am

I just assumed the DC deal would fall apart, since it's still in development. Unless, of course, Warner has a mind-slip and decides to let it go forward.

I would be willing to bet, however, that SOE has known for more than a couple of weeks that this was going to happen, and has already sounded out LA on what would happen if, in fact, this kind of deal went through. If, in fact, they hadn't already lost it, and did it this way on purpose, as you suggest. (Admittedly, this sounds like a SOE move.)

This...is going to be fun to watch.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:50 am

Hmm, so who's heading to Austin to take a pic of Smed in the unemployment line? Actually, they will all be unemployed now.

Has anyone played a game developed by Indians? Not to be an ass, but usually the software they make is total crap, at least in my experience. Games are a bit more complicated than a simple db web site. Can a good game even be developed there? My guess is it would be possible under the some exact conditions which I doubt will be meet. All the people with any real talent over there get to immigrate to the US.

As bad as SOE is this is even worse.

As for SWG, well I am one of those that "got over it" so I guess I really don't care. However these sort of contracts are usually protected by non-transference clauses. SWG may very well be done.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:52 am

Meparch wrote:

Has anyone played a game developed by Indians? Not to be an ass, but usually the software they make is total crap, at least in my experience. Games are a bit more complicated than a simple db web site. Can a good game even be developed there?

Nope...total quality all the way, baby...total quality.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:53 am

Best xmas present ever? Very Happy

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:02 am

AHHHHH NO FUCKIN WAY OMG THIS IS ALMOST TO GOOD TO BE TRUE!!!!! Pinch Me im dreaming

Posts: 11 Great Posts: 0 Joined: 02 Nov 2006

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but looks like it's false:

http://www.eq2flames.com/general-gameplay/17217-may-explain-few-things.html

"This story is completely false. We aren't for sale

No idea who made this up. We are in discussions with various companies in India about bringing our games to this growing market but that's it. We aren't for sale."

Smed

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:14 am

Smed denies something and that's fact? Until I see a retraction, the news site it is posted on is MUCH more credible.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:17 am

Or, as I just amended my post on Lag-O-Rama to say, "So either it's not true, or no one's told Smed yet."

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:18 am

Well I don't find random Indian web sites creditable at all. However Smed's Japanese overlords have no interest or need to inform him of what they choose to do with their property. If a sale occurred, he would find out about it after the fact just like everyone else.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:18 am

Inhibitor wrote:

Or, as I just amended my post on Lag-O-Rama to say, "So either it's not true, or no one's told Smed yet."

If Sony Corp planned to sell SOE off, I doubt he'd be involved in any negotiations.

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:20 am

IT'S A FESTIVUS MIRACLE EVERYONE. DAMMIT I WISH WILDCAT COULD READ IT!!!!

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:20 am

That, and who'd want to tell them right before Christmas?

Merry Christmas... you're unemployed.

It's very likely Smed hasn't been told yet.

Posts: 11 Great Posts: 0 Joined: 02 Nov 2006

Shayde wrote:

Smed denies something and that's fact? Until I see a retraction, the news site it is posted on is MUCH more credible.

Never said it was fact, just said it looked like it was proven false. I want SOE to disappear from the MMO market just as much as anyone else here. Just posting what I found.

This was just posted on Massivly.com

http://www.massively.com/2007/12/23/john-smedley-sony-online-is-not-getting-purchased-by-zapak/

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:23 am

I've been in management of 3 companies that got bought out, and each time we never knew we were for sale until they told us we were sold.