In the era of more focused budgets, online distribution, and the advent of social gaming, major studios and publishers have scaled back their operations to make themselves more agile and better positioned for the opportunities available within the game industry. Following companies like Disney Interactive and THQ, Sony Online Entertainment joins their ranks in streamlining and repositioning the company.
SOE, the online game development division of Sony behind the EverQuest, DC Universe Online, and numerous other massively multiplayer online game titles, has announced in a statement the closure of the studios in Seattle, Denver, and Tucson, the cancellation of the unfinished multiplatform spy thriller MMO role-playing game The Agency, and a net total of 205 layoffs.
Staff, projects, and resources will be consolidated from the studios that are closing to the SOE San Diego and Austin offices. Nine titles are untouched by this reorganization, including EverQuest, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, PlanetSide, Free Realms, Star Wars Galaxies, and DC Universe Online.
Echoing the apparent intent to make SOE a bigger player in the lower-cost, free-to-play casual and social online game space: “This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages,” Taina Rodriguez, a spokeswoman, said in the statement.
[Source: Bloomberg]
