ProSiebenSat.1

[Pella]

Originally Posted by derito

I guess their experience with F2P games AND TV in Europe is something Sony may not have. Although it does look like the business/marketing guys made that deal and then left the people who spent months/years on the actual products to deal with the consequences.

From what i know Alaplaya, Is a subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 which is going to handle most things.

But again i see a repeat of what happened with GOA and Mythic at warhammer online yet another example.

[Emperor Newt]

Originally Posted by Sabot

Good point. But isn't Pro7 a TV station....? Or isn't doing what they do also a lot different from what they're about to do with PS2? And yes, that is a serious question.

They are, they own several free and paytoview tv channels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as a paytoview channel in US/Canada. Also they have several subsidiary tv and fm stations all over Europe.
But they also have the online games devision (sevengames and they aquired alaplaya) for years now. So they have some experience in the field and until now I haven't heard anything bad about it. Seems to run fine. Sevengames at least, alaplaya games seem to have cheater issues, but thats also likely also a problem of games lacking anti cheat tools as many f2p games do.
The thing (aka the problem) is that the biggest games they have is stuff like Runes of Magic, and Battlestar Galactica Online. Which are nothing in comparison to PS2s size and scale. And on those games I don't know if they actually host servers or simply provide a gateway.

[ThGlump]

Originally Posted by Pella

From what i know Alaplaya, Is a subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 which is going to handle most things.

They said it wont be under Alaplaya, that they will have new site and team for SOE games. If it was under Alaplaya i would be long gone as there wouldnt be any hacker hunting (based on how they deal with it in their current games) that SOE promised for keeping PS2 playable.

[I SandRock]

Originally Posted by RadarX

Why give EU players localized support and do marketing with a multi-billion dollar media company? It's how EU players should be treated. We now have regular conversations and meetings whose only topic is "What about the EU?" all because of this deal.

I'm familiar with the deals you mention and I can assure this is a whole different ball game.

A company which runs shitty games in a shitty manner. Just sayin'

[Dart]

Guys there really is no point in crucifying Pro7 before release. You all know I've never been an advocate of this deal but what's done is done and there is an alternative if things go badly. So with than in mind, why not give Pro7 the benefit of the doubt and see where it takes you? Otherwise I envisage a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Jeepo]

I understand the apprehension here, I do, but I think we need to step back and WAIT to see how they handle it. I think it will work out. And yeah I am a European player.

[RadarX]

Originally Posted by Sabot

Honestly, it's not hard this....

Regarding accounts. There will be no region locks! If you want to play on the US servers, you create a SOE account and use that to login to the game. If you want to play on the EU servers, you create a Pro7 account and login to the EU servers. Doesn't matter where you're from or what your IP address is... you will still be able to to create a set of both account types if you so wish. This is the latest info we have from SOE regarding the deal with Pro7, accounts and servers specifically for PS2.

The major thing that should be a concern, is how your current amount of station cash on your SOE account will be handled. I think they said we will be able to move the account into Pro7's care (and I guess the whole value of your station cash will follow.. not 100% on that though). What is a concern is that... while the game is free, that station cash wasn't. And simply handing it over into the care of a company we don't know anything about seems like a gamble. Like many have said; deals like this have been done in the past, and it hasn't always turned out good for the customer. I don't know about this company... SOE I can trust whitout not knowing, because it's their name all over game, it's their time and money that's gone into the development of it. Pro7 doesn't have the same stakes in, so how do I know I can trust them be as serious about it as SOE will be? Well, reading up on them doesn't seem to help... I try not to be affected too much by what's written about companies online without first hand experience myself. But it's hard not to feel worried.

That's the pickle... as far as I'm concerned. Not just the money we've put into the SOE accounts... I mean it's not that much money... I doubt anyone of you sold your house or wedding ring to buy station cash (don't answer that...). But the fact that when deciding on whether to go with US or EU servers, we either have to put up with latency issues, or we're walking bare assed first into the care of a company we know nothing about (not that many good things at least), that has nowhere near as much riding on this as SOE does... that makes it seem like they just saw a fast way of making easy $$. And that is never a good thing for us....




Good point. But isn't Pro7 a TV station....? Or isn't doing what they do also a lot different from what they're about to do with PS2? And yes, that is a serious question.

They are a media company who is diversifying in games much like Vivendi invested in Blizzard. We are providing them as much of our experience as possible. They are investing heavily in this.

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by RadarX

They are a media company who is diversifying in games much like Vivendi invested in Blizzard. We are providing them as much of our experience as possible. They are investing heavily in this.

Sorry for sounding like a first class prick, but - investing what? Effort? Or money? Because from what it seems from all the info gathered they're pretty much like EA in that regard.

[ThGlump]

Originally Posted by RadarX

They are a media company who is diversifying in games much like Vivendi invested in Blizzard. We are providing them as much of our experience as possible. They are investing heavily in this.

Vivendi invested in Blizzard but was smart enough only investing and dont meddling in how are games managed. I dont see Vivendi customer support or Vivendi accounts.
So into what Pro7 invested?
Into SOE (not probable)? Then they made mistake trying to do what gaming company should do (they should just invest money).
Into Alaplaya and SOE just providing games for them? Sory but they choose their investment into not trustworthy company with bad history/reputation and SOE games will suffer from that in EU.

[Sabot]

Originally Posted by RadarX

They are a media company who is diversifying in games much like Vivendi invested in Blizzard. We are providing them as much of our experience as possible. They are investing heavily in this.

Can you clairify that bit, please? The part about "providing them as much of our experience as possible". Do you simply mean that SOE will be helping them "setup" a working system for dealing with... all things they're going to deal with regarding PS2?

[Superbus]

Well speaking for a multi national group of friends that have been playing together for nearly a decade; if SOE decides to somehow change what they said and region lock servers they wont be getting our business.

[infected]

i'm not eu player but i'd say this could use more clarification from SOE... like what is this company's role? did SOE outsource this because the other company has the clout to advertise the game better in europe? and they had to make a deal to get that coverage? so they gave the company some management role over eu accounts? idk. i have no clue.

lack of clarity leads to speculation. would be nice if the soe peeps could go more into detail.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by infected

i'm not eu player but i'd say this could use more clarification from SOE... like what is this company's role? did SOE outsource this because the other company has the clout to advertise the game better in europe? and they had to make a deal to get that coverage? so they gave the company some management role over eu accounts? idk. i have no clue.

lack of clarity leads to speculation. would be nice if the soe peeps could go more into detail.

Agreed there needs to be a big post about it clarifying everything ATM this is worrying people about getting into PS2 and its a shame, its not the games fault just politics/business

[Eyeklops]

Originally Posted by Superbus

Well speaking for a multi national group of friends that have been playing together for nearly a decade; if SOE decides to somehow change what they said and region lock servers they wont be getting our business.

LOL..I'm sure you won't go anywhere near that free game.. haha.

[Xazbot]

I'm from portugal and never heard of pro7. I'm not sure about the direction SOE has taken here. And all this discussion here isn't helping. Won't I be able to keep using SOE station in EU to play PS2?