ProSiebenSat.1

[GuyFawkes]

The big thing that puzzles me is why do this in the first place?

If you mention names like Blizzard , Microsoft or Sony you sort of expect a certain degree of professionalism. Maybe not 100% of the time, but dependable nonetheless.If pro7 were just hosting servers for soe and maintenance i could go along with it to a degree.

As it is, I find myself erring on the side of caution, and prefer just to not risk having them handle any details of mine from the get-go.

The whole GOA/Mythic with warhammer online, Codemasters/ Turbine with lotro make me bitten twice , thrice shy about any euro company running mmo games on behalf on the main company. They have little affinity with the game other than a middleman getting a cut of the profits while filtering it, and cut costs wherever possible and charge more for a reduced service.

[CuddlyChud]

These threads are kind of strange to me. Most people cry and moan about how crappy SOE is, but apparently this company that they've never used before is even worse? Also, nothing in the eq2 faq was updated, so what exactly is this thread pointing out?

[etheral]

Originally Posted by SergeantNubins

Hmm on the EQ2 prosieben FAQ, it says you can play on the US servers, but if you are in the EU, you MUST create an prosieben account in order to be able to do so. Maybe thats changed or is different from ps2, but i cant see why it would be.

Ah, sorry. I wasnt very clear. I meant that they cant just turn your SOE account into a pro7 account without your consent.

Originally Posted by CuddlyChud

These threads are kind of strange to me. Most people cry and moan about how crappy SOE is, but apparently this company that they've never used before is even worse? Also, nothing in the eq2 faq was updated, so what exactly is this thread pointing out?

Five words: better the devil you know

*edit* And yeah, I thought this topic had already been dealt with. Apparently not :P

[GuyFawkes]

Originally Posted by CuddlyChud

These threads are kind of strange to me. Most people cry and moan about how crappy SOE is, but apparently this company that they've never used before is even worse? Also, nothing in the eq2 faq was updated, so what exactly is this thread pointing out?

The soe devs are great, creating innovative game ideas and trying new stuff out. It's the higher corporate end and post launch where it gets blurry and questionable. We want soe to look after their baby, not throw it out into the world as soon as it starts growing teeth, especially not to some creepy euro pimp

[Emperor Newt]

Originally Posted by CuddlyChud

These threads are kind of strange to me. Most people cry and moan about how crappy SOE is, but apparently this company that they've never used before is even worse? Also, nothing in the eq2 faq was updated, so what exactly is this thread pointing out?

Most likely because 7games (until PS2) only hosted smaller, more "casual" games and nothing even remotely close to PS2s size. So people are of course a bit afraid by the lack of experience. But I am quiet confident that SOE can provide the data and know-how necessary.

[RadarX]

Originally Posted by GuyFawkes

The big thing that puzzles me is why do this in the first place?

If you mention names like Blizzard , Microsoft or Sony you sort of expect a certain degree of professionalism. Maybe not 100% of the time, but dependable nonetheless.If pro7 were just hosting servers for soe and maintenance i could go along with it to a degree.

As it is, I find myself erring on the side of caution, and prefer just to not risk having them handle any details of mine from the get-go.

The whole GOA/Mythic with warhammer online, Codemasters/ Turbine with lotro make me bitten twice , thrice shy about any euro company running mmo games on behalf on the main company. They have little affinity with the game other than a middleman getting a cut of the profits while filtering it, and cut costs wherever possible and charge more for a reduced service.

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.

[Pella]

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.

In all fairness we are yet to experience what ProSieben can do. And with such a huge contract on the line im sure they don't want to mess up.

[ThGlump]

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.

Localized support? Great. Marketing? Fine. Nobody will be against that as we know both are needed. But both could be done with external company, without hard splitting community, without separate accounts, without separate cash shop/currency.

[Joe]

I would have rather have stayed with Station Cash and station account then have to change it all into the Pro stuff.

[Emperor Newt]

Originally Posted by Pella

In all fairness we are yet to experience what ProSieben can do. And with such a huge contract on the line im sure they don't want to mess up.

At least ProSiebenSat1 also is a huge company, so they have the monetary muscle to do this. So this should not be an issue.

[ThGlump]

Originally Posted by Emperor Newt

At least ProSiebenSat1 also is a huge company, so they have the monetary muscle to do this. So this should not be an issue.

Codemasters werent small company and they had experience in gaming industry, yet they failed to provide Lotro good service (compared to Turbine), so Turbine took it back. This sort of deal never work.

[sunzen]

We now have regular conversations and meetings whose only topic is "What about the EU?" all because of this deal.

I can see why. I hope you agreed on a termination clause.

[ringring]

Originally Posted by sunzen

I can see why. I hope you agreed on a termination clause.

There is always a Sanity Clause.

[bjorntju1]

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.

I am Dutch, and the localized support isn't in my lanuage. So that advantage is not for everyone. Not that I mind, since I can speak/write English good, but still... And I also have never seen any marketing of that company here.

But I don't mind that they are handling that kind of stuff, but they do need to make sure we don't get delayed updates/patches. I don't mind if we get a patch a hour later or something, but not days/weeks. Also that we get into the closed beta at (almost) the same time as US people. And that the prices of the marketplace are the same as the US one. (1$=not1€) And that we also have the same items. I do hope they won't put in better weapons/items, while the US version doesn't have those things. And I know you guys said that SOE has the word on what get's in or not. So I suppose that won't happen, but I still have a bad impression from that fiasco earlier this year, and the things I read about the company. I am really curious about how the EU beta and release goes. If everything goes well, and the above stuff I mentioned gets handeled well. I am a happy person and then I will just play on the EU server

[SergeantNubins]

I still dont get why SOE think this will improve their player numbers over here. Prosieben only have any kind of presence in Germany (im assuming austria as well but it doesnt say it on their website) Romania, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Nothing in UK, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Portugal, Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Turkey, Ukraine etc etc etc.

Sony on the other hand.. has a network and presence in all of those countries, thanks to the PS3. Why does a Sony owned company, need to go to a third party with a limited network in Europe to distribute it's product? How will SOE games be marketed in other European countries than the ones s71 actually has some kind of network in? I'd never heard of them in the UK, before this stuff came up.

The other thing that really concerns me is that they are a German company. Now the Germans are good at many things, but they have a terrible record on video game censorship. I think it was Tera that launched recently and the German company that the devs had hired in this sort of a deal (squashed frog or something like that) had to censor the game client for all of Europe, based on draconian German censorship laws (which from what i've read over the last years in news items on tech sites and gaming sites, seems to be getting worse). Blood and a number of suggestive costumes for female avatars all had to be changed or removed to comply with German law. This meant a huge number of EU players simply bought the US client, as the devs had not tied down their systems and if you went to the main game website and bought it, it automatically set you up with the north american client. So why did they even need the german middle man in the first place!?