ProSiebenSat.1 company discussion - "Who are they?"

Figment · 2012-02-22, 09:45 AM

Okay, so we've been (justifiably) having this huge row regarding segregation between players from the US and EU and surrounding countries due to agreement between SOE and ProSiebenSat.1 (Pro7). Unfortunately, I'm rather skeptic about the chances of a good arrangement being struck as a lot of negotiations have finished already. Which means we've been sentenced to deal with Pro7.

However, most of us don't even know what Pro7 is all about. So my idea for this thread is for you to share the experiences you may have had with P7, both in gaming and any television or radio channels they run.

What is their product quality like? Who do they target? How is their support rated? What is their advertising strategy? What big or known names in gaming have they done before? What is their history for licensed products?

We need to get a bit better profile of this company, because outside of Germany (especially in the west) it's rather unknown.

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Some info:
http://www.prosiebensat1games.com/
http://www.prosieben.de/
http://www.prosieben.de/games/
http://www.prosiebengames.de/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProSieben
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProSiebenSat.1_Media

The countries they will be active in for SOE surpass this by a lot:

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. [Other countries may be added later]

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Figment · 2012-02-22, 09:45 AM

From personal experience, I only know they used to own the lowest common denominator tv channels in the Netherlands (Net 5, SBS 6 and Veronica), which they only owned for a short period of time. I can't really talk for their German channels, through from what I've seen during holidays, it's not much to write home about.

So far to me, the image I have of Pro7 is a bit of a German version of the Murdoch empire: exploity, cheap, commercial mass media. A bit of a gossip/celeb channel, cheap (action) movies with lots of lengthy commercial breaks and little regard for viewer experience. And of course everything is dubbed in local languages (no subbing in Germany on virtually any channel afaik). This image is further strengthened by bids made on the company, by the owners of Bild and Der Welt (think german versions of british gossip tabloids) and the media group owned by Berlusconi.

I have absolutely no thorough knowledge of their gaming history, but it has come to my attention that Alaplaya does not have an extremely good reputation and even broke some privacy laws by publishing real life names in relation to debts:

http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/support...ts-t12991.html

^ The above thread has been updated with a correction that it is not about due payments, but payments already made on an archaic payment system they have since abandoned. Apparently, at the time they could not link the money spend to the appropriate accounts.

They also have terms and conditions which allow them to end an account after 90 days of inactivity:

http://en.alaplaya.net/pages/terms

So I have questions about the level of their... 'improved service'.

Anyone feel the need to correct, expand on or nuanciate this image?

Coreldan · 2012-02-22, 09:48 AM

WHAT LOL?!

I'm Finnish, been gaming all my life, I've never heard of the company lol. They are number one nothing in Finland

Except if they are some kind of "mother company" for some other names I'm familiar with.

That said, I dont judge em before I try them. Naturally I'd rather be under SOE (although I guess under Pro7 I'm less likely to lose my CC details to haxors

), but not a big deal for me.

EDIT: As I suspected. Did some googling, they actually do run/own/whatever many of the biggest and most famous radio and TV channels here. The name ProSieben just is nonexistant here, but it doesnt change the fact that they do still have a huge impact.

As for the quality of those channels, they are all high quality. The TV channels they have around here are just about the only ones I watch anymore (lots of good movies and series), but I overall dont think that one can really draw any connections between those finnish channels and with how PS2 will be hosted.

Figment · 2012-02-22, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by Coreldan

WHAT LOL?!

I'm Finnish, been gaming all my life, I've never heard of the company lol. They are number one nothing in Finland

Except if they are some kind of "mother company" for some other names I'm familiar with.

They bought (and I think sold parts of) SBS.

Sinilaid · 2012-02-22, 10:03 AM

The cash shops in their game seem to sell power items :/ this will not end well...

Sighpolice · 2012-02-22, 10:05 AM

Alaplaya rings a bell.. They made/provided the online aspects of a game called Land of Chaos Online - http://loco.en.alaplaya.net/

I've played it, and in all honesty it's a good game in concept, and even in the actual gameplay (the battles) but it's brought down by an extremely bad "town" system where instead of a server browser, you walk around a town doing terrible quests. Not to mention you can't get any decent gear unless you pay for it with real monies, and that goes for getting any decent heroes to use as well.

Also the support for that is completely non-existent and rife with lag problems

If LoCA is anything to go on for PS2, then it is destined to fail. Think Global Agenda currently, where any time you do anything on a free account it's - "YOU COULD HAVE GOT THIS IF YOU BOUGHT A SUBSCRIPTION, OMG WHY DON'T YOU BUY THIS, SPEND YOUR MONEY HERE NOW AND HERE AND NOW!!!!!"

Annd back on topic, I've never even heard of Pro7 and I live in the UK. I'm pretty sure they aren't the "mother" company of any gossip magazines or anything in the UK, it's quite a unique name so it would have stuck if I ever heard it

Figment · 2012-02-22, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Sighpolice

Annd back on topic, I've never even heard of Pro7 and I live in the UK. I'm pretty sure they aren't the "mother" company of any gossip magazines or anything in the UK, it's quite a unique name so it would have stuck if I ever heard it

Probably because you got Rupert Murdoch instead of Saban or Berlusconi.

Wakken · 2012-02-22, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by Sinilaid

The cash shops in their game seem to sell power items :/ this will not end well...

God no. for reals? some kind of source for this?

I really hope they're better than GOA was for EU during Dark age of camelot and warhammer online.

But really? If they start to sell power items for PS2, I think im out. I hate that. Cosmetics or no deal

EDIT; also, never heard of them. Their name doesnt sound too... comfortable though..

Sighpolice · 2012-02-22, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by Figment

Probably because you got Rupert Murdoch instead of Saban or Berlusconi.

Don't remind me

*cries at the state of the world*

Sta · 2012-02-22, 10:13 AM

Here in germany pro7 is one of the richest tv-channels. That means they've got the money to buy the licenses for showing the newest hollywood movies.
Like one mentioned before me, yes lots of long commercial breaks...

I'm also quite surprised they trying now to fuk with the video game market on a bigger scale since I can only remember their logo on cheap 5 euro pc games which were released for several years already...

Also I'm concerned about the fact that a german company takes over soe's eu area because here in germany you really get a feeling that they're trying to Germanize everything on the internets what I find fucking intolerable!!!
You also have to buy games every fucking time from uk or usa because here in germany they have to censore efing everything! Like green blood and such things...

To make long story short, they're seriously trying hard to fuck up your day in germany when its about games or internet!

Edit:
4 example, in the game hearts of iron3 which is about ww2 they've even censored the name of adolf hitler.. I mean isnt it wrong to censor such things? Like such historic persons never even existed by giving them totally different names?

Fara · 2012-02-22, 11:15 AM

http://www.prosiebengames.de/ Looks like a very tacky, social media gaming website. I can see where this is headed, I've seen it before. PS2 is leagues better than this. Feel really bad for Higby & Co. here.

Coreldan · 2012-02-22, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by Wakken

God no. for reals? some kind of source for this?

I really hope they're better than GOA was for EU during Dark age of camelot and warhammer online.

But really? If they start to sell power items for PS2, I think im out. I hate that. Cosmetics or no deal

EDIT; also, never heard of them. Their name doesnt sound too... comfortable though..

I'd think the cash shop items will be made on SOEs end. I doubt they are gonna have any programmers running the cash shop in Europe..

Canaris · 2012-02-22, 11:28 AM

*Statement RECANTED* due to false impression on the website. Apologies, seems to be innocent enough now they updated just what the thread was about.

http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/support...ts-t12991.html

Dart · 2012-02-22, 11:33 AM

Just posted this in the long thread but will repost here as I think it's relevant:

Read this for some more background on Pro7Sat.1:
http://eq2wire.com/2012/02/22/20-thi...alaplaya-deal/

Pro7Sat.1 is known for poorly-supported, security flaw riddled Korean-style browser MMOs. Not only does Pro7Sat.1 have a history of hacked accounts due to poor security, but they’ve done little to resolve the matter. More than a few players have expressed concern at the prospect of dealing with this shady company.

At least the two companies have some common ground!!

Here are the final two points, for anyone wondering what kind of company we're being sold to in Pro7Sat.1

UPDATE: Pro7Sat.1 reserves the right to DELETE accounts and character data (Part 6) after 90 days of inactivity. Will this apply to SOE games?
UPDATE: In violation of German and EU privacy laws, Pro7Sat.1 publishes the real names on accounts which are past-due.

So for everyone wondering, no SOE isn't the worst company in the MMO landscape for customer service... This one is!

Duddy · 2012-02-22, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by Canaris

they also seem to post up the real names of their customers on their forums for some reason http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/support...ts-t12991.html.........

Well if they're anything like Blizzard they did it to prevent bad behaviour on the forums.

I'm so bothered by using my real name, but I can understand why most people would prefer not to.