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Sony Online Entertainment Expands Austin Operations
Game Developer Inks Deal for 37,492 SF at Prominent Pointe II
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By Brandon K. Skaggs
January 27, 2009
Sony Online Entertainment leased 37,492 square feet from Aspen Properties at Prominent Pointe II at 8310 N. Capital of Texas Highway in Austin.

The 105,000-square-foot, Class A office building was constructed in the Northwest Submarket last June. Sony's five-year deal stabilizes the building, bringing its occupancy up to 88 percent.

The game developer anticipates moving from its 24,000-square-foot space in Research Park Plaza IV at the end of the quarter.

Kevin Granger of Stream Realty represented the landlord, Aspen Properties. Jay Lamy and Chris Perry of Aquila Commercial represented the tenant. ENDQUOTE

The extra 13,492 square feet is for what? Bowing Alley?  Executive Dining?  Customer Lube Jobs?

Considering the upcoming sweeping layoffs Sony is planning, this "move" surprises me - a lot.

Perhaps the extra space is to accomodate Smedley's ego when they release The Agency? That and the extra hamsters he'll need to run the servers!

This doesn't surpirse me at all.  SOE always does the oposite of what people think they will do. 

Originally posted by Terranah

This doesn't surpirse me at all.  SOE always does the oposite of what people think they will do. 

Now isn't that the honest truth. 

It could be used for more PS3 type stuff, ring tones and the rest of the junk they do.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Terranah

This doesn't surpirse me at all.  SOE always does the oposite of what people think they will do. 

 

Now isn't that the honest truth. 

 

It could be used for more PS3 type stuff, ring tones and the rest of the junk they do.

 I hope they put out a line of SOE Back Scratchers.

I would buy one but I wouldn't use it for my back.

SOE is one of the few shining stars in the Sony Divisions. They were brought in to teach the PS3 division how to become profitable. They are pushing the new F2P games (FreeRealms, The Agency and DC Universe) as one of the ways that they can get some money out of the PS3.

Originally posted by Superman0X

SOE is one of the few shining stars in the Sony Divisions. They were brought in to teach the PS3 division how to become profitable. They are pushing the new F2P games (FreeRealms, The Agency and DC Universe) as one of the ways that they can get some money out of the PS3.

I agree, SOE is a now a shining star of the Sony division. This is why they're making massive losses for the first time in years and have become a pariah of the gaming and console industry with the worst selling console on the market!

Gotta love that Smedley!

Originally posted by Superman0X

SOE is one of the few shining stars in the Sony Divisions. They were brought in to teach the PS3 division how to become profitable. They are pushing the new F2P games (FreeRealms, The Agency and DC Universe) as one of the ways that they can get some money out of the PS3.

  No, You have to be kidding - The only thing SOE can do is teach the PS3 division is how to be arrogant and ignorant in light of losing a monthly profit  of a quarter million dollars.

Originally posted by Agricola1

Originally posted by Superman0X

SOE is one of the few shining stars in the Sony Divisions. They were brought in to teach the PS3 division how to become profitable. They are pushing the new F2P games (FreeRealms, The Agency and DC Universe) as one of the ways that they can get some money out of the PS3.

 

I agree, SOE is a now a shining star of the Sony division. This is why they're making massive losses for the first time in years and have become a pariah of the gaming and console industry with the worst selling console on the market!

 

Gotta love that Smedley!

ONE MORE TIME FOR GOOD MEASURE!!!

Sony =/= SOE

Sony is cutting jobs from various divisions mainly high end electronics because nobody can afford them right now.

This does not mean SOE or even SCEA (which handles console games) are cutting jobs or even losing money. If you look at SONY losses you would notice that online games and the PS3 have very little to do with it.

The PS3 is actually selling well (and please don't compare it to the bloated Wii sales because that is the exception not the norm), and SOE is showing no signs of finacial troubles because they have the benefit of buying games off of troubled developers so they don't lose money do to the poor sales.

They stick a small team to keep the game running and take in the small profit that it offers. Contrary to popular belief you don't need a million subscribers to keep an MMO running, especially when someone else picked up the development costs.

An MMO only costs as much to run as the amount of players they have, especially when you aren't releasing tons of content (which most of SOE games don't so you don't have to tie in those costs). So a game with 20,000 subscribers will cost less to maintain then a game with 2,000,000.

The reason games like Tabula Rasa are going under is because they are not making back the development costs fast enough and a company like SOE isn't picking it up. If Tabula Rasa continued to run they would probably break even, it might take 10 years but it would happen. NCSoft just didn't want the long term investmant so they cut their losses.

So what have we learned from this?

Just because a division of a company is cutting jobs doesn't mean the company as a whole is doing poorly.

SOE = SONY but SONY =/= SOE =/= SCEA

People don't buy high end electronics during reccessions.

If SONY for whatever reason closed a certain division of their company, this does not mean they are going out of business, and it does not mean you won't see growth in other areas.

They are a multi billion dollar company that has their hands in everything from music, to movies, to games and household electronics. They probably stuff you don't even know they owned. They are not going anywhere.

Originally posted by pb1285n

Originally posted by Agricola1

Originally posted by Superman0X

SOE is one of the few shining stars in the Sony Divisions. They were brought in to teach the PS3 division how to become profitable. They are pushing the new F2P games (FreeRealms, The Agency and DC Universe) as one of the ways that they can get some money out of the PS3.

 

I agree, SOE is a now a shining star of the Sony division. This is why they're making massive losses for the first time in years and have become a pariah of the gaming and console industry with the worst selling console on the market!

 

Gotta love that Smedley!

 

ONE MORE TIME FOR GOOD MEASURE!!!

Sony =/= SOE

Sony is cutting jobs from various divisions mainly high end electronics because nobody can afford them right now.

This does not mean SOE or even SCEA (which handles console games) are cutting jobs or even losing money. If you look at SONY losses you would notice that online games and the PS3 have very little to do with it.

The PS3 is actually selling well (and please don't compare it to the bloated Wii sales because that is the exception not the norm), and SOE is showing no signs of finacial troubles because they have the benefit of buying games off of troubled developers so they don't lose money do to the poor sales.

They stick a small team to keep the game running and take in the small profit that it offers. Contrary to popular belief you don't need a million subscribers to keep an MMO running, especially when someone else picked up the development costs.

An MMO only costs as much to run as the amount of players they have, especially when you aren't releasing tons of content (which most of SOE games don't so you don't have to tie in those costs). So a game with 20,000 subscribers will cost less to maintain then a game with 2,000,000.

The reason games like Tabula Rasa are going under is because they are not making back the development costs fast enough and a company like SOE isn't picking it up. If Tabula Rasa continued to run they would probably break even, it might take 10 years but it would happen. NCSoft just didn't want the long term investmant so they cut their losses.

So what have we learned from this?

Just because a division of a company is cutting jobs doesn't mean the company as a whole is doing poorly.

SOE = SONY but SONY =/= SOE =/= SCEA

People don't buy high end electronics during reccessions.

If SONY for whatever reason closed a certain division of their company, this does not mean they are going out of business, and it does not mean you won't see growth in other areas.

They are a multi billion dollar company that has their hands in everything from music, to movies, to games and household electronics. They probably stuff you don't even know they owned. They are not going anywhere.

QFTW,

However SOE is still a PSO company who is greedy and completely unfair to their player base. And they have lost hundreds of EQ and EQ2 players, and future players like myself as well.I also feel like a lot of the "Word of mouth" about their games is going down the drain. Most people will not recommend EQ or EQ2 like they once did after this CS move. 

 Most Players would agree that SOE should not have to take up more space on this planet , I reccommend a Moon based expansion.

Originally posted by pb1285n

Originally posted by Agricola1

Originally posted by Superman0X

SOE is one of the few shining stars in the Sony Divisions. They were brought in to teach the PS3 division how to become profitable. They are pushing the new F2P games (FreeRealms, The Agency and DC Universe) as one of the ways that they can get some money out of the PS3.

 

I agree, SOE is a now a shining star of the Sony division. This is why they're making massive losses for the first time in years and have become a pariah of the gaming and console industry with the worst selling console on the market!

 

Gotta love that Smedley!

 

ONE MORE TIME FOR GOOD MEASURE!!!

Sony =/= SOE

Sony is cutting jobs from various divisions mainly high end electronics because nobody can afford them right now.

This does not mean SOE or even SCEA (which handles console games) are cutting jobs or even losing money. If you look at SONY losses you would notice that online games and the PS3 have very little to do with it.

SOE used to list the combined "customers" in their job postings for certain positions.  I recall seeing it twice, once was clearly stated as over 800k and another was higher and loosely referenced 1 million (if I recall right), but that was several years ago and SOE was in a much stronger position in the mmo market than it is now.

Do you think SOE still has anywhere near 800k subscribers?  SOE isn't showing signs of financial troubles form buying Vanguard.  They are simply losing market share at an alarming rate.  This is just a guess, but I suspect they are roughtly 1/3 the size they were a few years ago in terms of playerbase.  With the subscriber base of one decent sized mmo, but having to support 8 and another 3-4 in developement?  Think about it.

If the heads at Sony were to ask for the performace of SOE over the last few years what do you think it would look like?  Why do you think they are no longer in the movie division where the executives in charge have no roots in video games?

There is actually a likely reason for this that has nothing to do with The Agency or any of the other crap SOE is doing.

Office space prices in many markets have fallen by as much as 50%, and Texas may be one of those areas, so a lot of companies are moving once their leases are up to take advantage. Could be that it is cheaper to move into a bigger place at a lower cost than renew in a place where the landlord won't cut the rent at renewal time.

My company is doing the same thing.

And we all know how cheap Smed is, so a move is probably about the money and nothing else.

SoE is going to be the official online division of Sony games, therefore even if their MMORPG aren't doing so good, there are lots of new games coming out and many will enter production in the near future.

SoE moving from the Pictures division to the game division, possibly meant massive investment which they didn't have before.
SoE is moving away from its MMORPG core market to a more wider market, producing hybrids which can be played easily on console as well on PC.
Forget about the SoE we know from EQ, that one is dead.
 

my guess would be just an investment. They might want it to lease to other related industries. I know a lot of corporations do this.

For example, a construction contractor leases space in their building to drywall and cement subcontractors. Its win win, they get lease revenue plus related business oportunities.

Originally posted by Agricola1

Originally posted by Superman0X

SOE is one of the few shining stars in the Sony Divisions. They were brought in to teach the PS3 division how to become profitable. They are pushing the new F2P games (FreeRealms, The Agency and DC Universe) as one of the ways that they can get some money out of the PS3.

 

I agree, SOE is a now a shining star of the Sony division. This is why they're making massive losses for the first time in years and have become a pariah of the gaming and console industry with the worst selling console on the market!

 

Gotta love that Smedley!

I guess you dont actually read the data that is put out. SOE is a big moneymaker... they are being pulled in to counter the losses of the hardware divisions.

Sony is closing out whole groups, and dropping the products that they make, because they are not profitable... they are expanding SOE because it makes a disproportional amount of revenue compared to the cost. This is all available in the Sony Corp finances.... as they are public.

Originally posted by Daffid011

 If the heads at Sony were to ask for the performace of SOE over the last few years what do you think it would look like?  Why do you think they are no longer in the movie division where the executives in charge have no roots in video games?

 

SOE was moved out of the Movie Division, and move to the Games division to take the lead. If you check, you will see that this was a PROMOTION.

All those screaming SoE  is not making money are basing it purely on their hatred for SoE and have jack data to support themselves .

If a company expands during this time of economical troubles you can bet there is a  bunch of directors and accountants who sat down and decided they needed to do so.

How much money SoE makes is anyone's guess but blindly sitting in your small room on your pc and guessing is laughable.

Well SOE has enough cash to purchase other companies it seems.

www.edge-online.com/news/sony-online-founds-tucson-studio

I see no evidence to imply that SOE is doing well, I also compared the PS3 to everyother console on the market not just the market leader. Since the division for the PS3 was merged with SOE it is pertenent, the PS3 is the lowest selling and most expensive console on the market with the least games.

If someone has evidence from a financial report that SOE is making profits when the rest of the company is having its worst losses in 14 years and starting to cut jobs please link it. The studio they bought has a total of 14 employees and a shit game, so they make even Aventurine look like a goliath of the industry! Not exactly proof that SOE is a "shinning star"!

SOE has less subscribers now than 4 years ago but more than twice as many games, if I were to describe something as bloated it wouldn't be Wii sales! SOE has gone microtransaction and subscription on all games plus they attempt to get you to gamble ingame under the guise of a card game (banned in some U.S states).

Smedley has 2 major IPs, the Matrix and Star Wars but has lost subscribers so that both IPs are dead, the only thing SOE do to increase profits is to invent more ways to get thier ever shrinking playerbase to pay more cash with crazy card games and cash shop schemes on top of the subscription they already pay, rather than make decent games or fix what they have!

Soon SOE is going to reach critical mass, the station pass has already gone up by around 40% since launch and with the economic crisis and thier plunging playerbase the system has to crack soon. Smedley will go on squeezing more cash out of a decline playerbase until it just gives up like an old farm animal and just keels over and plays something else.

SOE is doing well? Compared to who? Enron? DeLorean? New Coke? Zsa Zsa Gabore? Link or it never happened! SOE is a pariah of the MMORPG industry for good reason, and they are not successfull, FACT!

there is no real indicator anywhwere that about the point if SOE alone is making losses or wins.

Yes its true that SOE lost a lot subscribers since the time when EQ was at population max and SWG just launched, but that doesn't mean they are making losses. i think all games that they developed got them their devcosts back (matrix and vanguard were not developed by soe they were just bought by them after failed launches, so i doubt they payed that much for these 2 games) and i think that you can keep these games that they still have running at a profit without making losses if you use an appropriately sized team.

having 3 games in developemenet is actually a good strategy in my eyes cause without new launches they won't suddenly pull more subscribers out of their hat. the 3 announced games in developement are also not all aimed at same population group Free Realms is aimed at kids/families, agency seems to be more shooter like and dc online is a comic based mm on a major ip. I have no idea how these games will sell yet, so i guess we have to wait their launches before we can say if these will get soe more subscribers or if they will hurt sonys finances in the end.

I also looked up last the financial report from sony's last quarter (dez 31), it shows that the game section was one fo the few sections that made a small profit.  with ps3 probably still sold at a loss (at least analysts on the web think it is) the profit of the software was most likely higher.  which still doesn't give more  than a hint for SOE's performance, but i doubt that you can find a more detailed breakdown of Sony finances anywhere. my personal guess is that soe is still making profit but the profit is lower than at the good old eq years, and they are hoping that the new games will give them a betetr performance soon.

I'd love to be an M&A guy at the firm Sony uses. It seems they buy market share like phone companies do nowadays.

100 agreed on the Q financials. The thing is that EQ2 and Vanguard have very good framework. I imagine those games running for quite some time profitably.

What chaps my ass is the absolutely disgraceful lack of integrity shown to Sigil. Talk about big corporation group think and mis-management. I can understand SOE wanting to put their eggs in the 360 basket, because it paid off quite well. But simply taking a talented studio and a truly brilliant designer (McQuaid) and just crushing their creative drive/financial aptitude/ability to work etc. is shameless. Vanguard could have been truly great, epic even if the studio just had more hands off management and time to make it.

This is kind of predictable of Sony. They can and will dedicate some serious manpower toward mmo-type gaming. They'll expand and probably do quite well. It's just unfortunate for Vanguard and EQ2 that that time wasn't 7 years ago. Look for them to rape talent from the studio's they've accuired, use their current management structure and in house teams, and create a game that sells billions of copies but never will have the greatness of eq and the games created by people who fucking CARED about the content they were going to deliver.

No point in arguing with SOE haters.

SOE is fine, PS3 is doing as they expected, PSP is down slightly on what they expected, PS2 is down slightly on what they expected.

TV, Mobiles, Camera, Etc are DOWN 95% on what they expected.

They will never escape the fact that SOE is synonymous with the worst MMO business decision ever in their decided direction (and adamant defending of that direction) of SWG.

Even people that never played the game have heard about it. It's legendary.