When you run an MMORPG, try not to forget...

[Shawn]

... to, you know, actually collect the subscription fees.
Maybe its time to reveal one of your biggest mistakes in the history of this game? The one that nobody seemed to take notice of, mainly because nobody from Sony would reveal it. For the first 12 months of the game, people were playing for -free-.

You botched the subscription system.

Game Cards didn't expire. You let an incalculable (except to you) amount of people play the game for free, for a year PLUS, and you did NOTHING about it. You wanna know where the funding for this game has gone? You wanna know why we need advertisements? You want to know why SOE wont give ANY support to Planetside? You REALLY want to know why developers / support staff are leaving left and right?

Because you let people play for free for over a year, this game is deeply, DEEPLY, in the red.

Yes, thats right. The cards never ran out. I know, because I had one. I know, because for the first year + of the game, I had the option to play for the low cost of my initial $30... along with countless other people. Yeah, I reported it... no response... And guess what? With that never-ending card, I LEFT the game back then. Heh, and no, I wish I could have been altruistic and subscribed with a credit card... but since the billing cycle of the gamecard never ran out, I COULDNT.http://psforums.station.sony.com/ps/board/message?board.id=psdiscussion&message.id=766010

Personally, I'm just curious how the heck this happened. I mean, didn't somebody in billing notice the massive difference between the number of people playing the game and the amount of money coming in?

[Lady Vader]

:lol:lol:lol:lol:lol

Oh man. Only SOE. Oh MAN!

:lol

SOE hasn't been doing well for the last year with any of their MMORPGs. And as such, I'm sure they've had to lay off several hundred people. And as such, they're painfully understaffed. And as such, they just don't have the manpower to check on every ticket in every nook and cranny.

Honestly, you'd think they'd have caught something as HUGE as this, but my guess is, they just don't have enough people to take care of it.

Either that or they're completely ignoring tickets sent in from their customers.

[Khendon Sevon]

Well... when I start my development company, I'll be sure that we hire a very, very good accountant ;)

[Morgan Evanar]

Sony is histerically incompetant.

[Zereth Lancer]

How can anyone be that incompetant? thats just radiculous.

[Juney Briggs]

Wait, wait, what is SOE? And why is this such a big blow to Sony? Aren't they a multi-billion dollar corporation? Why would one years worth of subscriptions be a big deal? I'm assuming this isn't a big MMORPG. . .well at least to me.

[Khendon Sevon]

Sony Online Entertainment.

They run a lot of MMO's and it is a big blow. Think about it, monthly fee * num of players affected * 12 = millions of dollars.

In the mean time, they have to pay for employees, hardware, bandwidth, etc.

Also, if it means the failure of an MMO, that's millions of dollars of development and maintenance wasted.

Besides, faith in SOE was already failing way before this happened. They have a high potential to lose fan base. That's potentially billions of dollars.

[Callista]

was that for any game or one game in particular?

[Lady Vader]

They're talking about the game Planetside, from what I gather.

[Morgan Evanar]

Not like they've ever made a game worth a damn anyway. The only one that had any kind of real potential was Galaxies and we all know how that went.

[Charley]

Originally posted by Juney Briggs
Wait, wait, what is SOE? And why is this such a big blow to Sony? Aren't they a multi-billion dollar corporation? Why would one years worth of subscriptions be a big deal? I'm assuming this isn't a big MMORPG. . .well at least to me.

Sony isn't going to allow a subsidiary to exist that continues to lose money. While this issue won't sink Sony in the slightest, what it will do is help convince the real powers that be to close SOE entirely.

[Callista]

I don't think they can close SOE......they've got EQ, EQ2, SWG (which they've been doing ads for lately and letting people play for a couple weeks free to bring them back in)

[Charley]

Sure they can. SOE is a drop in the Sony bucket. If you really think that they can't afford to cut that piece of fruit off the vine then you probably need to look at the corporation's bigger picture.

[Pierce Tondry]

Sony easily makes more revenue off Playstation sales than it does in the MMO market. I wouldn't be surprised if they reinvested SOE's funds in that direction and closed the doors of their MMO division.

[Khendon Sevon]

Yeah, Sony is a huuuge company. Only SOE has to worry.

[Shawn]

Even their hardware divisions are so-so. I've heard numerous times that their PlayStation division is what's keeping them afloat, and I'm inclined to believe it.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Maybe they should do the Daewoo thing and start making cars, too? Heck, they might even forget to make you pay for it :)

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Daewoo also makes firearms and various military hardware. It's one of those asian *.* companies

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Shawn
Even their hardware divisions are so-so. I've heard numerous times that their PlayStation division is what's keeping them afloat, and I'm inclined to believe it.

Yeah, their VAIO machines are 50-50. When they first came out (the first year of VAIO productions) they were good machines. My parents still have their VAIO desktop and laptop, complete with Win95, and it runs just fine with no problems.

The later models of VAIO were 50-50, where sometimes the mahcine would be just fine and dandy, and sometimes it would go completely to pot.

My parents did get a later VAIO model with WinXP and had no problems with it. They were lucky. But I heard quite a few reports of other people that had gotten the same or similar models that had countless problems with them.

So, yeah, all Sony has going for it right now is the Playstation stuff. If THAT goes to pot, then Sony is screeeeeeewed.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lets not forget their new CDs that place files on your computer without your knowledge. Sony is retarded (no offense meant to any actually mentally handicapped people by comparing retardation to Sony). :p