The Agency Cancelled and Sony Layoffs at SOE

Some extremely depressing news for ThumbDrive has just surfaced today and all have taken a moment of silence in its wake. We've just discovered that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), creators of such games as 'EverQuest,' 'Free Realms,' and most recently, 'DC Universe Online,' have mentioned the layoff of some of their employee's. Its never good news to hear of the loss of jobs, let alone in the gaming industry. Never-the-less, developers broaden their horizon's and join new companies, or form their own, with the experience they've gained working for previous employers. Its also a good opportunity for the competition to bring on those and learn from the competition through those employees. What is Sony doing with their development software, how is Microsoft working with their online services, how are Sony recruiting their teams of talents and obtaining exclusive development companies, what is Microsoft doing with controller free gaming. Its definitely a gamble on corporations to let those team members go and the hard drives in their heads retain valuable strategic information. That's almost like a double agent. However, speaking of double agents, what more depressing is this.

Development for 'The Agency' announced and spoken of nevermore at E3 2009, will now never see the light of day. What had happened? Well, if we're free to speculate, which is what happens in this sort of industry, I would think it has to do with the result of 'DC Universe Online.' At its core, DC Universe Online was an excellent idea brought to fruition by legendary comic book artist Jim Lee, whom I remember most for Wild C.A.T.S (not Thunder Cats.) What gamers thought would be, should have known better. DC Universe, both on PC and PS3 haven't necessarily been the World of Warcraft that Sony may have thought it would have been and I think the sales numbers may be showing that. Gamers who really got into the idea, purchased the game and played it for the free month they had it, and then traded it off. The longevity of the game hadn't seemed to justify the $15/mo.

That's my guess as to what happened. The team working on The Agency took a hit in its department and the game was put on the shelf. Sony may be finding that its fanbase has been bred from the beginning that free is where they like it best, and the thought of paying for online gaming isn't something they're really into. These sorts of games seem to stick best with the PC and Xbox 360 where its gamers are more than willing to shell out the cash to play games online. I'm going to tread on broken glass and therefore assume this is what Sony was thinking that if they can't get gamers to pay to play DC Universe Online, then that was their intention for The Agency, obviously as it was slated as an MMO. The result being that we will never see what could have been and was announced at E3 2009.

Sony's Official Statement was the following:

"As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.

"This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE's current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios' suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year."

Well, its good the cream always rises, but Microsoft or Nintendo could be picking up those lost sheep. What then for Sony? Or any other company that lays off. Ouch.