SOE Becomes Daybreak / Russian shutdown

Interesting news considering the company.

Columbus Nova | LinkedIn

CN has a broad investment mandate which allows investments across all levels of the capital structure from senior secured debt to equity. CN takes a value-oriented, long-term view to investing and seeks consistent returns with an emphasis on capital preservation

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Columbus Nova: Private Company Information - Businessweek

Still a fairly new firm, with a lot of people tied to venture capital. Featuring people from JP Morgan and the likes. Created in the year of the derivative schemes after Clinton signed away the Glass-Steagall act. Fast money, large gains tied to future(s) value.

Their senior VP Jason Epstein

He is responsible for all of Columbus Nova?s private investment activities, and co-leads Columbus Nova?s three primary investment vehicles: Columbus Nova Credit Investment Managers, Columbus Nova Special Opportunities Fund, and Columbus Nova Real Estate Acquisition Group.

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Bolded part seems to put him in charge of this purchase.

This might then tie this purchase into the separate branch of the company, Columbus Acquisition Corp

Columbus Acquisition Corp: Private Company Information - Businessweek

Columbus Acquisition Corp. does not have significant operations. It intends to serve as a vehicle to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, or similar business combination with one or more operating businesses

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Further

Paul F. Lipari

List of Private Companies Worldwide, Letter - Businessweek

Mr. Lipari joined Columbus Nova in July, 2006 and is based in the New York office and is responsible for its investment activities. Prior to Columbus Nova, Mr. Lipari was a Founder and Partner at Hudson Capital Advisors, LLC. Prior to Hudson Capital Advisors, he worked for Trimaran Capital Partners,where he primarily focused on media and telecommunications investments.Prior to Trimaran Capital Partners, Mr. Lipari worked as an Executive Director in the Leveraged Finance group of CIBC World Markets,and worked on a variety of senior bank debt, high yield debt, and private/public equity transactions.While in the Leveraged Finance Group at CIBC, he spent considerable time working on numerous financings for Global Crossing and was partially responsible for monitoring CIBC?s private equity investment in Global Crossing. He worked at Salomon Brothers Inc., where he was an Associate in their High Yield Group and an Analyst in their Merchant Banking Group.

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This does not seem like a purchase from a firm that will just settle with a namechange and then let business go on as usual in the background. This will be measured in $ value, down to "should we dismantle and sell individual IPs?". Even if the office had a casual Tuesday planned tomorrow, I'd show up in a suit if I was anywhere near connected to a management level position.

a_skeleton_02_sl said:

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That...is actually kind of a cool name for a dwarf city.

Vinyard_sl said:

What do you mean bro. They are obviously taking the Daybreak LIVE resources and putting them IN to EQN to bring it out faster.

Or it just means they are going back to the drawing board on EQN and have nothing to show again this year

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Because I believe all these fan faires (SOE, Blizzard, EVE) is a VERY important way for a company to keep their core audiences/community, it is like building a bussiness culture.

Convo_sl said:

Was a total waste of money. I won't do again. Haven't bought h1z1 bc of this

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20$ compared to 150$ for landmark? or whatever, I think 20$ is fair really should be 10$ but w/e cant REALLY complain about a 20$ alpha buy in, but im a junkie for playing games before they are released for whatever reason.

crackheads can afford that shit....

This thread moves pretty fast... but to answer this question:

Vitality_sl said:

Not sure who you're talking about here.. If it's Georgeson you're going to be in for a wild ride because he's the reason the EQ franchise is where it is right now.

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It was a play on your response to this post and had nothing to do with anyone on the EQ team or from SOE.

Convo_sl said:

Hopefully the new owners are neckbeards

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Mr Creed_sl said:

This thread moves pretty fast... but to answer this question:



It was a play on your response to this post and had nothing to do with anyone on the EQ team or from SOE.

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I must be dumb as fuck because that response literally made no sense.

TecKnoe_sl said:

20$ compared to 150$ for landmark? or whatever, I think 20$ is fair really should be 10$ but w/e cant REALLY complain about a 20$ alpha buy in, but im a junkie for playing games before they are released for whatever reason.

crackheads can afford that shit....

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Nothing to do with money. just wasn't worth it.

I'm hoping they go all Gordon Gecko, and sell everything including the posters on the walls.

Nah Regime, EQNext was never going to be actually made under Sony. It was going to be stuck in endless community poll hell forever.

Now it actually has a chance to be made (and suck), since telling their new overlords that the players are deciding what color dwarf beard buckles are will result in a bitch-slap, forcing them to actually attempt to do something on their own.

This is great new for Brad, he can get all his old buddies over to Pantheon. Long live The Vison!

Convo_sl said:

Nothing to do with money. just wasn't worth it.

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well yeah bro, that's a lot of living up to do at 150$ that's my point lol at 20$ you're solid if you get 20 hours out of it, that was just my point wasn't trying to be a cock.

SOE acquired, becomes Daybreak Game Company

Interesting points the analyst makes.

This guy must be like the "go-to" guy for analysts when it comes to gaming (Patcher) I always see him getting quoted about any big news, earnings predictions and general financial commentary.

Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter is largely in agreement that SOE was no longer a good fit for Sony as a whole. "I think that Sony Online is profitable, but not particularly strategic for Sony. Remember, they are a consumer electronics manufacturer, so to some extent, owning movie and television studios makes sense in order to drive Blu-ray player and TV sales. However, owning an online gaming company isn't a great fit, particularly as games are shifting increasingly to a free-to-play mobile model," he said.

"I would imagine they weren't shopping SOE so much as they received an unsolicited offer, and I think that they will be fine without contribution from that side of the business. I'm glad Smedley went with the company, as he built that business from scratch and deserves a lot of credit."

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TecKnoe_sl said:

well yeah bro, that's a lot of living up to do at 150$ that's my point lol at 20$ you're solid if you get 20 hours out of it, that was just my point wasn't trying to be a cock.

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I didn't do 150. That's crazy. What was it? 50 I think?

#2 tells me the engines will be shit and we might as well play FFXIV.

Grundge_sl said:

This is great new for Brad, he can get all his old buddies over to Pantheon. Long live The Vison!

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shamelessly pulled from mmorpg

Awanka_sl said:

The end of an era. Hard to say if this change is good or bad for us ex-EQ fans. Since SOE hasn't done anything worth mentioning in almost a decade, I'm leaning towards good.

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They are not exactly awesome but that comment is still selling them short. They've put out an okayish enough product for that decade to keep their own games running and only had to shut off the abortions they bought for a dime like Matrix, VG and so on. They are pretty much the only ones in the MMOFPS market and have a decent product there too. Their plans for EQN might have pulled the stagnant MMO genre out of the quagmire it has been sinking into for a long time. I mean, PS2 aside I havent played an SOE game in a decade and I can list some positives. That they also fucked alot of things up doesnt just undo the good parts.

Awanka_sl said:

This news makes me nostalgic. After so many MMOs I've become tired of all the layers of complexity that have been added to this genre; the heavy-handed attempts to add a narrative to the experience, the convoluted progression pyramids, the constant mudflation of skills and levels. These days I want to go back to the beginning. A simple experience where you get a group of people and beat on something and it beats back until one of you dies. No quests or reasons, just a world of stuff for you to kill.

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Pantheon is that way... seriously though nothing you complain about in that paragraph is simply SOEs fault alone. You are bemoaning a decade of change in the entire genre or even gaming industry and pinning it on them unfairly. Time to invest a time machine!