Sony Online Entertainment Acquired by Columbus Nova
Changes are ahead for Sony Online Entertainment. The company officially announced today that that it has been acquired by the investment management firm, Columbus Nova. In addition, the company has been re-dubbed as the Daybreak Game Company. Essentially, Sony Online Entertainment is no more.
Under the announcement, SOE as the Daybreak Game Company will now be an independent game development studio with its focus being on MMO video games not just for the PlayStation but also Xbox One, Xbox 360 and even mobile titles. Since SOE is no longer a subsidiary under Sony Computer Entertainment, the company as Daybreak Game Company may now develop games for platforms such as Xbox One, Xbox 360, iOS and Android.
In the new announcement, Daybreak Game Company said it will be “business as usual” and that previous SOE games that were under development will continue on their current path. The company said more resources will be available after the acquisition. While the term “business as usual” gets thrown around a lot after company mergers and acquisitions, the exact opposite tends to happen after a time. A certain amount of employees are usually lost following an acquisition or merger. However, that still remains to be seen. Daybreak Game Company now hopes to embrace multi-platform gaming following the acquisition.
Per the press release, the company is still committed to its games and players and maintaining its portfolio of online games. However, the announcement does basically mean that Sony Online Entertainment is no more, since it is no longer a Sony subsidiary and will now be developing cross-platform games.