Free Realms Is shutting down
Amnerys has posted this note from Steve on the Official Forums:
Hi everyone,
Usually I’m in here telling you about cool new developments in the Realms. Today is a much different day for me. I’m deeply saddened to announce that we will sunset Free Realms on March 31, 2014.
Free Realms has truly been a labor of love for SOE (even our own president’s kids are huge fans and active players of the game!). In a nutshell, the game has reached a stage in its life cycle where players are growing up and moving on to other games.
When we first released the game in 2009, it was one of the very first free-to-play MMO for kids and teens, and we couldn’t be prouder of everything we have accomplished together in the game. While today’s news might be a disappointment, we’re sincerely excited about what’s to come for the game before we say goodbye, including player celebration in-game events and more!
We will share details on the upcoming activities and sunset soon, but we wanted to give you plenty of notice so you can truly enjoy your remaining time left in the game. We thank you for all of the memories we have made together in the Realms!
Steve George
Producer, Sony Online Entertainment
*-More games than just FreeRealms shutting down-*
*-New post from SOE themselves-*
Hello SOE Gamers,
Smed posted some more info on Reddit today. We'd like to keep the info all together so I've pasted it in this thread for you.
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When I read through all the posts here and on our forums, it never ceases to amaze me how people can think we're just money grubbing jerks because we're trying to make money.
I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that's just not how we think. Most people I know in the games business are in it because there is literally nothing else they want to do ever. From the time I was in high school I knew that's what I wanted to do. The same is true for a lot of people here at SOE and around the industry.
Obviously one of our goals as a corporation is most certainly profit. And yes, when you guys buy our stuff it makes us happy. But money has nothing to do with why it makes us happy. We're happy because you guys bought something we (or one of our other players made).
We're in the middle of developing Everquest Next Landmark (on schedule right now for end of this month). We rebooted the game 3 times. It was a massive delay and it hurt us financially. But it was the right thing to do for us, and for the industry. Most importantly you all are going to get to play something we're very proud of and we think is a whole lot of fun.
I believe a lot of this rhetoric is the result of us not being transparent enough, so we're going to change that. I want us to start explaining the "why" in the decisions we make.. particularly the financial ones.
The changes we originally proposed would not have made us more money than the previous plan. Even if some people cancelled, though to be honest we thought our plan was pretty darn awesome and you would love it.
The same is true for a lot of the decisions we make. We're trying to make life better for you, and yes.. for us too. But while some of those decisions are financially based, most aren't. It's usually something to clean up a tangled process or solve other problems.
So. how do we really feel about monetization?
Here it is.
We believe if we make great games, we'll make money.
In that order.
So I therefore am going to make it one of my personal missions to explain the thought process behind our business decisions. I want to be able to have an honest enough dialog that I can actually tell you "yeah this is important to our bottom line.. that's why we did it"... and have you at least not question whether that's the real reason. You may disagree with it, but at least you'll be able to make a reasonably informed judgement as to whether or not we're the greedy company some of you seem to think that we are, but at least you'll hear the why.
My hope is that by doing this we can at least get people to say "ok. that makes sense.. I don't love it but it makes sense and I'm ok with it". And if you don't, then we have work to do.
Smed
originally posted here - www.reddit.com/.../Pla.../comments/1unhw1/philosophy/
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"Hi everyone,
Thanks for the feedback. We listened.
Here are the basics of our revised plan. Please note - we have not had the time to do estimates of the work involved, and also we're continuing to listen. so this isn't baked just yet. Do not expect that this is all going to happen immediately. We plain don't know yet. we're doing that meeting tmw.
1) We're lowering the price of All Access to $14.99 2) We're going to make it so every subscriber to all our PC games an all access member. Basically there will be one SOE membership for our PC games. Please note there are some minor restrictions around our kids titles (simply put - if you're a 12 year old who signed up for FR you won't have access to the adult games so we'll likely leave the lower priced kids offerings as separate subscriptions for under 12 for the same low prices). 3) We're keeping the 500 SC included with the subscription instead of going to the "pick an item" system. We heard you. You didn't like the change. The only change we are making is that we're now going to make you claim it monthly. You can still hoard it though I realize this is a bit of a pain but honestly it's the best compromise we could come up with that solves the problems I mentioned in the other thread. 4) we are going to be giving our members a 10% discount in our marketplaces. 5) European players - we have an idea on how to include you in this but we need to discuss with our partners.We have a pretty good idea on this though. give us a bit of time to suss this out. 6) Nothing is changing with Player Studio items - you'll still be able to buy them with your 500SC. 7) Console titles - you'll notice I only mentioned the PC titles. Our goal is to include the PS3 and PS4 games that we have, but I want to be up front and say that isn't a done deal.
In a nutshell that's where our head is at.
As always your feedback is welcomed. Please do us a big favor and carefully think about #3. Our goal is to give you more value in the subscription to make it more attractive and making it simpler in the process.
I really feel like we're making a good decision going this route. It makes things simpler and gives more value to our players.
Thanks
Smed"
Originally posted here:http://www.reddit.com/.../moving_forward_with.../
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* Please keep all discussion regarding the membership changes to this thread, so we can easily monitor all feedback. Thank you in advance!
So everyone, it's real Free Realms is really shutting down. This is NOT a joke, I really wish it was. Free Realms being shut down is probably one of the worst things to ever happen. I just want to say I don't want this website to go waste so I'm going to make it into something very special not for just Nérdz, but for all Free Realms players. Having our favorite game taken away from us is a hard thing, but we can get past it. I hope you guys stay with me until I figure things out with the website I just thought I should let you all know I love you guys and everything you have done for me and Nérdz.
-Wiish
