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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into PlayStation Network outage#Sony Online Entertainment outage. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2011.

Sony Online Entertainment headquarters in San Diego

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, DC Universe Online and other smaller games in development.

In 2008 Sony Online Entertainment’s game Everquest was honored (along with Neverwinter Nights and World of Warcraft) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of MMORPG games.

In 2011, the service was brought offline after it was determined that its user accounts were compromised in attacks related to the ones that brought the PlayStation Network offline.^[1]

History[link]

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (May 2010)

Sony Online Entertainment's history can be seen as starting with Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA), an internal game development studio of Sony that formed around 1995. In 1996, John Smedley was put in charge of SISA's development of an online role-playing video game that would evolve into the MMORPG EverQuest. Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the singleplayer RPG Warwizard.

In April 1998, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) was formed by merging parts of Sony Online Ventures with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Within a matter of months after this change, Sony Interactive Studios America was renamed 989 Studios.

Towards the end of 1998, 989 Studios shifted its strategy to making PlayStation console games only. The company's computer game/online development branch spun off, initially calling itself RedEye Interactive and then soon after Verant Interactive.

EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on March 16, 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful. Numbers continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed. As of 2004, Sony reported subscription numbers close to 450,000. In March 2000, Verant released EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark, the first in a long list of expansions for EverQuest.

In April 2000, Verant hired former Ultima Online developers Raph Koster and Rich Vogel forming its office in Austin, Texas to develop Star Wars Galaxies for LucasArts. SOE acquired Verant in June 2000 and eventually promoted Brad McQuaid to be its Chief Creative Officer.^[2] In October 2001, McQuaid resigned and went on to found Sigil Games Online, drawing many of the original developers of EverQuest from SOE to develop Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, an MMORPG that was released in January 2007.

Developed by Sony Online Entertainment, LucasArts released Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, which saw rapid growth as expected. Bruce Woodcock estimates that SWG reached nearly 300,000 subscribers within the year before trailing off. LucasArts has released three expansions for Star Wars Galaxies, Jump to Lightspeed October 2004, Rage of the Wookies May 2005 and Trials Of Obi-Wan November 2005.

In 2003, the company also explored relatively untouched MMO territory with the MMOFPS PlanetSide and the PlayStation 2 MMORPG EverQuest Online Adventures. PlanetSide enjoyed a reasonably successful launch, however the product never attracted wide popularity. SOE has released two expansions for PlanetSide, one a retail product called Core Combat, and a second free expansion titled Aftershock. EverQuest Online Adventures was not as successful but spawned an expansion EverQuest Online Adventures Frontiers, which is still maintained by SOE as of 2007.

The company continued the EverQuest universe through a sequel set hundreds of years after the original with the release of EverQuest II on November 9, 2004, which has seen similar success to the original phenomenon.^{[citation needed]} Similar to its strategy with EverQuest, SOE has released several adventure packs and expansion packs for EverQuest II, starting with The Bloodline Chronicles in March 2005.

In November 2005, SOE added the New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies, changing many of the game's core mechanics. This upset players and critics alike, with the level of concurrent players reduced to around 10,000; relatively few for the MMO industry.^[3][4]

Recent history[link]

In January 2005, Sony Online Entertainment announced the creation of Station Publishing, a new label for distributing titles made by external developers.

SOE has produced numerous EverQuest expansions and spin-off video games, including Champions of Norrath (for PlayStation 2) and Lords of EverQuest (Windows). They published the sequel to Champions of Norrath, called Champions: Return to Arms, in February 2005.

In August 2005 SOE entered a deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment which saw the acquisition and transition of The Matrix Online to the existing line up of Station games.

In April 2006, Sony Online Entertainment, Inc. became Sony Online Entertainment LLC, owned by Sony Pictures Digital and Sony Computer Entertainment America.

In May 2006, it was announced that SOE would be co-publisher of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. However, Sigil retains full development rights, and SOE's role is only that of marketing, distribution, technical support and hosting the game servers. SOE also announced the release of Field Commander, its third game for the PlayStation Portable System.

In August 2006, SOE announced the acquisition of developer Worlds Apart Productions, renaming the studio SOE-Denver. The studio has since released an online version of the WizKids Pirates Constructible Strategy Game.

In November 2006, SOE released its first PlayStation 3 title, Untold Legends Dark Kingdom, within the launch window of the PlayStation 3 system, which was released in North America on November 17, 2006. SOE also released Pirates Online Constructible Strategy Game, which is the online version of the WizKids Pirates Constructible Strategy Game.

In January 2007, SOE announced that it has licensed rights from Midway Home Entertainment to develop and release six classic Midway games for PlayStation 3 Digital Download, including Mortal Kombat II, Gauntlet II, Joust, Rampage World Tour, Rampart, and Championship Sprint, which will be available from the PlayStation store. The announcement came shortly after SOE released its second PlayStation 3 digital download GripShift.

On May 15, 2007, Sony Online Entertainment announced that they had completed a transaction to purchase key assets from Sigil Games Online, including Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (described as Sigil's "tentpole property").

On March 13, 2008, Sony Online Entertainment announced that Sony Computer Entertainment will have direct control over SOE.

On January 16, 2009, the company joined Steam, selling EverQuest, EverQuest II and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Also on this day, the company purchased a massively multiplayer online turn based strategy game called Pox Nora.

On August 1, 2009, SOE shut down The Matrix Online after 4 years of operation. Players were treated to about 2 months of gaming despite some initial setbacks that left many veteran players unable to access the game for about a week after the official announcement was made. A memory book was developed and has been made available for download on the game's official site.

As of May 2010^[update], John Smedley is the CEO of Sony Online Entertainment. SOE is headquartered in San Diego, California, with additional game development studios located in Austin, Texas, Denver, Colorado and Seattle, Washington.

On July 15, 2010, SOE eliminated 35 full-time positions and an undisclosed number of temporary positions to "...better align the company's resources..."^[5]

August 8, 2010, SOE announced that EverQuest Next was in the early stages of Development.

On January 7, 2011, the company and Fastpoint Games announced the alpha launch of the Facebook game Fortune League. Fortune League integrates real-time performance data such as damages, deaths and healings directly from the MMO environment and uses them to form Hero Stats that drive the game. Therefore, player actions inside EverQuest II will affect what happens in Fortune League and prizes from Fortune League will help users advance back in the EverQuest II environment. Fastpoint Games CEO, Kelly Perdew, positions Fortune League as a new category of snackable data-driven games that will help MMO franchises acquire users and tap new revenue streams.^[6][7]

On February 1, 2011, SOE unveiled its new PlayStation Network games to be released throughout the year 2011. These include Acceleration of Suguri X Edition, Akimi Village, Plants vs. Zombies, Rochard, Sideway and Slam Bolt Scrappers.^[8]

On March 31, 2011, SOE has confirmed that "it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios." Production of The Agency has also been discontinued.^[9]

On April 27, 2011, Sony, the parent company of SOE, released statements regarding an intrusion, on or about April 18, into the PlayStation Network, and the potential theft of up to 77 Million subscribers personal data. Sony maintains that PSN and SOE are hosted and run on completely separate subsystems and that the PlayStation Network intrusion had no major effect on SOE's online services.^[10][11]

On December 6, 2011, EverQuest II switched to a free-to-play with optional subscriptions models.^[12]

On December 15, 2011, Star Wars Galaxies closed down.^[13] SOE maintains a Memory Book^[14] for former players.

Customer Data Breach[link]

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into PlayStation Network outage. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2011.

On May 2, 2011, SOE completely interrupted their online services. Over the previous month several intrusions of PSN have caused the developers to post messages of concern and apology, but also assurances the SOE servers and systems were not compromised. This most recent development has shut the service down entirely with the message: "We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday)."^[15]

It was disclosed that "the latest attack accessed personal information for a staggering 24.6 million accounts. Such info includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, gender, date of birth, login ID, and hashed passwords"^[16][17]

Games[link]

This section requires expansion.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Expansions[link]

This section requires expansion.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• EverQuest expansions:
  • The Ruins of Kunark (March 2000)
  • The Scars of Velious (December 2000)
  • The Shadows of Luclin (December 2001)
  • The Planes of Power (October 2002)
  • The Legacy of Ykesha (February 2003)
  • Lost Dungeons of Norrath (September 2003)
  • Gates of Discord (February 2004)
  • Omens of War (September 2004)
  • Dragons of Norrath (February 2005)
  • Depths of Darkhollow (September 2005)
  • Prophecy of Ro (February 2006)
  • The Serpent's Spine (September 2006)
  • The Buried Sea (February 2007)
  • Secrets of Faydwer (November 2007)
  • Seeds of Destruction (October 2008)
  • Underfoot (December 2009)
  • House of Thule (October 2010)
  • Veil of Alaris (November 2011)
• EverQuest II expansions:
  • The Bloodline Chronicles (March 2005)
  • The Splitpaw Saga (June 2005)
  • Desert of Flames (September 2005)
  • Kingdom of Sky (February 2006)
  • The Fallen Dynasty (June 2006)
  • Echoes of Faydwer (November 2006)
  • Rise of Kunark (November 2007)
  • The Shadow Odyssey (November 2008)
  • Sentinel's Fate (February 2010)
  • Destiny of Velious (February 2011)
  • Age of Discovery (December 2011)
• EverQuest Online Adventures expansions:
  • Frontiers (November 2003)
  • Underfoot (Cancelled in November 2003)
• PlanetSide expansions:
  • Core Combat (October 2003)
  • Aftershock (October 2004)
• Star Wars Galaxies expansions:
  • Jump to Lightspeed — PC (October 2004)
  • Rage of the Wookiees — PC (May 2005)
  • Trials of Obi-Wan — PC (November 2005)

Station.com[link]

SOE's Station.com is a portal to its PC, console, casual and mobile games. Players can access and download games such as EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, The Matrix Online and PlanetSide. Station.com also provides sneak previews to new games for Sony PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PSP, including Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom^[19] November 2006. In August 2006, Station.com added several games by Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sony Online Entertainment's Station.com
• Sony Online Entertainment's press center
• Station.com Forums
• Sony Online Entertainment's podcast feed

v t e Sony Corporation Primary businesses Sony Corporation (electronics & holding of the Sony group) · Sony Music Entertainment (music) · Sony Pictures Entertainment (motion pictures and television) · Sony Computer Entertainment (video games) · Sony Financial Holdings (financial services; 60%) · Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation Technologies and brands α · Betacam · Blu-ray · BRAVIA · CD · Cyber-shot · Dash · Dream Machine · DVD · Handycam · HDCAM/HDCAM-SR · LocationFree · Memory Stick · MiniDisc · MiniDV · mylo · Reader · S/PDIF · SDDS · SXRD · Sony Tablet · UMD · VAIO · Video8/Hi8/Digital8 · Walkman · Walkman Phones · XDCAM · Xplōd · HMZ-T1 Historical products AIBO · CV-2000 · DAT · Betamax · Sony CLIÉ · Discman · JumboTron · Lissa · Mavica · NEWS · Qualia · Rolly · TR-55 · Trinitron · U-matic · Watchman · WEGA Electronics Sony EMCS · Sony Electronics (subsidiary in the US) · Sony Creative Software · Sony Mobile Communications  · S-LCD (50% minus 1 share) · Sony Mobile Display · Sony Optiarc · Sharp Display Products (7%) · Aiwa (former) Sony Music Entertainment Sony/ATV Music Publishing (50%) · Columbia Records · Epic Records · RCA Records · Sony Music Nashville (Arista Nashville, BNA Records, Columbia Nashville, RCA Records Nashville) · Provident Label Group · Verity Gospel Music Group · Sony Music Latin · Sony Masterworks  · Legacy Recordings  · RED Distribution  · IODA  · Syco Music  · Syco TV  · Syco Film  · Sony Music Australia · Sony Music Japan  · Gracenote · Aniplex · A-1 Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group (Columbia Pictures · Sony Pictures Classics · Screen Gems · TriStar Pictures · Triumph Films) · Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Destination Films · Stage 6 Films · Affirm Films) · Sony Pictures Television Group (Adelaide Productions · Culver Entertainment · Embassy Row · 2waytraffic · Lean-M  · Gogglebox Entertainment · Victory Television · Silver River Productions · Starling · Huaso · Floresta · Teleset) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment · Sony Wonder · Sony Pictures Family Entertainment Group · Sony Pictures Digital (Sony Pictures Imageworks · Sony Pictures Animation · Sony Pictures Mobile) · Sony Pictures Studios · Sony Pictures Consumer Marketing (Sony Pictures Consumer Products · Sony Pictures Loot) U.S. networks Sony Movie Channel · GSN (40%), joint venture with DirecTV · FEARnet HD (joint venture with Comcast and Lionsgate) · 3net (joint venture with Discovery Communications and IMAX) International networks Sony Entertainment Television (Asia, South East Asia, India, Latin America, South Africa, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Baltic and United Kingdom) · AXN · AXN HD · AXN HD+1 · AXN Asia · AXN India · AXN Pakistan · AXN White · AXN Crime · AXN Black · AXN Mystery · AXN Sci Fi · AXN Spin · Sony Aath · Multi Screen Media · Animax · Animax Asia · Animax India · Animax Pakistan · Animax Korea · Animax Eastern Europe · BeTV · Sony Spin · SET One · SET Max · Sony SIX · Sony MIX · SET PIX · SAB TV · Men&Movies · Movies4Men Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Online Entertainment · PlayStation · PSP · PlayStation Vita · Cellius (49%) · Square Enix (8.25%) · Sony Imagesoft (defunct) Online distribution platforms Sony Entertainment Network (Music Unlimited · Video Unlimited · PlayStation Network) · FEARnet · The Minisode Network · Crackle Financial services Sony Financial Holdings · Sony Life Insurance · Sony Assurance · Sony Bank · Sony Bank Securities Other businesses So-net Entertainment · Sony Broadcast & Professional Research Laboratories · Sony Sendai Other assets Sony Corporation of America (umbrella company in the US) · Other subsidiaries Joint ventures Sony/ATV · FeliCa Networks · Vevo · Cellius (49%) · Sharp Display Products (7.04%) Key personnel Kazuo Hirai · Masaru Ibuka · Nobuyuki Idei · Yasuo Kuroki · Ken Kutaragi · Michael Lynton · Akio Morita · Norio Ohga · Amy Pascal · Howard Stringer  · Nicole Seligman Category ·  Commons ·  Wikinews

Jason Hall
Born	(1971-05-20) May 20, 1971 (age 41) Buffalo, New York
Nationality	American
Other names	Jace
Occupation	artist, producer, writer, gamer

Jason "Jace" Hall (born May 20, 1971 in Buffalo, New York) is an American film, television and video game producer, best known for being founder and Chief Executive Officer of Monolith Productions Inc^[1] and President of HDFILMS, INC^[2].

He is also the star, producer, and writer of the reality online series, The Jace Hall Show as well as the current Executive Producer of The Morning After (web series) and previously on ABC's new "V" Television series^[3].

Career[link]

After becoming the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) in 2004, Hall produced and released video games including The Matrix Online, F.E.A.R., Condemned: Criminal Origins, 300: March to Glory, Justice League Heroes, Happy Feet, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Batman Begins and Friends: The One with All the Trivia video game. One of his most notable roles inside a video game is as the voice of Tchernobog in Blood and Blood II: The Chosen as well as The Voice, the BloodBath commentator.And the up and coming adventures of where's Waldo^[4].

In 2007, Hall founded HDFILMS INC., a production company that produces film, television, videogame and online content. The company is best known for its original reality show, The Jace Hall Show, which debuted on Crackle.com and reached over 4 million viewers. In 2010, the show switched to IGN and is currently in production on its 5th season.

HDFILMS also produces The Morning After^[5], a daily, pop culture online series appearing on Hulu's front page.

Hall is adding singer-songwriter to his resume with recent release of the new Mortal Kombat music video (over 18 million views)^[6] and his EP VIDEO GAMES AREN’T BAD FOR YOU^[7]

Hall is also the main author of the Jace Hall Show website^[8], one of Alexa.com's Top 100,000 sites^[9].

[edit] Video games credited (partial list of over 40 titles)^[10]

==Television credited==^[11]

• V The Series (2009–2010) (Warner Bros. Television) Executive Producer

Television series based on V (1983 miniseries) which premiered on NBC. Pilot in development with ABC and written by Scott Peters of The 4400.

• The Unforgettable (2011) – (Warner Bros.) Co-producer and Original Concept by

Original concept entitled Species X or Iniquity, created by Hall and Nathan Hendrickson, is the basis for the movie as well as the video game Condemned: Criminal Origins and Condemned 2: Bloodshot.

• Brothers in Arms (2009) – Executive Producer

Supposedly based on a true story, action is set at the end of WWII, when Gen. George S. Patton ordered up a top-secret mission to rescue his son-in-law from a POW camp 60 miles behind German lines. The brass said 3,000 men were needed for the job; Patton allotted 294 and a leader who wouldn’t quit, a 24-year-old captain named Abe Baum.

• PVC-1 (2008) – Producer

Film was an award-nominated entry in the Cannes International Film Festival in 2007. IFC Films announced the acquisition of the film in 2008 for its Festival Direct arm.

Online content credited[link]

• "The Morning After" (2011–Present) (HDFILMS, INC.) Executive Producer

Pop Culture, Daily Online-Series appearing on Hulu.com

• Chadam – Executive Producer^[12]

Animated series created by Alex Pardee and produced by HDFilms and Warner Bros. Television with Todd Roy to air online in 2009. The entire series was built using the Unreal Engine 3 - known as the engine behind the games Gears of War and Bioshock. Hall pushed the boundaries of traditional filmmaking by using a computer game engine in order to meet the challenge of animating Pardee's surreal work.^[13]

• The Jace Hall Show – Executive Producer

The Jace Hall Show is an online reality show co-created with Todd Roy, which airs on Microsoft's XBOX Live Marketplace, Sony's Crackle.com and Ign.^[14] The show covers video game news and personalities as well as interviews with film/TV/sports celebrities.

Sources[link]

• Jace Hall at the Internet Movie Database
• Moby Games Database
• GameSpy
• HD Films

External links[link]

• Jace Hall at the Internet Movie Database
• The Jace Hall Show
• HDFILMS, Inc.

References[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (March 2012)