formerly called sony online entertainment 1998 2015 type private industry interactive entertainment video game industry founded 1998 ; 18 years ago 1998 headquarters san diego california united states key people russell shanks products massively multiplayer online games owner renova group 2015 present parent sce worldwide studios 1998 2015 columbus nova 2015 present website www.daybreakgames.com daybreak game company llc formerly sony online entertainment is an american video game developer and video game publisher . it is a division of columbus nova . they are known for owning the franchise everquest everquest ii the matrix online planetside star wars galaxies clone wars adventures free realms vanguard saga of heroes dc universe online planetside 2 h1z1 just survive and h1z1 king of the kill . in 2008 daybreak game company s game everquest was honored at the 59th annual technology & engineering emmy awards for advancing the art form of massively multiplayer online role playing games mmorpgs . on february 2 2015 sony sold sony online entertainment to columbus nova who renamed it daybreak game company . contents 1 history 1.1 sony online entertainment inc. 1.2 sony online entertainment llc 1.3 data breach 1.4 daybreak game company 2 station.com 3 games 3.1 expansions 4 references 5 external links history edit sony online entertainment sony online entertainment began with sony interactive studios america sisa an internal game development studio of sony formed by 1995 . in 1996 john smedley was put in charge of sisa s development of an online role playing video game . the game 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 single player rpg warwizard . sony online entertainment inc. edit sony online entertainment headquarters in san diego 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 only playstation console games . the company s computer game and online development branch spun off initially named redeye interactive and then soon after renamed verant interactive . verant interactive launched everquest on march 16 1999 through sony with modest expectations . the game quickly became successful . sales 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 expansion packs for everquest . in april 2000 verant hired former ultima online developers raph koster and rich vogel . they formed an 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 . 1 in october 2001 mcquaid resigned and then founded sigil games online drawing many of the original developers of everquest from soe . developed by sony online entertainment lucasarts released star wars galaxies in 2003 which saw rapid growth as expected . bruce woodcock estimates that star wars galaxies reached nearly 300 000 subscribers within the year before trailing off . lucasarts has released three expansions for star wars galaxies jump to lightspeed in october 2004 rage of the wookiees in may 2005 and trials of obi wan in november 2005 . in 2003 the company also explored relatively untouched mmog territory with the massively multiplayer online first person shooter planetside and the playstation 2 mmorpg everquest online adventures . planetside enjoyed a reasonably successful launch however it never attracted wide popularity . soe has released two expansions for planetside a retail product titled core combat and aftershock a free expansion . everquest online adventures was not as successful but it spawned an expansion everquest online adventures frontiers . the game was shut down on march 29 2012 after nine years of operation . everquest ii was released on november 9 2004 . the sequel was set hundreds of years after the original . similar in strategy to everquest soe has released several adventure packs and expansion packs for everquest ii starting with the bloodline chronicles in march 2005 . in january 2005 sony online entertainment announced the creation of station publishing a new label for distributing titles made by external developers . 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 . 2 3 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 champions return to arms the sequel to champions of norrath 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 soe games . they are well known for their pc game free realms that they then cancelled after several million people signed up . sony online entertainment llc edit promotion of everquest ii and untold legends dark kingdom at the e3 2006 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 retained full development rights and soe s role was 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 . soe also released pirates online constructible strategy game 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 . the games were 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 via steam . on the same day the company purchased pox nora an online turn based strategy game . 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 was 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 ... 4 on august 8 2010 soe announced that everquest next was in the early stages of development . on january 7 2011 soe 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 massively multiplayer online game environment and uses them to form hero stats that drive the game . therefore player actions inside everquest ii affected what happened in fortune league and prizes from fortune league helped users advance in the everquest ii environment . fastpoint games ceo kelly perdew positioned fortune league as a new category of snackable data driven games that would help mmo franchises acquire users and tap new revenue streams . 5 6 on february 1 2011 soe unveiled new playstation network games to be released throughout the year . these included acceleration of suguri x edition akimi village plants vs. zombies rochard sideway and slam bolt scrappers . 7 on march 31 2011 soe confirmed that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its denver seattle and tucson studios . production of the agency was also discontinued . 8 on december 6 2011 everquest ii switched to a free to play model with optional subscriptions . 9 on december 15 2011 star wars galaxies was closed . 10 soe maintained a memory book 11 for former players . data breach edit main articles playstation network and playstation network outage 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 . 12 13 soe developers posted messages of concern and apology but also assurances the soe servers and systems were not compromised . on may 2 2011 soe completely interrupted their online services . players were told 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 . 14 later soe 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 . 15 16 daybreak game company edit on february 2 2015 sony announced the sale of soe to the private equity group columbus nova for an undisclosed amount and that it would be renamed daybreak game company . the studio will operate as an independent company and continue operating soe s existing games . as it is no longer tied to the company daybreak will also be able to develop games for non sony consoles as well including xbox nintendo platforms and mobile platforms . 17 on february 11 employees of the company reported they were undergoing layoffs including several senior developers and project managers . shortly after daybreak responded by announcing the layoffs were intended to make the company profitable but did not detail the extent of the layoffs or whether it would affect development and support of their new and existing games . 18 on july 22 2015 daybreak announced that john smedley had stepped down as the company s president and that russell shanks the company s former coo will take up his position . 19 on august 21 2015 smedley left daybreak to found a new company . 20 station.com edit sony online entertainment s station.com was a portal to its pc console casual and mobile games . players could access and download games