Columbus 
Nova is expanding its footprint in the video game business.
The New York-based investment firm has purchased Sony Online Entertainment, which is responsible for massively multiplayer online games like “EverQuest,” “PlanetSide” and “DC Universe Online” for an undisclosed amount.
The 
recent announcement by Blizzard Entertainment that it would be giving its next game away for free might have startled some investors.
Blizzard, after all, is the talent behind some of the industry’s biggest powerhouses, including “World of Warcraft” and “Diablo,” and has generated billions of dollars for parent Activision. But the seemingly sudden burst of generosity could turn out to be one of developer’s most savvy ideas to date.
Sony 
Online Entertainment has become largely pseudonymous with the free-to-play movement, offering triple-A titles like PlanetSide 2 for no cost from day one, and converting legacy games like EverQuest to the model.
It’s fairly seamless these days, but when Smedley and his team decided to embrace free-to-play, it was a big leap of faith.
SOE 
isn’t as high profile as in its EverQuest heyday, but it’s settled in as one of the biggest players in free-to-play triple-A games. President John Smedley discusses why he thinks SOE’s headed in the right direction.
Most company presidents spent E3 locked in meeting rooms, only getting a few sparse moments to explore the show floor. Not Sony Online Entertainment’s John Smedley. He actively spent time in the thick of things — though he rarely strayed far from his own booth.
Smedley’s a heavy FPS fan — and he’s especially enamored with SOE’s upcoming action MMO Planetside 2. That professed dedication isn’t unusual when an executive has a product to sell, but few of those executives arrive to E3 2.5 hours early so they can sneak in a couple hours of gameplay, and lob trash talk at other players.
The game 
that made MMO games a viable force in the industry is going free-to-play.
EverQuest will drop its mandatory monthly pricing strategy in March, as the game hits its impressive 13th birthday — though like other free-to-play games Sony Online Entertainment currently distributes, there will be a tiered pricing plan for players who want more features and content.
We certainly have 
no problem getting caught up in the fun of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.
On the surface, giving your product away for free – especially if it has been a revenue generator for you for years – doesn’t make a lot of sense. But sometimes, that sort of radical move can be the kick in the pants aging games need to become relevant once more in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Case in point: Sony Online Entertainment, which may not have started the MMO trend, but certainly was the first to truly capitalize on it, has been spending a lot of time lately exploring the free-to-play business model, converting a pair of games that have historically charged monthly subscription fees. And the early trends are astonishingly encouraging.
The data breach into the PlayStation 
Network continues to worsen.
Sony announced Monday it had discovered another 24.6 million accounts had been hacked, this time in the company’s PC online gaming division. The intrusion is on top of the 77 million accounts that Sony has previously acknowledged were breached.
Gamasutra editor at large Chris Morris talks to Sony Online 
Entertainment’s John Smedley about the next generation of EverQuest, NGP development and why “You can bet our future is more console-based than it is PC-based.”
Before Thursday, there was a lot to talk about when it came to Sony Online Entertainment. Then the layoffs hit – and there was only one subject on people’s minds.
Unfortunately, my talk with SOE president John Smedley was held on Tuesday – long before even the rumors of layoffs had begun to swirl. And, not surprisingly, SOE wasn’t making him available after shutting down three of its studios and laying off 205 employees. So while there’s no look as to what led up to the Thursday axings, Smedley was still willing to look into the company’s future in the days leading up to it.
With costs rising and competition increasing, Sony has
laid off one-third of its Sony Online Entertainment division.
205 of the roughly 700 SOE employees received pink slips Thursday as the company shut down three development studios in Denver, Seattle and Tucson. One long-in-development title was also cancelled.
Sony Online Entertainment and THQ are
both handing out pink slips this week.
SOE was hit hard by a devastating round of downsizing that resulted in one-third of the workforce being laid off and three studios closed. THQ cut more than 30 jobs at two of its studios, but both remain open.
Chris Morris: Journalist 