Sony Online Entertainment today announced the acquisition of the PoxNora "online collectible strategy game" from Octopi, LLC. The terms of the deal essentially calls for Octopi's previous game administrators and developers to continue operations under the new name of Sony Online Entertainment Tucson. The new Tucson studio will continue to administer and support PoxNora while working with SOE Denver on new ventures relating to online strategy and collectible card games.
"We could not be more excited about becoming part of the Sony Online
Entertainment family," said Dan Kopycienski, president of Octopi, in the press release. "We
have always been passionate about developing unique and creative games
for our customers, and now with the support of SOE, we will have the
opportunity to take our products to that next level."
PoxNora is an online game that combines turn-based strategy elements
with basic mechanics of a collectible card game. While the game is
free-to-play initially, a player who wants to build his or her own deck
needs to spend money at PoxNora's item shop to acquire new cards, or
"runes" in game terminology. The cards are completely virtual and only exist within PoxNora, but otherwise are sold in a manner that mimics the way physical CCG sets are sold. Expansion packs retail for prices that range from $3 for an assortment of 10 random cards to $45 for an assortment of 200. Each package of cards purchased is guaranteed to contain a certain proportion of common, uncommon, and rare cards. More expensive packs generally aware rares more generously.
SOE's interest in PoxNora is likely related to their own online microtransaction-based collectible card game, Legends of Norrath, developed and administered by SOE Denver. The game is based on the IP developed for SOE's flagship EverQuest and EverQuest II titles and uses a business model similar to PoxNora's. Players may use a starter deck to play the game for free, then must begin purchasing more cards from the in-game store in order to begin customizing their decks. Prices are roughly comparable to PoxNora's. Certain cards in Legends of Norrath also award players with virtual goods that can be claimed by a character in the actual EverQuest or EverQuest II MMORPGs.
“Our strategy and trading card games have been successful beyond our
wildest dreams,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online
Entertainment, in the press release. “Expanding with a great product like PoxNora
and the outstanding development team from Octopi gives us a chance to
extend our strategy game offerings and enhance the ones we already
field.”
SOE's acquisition of PoxNora indicates that the company isn't going to stop its experimentation with microtransaction-based business in its online games anytime soon, and may be viewing the experiment as successful. SOE integrated virtual goods seamlessly into EverQuest and EverQuest II in late 2008, although items sold at the StationCash store aren't allowed to have significant gameplay influence. Between Legends of Norrath and PoxNora, SOE is now administering two games that use a variant of Eastern free-to-play, microtransaction-based revenue model.
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