:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/26449791/planetside_2.0.jpg)
Sony Online Entertainment will take more steps to be transparent with its customers and explain the "why" in its financial decisions, SOE president John Smedley announced on Reddit's PlanetSide 2 subreddit.
Smedley wrote the post in response to negativity on the PlanetSide 2 subreddit and forums from users who consider SOE nothing more than "money grubbing jerks."
"I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that's just not how we think," Smedley wrote. " ... 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)."
According to Smedley, part of this disconnect is due to the developer not being transparent enough. Smedley referenced a post from yesterday, in which he discussed a new potential subscription model for all SOE games. Under the new model, which he called a "likely" plan, subscribers would pay $14.99 to access all SOE Windows PC titles.
"The changes we originally proposed would not have made us more money than the previous plan," Smedley wrote. "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."
SOE's president added that part of his goal is to have an honest dialogue with players in order to quell any worries about "the real reason" for future decisions.
"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," Smedley wrote.
