14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Online Entertainment announces having acquired PoxNora, a collectible card strategy game played online. The press release states that other “key assets” that might be required for a future project have also been bought from Octopi LLC, the developer based in Tucson.
Not only digital elements were acquired. Some of the members of Octopi are now set to create a new studio, owned wholly by Sony Online Entertainment, set to pursue dual goals. On the one hand, it will continue to offer support for PoxNora. On the other hand, it will collaborate closely with a Denver studio in an effort to create a new trading card game that should incorporate strategy elements.
John Smedley, who is the president of Sony Online Entertainment, stated that “Our strategy and trading card games have been successful beyond our wildest dreams. 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.”
Dan Kopycienski, the president of Octopi, also expressed his delight for the firm being acquired by Sony, because a relation with the big publisher is set to allow his team a chance to create a new exciting game based on trading cards that can draw on the experience acquired from the development of PoxNora and its assorted expansions.
Sony Online Entertainment is working hard to create projects that will attract different audiences, on both the PC and the PlayStation 3. The biggest of these is DC Universe Online, the super hero oriented MMO set to offer players a chance to fight alongside Superman and Batman, but it can be worthwhile for a company to also create more niche games, targeted at very specific segments of the public. The upcoming project from the former Octopi developers could be a success if the resources allotted were enough to create an interesting experience managing to combine a trading card game with strategy elements.