Creative boss departs; SOE says strategic goals of company and man "don't match."
Raph Koster, chief creative officer of Sony Online Entertainment, and one of the leaders behind the development of Star Wars Galaxies, has left the company, SOE reps confirmed today.
Based in Austin, Texas, Koster is widely considered an expert when it comes to the design of massively multiplayer online games. He often participates in event panels and maintains an active blog that focuses on the nuances of the genre.
Koster is leaving his post of 6 years "to pursue development interests outside of the company," SOE said.
"Although his current interests take him into areas that don't match SOE's strategic goals, we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors."
Prior to joining SOE's Austin studio, Koster was part of the Ultima Online team at Origin Systems. In addition to Galaxies, Koster was instrumental in the development of the EverQuest franchise at SOE.
Koster's departure wasn't the only piece of scuttlebutt making the rounds today, but it was perhaps the most accurate. There was also a rumor circulating that SOE would soon lose the rights to the Star Wars license--and suffer the fate of having to delete or otherwise retire the "Star Wars" component of its Galaxies MMORPG title; SOE called that speculation "completely untrue."
And in related news, industry sources confirmed to GameSpot that Sony Online vice president of business development Cindy Armstrong would soon assume a high-leve role at Webzen America, the stateside outpost of Korean giant Webzen.
Noting that the US subsidiary has no CEO, it is likely Armstrong will take over in that capacity.
A Webzen rep told GameSpot the company "doesn't have a contract with her" and emphasized "there are no formal announcements, and we cannot confirm [speculation]."
1) Yes Raph is leaving SOE. It's not some big dramatic thing - it's simple.. he's at the end of his contract with SOE and he wants to try some new things that realistically we can't do here at SOE right now. The truth is Raph is an incredibly talented and amazingly creative person and he has 1000 great ideas. He's done some great things in this industry and I know he'll continue to do great things. Raph's been with SOE for 5 years. I've enjoyed working with him a lot and he's made some great contributions. At the end of the day we have a finite amount of resources and projects that we can have in development at any one time. He wants to try some new stuff that we can't do at this stage.. we have a lot of things we are trying to do as a company right now. I'm always surprised by the amount of rampant speculation that goes on about stuff like this.
2) No - in fact LucasArts isn't "pulling the Star Wars" license or anything of the kind. We have a very long term deal and things are fine between our companies. It's complete and utter fabrication. I feel like we need extra-special tin-foil hats in the shape of Darth Vader's mask or something. What happens is one website writes something - then 5 more link to it.. so it must all of a sudden be true. I wish it worked that way.
Smed
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John Smedley
President, Sony Online Entertainment
