Sold by Sony, SOE becomes a multi-platform indie studio: Daybreak

Sony has sold its venerable studio/publisher Sony Online Entertainment to investment firm Columbus Nova for an undisclosed sum.

SOE has in turn rechristened itself Daybreak Game Company and announced that it will continue operating its game catalog -- which includes recently-launched online games like H1Z1 as well as the original Everquest -- while pursuing development on new platforms.

"Effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio...and now as a multi-platform gaming company," reads a post from a company representative on the studio's official forums. "Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more."

The studio has already seen success experimenting with launching games like H1Z1 on non-PlayStation platforms like Steam's Early Access service; in a recent interview with Gamasutra, SOE president John Smedley noted that launching such games on PC first and bringing them to consoles later was "actually a great path for developers to take."