Congratulations!

"SEGA has a very strong presence in the UK"
please EU servers
please

Is this good or bad?

So this is an official acquisition for Sega its not at at any type of merger?

If it is an acquisition how do we know all our key developers and game artists will be around for the long-run?

Reading your statement on the Three Rings page I do understand why, but do you think this will personally destroy the vision of Three Rings ( In the sense I know you guys wanted to bring entertainment to gamers all across the world, but do this with a more so family community)?

Will you Daniel James aka Captain Cleaver be apart of Sega, and if so what role will you be taking (job title)?

Does this mean your Human Resource Department grew?

Will Boswick still have his baby sister Nick to look after him?

Thank You For Your Response.

Maybe this is good with sonic the hedgehog armor? Oh plz sega plz?

Now that SK is run by a public company, what changes do you expect with respect to how developers respond to end users?

One thing I like about SK is its openness in developer-user interaction. But now that SK is run by a public company (Sega), I would expect some sort of restriction at some point. (Well, nobody wants Sega's stock to drop because of mis-communication or rumours on SK forum, right?) Does that mean the forum would become more heavily moderated in the future?

My worry is that this transition (from OOO to Sega) could cause resentment inside some of the SK population. And in some extreme cases, people could launch DDoS attacks on SK servers, thus disrupting the game play experience of the majority population. I'm not saying this would happen of course (no one wants to). But it is something OOO and Sega need to be mindful about during the transition period.

I think it's just coincidence. My belief is that OOO has been planning to investigate the possibility of subscription based model. (Elevator pass gives unlimited access to game contents = subscription.)

Subscription based model has the advantage of more predictable revenue stream. e.g. OOO can later release elevator pass package, which consists of 3, 6 or 12 elevator passes for a discounted price. This way they can report revenue early on their book.

Congrats to OOO. Yall deserve the best.

Does this mean we'll soon get plushies?

Congrats OOO :)

Huh. So will anything actually change for the players? The announcement said it would be a good thing...

Oh, and I HATE sonic, so if you do make any kind of "sonic hat" type thing, I'll likely discriminate against (EG unfriend, ignore) users of such a hat.

Sonic The hedgehog wolver costume?<3 maybe a code inside the next sonic game for it?

Now that OOO is part of SEGA, are there any plans to include any kind of references/etc to other SEGA franchises?
Or use anything from SEGA of any kind (personnel, ideas, franchises, etc).
Also any chance that SEGA gives OOO any of their franchises to develop, or will the company still focus solely on their original products?

I remember reading Nick wanted to do something like PSO with SK, it wouldn't surprise me if he put some easter egg references.

@Tantarian - I hope there's some Sonic garb, I mean its Three Rings and Sega, I thought it'd have been obvious from the start. Hopefully Sega is afraid enough of our powers of making hate threads to only make the game better... =D

Well Three Rings, if you're happy, I'm happy. Best of luck to you as part of Sega and I reckon this is just the start of even more good things to come from you. I'm keen to see you bring the Doctor Who game out - if anyone can make a decent game from the best show the BBC has, you can.

I have been talking to my guild members. We have this funny feeling that the elevator pass is OOO's way to test water for subscription based business model. Our concern is that if Sega pushes for mandatory P2P (because that's where the money are), it seems unlikely that OOO would not comply with the request.

So our question is that, when that happens, what does OOO have to offer that would retain SK population?

Personally I found SK to be a fun game. It's F2P nature is a great way to attract different types of causal gamers and interacting with these people are good experience. I like to see more story development and better support for high end machines (e.g. provide an anti aliasing option). The whole Shadow Lairs seem to be opening up to a new, interesting story arc. It would be sad that if this game goes P2P under Sega's pressure and people have to leave the game without seeing the full scope of the story.

So if SK does go the inevitable P2P path, I hope OOO has this planned out so that there will not be a massive drain of population.

Congrats! I'm interested in what this could yield for the future of SK. Bigger and better things? References to other Sega games?

A Metal Sonic costume would fit perfectly...

Congrats OOO that is huge!

Congrats to the staff at OOO! I've always admired the way you do business, and hope to see your creativity shine with the support of a larger distributor behind you- I've seen Cleaver comment many times that marketing is a big challenge for a small independent studio.

With the recent collaboration between OOO and Sega on Spiral Knights, I'm not entirely surprised that Sega is making this move... given that Sega has full access to the books, this also strikes me as a vote of confidence in the future success of SK and games like it.

I know that Sega has offices in SF, so hopefully a few of their lucky staff will get the chance to join you in the Nautilus. (...I like to imagine that the merging of cultures will go in the direction of more people like the ringers, not less)

@Tan -- I think you just won't a chair in Three Rings Marketing department congrats

@Pauling -- Glad to see you back we missed you.

@Eury -- I am not mean to Boswick he picks on me all the time you just don't know it.

The happier you are, the better outcomes happen in life.

Congratulations OOO, you are truly unique.

I know I expressed a bit of pessimism on Whirled regarding this announcement, but after giving it time for the news to sink in... it's not horrible at all, on the contrary, it's good news ^^ I can truly say that I'm absolutely jubilant about this partnership, and look forward to what OOO and SEGA will build together ^^

(And AMG, PAULING! DUDE we were just talking about you in our guild. C'mere you <3 )