UPDATE: If you signed up for the EverQuest Next (not Landmark) beta through PSS1, make sure you re-apply for the beta via SOE.

The 2.5 year-long SOE and ProSiebenSat.1 partnership is finally coming to a close. It was met with controversy back when it was announced in January 2012, spurring a huge feedback thread that had even players not affected by it upset, and caused others to stop playing SOE games entirely. A couple of months after a 30-60 day transition warning was released, the lack of cohesion and foresight in the original agreement caused PSS1 and SOE go back to the table (though 'lessons learned from DCUO's transition' was the proported reasoning), kicking off a delay that resulted in current EU SOE accounts not being forced to migrate to PSS1. After all the pain the community went through, the integration finally went into effect on June 20, 2013.

After over two years of community grief and a year of the actual integration, SOE has announced that it is ending its partnership with PSS1. We can only hope that our EU friends that left the game will now return to EverQuest II.

As of today’s date (June 18, 2014), region locks have been lifted. New EU residents wishing to register should do so via SOE hosted sites.

On or about July 1, 2014, we will offer PSG players the opportunity to migrate their existing accounts to SOE account management, in order to continue playing SOE games. All earned status, characters and in-game coin will transfer with the account.

Continue after the jump for the entire message.

A short time ago, SOE President John Smedley announced on Twitter that current EU players will not be forced over to ProSiebenSat.1 and will keep their SOE accounts. After the games are officially launched by ProSieben, new EU accounts will still have to be created on PSS1's sites. Here is his full announcement:

Wanted to thank our players for continuing feedback. We've been listening along with our European partners at Prosieben. We've found a way to let existing players of our current games that are migrating over to Prosieben (EQ, EQ II, Planetside 2) keep their SOE accounts and stay with SOE. Down the road we may offer an option to move over to Prosieben. Just to be clear after these games launch on Prosieben's service new accounts will be created on their sites. However all US and EU players can still play together no matter which service they are on. I want to be clear that Prosieben will have better European CS and payment options IMO. That's why we went with them in the first place. Also Prosieben has done a great job of listening and is working on changing some of their CS policies. More to come on that soon.

A player then asked about why SOE is pairing up with ProSieben at all now, and John Smedley responded: "@gishank nothing to complain about any more. If you don't want to move over you don't have to. The community is absolutely NOT being split."

Future Planetside 2 players should note that "want to make sure I'm crystal clear - after we launch Planetside 2 - new EU accounts can only be created on Prosieben." and also "Alpha Squad purchasers will not have to migrate although we will offer the optional ability to migrate to Prosieben."

Linda "Brasse" Carlson announced a temporary postponement of the ProSiebenSat.1 transition of European customers on the official forums last night:

Hail Denizens of Norrath in the UK and EU,

I just wanted to stop in here on the EQII Forums to give you an update the current status of the transition of our EU players to ProSiebenSat.1 Games. Having recently completed the transition for DC Uiniverse Online, we’ve learned a great many valuable lessons and identified a few areas where we’d like to improve the processes. We’re currently using that information and the feedback from player experiences and are working to improve the process further for players in future transitions.

To this end, we have made the call not to make the transition for EverQuest II players during the time frame noted in the previous CS notification email.

As soon as we have more information on a new schedule for the EQ2 transition, we’ll let you know here, immediately. Further, when we settle on a new date, all EU players can expect to receive a new CS email notification, well in advance.  As a side note, and again as a result of valuable player feedback, we were able to fix the issue where some EU players did not receive the initial CS notification email.

Thank you all, and see you in game!
Warmest regards,
Brasse

Earlier this year Sony Online Entertainment announced their partnership with ProSiebenSat.1 to distribute SOE games in Europe. Today Eurpoean Everquest II players woke to an email announcing that the EQII PSS.1 transition will be starting in 30-60 days. The letter details the countries effected and the finer points of the processs for non-recurring memberships and All Access accounts.

A translation of the letter can be found below. We also recommend the ProSiebenSat.1 Games Group FAQ on the Station Community Forums. UPDATE: This FAQ has since been pulled offline for "significant technical changes".