Russell Shanks on the Cancellation and Future of the EverQuest Franchise

SBFord

Russell Shanks on the Cancellation and Future of the EverQuest Franchise

Today, after more than a year in the dark, it was announced by Daybreak Games that development has ceased on the highly anticipated MMORPG, EverQuest Next. As players and fans, we’ve been in limbo for so long, but it still comes as a blow that such a wildly impressive concept will never see the light of day.

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XAleX360

Well, that sucks.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Daikuru

Im not surprised.

Nanfoodle

Official Vaporware lol

Leiloni

Not shocked.

Also damn Bill you always get articles published first on this site lol. And/or get exclusives. Nice job. :P

BillMurphy

"You guys will poop yourselves..." - me, when I saw EQN behind closed doors at E3 when it was unveiled.

"I just pooped myself." - me, when talked to Daybreak about the closure.

"I'll poop myself again." - me, whenever they finally decide what the next EQ will be. I dare to dream.

cheyane

Oh well not really surprised I suppose it was apparent for some time.

Lobotomist

OMG What a surprise!

If you are in 2014... Even braindead figured out it was over for the game at the moment Daybreak happened.


What a friggin shame. If any game had potential to save MMO genre from death it was that one.

It was our last hope...

SlyLoK

Writing was on the wall for a long long time. And I am glad as they were ruining EQ. The beginning of the end was when they scrapped everything ( again ) to use voxels. They had no idea what they were doing at that point. To go from a game that looked as good if not better than Planetside 2 ( remember that screen from a few years ago? ) to Disney with overly large everything was just pure stupidity.

The sealer was when they decided to do Landmark and stop pushing EQN. Then again it was for the best considering we would have a very terrible EQN in place of Landmark right now.

BillMurphy

Lobotomist said:

It was our last hope...

I don't think so, but I can't say why. Plus, CU, Crowfall, and more are coming.

azarhal

No mention of Landmark in there, does this mean they are keeping Landmark?

update:
Color me surprised, the same day they announce they are cancelling EQNext, they also announce they are releasing Landmark in the Spring.

Jyiiga

No surprise. I hate that people spent money on Landmark in anticipation of Next.

Amathe

"We know that the fans of EQN will be disappointed by the news"

No. Not disappointed. Try "will hate you forever."

Phry

The writing was on the wall a long time ago.
DBG just doesn't have the people to make a game, by the sounds of things they have trouble maintaining the ones they have running.
It would not surprise me in the least to see DBG assets sold off further and the company wound down.
Once SOE parted ways from Sony and changed names, the departure of so many of their core developers, the rather belated removal of Smedley, the DBG train was always going to be heading in one direction and with a very limited amount of track.
Once Sony's safety net was removed, it was kind of inevitable, as Vulture companies, sorry, investment companies, are all about the money.

Jyiiga

Amathe said:

"We know that the fans of EQN will be disappointed by the news"



No. Not disappointed. Try "will hate you forever."

Pretty much. I was already at that point due to SOE destroying SWG. So at least I avoided this train wreck.

Blazeyer

I don't think there's ever been a day where more people missed SoE.

BillMurphy

azarhal said:

No mention of Landmark in there, does this mean they are keeping Landmark?

Yes, and releasing officially soon - http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/982/view/news/read/38680/Landmark-Release-Date-Revealed-Longdale-Named-Executive-Producer.html

mithoss

What an unimpressive lineup this company now has: 2 dayz clones, 1 minecraft clone and 2 ancient mmos

laserit

Wow....

Sad to say that I saw this coming. Even though I wasn't playing any SOE titles since the closure of Vanguard. I kept my annual seasons pass running because I wanted to support the concepts being sported
for EQN. I pulled my annual all seasons pass a few months back because I lost faith.

Seems my feelings were justified.

danwest58

I am not surprised this happened and even called it out when SOE was turned into Daybreak. When it comes down to it MMORPGs are at the point where more MUST shut down no matter what people say. The market is just too saturated with the number of MMORPGs vs the number of players when the cost of making an MMORPG is just too dam high. Add to that today CEOs want 50% to 60% margins on what they create because their companies are all about stockholders and not about a private company creating something it loves to do.

Sevala

SWG...Vanguard...now EQN.....no one knows how to alienate people like these ones do.

laserit

BillMurphy said:

Lobotomist said:

It was our last hope...

I don't think so, but I can't say why.  

You could PM it

Rattenmann

I am actually reliefed.

Glad they don't piss on the name that is Everquest with a trainwreck like that. Nothing in common with Everquest then some names. Hell, they switched genres ffs.

Now they can begin thinking about simply doing Everquest with modern graphics.
You don't always have to change stuff for it to be fun. Just look at all the blockbuster sequels that just switch out story and change nothing else. They are doing fine. Think AC and co.

CalmOceans

I liked the idea of the game. But I did find it a bit weird that the game, EQNext, had nothing in common with Everquest. The core EQ gameplay is slow combat that heavily relies on class interdependence with well defined classes. EQNext was going to be far more action and solo oriented. It's hard to get EQ players on your side when EQNext didn't have any overlap with the EQ franchise.

Rusque

BillMurphy said:

"You guys will poop yourselves..." - me, when I saw EQN behind closed doors at E3 when it was unveiled.

"I just pooped myself." - me, when talked to Daybreak about the closure.

"I'll poop myself again." - me, whenever they finally decide what the next EQ will be. I dare to dream.

Yeah, Best of Show really shouldn't have been awarded to a concept note.