Daybreak Pulling the Plug

SBFord

Daybreak Pulling the Plug

Daybreak Games Company has announced that it is pulling the plug on PlanetSide. The server will be shutting down on July 1st at 4:00 pm Pacific / 7:00 pm Eastern. According to the team the closure is "due to evolving business needs and technical requirements". All present and former players are invited to give the game the send off it deserves in the coming weeks.

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Thomas2006

And the shutdowns start.. Anyone that did not see this coming must have turned a blind eye. The little fish will go first then next will be the bigger IP's and titles.

Groqstrong

The game is 13 years old, its had its day. Its a smart business move in my opinion.

Deltois

They ll keep what s making them money going, this wasn t.

Tiller

One of my guilds from SWG actually got their start in Planetside. I honestly forgot this game was still going.

SpottyGekko

RIP Planetside, you'll always be fondly remembered !

Quite surprising that it lasted this long, actually. I'd imagine the cost of supporting it just became too much eventually, given that it must be generating minimal revenue.

Ammon777_new

They are also shutting down their card game. I just got an email saying Legends of Norrath is closing.
edit -- oh you added that, didnt see it.

Deivos

Sad, but inevitable.

Game had a lot of interesting components, tech and gameplay features.
It also had a few different missteps and a small community.

So the ultimate scenario of it shutting down, especially as a "free" game that lacked any monetizaton meant it was only a burden for the studio alongside a largely unused perk of any PS2 or access subscribers.

Still one of my favorite games, first one that I lost an entire weekend to binge play on as well.

gervaise1

Games as profit centres; make a profit or close. The word unprofitable must be taboo however - suggestions that CN made a mistake buying SoE?

And sadly for the games left - DCUO, EQ1, EQ2, H1Z1 Just Survive and King of the Kill - as titles close those that are left must carry a bigger and bigger share of the overheads.

The suggestion that DCUO could be being prepped for sale the other day looks more likely with this news - if a buyer can be found and possibly depending on what WarnerBros want to do. DCUO is a joint venture so maybe WB have first refusal.

H1Z1 - the stats on Steam don't look good. Is the sun setting on EQ? 

Ammon777_new

And to think that I just bought $140 version of EQ2...

Ammon777_new

EQ2 would be the last to go down though.

GeezerGamer

Looks to me like something's being cleaned up for a sale.

Deivos

gervaise1 said:

Games as profit centres; make a profit or close. The word unprofitable must be taboo however - suggestions that CN made a mistake buying SoE?

And sadly for the games left - DCUO, EQ1, EQ2, H1Z1 Just Survive and King of the Kill - as titles close those that are left must carry a bigger and bigger share of the overheads.

The suggestion that DCUO could be being prepped for sale the other day looks more likely with this news - if a buyer can be found and possibly depending on what WarnerBros want to do. DCUO is a joint venture so maybe WB have first refusal.

H1Z1 - the stats on Steam don't look good. Is the sun setting on EQ? 

~ish

In the case of Planetside 1, the game hasn't been profitable for them for a good long while now. The only reason it's still been maintained by them up to this point was loyalty to users and nostalgia.

While you could subscribe to the game still, the majority of people that had/have access to Planetside would be because they sub to Planetside 2 or have an all access pass. The actual active user base for PS1 has been very small, and the maintenance for it's continued existence is basically some dude watching the servers.

More or less, the game has been living on borrowed time and now that Daybreak is experiencing other issues they can't really afford to be throwing money at expressing such niche loyalty/dedication to users.

The EQ franchise it itself still pretty safe for the time being. The continued development of EQ1 and 2 has ensured it's got a stable paying userbase even it not remarkably large.

DCUO is all sorts of floundering. It's not necessarily a loss of profit, but it's also not really a stable game in the first place and the DC franchise keeps hitting speed bumps of it's own.

H1Z1 I kinda feel like they need to cut their losses on. They were late to the party for that genre and theme and their product is reliant on tech they still haven't completed. Some of the principles of what they built might be good to take into a new project.

The best thing that Daybreak could do is pull back to focus on PS2 and the EQ titles while reassessing what new content they can develop for the market.

rodingo

SpottyGekko said:

RIP Planetside, you'll always be fondly remembered !

Quite surprising that it lasted this long, actually. I'd imagine the cost of supporting it just became too much eventually, given that it must be generating minimal revenue.

Yeh I have more good memories in Planetside than I do in any of all the MMOs combined I have played since (except SWG).  But like others have said, it had it's day. 

RIP Planetside.  I will always keep my NC Jackhammer and Thumper close to my heart 

gorro187

I have been saying it since Star Wars Galaxies shut down! This is the end! you all called me crazy so many years ago! *drinks moon shine on his porch*

Theocritus

Im surprised Daybreak Games bought SOE to be honest....Really all the games are old and declining

filmoret

Ok now I'm over it.

Deivos

Theocritus said:

Im surprised Daybreak Games bought SOE to be honest....Really all the games are old and declining

Daybreak didn't buy SoE. Daybreak is SoE, which got bought from Sony by Columbus Nova.

donger56

The Daybreak death march continues. I don't think this studio will every produce anything but shutdowns. I can't say I expected anything different.

Ammon777_new

Theyve produced expansions for the games they still have.

Charlie.Cheswick

Don't worry folks, the Landmark launch is just around the corner and that game is poised to make mad bank.

psiic

They emailed me Legends of Norrath is being shut down too

Asamof

everquest had a card game???

MangledBL

DMKano said:

PS1 was IMO far better than PS2. 

I spent years playing PS1 - spent about 15 hours playing PS2.

But I understand that old games sometimes dwindle to the point where it just makes no sense to keep them around anymore.

Still PS1 - amazing game, way ahead of its time.

I completely agree.. I got my start way back in the day on Johari in Planetside 1's hey day.  Cannot begin to tell you the amount of fun I had in the first two years.

Between PS1 and WOW I was in MMORPG heaven back in the day.

Loke666

donger56 said:

The Daybreak death march continues. I don't think this studio will every produce anything but shutdowns. I can't say I expected anything different.

I don't think their owners just bought them to slowly kill the company, that would be a huge waste of cash. But I don't think they have PC games in their mind either.

I expect them to make a cheap mobile version of EQ or something like that, unless the owners are high or just incredible stupid and thought H1Z1 would become the next Wow. They must have had some reason to buy the company after all. I doubt slowly fire all employees while trying to milk what they can from current games would be profitable enough.

So I expect some news of a new EQ project soon, something cheap to make that could re-use as much content as possible from DBs earlier games.

Rastan1

Daybreak game failures will be a dime a dozen soon. What a horrible company. That's assuming you don't consider them failures now, which would be hard to argue.