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[Column] EverQuest Next: Welcome to Daybreak
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Victor chimes in with some positivity regarding Sony Online Entertainment’s transition to Daybreak Game Company.
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s EverQuest Next: Welcome to Daybreak.
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Photo by Coolcaesar on Wikipedia.
Comments
This will not end in a good way.
An investment banker or cooperation will not care about things that much. All they care about is deathlines and investment returns. This will definately lead towards rushed releases and half baked sollutions for upcomming problems. Im pretty sure that this will lead to no good,
Thra are simply not dedicated enough.
Heck even the ridiculous name as Daybreak studios, shows that they dont give two craps about the studio.
They will get the tech. And run planetside 2. Plus any game that curently makes money. Everything else will be cancelled.
This would completely depend if they expect a short term or long term investment. Also how is an investment banker of cooperation different from any other company? My boss did not found his own company to run in debt, but to produce a healthy profitable company. This would expecially be true if the investment company is willing to accept this might be something long term. Actually it seems like a better business model to me for an investment firm. To have multiply companies that are profitable long term instead of doing a cash grab. This is also somethng that Columbus Nova seems to be doing.
First off... Let us shed this naive illusion that game production studios make games as a artistic expression. Sure there is some artistry in it for sure. But at the end of the day bills have to be paid. And trust me.. nobody is as dedicated as the guy fronting the bill in the end. Yes it will mean that DB can not do what ever the heck they want... But that is in my experince not a bad thing. Focus of artistic vision through a filter of reality usually produce better products.
Now as for DB... A company that have had problems with focus and deadlines before... Such a filter will be very beneficial. Now this will i am sure cause EQ:N to.. well.. shrink a bit in scope but that again is not such a bad idea perhaps because the game was a insane undertaking size wise.
This have been a good conversation
i called this many moons ago..
and was saying i wouldnt doubt that they bring down landmark servers and add mobs and then slap a eqn tag on it..that seems like it has a better chance to fly than all the unique things that soe and eqn "thinks" they can do to a new type of mmo experience..the things they said they were gonna do just sounds ridiculous ..a new eq would probly do better made by a diff company / devs and would live longer than anything that soe would try to do now..atm soe is living on a pray added with beating a dead horse named "eqn" ..not to mention it looks absolutely horrible and that pvp imo..smh
EQN may or may not be canceled outright. But I am sure the current road map will be altered in some way. But, that all depends on how much of a loss developing EQN has created and how much longer it will take to complete. I'd say if SOE hasn't made a significant amount of progress in this game's overall development, then yes, it's quite possible it could be circular filed. The idea that SOE was far too heavily invested for CN to cancel it now is a fallacy. If EQN represents a significant enough loss, they will drop it. The new investors don't care how much SOE lost on EQN. They care about how much CN will lose over EQN going forward. If they don't see enough revenue to justify the future expense, they will cut their loss if that's how they perceive it.
i don't think that an investment group would buy SOE to make them money and then cancel the next game in the line of one of the two most well-known mmo franchises in history. I would be more worried about something like dragon's prophet because well, it's poop.
Chances are, EQN was one of the reasons these guys decided to buy SOE in the first place.
I doubt DC, PS2, or any of the EQs have anything to worry about regarding the game being shut down. though i could certainly see them messing with the monetization.
on the fantasy front, wouldn't this be a great time to lobby our new corporate ovrlords for a new EQ1 progression server with good rules (like 9 month timed locks on the expansions)? I bet they would need 2... the first one would have long queues! Fippy moved way too fast (it's still one of the more popular EQ servers tho along with Vox) and Vulak moves too... unreliably. Or maybe POTBS or VG could make a reappearance
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
I suspect we will see, very soon, what this investment group saw in their diligence of SOE.
I think it's high fantasy and wishful thinking that this group will invest in what's become a risky business (AAA MMOs).
I would be shocked if there's anything other than: some games and specific technologies sold to other companies, some games shut down completely, and some games left to run in "maintenance mode" if they can generate cash and can be operated on the cheap (no game updates - just cash shop, B2P, in-game ad placement - looking at you, H1Z1).
If I were with SOE, I would be polishing up the resume.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Please dont mix a gerneral personal owned buiseness with an investment cooperation.
They are totally different and not related in the slightest.
A personal Buiseness owner has a sense of responsibility towards his employees and products. The investment banker dosent feel attached to the product whatsoever, he is only intersted in the numbers on the account.
The investment buiseness cant have attchments to the products or employees, its simple not in their view.
The way to make profit is far to different between the two.
Long term investments are rare these days. And if you look into the portfolio of them you will see that they dosent even aim in that direction.
I doubt it. I think Sony is trying to make back some quick bucks, because they are tired of being 2 billion in the hole every year.
They have already announced that EQNext and others will continue on schedule which makes sense, since these upcoming games would be the only reason to buy the company at this point.
"MMORPG.com columnist Ryahl Smith was trying to suss this out without any fulfilling answers, though he recknoed that Daybreak’s biggest assets were likely going to be in the tech they made – SOEmote and Player Studio – rather than the games they shipped."
These online games won't be "shipped" anyways. However, I think the games will be used to push SOEmote and Player Studio tech. The multi-platform spread will bring in more profit as well, as opposed to the Sony only model.
I believe they will continue to produce EQN maybe even double down to get it out sooner.
It's over for anymore development funds going into Landmark that's for sure. It will remain an overthought, underdeveloped, near fraudulently promoted mix between cumbersome design tool and terrible game.
Bless the ones who stuck with Landmark for the past year giving grand ideas and proclamations of what they believed was possible and what they thought Landmark would become.
I'm glad I got a refund.
Gamers love to look for doom and gloom scenarios all the time. The reality is this that this company would have never purchased Sony if it didn't think it could make money in the process, and I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that they have a much better picture of the studios money making potential than we do.
Everquest is a huge brand, and EQN will sell a lot of copies no matter what. Planetside is another well known IP, and once it moves to PS4 I suspect it will earn a lot more money from the huge console shooter market. H1Z1 is a great game, not as well known, but for most people who actually go and play it instead of reading someone whining on a forum about P2W, they find the game is the most solid multiplayer survival game out there.
Daybreak has a great library to build off from, this investment company likely noticed that, and decided to pick them up. People will be laid off, some business tactics will change, but I don't think it's "run for the exit," time by any stretch of the imagine. Nor do I think it will be a boon for Daybreak. I think it will just be business as usual.
Please visit my youtube channel for some H1Z1/DayZ casual roleplay videos!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrQoK5VZlwBBzpsksmXtjMQ
I company I worked in was bought for 80 million dollars.
We had both product that was making lot of money , revolutionary technology in development and valuable experts.
First thing they did is kill the product. I think it was first month.
In next 3 month they decided to stop developing technology and fired the developing team.
By the end of 6 month there was 3 people working there from original company (from 70 people)
Why they spent 80 million ? To rise their stock value.
They jumped from 11$ to 16$ for whole year. Who knows how much money that made them.
But they were completely uninterested in the company they bought - except as stock market gimmick.
There you go.
They did alright by Harmonix.
Yes ? Lets see:
Following the purchase, Harmonix underwent a restructuring in February 2011, laying off about 12-15% of the 240-person staff.[31] Shortly after this, Activision announced it was shuttering its Guitar Hero division and cancelling planned games for 2011, which many journalists considered to mark the end of the rhythm game genre; Harmonix's Director of Communications, John Drake, in response to this closure, called the news "discouraging"
Via Reddit:
<div may-blank-within="" md-container"="">Columbus Nova is the US-based investment firm of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who is currently being charged in the armed takeover of a Canadian-owned oilfield in Siberia. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/u-s-court-charges-renova-group-billionaire-duo-for-armed-takeover-in-russia/502610.html
Lol @ you guys if you think this is possibly good news - this is going to be a milking for all the company is worth with the incoming economic collapse of the ruble.
So what you're saying, is they PKed SOE?!