Daybreak is discontinuing development of EverQuest Next. This was officially announced today. We all thought it was heading in that direction, and now the sad confirmation of this has emerged. The game was taking turns I may not have agreed with, but I still was quite interested. Thank goodness for Pantheon, a game that has stayed on path in its vision! There was a huge interest in EQN, although it was a different game, I do expect that lovers of Norrath will be drawn to Pantheon now. Brad, your game is in a really good position timewise. The official announcement follows:
https://www.daybreakgames.com/news/daybreak-president-community-letter-everquest-next-2016
To Our Daybreak Community,
I’m writing today to let you know that, after much review and consideration, Daybreak is discontinuing development of EverQuest Next.
For the past 20 years EverQuest has been a labor of love. What started as a deep passion of ours, as game creators, grew into a much larger passion shared by you, millions of players and Daybreakers alike. Watching EverQuest’s ability to entertain and bring people together has inspired and humbled us. It’s shaped our culture and has emboldened us to take aggressive risks with our game ideas and products. When we decided to create the next chapter in the EverQuest journey, we didn’t aim low. We set out to make something revolutionary.
For those familiar with the internals of game development, you know that cancellations are a reality we must face from time to time. Inherent to the creative process are dreaming big, pushing hard and being brutally honest with where you land. In the case of EverQuest Next, we accomplished incredible feats that astonished industry insiders. Unfortunately, as we put together the pieces, we found that it wasn’t fun. We know you have high standards when it comes to Norrath and we do too. In final review, we had to face the fact that EverQuest Next would not meet the expectations we – and all of you – have for the worlds of Norrath.
The future of the EverQuest franchise as a whole is important to us here at Daybreak. EverQuest in all its forms is near and dear to our hearts. EverQuest and EverQuest II are going strong. Rest assured that our passion to grow the world of EverQuest remains undiminished.
Yours truly,
Russell Shanks
President, Daybreak Games
Amsai said: I saw this coming. Hell who didnt. It still seems kind of ridiculous considering all the time invested by EQ devs. This game wasnt on my radar at all but this isntna good sign for Daybreak. I came here to post abouy it because all the sudden social media was blowing up on my phone lol. You should read some of the comments...... brutal.
Yes, a lot of people are really uspet. After "the quiet Year of Everquest Next" I already felt like It was a long shot. I had a guild of 100+ people following the SOELive 2013 meeting/announcement/beta invite letter ( lol ) and we all went and paid into what was once called Everquest Next Landmark Alpha. I was a Community Council Member for SOE and several of my friends went to SOELive just for EQN. They had a very active community that they asked to help shape the new Norrath. So a lot of us in the community had invested their time and input into the a game that had not launched yet. Interest starting dwindling when they were taking directions my friends and I weren't agreeable with. It is tough when a game does not pan out. It is even tougher when a game that had that much hype, investment and promise falls.
Amsai said: Thats tough man. My heart does go out to all the people that looked forward to it.
aww <3 thanks amsai - there is a lot worse to deal with in life :D
I never look at failed games as a waste of time (ok maybe part of me does ;) ), I try to look at them as opportunites to learn.
Interview with Shanks on MMORPG here :http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/952/feature/10656/EverQuest-Next-Russell-Shanks-on-the-Cancellation-and-Future-of-MMOs.html
Dreconic said:I saw this coming, they were trying to do something that did not resonate with the core EQ player base. They were trying to bring in the people that like WoW, Rift, WS, GW2 etc and it just did not work.
I agree Dreconic, development started heading in directions that I felt weren't how I like to play. I think the fact that they were trying so hard to push the innovative envelope, that it did not pan out. I personall felt that when us players discovered "mico-voxels" it turned into something they felt like that they could not control and were not prepared for. There were too many new systems being introduced and I think they bit off more than they could chew. They did however had amazing groudbreaking ideas and those I was really excited to see be implemented such as the world changing and beable to use the world in combat ie - blast the floor out beneath your enemies to make them fall underground.
As far as I was concerned there were two MMOs that could have been the next game I played. Pantheon and EQ Next. Now that EQ Next is dead I guess there will be a lot of new people coming to follow development of Pantheon instead. It'll be interesting to see if Visionary Realms uses this as a way of attracting more players to Pantheon. Opportunities like this don't come up very often and there are now a whole load of people looking for a new MMO to follow. I think it will be an interesting time to see what comes out of the Pantheon camp in response to this announcement.
Cromulent said:As far as I was concerned there were two MMOs that could have been the next game I played. Pantheon and EQ Next. Now that EQ Next is dead I guess there will be a lot of new people coming to follow development of Pantheon instead. It'll be interesting to see if Visionary Realms uses this as a way of attracting more players to Pantheon. Opportunities like this don't come up very often and there are now a whole load of people looking for a new MMO to follow. I think it will be an interesting time to see what comes out of the Pantheon camp in response to this announcement.
I agree - I just hope they understand that Pantheon playstyle will be going back to the older ways - given the people I talked to in EQN's development I think they will like Pantheon better.
Oberon said:I hate to see this happen to any mmorpg in development, especially anything related to Everquest, but the timing for Pantheon and 7pm est tonight is rather amazing :)
I agree
Kalgore said:Its a shame. The IP of everquest alone is so vaulable I feel. The Everquest lore is very very deep and complex and can make for such an amazing world.
I am wondering how much of their lore development they can and will bring to new EQ game - we were reading books, that were developed just for EQN.
A bleeding shame. All that money, all those years. Not even outsourced or sold to Storybricks, like they wanted in the first place. Just.. locked forever now.. wasted.
There is so much i could say.. about SoE, the true SoE, not its representatives here, about a certain helmsman, about certain decisions, about further decisions made by SoE when a certain other company offered to salvage EQNext, about a certain snake oil salesman who sold fairy tales and lies for years and years and yet people kept paying, about self deceit, about denial. But.. there'd be no point, lol
A bleeding shame. Not for this, today, this was inevitable; but for so, so many things. Shame.
edit: Also, what Zarriya just said. Do not confuse the two target audiences.
Sadly I think it had no chance without Smed. But even still it was EQ in name only.
We were going to disallow this discussion but as long as it remains respectful, it will be allowed to stay, please do not post negative messages towards Daybreak games or EQ: Next or your posts will be removed, we are not here to bash their company or their unfortunate situation.
ArchMageSalamar said:Sadly I think it had no chance without Smed. But even still it was EQ in name only.
Nails my feelings without going too much into bashing. EQ in name only.
Still sad to see ANY game getting canceled, even tho part of me is happy that the name of Everquest is not going trough all the planned changes.
I saw this coming.
After the sell, I feared it was going to be shut down.
Omeed left, for those that remember him. I was the one that started that Omeed nod meme after he made some wierd smile(below) after someone said something about sexy lizards, then David, Smokejumper started doing it and had it made into a ingame nod called /onod, I was like holy crap lol.
Good memories, I got them pics in my photobucket still. Linked.
Then David was let go, pissed me off, I had no hopes after that.
I hope all the people there find work on a great project, maybe even come to VR.
I was interested in EQN at first, but I lost interest after I realized they were not really brining back the core game tenets that made EQ great. I see this as a massive opportunity for Pantheon. VR team, fate has given you a huge gift, please make the right business move and capitalize this opportunity. You could focus some marketing efforts to capture the EQN fans.
Can't say this is surprising at all. The vaporware tag has been applied to EQN for a while and with no communication it's hard to be shocked this day finally came. I can't say I was even looking forward to it that much but it's sad for all those involved. It's cool they were trying to innovate but in the end I don't think they were staying true to the EQ franchise and in an effort to appeal to a larger audience (perhaps) it just didn't look like a proper EQ installment IMO.
I think it is sad, really sad. Everquest is something i have very much fond memories off. A lot of us do! Frankly i think the whole series is going downhill and i am not sure that their future is very bright. I certainly hope that i am wrong but i wouldnt bet on it. Whether we like it or not at least with SOE it was moving forward, this whole thing is a giant step backward. Heck i wish VR would buy the Everquest franchise from them!
Bring it to it's rightful heir!
Wishful thinking i know.
I am also sad by this too. There was a lot of work done on NEXT and a lot of people impacted by this decision; developers and fans alike. With the buyout and silence, I had a feeling that EQN will never happen, and developement dollars will likely be redirected to EQ1&2 expansions, which could create higher quality xpacs; theorhetically. I hope Daybreak protects what is left of the EQ brand, and makes sure it dosent die out. I still pop in from time to time, even though I despise almost all of the games current systems.
Don't let my rose colored glasses break!
Larr said:I am also sad by this too. There was a lot of work done on NEXT and a lot of people impacted by this decision; developers and fans alike. With the buyout and silence, I had a feeling that EQN will never happen, and developement dollars will likely be redirected to EQ1&2 expansions, which could create higher quality xpacs; theorhetically. I hope Daybreak protects what is left of the EQ brand, and makes sure it dosent die out. I still pop in from time to time, even though I despise almost all of the games current systems.
Don't let my rose colored glasses break!
I agree there are really, really great people that still work there; and Terry Michaels confirmed that he isnt going anywhere: https://twitter.com/terryjmichaels/status/708368701834178560?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
The rest of the team thankfully seems ok too - they were also the Landmark team and proabably still will be. Holly Longdale is now executive producer for Landmark and announced that Landmark will launch in the spring : https://forums.daybreakgames.com/landmark/index.php?threads/landmark-launching-spring-2016.56141/
If you ask me, and I have said this many times in many places, this should never have been called "Everquest." If you want to be innovative and push the envelope and appeal to a mass audience...FINE. I get that, there are many companies doing the very same thing. JUST LEAVE EVERQUEST OUT OF IT!
Edit* After some reflection, I have decided to remove the last part of my response. Though I still stand by my convictions that I was not bashing SOE or Daybreak, the last thing I want is to highjack this thread for everyone else nor to stop the discussion. Suffice to say, I'm erring on the side of restraint as not to have the thread closed.
To be honest I kinda saw red flags as soon as Omeed left, Dave Georgeson got fired, and they sold to Columbus Nova. I started to get the idea that maybe they wanted to overhype EQN in order to make a larger profit from selling the company. May or may not be true, but it really came across that way to me. I mean why would you sell off a company that was working on a game that would no doubt shake up the MMO industry to its foundation, draw hundreds of thousands of players to one of your flagship IPs, and siphon a HUGE playerbase from the reigning MMO champ WoW? It sounds to me that they didn't have much faith in EQN from the beginning, or atleast never planned on completing it.
Not talking about the actual team working on the game, I'm sure they were very determined to see EQN through to completion, but the corporate side of SoE has always just wanted to make them greenbacks, and the strategy they used (whether intentional or not) was undoubtedly a huge financial success.