Daybreak’s Commitment to Everquest

The new Daybreak Games Company has been the talk of the town among a significant portion of MMOspace since SoE’s acquisition by Columbus Nova was announced. What does this mean? Where is Everquest headed? Will H1Z1 be the last game released by the games company previously known as SoE? Is this the death knell for Landmark and Everquest Next? That final question has been the most on my mind as I’ve been reacting to the staff layoffs. Dave Georgeson, Linda Carlson, Eric Smith, Jeffrey Butler … a list of people that I’ve come to use as household names in the years I’ve been playing SoE games.

I’d like to think that with the portfolio Columbus Nova possesses, that it will be the force to drive Everquest into the future – that its new face will bring us something new. 

Only time will tell if that hope is realized, or simply a tenuous dream from a cranky old gamer like me.

But Terry Michaels, Fairan on the Landmark forums, was quick to jump to the defense of Everquest this evening. After a post about their upcoming plans regarding Landmark’s Blueprint, and the weekly Live Streams, the stream of doomsayers jumped in to declare that Everquest Next and Landmark were dead, SoE was dead, everything is down the drain, the sky is falling, we’re all going to cry salty tears of woe if we keep looking forward to these games. “Let me put something straight in as clear a language as I possible can. We, as a company, are committed to EverQuest Next along with all of the other games we are working on whether they be live, early access or currently in development. 

There will be many people who continue to forecast the death of the Everquest franchise. There always have been, and I’m sure there always will. But I do appreciate the passion behind Fairan’s words, and I hope that Columbus Nova does as well.

Some time soon I will probably write a longer editorial, but at the moment I am far too raw. If you ask me to define myself as a person – I would put gamer first and foremost. I’ve been gaming my entire life. Decades, now. I’ve moved across continents, attended and graduated schools, married, loved, lost, celebrated, mourned … I have done a great many things, but gaming has been one of the few constants, no matter where I’ve been and whatever else I’ve been doing. I met my husband gaming, most of my friends gaming … and for over a decade now, SoE has been a part of that.

While there have been many people laid off, there are still more who continue to work on the games that I have come to love.  And that is where I choose to focus now. Hope, that we will see something great. Hope, that those surviving the storm of layoffs continue to love what they do. Hope, that the naysayers don’t drown out the good in their decrying of the bad.

My best wishes go to those who are no longer with Daybreak, and to those who are.

About Pherephassa 213 Articles
Pherephassa has been creeping around the etherspace long enough to have remorted so often that not even she can recall her original form. She loves sandboxes, challenges, chain mail bikinis and dungeons so large they take weeks, months or even years to fully explore. Currently seeking an MMO home, she can often be found on the side of the road, begging game designers for death penalties and slow leveling curves.