Sony Online Entertainment Becomes Daybreak Game Company

What does this mean for unused SOE game cards?

From the Columbus Nova website:

"CN takes a value-oriented, long-term view to investing and seeks consistent returns with an emphasis on capital preservation."

So they're in it for the long term, but if the asset/game doesn't show immediate and consistent profit, it's axed.

To all of the EQ project team: I hope the transition to the new company goes well for you. This time of change can be stressful.

Hmmmmmm, I wonder if this is the explanation for the fact that Station Cash cards are nowhere to be found here in Canada this past month........

"Daybreak" sounds like a Zombie motif? Like the Day-Z game?

I really hope this doesn't mark a shift to a H1Z1 focus and possibly EverQuest Next being renamed and re-oriented (i.e. Everquest Landmark become simply Landmark).

Is Qeynos going to be renamed to Qekaerbyad?

Yea my bad, but 7 or 10 years makes no difference to the point. Being bought did not cause shuttering.

SOE Live/FanFaires are expensive marketing events, and don't make the company money. For now the team is focusing on this transition and the future of Daybreak Game Company.

or qeavon

I've just had a mental image of Fippy Darkpaw shouting "HAH! PAYBACK B#$%*ES! LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!"

Looking at the columbus nova website I cant imagine why they would buy this.

Founded in 2000, Columbus Nova ("CN") is a multi-strategy investment firm managing over $15.0 billion of assets through its own funds and affiliated portfolio companies. CN has a broad investment mandate which allows investments across all levels of the capital structure from senior secured debt to equity. CN takes a value-oriented, long-term view to investing and seeks consistent returns with an emphasis on capital preservation. CN is headquartered in New York.

Then click on "Our Team" and it's just 3 names.

My heart is breaking for my beloved Everquest, this "game" and I have been through so much, so many experiences together. This is the ONLY game I partake in and the ONLY game I spend my free time with.
I love you Everquest, I have since the first day I journeyed in your lush lands. You have been with me from the good times and through the bad times. You have become an everyday staple in my life and even if time doesn't permit me to enjoy you as I would like, I always come back to you because you have always been there patiently waiting for my return.
I've met many interesting and diverse people from around the world and made life long friendships with them. You became a part of my life when my first child was born in 1999 and we have been a big happy family ever since. You have brought me laughter, frustration, tears and all of the emotions that go along with an environment in which live players can interact with one another to achieve a common goal. Or to achieve a personal goal.
Through all of the diversity that life has brought me, all of the frustration, anxiety and annoyances that I face day to day, Everquest remained constant in its journey and I always knew that at the end of the day I had a place to go that was my own, my own cupboard under the stairs that I could strike out on my own, even if it was only for a few precious minutes I would be in my own familiar world.

Thank you Everquest and everyone who made these past 15yrs such a joy. I will be a beloved member of this family until the day the log in patcher no longer connects me to the land I find so precious.

LONG LIVE EVERQUEST!!!

Long time player of CoH here. Your implied timeline is a bit off. NCSoft had been CoH's publisher for a long time (I want to say launch) before they bought CoH from Cryptic... in 2007.

Yes, NCSoft did close CoH in 2012, after 5 years of full ownership. So if Daybreak follows the NCSoft model, you have 5 years and a bunch of development before you need to panic about closure.

-Kashari

So we were already insecure about the future of this game under SOE. Now an acquisition? The devs and the Daybreak executives need to articulate a very clear and solid road map for EQ for the next year or so. Particularly, will or can we expect any more growth for EverQuest 1?

IIRC, SOE doesn't own that game. They were just publishing it for the company that made it.

Pretty sure the plan was always for them to be bought out by SOE. Unfortunately I think this situation is a lot different from back then.

Unfortunately they don't need to do anything. And if there is any bad news corporate types generally give it out at the very last minute to avoid any financial reprecussions. Most of the people left in Everquest want to play Everquest. No where else to go for that so they know they don't have to say anything until they are good and ready.

It would be nice if they would give some kind of guarantee specifically aimed at EQ but I don't think that will happen and if it did would it be worth the paper it was written on? Won't be the first time a company announced an expansion or new resources just before shutting a division down or in this case a game.

That's the thing that really sucks about this... the only way to know what will happen is to wait for it to happen.

Yea I did not make any money when I went there either, was pretty stupid of me to waste my money having fun huh?

This is the sort of thing that worries me, an investment company will want to make more money on a year to year basis, Revenues have to increase on a year to year basis to keep them happy.

If something is not producing increased revenues each year, you know like a game with declining subscriptions, it becomes a liability to the company and looked upon as a cancer that must be removed before it actually starts to loose money.

I hope this will be a step forward to same servers in multiplatform-Games. So that Everquest Next, Landmark, DC Universe and all other coming Games can be played together on all Plattforms.

Even Final Fantasy XIV can do this, i do not understand why it is the only real Multiplatform Title...

That's what everyone who acquires a company tells existing employees and customers right before firing everyone and cutting the fat projects