Everquest Next (EQ 3) was scrapped a long time ago, I'm pretty sure there's nothing in development for a new EQ atm.
you know theres a Everquest 3. also Everquest Next isnt EQ 3.that game wasnt even what made EQ great and would have fail badly. i can get you articles for you. i know the facts you don't.
A new EverQuest game (after development on EQNext was scrapped) is almost certainly not in the works right now, but it might happen in the future should the studio continue to steadily grow profits. From interviews & other sources I've seen all they have done is some preliminary work around what the future of the franchise is & what important aspects from EverQuest & EverQuest II they would incorporate into a future title along with the business side aspects of a potential future EverQuest Franchise project such as development costs, resource planning etc. They are very unlikely to be any further than the planning stages & no more than that, though they had/have a ton of code, concept art & in-game art assets from the EQNext project, and a small amount of stuff created early on in the Forgelight Engine before they moved over to the Voxel Engine. All that said, I think they learned from the one big mistake made on EverQuest Next of announcing the project too soon, if there really is something being actually developed they will probably keep it as under-wraps as is possible until they have an actual game to showcase.
When Azaliil and other former devs were discussing the cost of developing a AAA MMORPG title, they cited the cost as somewhere in the realm of $500 million. It will be nearly impossible for a 3rd title to be in the works unless Warren Buffett adds Daybreak to this portfolio or Jeff Bezos and Amazon purchases the IP. Though, with the Nantworks investment (LA Times-owner billionaire), you may see more modest projects (mobile games).
If they worked on making a true successor to EQ. Mostly just modernizing graphics, code etc... that should save some development work. Of course that would all assume they thought doing that would create a successful game and make a lot of money. Won't happen but it is nice to dream about it.
Daybreak is a small company now. I seriously doubt they are working on any big games. Maybe some smaller projects.
Pretty sure he refers to it as "The Manifesto" and its kept buried in a lead lined box in his Mom's backyard. So it might take a few days for him to post it, since he has to make sure there are no black helicopters in the area first, before he digs it up.
Honestly, if all the different EQ developers had spent time working on EQ instead of trying to come up with the "next great thing(tm)" EQ would be doing so much better than it is.
Yeah, I'm sure Landmark and EQ Next pulled a lot of resources from EQ. There was some cool concepts introduced with those that sounded good, maybe one day we will see something come of it or some of it get adapted to EQ. I liked the idea of the interactive world that would have permanent changes, a massive war that completely destroys a city or permanently alters it. Environments that could be interacted with and such.
I found this image of the OP and his buddy getting ready to chat about it. Looks like they're serious.
I don't think it was the fault of the developers per say, more the management above them calling the shots on what the money EQ was generating ended up being spent on. Gaming business is usually about making single games & you use the money from the hits to invest in future potential hits. Games as a service like EverQuest turned out to be have to change the paradigm at the business end too, but I think SoE was very slow to make that shift & ended up blowing a lot of money on failed projects instead of investing back into the game that ended up propping up the company for a long time (until DC Universe started making money at any rate). Holly did a lot to refocus where the EQ money went, but that was after a lot of mistakes & wasted potential.