A Quick Note from Jenn Chan, Head of Studio, Darkpaw Games

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by dreamweaver, Dec 1, 2020.

  1. Cathbad New Member

    Hopefully this means an increased expenditure in infrastructure, i.e. servers with sufficient capacity to accommodate multiple raiding parties in instanced raid zones. Maybe hire some folks to imagine-eer some NEW art, zones, content instead of constantly recycling years old dregs. I love this game, saved me from going nuts while an expat, but if we're going to keep this ball rolling there has to be investment, not flimsy appeasement. I'll keep positive ... hoping for fresh new things to come.
    WhysperWynde likes this.
  2. Benito Ancient EQ2 Player: Lavastorm Server 2004.

    You can delete my post to your preference. I won’t speak further on the subject. The presentation is starting to circulate on several third party sites. Perhaps, a kind request to limit business discussions on the official forums? I believe the floodgates will open tomorrow.
  3. Arcos Active Member

    Perhaps this might mean the next Daybreak Fan Faire being in Europe :)
    Breanna likes this.
  4. Juraiya Well-Known Member

    Not tater tots? :eek:
  5. statbumper New Member

    daybreak (darkpaw) games are better than ever
    WhysperWynde likes this.
  6. statbumper New Member


    because daybreak games at dcuo and planetside 2 are cross platform and planetside 2 are most benificial to all that money, geezus
  7. Goldheart Member

    Oh, really?. I seem to remember a cutting-edge engine called Forgelight for a zero-emission project called Next that got buried under a Landmark...
  8. Barral New Member


    I just hope that it won't change anything... I played when SOE was bought out and played when it changed to Daybreak games. I enjoy playing EverQuest2. I have played on PVP server and played on several PVE services. and even played on free trade server. I just with the new expansion coming out.. I hope it not going to kill it off.

    Have a Happy Holiday and stay safe.
    Barral
    WhysperWynde likes this.
  9. Kittybock Well-Known Member

    Companies are bought and sold all the time. Not concerned.

    Umm, when do we get those free meatballs Ttobey was talking about? Is that like a Veteran Reward or what? ;)
    Freyja, Raff, Juraiya and 2 others like this.
  10. Kraggy New Member

    As someone who played both LoTRO and Rift when those games were discarded by their orginal devs .. Turbine and Trion respectively .. I know there is every reason to be concerned until we learn the details.

    LoTRO survived in not too bad a shape when Trubine spun off the dev team into Standing Stones .. RIft wasn't so lucky.

    Iv'e only been playing EQ2 for 3 weeks, with All Access just over 2 of them, so have no idea about the state of things, maybe the situation isn't like those other games.
  11. Ultimmaa New Member

    bring us everquest 3!
    Dilon, Snowmoon and Siren like this.
  12. Dilon Active Member

    Yes, of course. They are buying the IP and they will deploy it in the manner that they deem best. They definitely - definitely - did not buy the IP bundle in order to keep things status quo. They see growth opportunities which means they are going to re-allocate some resources. I fully expect that scuttling the lowest performing assets in the portfolio is on the table, so the resources can be re-allocated elsewhere. And it doesn't take an MBA to see what the lowest performing asset in the portfolio is, even if that asset has an incredibly high monetization rate.
    WhysperWynde likes this.
  13. Siren Well-Known Member


    Way to compare apples to oranges. Landmark and Next were already years underway when Sony decided to bail out of game development and focus solely on console hardware-- and they didn't just sell off SOE, either!

    This situation is a new company paying $300 mill for a stable of long-running MMOs that have managed to rake in $77 million this past year alone even though the "youngest" game in that stable (DCUO) will be 10 yrs old this year. EG7 will also have sequel rights to these games and franchises, which have an already proven, long term player base.

    The entire world is in turmoil right now, but don't let that blind you to what is going on with this one transaction. Not to mention that said world is hunkered down at home: What a fine time to be publishing stay-at-home, inexpensive, long-term entertainment.
  14. Siren Well-Known Member

    Attention all paranoid peeps: You need to calm the heck down! This is a best-case scenario, Swedes, $300 mill, no chopping block of different games shipping out to this or that lockbock frenzy publisher from X 3rd world country, or shut down altogether, yeesh. And they're even honoring all our lifetime subs, and stated that right away. That tells you something about the integrity of EG7 up front.

    EG7/Daybreak have just released more player base info (178 million reg users) and income statistics ($77 million in just this past year alone, on games ranging from 10 yrs to 21 yrs old!) than we have seen...ever, and there you are, pulling imaginary head cannon from out of your...well, you get where.

    Holly already strongly hinted before she left that there was an Everquest 3 on the way. The time is right: the world is hunkered down at home, and looking for cheap, long-term, safe entertainment! And there would be no worse way to permanently tick off every Everquest franchise player ever than to shut down EQ1 and/or EQ2 while they're working on a sequel, or at any time after. Just the fact that EQ1 is 21 years old and still being as actively expanded on every year as EQ2 is (and has been for 16 yrs itself) should tell you all you need to know about the dedication the company has to this franchise. There have been a couple ownership jumps now, and they're still cranking along.

    It's unfortunate Landmark/Next tanked, but so did Blizzard's Titans MMO, shut down for the same reasons: it just wasn't working out. And Blizzard learned from it, too, and then launched the wildly successful Overwatch. No, not same type of game, but it shows you can succeed later once you learn from your mistakes. And WoW is not only still buzzing along after the same 16 yrs as EQ2, but Classic makes them millions, just like the EQ1 and EQ2 TLs are raking in the subs for Daybreak.

    EQ2 has been going for 16 years now! Some of our devs have been here this entire time, and some even longer (on EQ1 etc)!
    Isn't this better than waiting for the other shoe to drop?! And those released figures are pretty danged high. Higher than you would believe if you listened to every troll and panic button presser on these forums, lol.
    SolarFaire, Melt, Freyja and 3 others like this.
  15. Goldheart Member

    Way to fail at history. DBG was spun off in Feb. 2015. The following June, good old Smokejumper started slowly strangling the project to die a lingering death, but not before selling a bunch of Landmark subscriptions first.
  16. Siren Well-Known Member

    Like I said, Next/Landmark (originally the same project) had been in development for years when SOE suddenly dropped the bomb that they were withdrawing totally from the game development market to focus solely on Playstation console hardware. That's why SOE got sold along with all Sony Japan's other game development houses.

    And Smokejumper strangled a lot of things, lol. Isn't he the one who demanded Landmark be stripped from Next and sold as its own thing? And wasn't he the "Battlegrounds must be shoved into EQ2 PvP" guy? Probably one of the best things Columbus Nova did was to dump him if so.

    Your comparison is not valid, as Columbus Nova did what short term investment companies do, and already chopped out everything nonprofitable to make Daybreak ready for resale. Now EG7 has bought the package deal as a profitable entity, and paid a whopping $300 mill for it besides. They're clearly setting up to run these games: they wouldn't have thrown away their money just to shutter them.

    EG7 buying Daybreak as a whole is the best case scenario for gamers. It sure beats haphazard sales of each studio to whatever lockbox happy grind machine grabs it, ugh.
  17. Dilon Active Member

    I don't think you understand the information you're looking at.
    That guy., Erudinel and Smashey like this.
  18. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    and now we know where the term "meat shield" originated.
  19. Suzze/Barshen/Baratroub Active Member

    I appreciate the information. I have to Agree I would like to see a Q & A session, but I am also doubtful those that have the Answers will be able or willing to talk, as I do not see anybody from EG7 nor Daybreak from participating. I will remain optimistic about the Outcome, but some Solid Answers about the Future of DBG and DPG would be a good things for all involved. I also realize this will take a little time and I highly doubt anything will be put out prior to the Release of RoS and the they will hope the release will make all the Questions go away. While a potentially smart move, it is also overtly obvious. So some answers and real reassurances from those higher up would be a good thing and the sooner, the better.
  20. LDEffectsMe Active Member

    I think some folks are getting fearful for no reason. Look over the EG7 Investor Presentation. They just bought Daybreak, which makes Daybreak their new cash cow. Daybreak earned more than EG7 this year. 156m SEK vs 255m SEK, or 18.4m USD vs 30m USD. EG7 bought Daybreak because Daybreak makes money... And sustains it. Companies don't buy companies to shut them down, as there's no money in that.

    And, here's the important metrics as far as EQ2 is concerned. EQ2 is 13% of Daybreak's EBITDA (essentially gross earnings year to date) which makes it 4th place in that regard, out of 6 titles. However, it's more than double the lowest title and still amounts to basically 3.9m USD this year. So yeah, I don't think EQ2 is in any danger of going anywhere. They sky is not falling.

    On top of that, "EverQuest" is listed first (even before Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons) in the list of unique IPs that EG7 presents that they can now monetize. Which means, they see value in EQ and are likely to invest more into the existing titles and hopefully future ones.