Daybreak hires two bigwigs for its Flagship Franchise...H1Z1

So...it's official. Daybreak's flagship franchise is no longer Everquest; it's H1Z1. Egads.

Sorry, folks, although I think most of us could see the writing on the wall anyway.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-03-23-daybreak-hires-former-ea-vp-larry-lapierre

Yup
Especially when the only thing that was talked about when they finally admitted EQN was dead was zombies and gaming consoles

sigh only a mere mention that they are still committed. How committed?

I think that H1Z1 has a chance at being really popular (although it isn't my cup of tea). If it earns a lot of money then that will help the company in general. They need a new money maker.

I don't think it means anything bad for EQ2.

The fact that he was at Ea for 14 years worries my Ea does not have a good reputation in my books

I just hope they remember the zombie phase will pass quickly (shooting star) and they don't try to turn EQ2 into Farmville.

Well at least they have the micro transactions down, because EA was/is king of them.

Personally, I can't stand EA. They killed a few of my favorite franchises and then went nuts on the micro transactions. NO THANK YOU!!
Like others, Zombie shooters, Zombie games aren't my cup of tea, so now let's hope for a few more good years of EQ2.

I do have to say I am looking forward to GU 100! Will be interesting to see Zek at level.

Unfortunately I have also had a poor experience with EA in the past.

Many years ago they acquired Gamestorm, a company who had been running a very successful WW2 flying game franchise called Aiwarrior.
6 months later, Airwarrior was gone.

I just hope the same writing isn't on the wall, yet again.

I'm also not fond of EA, all they stand for and what they do. Zynga doesn't have a steller reputation either. I don't think I've ever forgiven EA for bioware and mistrust anything associated with them.

Really, EA are not that bad... oh wait! Online passes, day 1 DLC, always online DRM, online only games, quickly closing multiplayer servers, buying up great game studios for their licenses, shutting them down and doing nothing with them, micro transactions everywhere. Yeah, maybe you are right, sorry

Well also not fond on EA, they killed Earth & Beyond cause they needed the server space.. Threatened fans of Earth & Beyond cause they wanted it to make it free to play and run it themselves.. After years the threat is over but still bad taste.

On the good side, cause of E&B shutting down I found Everquest..

I dunno, it's not doing that bad but compared to their competition it doesn't exactly look good. Rust has 2x the amount of players and Ark has 3x. Rust at the very least is made by a much smaller team, I'm not sure about Ark. I think they're counting on H1Z1 being free, but that's going to depend how well the free to play is done, Daybreak doesn't exactly have a good reputation as far as free to play is concerned.

http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&appid=295110q433850q252490q346110

Hiring of any sort is good news for Daybreak.

EA - worst game company EVER - IMO of course. Haven't had a good experience with them after the Ultima games - UO used to be good but one bad experience there due to the lack of customer service at EA has kept me from buying ANYTHING EA related, that was what 20+ years ago and not a single EA product purchased!

I don't particularity see this as a good sign for EQ/EQ2 etc. - IMO of course

Yeah count me among those with poor experiences with EA.

Me too w/poor experience with EA I avoid purchasing things from EA, I just hope that the hiring will be a good thing and that DBG doesn't turn into an EA type company as I love thins game. Maybe good things will come from this. I'm not going to panic until I see the company turning to EA policies/CS/ect I'm going to give them the chance and benefit of the doubt for now.
Maybe they left EA b/c they didn't like EA any more, one can hope this is why.

hiring someone from EA, literally considered the worst company in gaming. What could go wrong?

Same with EA, plus no thanks to zombie games, movies, series, merchandise....just...no.

I do admire EQ2's microtransaction model. Most things you can get in other ways (some exceptions), but the marketplace gives you an opportunity to get them instantly. There really isn't anything gamebreaking for sale, just a lot of fun, shiny things.

If Daybreak's marketplaces get any more blatant than this, I will fold. If I can't find a game that doesn't do that, then I won't game.

Once the Goons give up on H1Z1, it'll collapse.

It was popular when it launched, and when it launched it was on the back of another idea ( DayZ) and now at this point, other survival games are better and have no cash shop ( 7daystodie, rust, ark, the list goes on)

H1Z1 is only popular when you compare it to the current popularity of eq/eq2. Its not as popular as ark, or rust which offer alot more for alot less investment. it hit its peak already if anything with how popular its going to get.

Also keep in mind that H1Z1 cant keep up with the devs from games like rust that update and post progress daily. Especially given that alot of h1z1 devs are working on other things as well, like the eq franchise.