[Megathread] Everquest Next

[thewallofsleep]

Is Everquest Next even going to happen? I feel like every day we get new news of Daybreak scrapping something or something else that would otherwise be integral to the success of Everquest Next and it really just seems like they are doing everything in their power to liquidize as many assets as possible and try to pull a profit.

I would be very surprised if it were released as a true polished MMORPG. I could see them turning it into a cash cow "free" to play game which they then don't support after launch, if anything. I think the firm bought SOE simply for Landmark, honestly.

[Mondroc]

The whole situation makes like no sense to me at all. If I hadn't known who bought it, it would really seem like some rich ex-swg veteran bought it just to shut it down and get even. While I don't believe all of the doom speakers because logically nobody would buy a company just to ruin it so they must have *some* plan but what that is is really beyond my ability to see.

[Edge-]

I would be very surprised if it were released as a true polished MMORPG. I could see them turning it into a cash cow "free" to play game which they then don't support after launch, if anything. I think the firm bought SOE simply for Landmark, honestly.

That's silly. The deal was likely in the hundreds of millions for SOE (or damn close to it), and Landmark alone is worth nowhere near that. Hell, IIRC their most profitable product (not accounting for H1Z1) is DCUO.

Not supporting EQN after launch would be beyond silly, as well. It's in their best interest to do so to ensure a large, stable paying population that will help them recoup development costs and start generating a profit.

They were purchased for the EQ brand and for the potential in the future with PS2 on consoles and EQN on PC/consoles, not to mention the potential for them in the mobile space with EQ and maybe PlanetSide and possibly expanding their DCUO offerings.

[thewallofsleep]

You know what, Edge? I always forget that SOE ran other games besides the EQ series, so you've schooled me here. I haven't heard anyone mentioned DCUO or PS2 in ages, so they completely dropped off my radar. H1Z1 I wasn't even aware of until recently, and once I heard "zombie survival" I assumed it was an early access indie game on Steam. Everything except the indie part appears to be true.

Off topic, but open world survival games need to stop.

[Edge-]

You know what, Edge? I always forget that SOE ran other games besides the EQ series, so you've schooled me here. I haven't heard anyone mentioned DCUO or PS2 in ages, so they completely dropped off my radar. H1Z1 I wasn't even aware of until recently, and once I heard "zombie survival" I assumed it was an early access indie game on Steam. Everything except the indie part appears to be true.

Off topic, but open world survival games need to stop.

DCUO is still around and kicking, from what I could see their team avoided the vast majority of the layoffs, actually. I know the game monetizes much better on console than PC, so it's been a good little proof point for their move to bring more games onto console.

As for PS2, they said it only recently became profitable so it's taken some time for it to do well on PC and has gone through a variety of changes. They've been slowly ramping up the delayed PS4 release so not too much buzz about them.

And yeah, H1Z1 has been a bit of an odd duck from the start. Curious as to where it will go, but it seems to be off to a strong financial start for them, at the very least.

SOE/Daybreak is kinda strange, they've changed up their business strategies a number of times (moving from being more of a "megapublisher" to consolidating down to a single third party MMO [Dragon's Prophet, which apparently does very well in Europe]) so it's kinda hard to keep track of what's going on with them unless you're following MMO/SOE news pretty closely.

[Deleted]

As for PS2, they said it only recently became profitable so it's taken some time for it to do well on PC and has gone through a variety of changes. They've been slowly ramping up the delayed PS4 release so not too much buzz about them.

Strange read, but then again they had a very good f2p-model, one of the best actually. However, what I noticed when returning to check things out is that there has not been many new weapons added to the game past year - year and half. When I played at the beginning after launch and forward there were like new weapons every other week. With slow weapon release, it's easier to catch up using only ingame certs, however with many new weapons released often a lot of people will buy station cash so they can buy the new weapons as soon as they hit live and would have given them more profit.

[Edge-]

Strange read, but then again they had a very good f2p-model, one of the best actually. However, what I noticed when returning to check things out is that there has not been many new weapons added to the game past year - year and half. When I played at the beginning after launch and forward there were like new weapons every other week. With slow weapon release, it's easier to catch up using only ingame certs, however with many new weapons released often a lot of people will buy station cash so they can buy the new weapons as soon as they hit live and would have given them more profit.

Yeah, they've been leaning hard on pushing new cosmetics out until the recent implant system (which has caused its fair share of controversy). Honestly, and I hate to say this, but they provided too much for free and too much was easy to get. There wasn't enough motivation to use the cash shop for most folks, as acquiring the certs to purchase whatever weapons/attachments/upgrades was an easy affair through normal play.

Hoping they can strike a better balance with EQN and that they can continue to find strong revenue from consoles on PS2 to help boost their financials a bit when it finally comes out on PS4.

[Deleted]

Yeah, they've been leaning hard on pushing new cosmetics out until the recent implant system (which has caused its fair share of controversy). Honestly, and I hate to say this, but they provided too much for free and too much was easy to get. There wasn't enough motivation to use the cash shop for most folks, as acquiring the certs to purchase whatever weapons/attachments/upgrades was an easy affair through normal play.

Hoping they can strike a better balance with EQN and that they can continue to find strong revenue from consoles on PS2 to help boost their financials a bit when it finally comes out on PS4.

Yea, I can imagine EQN f2p-model to be closer to other EQ-games one, and they are pretty restrictive. I remember when original EQ announced f2p, I wasn't aware of freemium at the time, so I thought I check it out because it's not a game Im really interested in but it's a piece of mmo history to experience but those restrictions made me feel like they were handing me a free trial, not a f2p-game. And from what I understand EQ2 has a pretty similar model? I could imagine EQN something like that as well, and whatev version EQN decides to launch into, if it decides to, Im sure many people will try it out and pay to ease up restrictions which will bring some money in.
PS2 on ps4 has taken quite some time, but I get a feeling that it's soon to come? And it will probably work very fine there, so hopefully it will open up for a bunch of new player and lots of new income =)

[Edge-]

Yea, I can imagine EQN f2p-model to be closer to other EQ-games one, and they are pretty restrictive. I remember when original EQ announced f2p, I wasn't aware of freemium at the time, so I thought I check it out because it's not a game Im really interested in but it's a piece of mmo history to experience but those restrictions made me feel like they were handing me a free trial, not a f2p-game. And from what I understand EQ2 has a pretty similar model? I could imagine EQN something like that as well, and whatev version EQN decides to launch into, if it decides to, Im sure many people will try it out and pay to ease up restrictions which will bring some money in.
PS2 on ps4 has taken quite some time, but I get a feeling that it's soon to come? And it will probably work very fine there, so hopefully it will open up for a bunch of new player and lots of new income =)

Honestly, EQ1/2 models aren't bad now. They've lifted the race/class restrictions (minus some of the more recent expansion races/classes) as well as the item quality restrictions in EQ2 (and I believe spell/ability ranks, too). Realistically, the only things really locked off in a significant amount is expansion content, which is common even for some F2P MMO's. There are still gold/AH restrictions as well, but they're not too significant in terms of actual gameplay, which is largely unrestricted.

Honestly, I think they've learned their lesson from PS2, hence why there has been more of a push to build in systems like the implant system which can be much more easily monetized without impacting gameplay and also stands to be a longterm monetization point rather than a one-off point like many cosmetics or weapon unlocks.

I'd imagine, especially since they're building EQN as F2P from the ground up (unlike EQ1/2) and now have a lot more experience with the business model that we'll see a pretty decent and more financially stable/sustainable (for them) model out of them. Not as awesome for players as say, PS2, but probably a bit less restrictive (or with different restrictions) than what EQ1/2 provides.

[shoc]

Gross, Daybreak Game Company un F2P'd the early access H1Z1 'Battle Royale' game mode. If this is any indication of Daybreak/Columbus Nova's future monetization techniques then I would fear for the future of Everquest: Next.

[ro9ue]

So I've been following EQ:N for a long time and I feel like there has been a massive black hole of info on the future of this game lately.

I'm feeling a cancellation announcement coming in the next week or so.

[ThatGuyYouMayKnow]

I could see it being cancelled as well, but there is also a chance they are waiting on something bigger. We'll have to wait and see.

[stellvia]

So I've been following EQ:N for a long time and I feel like there has been a massive black hole of info on the future of this game lately.
I'm feeling a cancellation announcement coming in the next week or so.

That's what happens when you fire all of the community, social media reps, and lore people. You no longer get any info.

[Jtbrig7390]

So I've been following EQ:N for a long time and I feel like there has been a massive black hole of info on the future of this game lately.

I'm feeling a cancellation announcement coming in the next week or so.

Ya I feel Everquest next is dead in the water. Even if the game dose release its going to be a shell of what it was planned to be.

[Edge-]

That's what happens when you fire all of the community, social media reps, and lore people. You no longer get any info.

To be fair, there wasn't much about EQN to begin with. They had their polls and some discussion during their podcast things, but the vast majority of their communication focus was put on their more immediate game, Landmark.

It's not as if EQN communication, at least on a high level in terms of making big announcements etc. has changed at all.

[stellvia]

True, but since the buyout they signaled intentions that Landmark would basically see a feature/development freeze and be wrapped up more or less as-is. Meanwhile (finally?) putting all the effort into EQN, etc. Yet since then we haven't heard anything from them as far as their new/current focus goes with its development. Even if we don't get detailed answers, at least getting a broad overview from them on how things will be handled from now on would be nice.

[ro9ue]

Almost a month of nothing?

.....


Da fuck?

[Edge-]

Almost a month of nothing?

.....


Da fuck?

This isn't really new. They haven't been pushing out much info on EQ Next for a while, at least not outwardly. I think there's still tidbits here and there in their forums, but they've been focused pretty squarely on Landmark first for a while now.

[Collected]

Some Landmark changes coming with the wipe:

http://massivelyop.net/2015/04/27/ev...ostponed-wipe/

I got excited at first but by the end of it I was left feeling like most of that stuff should and probably could have been done a while ago. Most of it sounds like an attempt to encourage people to play the game rather than huge steps forward in development. It just feels like they're constantly toying with the basics with no real direction or real urgency. If/when they reach a point where the basic engine and building blocks are all in place.. they then have to build a world in which players will be present in, do all the quests, build all the story lines, build all the structures, place NPCs, tune spells, tune classes, build the class system.. etc etc etc. That's a LOT of work and time. A few years worth.

I admire the dream and bravery of what they're trying to achieve but I just don't see it ever materialising into a full MMO experience. Pains me to say that. But I just see this as a project Daybreak are keeping burning to see what happens. I think eventually someone is going to make the call that it's too ambitious and the MMO genre just isn't a great place to be entering now.

[xuros]

This isn't really new. They haven't been pushing out much info on EQ Next for a while, at least not outwardly. I think there's still tidbits here and there in their forums, but they've been focused pretty squarely on Landmark first for a while now.

They did release this a few days ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS1leeymzvc . I just want more info. Been worried for a while now. As a long time eq player from launch I hope they get this done well.