Like say you were an eccentric multi-millionaire, and you just didn't want to see that property dragged through the mud anymore... how much you think Daybreak would sell that shit for?
Like say you were an eccentric multi-millionaire, and you just didn't want to see that property dragged through the mud anymore... how much you think Daybreak would sell that shit for?
I would say easily hundreds of millions.
It still is a franchise with a well known name... And that is half the battle... Look at the hype generated by Everquest Next when it was first announced and merely vaporware... Imagine an actual high quality game with the title...
At a modest few million in sales, even after the retail cut is taken out, a single release can pull in hundreds of millions. If is subscription it could pull in millions more a month... If it is free to play millions more in micro-transactions.
And owning the IP would mean you can do this ad infinitum.
Just because the shit show that was SOE circa 2014/15 made no progress on the game, and then in the middle of that no progress got sold to another company, who ended the development because, go figure, wasting money on a shit show isn't profitable... That doesn't mean the franchise has no value.
They need to reinvent Everquest as like an Action RPG or something. Give it a different edge that WoW doesn't have if they want it to succeed, sadly what Everquest did for the MMO genre, WoW took and did it 10x better and mainstreamed it. You can't really top that.
I'd argue the IP would actually do well going forward by heading to single player. Think an Elder Scrolls or Kingdoms of Amalur game set in Norrath. Similar to Champions of Norrath, but able to start over and build its own world, etc. The assets from EQ Next might even be useable to some extent, though it's not the art style I'd prefer for an EverQuest game.
If they sold the IP to an eccentric millionaire, their stocks would plummet and SOE or whoever owns the EQ franchise would go bankrupt. Plus they may have investors as many games do who wouldn't allow such a transaction to take place (an eccentric billionaire probably couldn't get their hands on Blizzard no matter how hard they tried).
Plus, if this eccentric millionaire bought the franchise but lacked the development team to patch it, fix it, maintain it and add to it, they are potentially losing out on thousands of dollars daily as the game's worth becomes less and less. The moment a development team announces an MMO is losing support the game becomes more and more worthless by the day. - usually why it's better to just pull the plug on the servers instead of keeping them alive for a few ~1000 fans.
Last edited by Al Gorefiend; 2016-06-24 at 04:35 PM.
Like $250,000 just for IP rights, and I'm being generous. IP rights doesn't mean you get a company with the old game, IP rights means you have the right to do stuff with the universe/characters that were created in a way you seem fit.
And I don't think a lot of people give a fuck to be honest. If you're going to do something good you may as well just make new IP. It's not like it's Mario or Call of Duty...which are more recognizable.
I'll take it for $5
All right, gentleperchildren, let's review. The year is 2024 - that's two-zero-two-four, as in the 21st Century's perfect vision - and I am sorry to say the world has become a pussy-whipped, Brady Bunch version of itself, run by a bunch of still-masked clots ridden infertile senile sissies who want the Last Ukrainian to die so they can get on with the War on China, with some middle-eastern genocide on the side

Obligatory tree fiddy comment.

To be honest You can do a little digging and see how much the company is worth and just buy the whole thing.
If you have plans to develop the and franchise make new games you need to put up alot of money because if you make an offer they can turn around and start auctioning their IP based on your offer alone, so you have to offer a large amount to scare off potential competition.
Say you offered 250million you better be ready to spend another 250million to actually develop a game. Factor in how long game development takes and you better be ready to either lose a lot of money in the short term or do a lot of marketing to gain traction.
Do you really want Everquest to change? Do you want someone to slap a new coat of paint and brand new tits onto a beloved franchise? There is so much competition in the fantasy RPG genre do you really want to see a subpar entry into the universe that exists only to make money?

Actually it is, Sony sold the company at a loss as reported by multiple sources because they had to eat development costs.
That shows exactly how much Sony thought it was worth.
Everquest at it's peak was maybe at a high hundred thousand subs, probably a few million people in the world know what the everquest IP is. Claiming it's worth "hundreds of millions" is laughable.
Had Sony thought the IP had any value they would have simply shut the studio down and passed the IP off to one of their more proven development studios. Selling the entire company and their IPs whole sale and eating a loss on current development projects showed exactly what Sony thought the company and it's IPs where worth- jack diddly shit.
I'd say the lack of any major new games is badly hurting the IP, more so with the cancellation of Everquest Next.
I know Everquest 1 and 2 are still around, but not only do they look and play crusty as hell now, but they're not exactly booming population wise (at least 2 didn't seem to be when I played it, 1 just seems WAAAAYY to long in the tooth for me to have enough interest in trying it)
You must show no mercy, Nor have any belief whatsoever in how others judge you: For your greatness will silence them all!
-Warrior Wisdom