Everquest Next officially…..
 

cancelled. After over fifteen years of development, including four separate reboots, it is done and over. Landmark, or what I like to call Skidmark, will launch later this year, supposedly in the spring.

Interview with the boss.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g…Franchise.html

Skidmark, lol

EQNext was the last of the AAA Western MMOs in the work. The most expensive game genre is now indie only…

I'm rather surprised they kept Landmark though. I expect a quick death after they "launch" unless they can deliver a full game which it really isn't right now. It will also be buy-to-play. I suspect they are launching to not have to refund every early access buyers.

Not surprising, they're simply looking to milk as much from the acquisition before it all fades away into obscurity altogether. Developing an entirely new game was never in the cards in my opinion - and if anything had managed to surface from that mess, it would have been a shallow, f2p-infested insult to the franchise.

Oh well, RIP EQ… come on Pantheon!

They have an unannounced title in development in their Austin office and are looking for designer for it right now.

edit: and lots of people seems to think it is EQ3, lol.

I sincerely doubt anything of substance will ever come from Daybreak. Landmark is somewhat of an exception in the short-term (whether or not it ends up being horrible) because primary development had already been completed by SoE.

What I envision from Daybreak is cash shop, f2p gaming more at home on a mobile tablet than in the EQ universe. And small, shallow, and increasingly marginalized expansion packs for EQ1/2 up until they've completely driven off the last vestiges of the playerbase and new content development stops altogether.

Am I being overly cynical? It's just how these acquisitions work out.

I wish that is the case! I am glad they cancelled EQ Next. I hated the minute I saw my favourite Kerran turned into Lion King even though they had some nice ideas.

Anyway this might be the time for Pantheon to do another KS :)

Leaving this here for posterity's sake…

EQ Next made Warcraft look good, and that game looks like utter shite to me. They both look like they were targeted at five year olds, or perhaps even younger. We are better off for having no new EQ at this point.