Games studio Daybreak Game Company has canceled EverQuest Next, an upcoming MMO that has been supposed to become a successor to EverQuest titles. In a statement published on the website of the studio, Russell Shanks, Daybreak Game Company’s president, stated the name simply didn’t live up the franchise’s standards.
“As we put together the pieces, we discovered that it wasn’t fun,” writes Shanks. “In final review, we had to confront the fact that EverQuest Next might not meet the expectations we — and all of you — have for the worlds of Norrath.”
It’s sad news for EverQuest fans, but might also indicate shifting expectations for the games industry as a whole. Microsoft announced it was stopping development on the free-to-play name Fable Legends as a piece of the possible shutdown of Lionhead Studios. Perhaps F2P isn’t as appealing a prospect of studios as it was.
Here is the statement from Shanks in full:
To Our Daybreak Community,
I’m writing today to allow you to understand that, after much review and consideration, Daybreak is stopping development of EverQuest Next.
For the previous 20 years EverQuest was a labor of love. What started as a passion of ours, as game creators, become a much bigger fire shared with you, countless Daybreakers and gamers . Watching EverQuest’s ability together has inspired and humbled us. It’s shaped our culture and has emboldened us to take risks with products and our game suggestions. When we chose to create the next chapter we did not aim low. We set out to make something revolutionary.
For those familiar with the internals of sport development, you realize that cancellations are a reality we have to face from time to time. Inherent to the creative process pushing hard, are still dreaming big and being brutally honest. In the case of EverQuest Next, we accomplished. Unfortunately, as we put the pieces together, we found that it wasn’t fun. We know you have high standards when it comes to Norrath and we do. In review, we needed to face the reality that EverQuest Next would not meet with the expectations we — and all of you — have for Norrath’s worlds.
The near future of the EverQuest franchise as a whole is important to us here at Daybreak. EverQuest in all its forms is near and dear to our own hearts. EverQuest and EverQuest II are currently going strong. Rest assured that our fire to grow the entire world of EverQuest remains undiminished.
