Daybreak, the MMO company that broke off from Sony in February 2015, has announced that a major project has been canceled. EverQuest Next has been canceled.

When it was announced in August 2013, Daybreak (then Sony Online Entertainment) laid out enormous vision for the game. Players would build in a sandbox-like environment now called Landmark, and some of those creations would be used for the full game. In June 2015, Daybreak announced it was shifting its focus from Landmark to EverQuest Next in order to progress the game toward completion.

“For those familiar with the internals of game development, you know that cancellations are a reality we must face from time to time,” writes Daybreak president Russell Shanks. “Inherent to the creative process are dreaming big, pushing hard and being brutally honest with where you land. In the case of EverQuest Next, we accomplished incredible feats that astonished industry insiders. Unfortunately, as we put together the pieces, we found that it wasn’t fun. We know you have high standards when it comes to Norrath and we do too. In final review, we had to face the fact that EverQuest Next would not meet the expectations we – and all of you – have for the worlds of Norrath.”

Landmark, the sandbox component originally envisioned as an incubator for Everquest Next, is still launching. It will be out this spring for $9.99.

Daybreak recently announced that it was splitting H1Z1, its sandbox zombie survival game, into two pieces. King of the Kill, a Battle Royale type game, will release this summer. The survival game, Just Survive, will come out further down the road.

[Source: Daybreak Games (1), (2)]

Our Take

This is a disappointing end to a long road, as Daybreak laid out such a big vision. However, with almost no information for months and Landmark slowly drifting away from the MMO (even dropping the EverQuest name), the writing was on the wall.