Did EverQuest Next fail to come to fruition because it wasn’t fun, the studio didn’t want it, or its technical challenges were too great to overcome? Take your pick on a narrative here, but in a recent interview with Variety, Daybreak Game Director Holly Longdale put the blame square on the last item.

“There was a real nugget of an idea there, but a technical hurdle the team just couldn’t get over,” said Longdale. “All the other stuff that EverQuest is kind of got lost because it was focused on voxels and a dynamically-generated changing world.”

Longdale said that while the MMO’s cancellation hurt, it was necessary to pave the way for a more viable future. The interview mentions that over the past few years, the team has “been evaluating what makes EverQuest EverQuest,” which apparently includes classic high fantasy and community dependency. “Whatever we do in the future,” she said, “we’re going to embrace what we are […] We’ll mix something we think is the next evolution for EverQuest.”