Please don't screw this up...

If you were paying attention to the news lately you probably know last few weeks were not good for Everquest franchise. After SOE has been acquired by investment firm Columbus Nova several members of Everquest 2 and Everquest Next teams were laid off. A week after Terry Michaels revealed during livestream that when it comes to Everquest Next the matter of business model is now open for debate and they are considering alternatives to free to play. Also Daybreak will not continue to cooperate with Storybricks. I have finally squeezed some free time out of my packed daily schedule to write about all of this. So here's my view on recent events.

It should be clear by now that main focus of Daybreak's new owner is saving money. This is probably why they are reorganizing EQ2 and EQN teams. The same is true for ceasing cooperation with Storybricks. Of course I feel sorry for all of the developers who were laid off. It is always sad news when people loose their jobs. That being said if Daybreak doesn't generate profit they won't be able to operate their games much less develop new ones. So before I'm going to give Columbus Nova a little slack before demanding head of their ceo. We will have to wait and see how recent changes affect Daybreak's operations.

I can live with a business model different from F2P. I think if EQN launches with B2P it will still do more than fine and sell a lot of boxes. Guild Wars 2 proved that AAA game can successfully operate as a buy to play title. On the other hand starting with sub is the worst possible scenario. Even if this game launches with sub it will not stay this way for a long time. Don't get me wrong. There is a place for subscription games in todays market. Niche titles, that have smaller but dedicated audience can get away with sub. Everquest Next however will not be a niche game. So pay to play will not work in this case.

The other thing that worries me is severing ties with Storybricks. Innovative AI created by this company was driving force behind npcs' behavior and rallying calls - huge public quests that are supposed to permanently change world of EQN. Although Daybreak ceased cooperating with Storybricks they will continue developing the system in-house. So all the work that has been put into game so far will not be lost. For me this is really big deal. If you take away this system Everquest Next is just a themepark with voxels. If rallying calls were replaced by more traditional system of content delivery this could be a deal breaker for me. I hope Daybreak will be able to fully develop this system without external help.

Ok, that's enough rambling for today. Do you agree with the new management's course of action? Or maybe you spend all of your free time to prepare pitchforks and torches for march on headquarter of Columbus Nova? I would appreciate your feedback in comments.