This week, we’ve been covering some strange moves over at MMORPG company Daybreak, the studio long ago comfortably nestled under Sony’s hierarchy as SOE but now owned by external investors. As we noted, back in June, Daybreak filed for trademarks for Darkpaw Games and Rogue Planet Games, adding to the filing for Bronze Age Studios last year, which we speculated might mean the company’s about to split off its individual titles to separate substudios of some sort, since they seem to correspond perfectly with the EverQuest, PlanetSide, and DC Universe Online franchises. (If there’s one for H1Z1, it’s not been unearthed yet.) Coincidentally – or maybe not – the studio also shut down its Player Studio program for all but PlanetSide 2, sparking concern, especially given it’s mid-July and we’ve yet to hear another peep about the PlanetSide Arena launch that was rescheduled for summer.
Add one more new filing to the pile: TheoryForge’s @MSandersonD dug up another one, as the existing company registered a new Daybreak Game Studios LLC on the same day it filed for the Darkpaw and Rogue Planet trademarks. As Scott correctly notes, the core company itself hasn’t had a corporate switchover since SOE originally sold it off, so this may be something bigger than a Hi-Rez-esque sub-studio split-up. Either way, it’s Friday now, so I fully expect a big announcement tonight right after everyone leaves work. (I’m kidding, stop that y’all.)
https://twitter.com/MSandersonD/status/1149438541639966720
