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.)
For historical perspective the first LLC was Daybreak Games Holdings created at the end of 2014. Daybreak Game Company was created at the beginning of 2015 at SOE transferred to it. This has been the main company since. Creating a new company indicates likely major changes coming
— Scott (@MSandersonD) July 11, 2019
Pick one to move the values to, make the rest have the debts and unprofitable parts.
Shuffle profits and assets around for a period of time.
Sell or transfer the survivor lcc or its assets and ips.
Declare bankruptsy on the other lcc to dump the depths.
The shuffles makes it harder to prove and track down that you did it, so you probably get away with most of it in the end, maybe end it with a settlement… In any case minimal risk, high probability of success or partial success.
How else are they going to hide all the Russian Troll farms?
Always good to have extra shell companies lying around.
Like disease, one sick cell becomes three.
While the mind can go to more nefarious reasons for these recent changes as indicated by some comments, my guess is this more along the lines of bankruptcy protection or selling off properties.
Looks like some very overdue business organization is on the way. Maybe something amusing, but could also be prep for future brand stuff. Daybreak trashed its brand name, but new studio names may eventually be able to come out of the darkness with less stigma attached.
Eventually, we will likely see something new in the EQ-verse under some name, but not until there is something concrete to “wow” us with as the brand-consumer trust is very low.
Looking it up, Bronze Age Studios was filed for in February of 2018 and, while it is still flagged as live, I wouldn’t include that on the list of things that Daybreak did in June.
Also, you can use the term “Daybreak Game Company” and search on the “Owner Name and Address” field to see what they have applied for over the years. There are some odd ones on the list. I do wonder what they were going to do with “DV8” for example.
But I wonder about a lot of things Daybreak does.
An important distinction is that Daybreak Game Studios LLC is a brand new company whereas the others are simply trademark applications.
Laundering those Russian oligarch money takes a significant effort it seems.
This makes me glad I haven’t touched their stuff since the cancellation of EQN. So fishy they need to call Aquaman.
So glad i finally walked in 2008/9.
I applaud your ability to walk way as soon as you did. I regretfully continued to give these losers my money until earlier this summer when I had finally decided enough was enough.
When DBG folds, I truly hope that the losers at the top that made all the horrible decisions don’t get hired by any of the games I now play.
I hope they are wearing orange jumpsuits.
I’m still waiting for the inevitable ‘Christopher Stellaris’ company to crop up to purchase all of these new companies from themselves…
Then three years after the fact, when Star Citizen is still in Alpha 3.8, World of Warcraft is having us fight Alternate-Timeline characters with goatees because literally every Horde named-NPC has been killed off aside from Thrall–who decided he was a druid now–and Final Fantasy 11 announces a new ‘maintenance’ expansion? Christopher Stellaris comes out and says they don’t know who Daybreak is, that we got all the announced buy-outs misunderstood even though we have the original pictures still… and that they have no idea where any of their purchased companies came from.
At which point, Columbus Nova merges with them as well as purchasing out the rights to Star Citizen, and we get to have this dance again with ‘CC Galaxy’.