It’s become a bit of an unhappy tradition here on MOP to take stock of Daybreak at the start of every year, due in no small part to the fact that in 2015 as we were moving from Old Massively to new, SOE was likewise morphing into Daybreak and was slammed with game purges (it’s close to 20 shuttered titles now) and layoffs. At the time, we didn’t know it would become a recurring thing, but Daybreak’s struggles have unfortunately only continued five years later. And this was a studio that once won best studio four years in a row thanks to its reputation for keeping beloved MMORPGs going.
- In 2015, you picked Dragon’s Prophet. It sunsetted later that year.
- In 2017, you picked PlanetSide 2. Fortunately, it lives.
- In 2018, you picked Just Survive, and you folks nailed that one.
- And in 2019, you picked the unannounced EverQuest game, though only if I discount “all of the above.” At this point, we assume it’s still happening since Daybreak keeps teasing it.
So how about this year? Forget Columbus Nova; just in the last year, Daybreak suffered multiple layoffs, project closures and cancellations, while its long-delayed PlanetSide Arena has already been scheduled for termination and the studio has confirmed it’s spinning out its franchise studios for a “realignment.” Which Daybreak MMO do you think is most vulnerable now?
Leaderboard: What's the most vulnerable Daybreak MMO in 2020?
- DC Universe Online (9%, 33 Votes)
- EverQuest (7%, 29 Votes)
- EverQuest II (4%, 16 Votes)
- H1Z1 (PS4) (7%, 29 Votes)
- Z1 Battle Royale (PC) (17%, 66 Votes)
- PlanetSide 2 (9%, 33 Votes)
- The rumored EverQuest 3 game (13%, 49 Votes)
- The EverQuest mobile game we assume is still being built (3%, 10 Votes)
- The H1Z1 mobile game we assume is still being built (2%, 8 Votes)
- A different unannounced game (0%, 1 Votes)
- The Standing Stone MMOs that Daybreak publishes (2%, 8 Votes)
- All of the above (26%, 100 Votes)
- None of the above (2%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 388
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All of the above is unrealistic, since even if Daybreak folds, they’ll surely sell everything they could to any publisher that may want them, and I’m pretty sure that at the very least the EQ franchise will receive a new home. My bet is that DCUO and PS2 will also be safe, and anything that they made to EQ3 will be salvaged and that game will eventually launch, even if not on this decade.
For the others, I think H1Z1 IP is already like their own zombies, a dead corpse with motion. The SSG MMOs have a solid playerbase I think, but not being the only MMOs with their IPs, they could suffer a shutdown on a worst case scenario. And the EQ mobile… I don’t know what to think about it, but I believe that we’ll see something like this eventually, even if not the current in-development one.
I dont think EQ and EQ2 will go anywhere in next 5 years. And I dont know how healthy are DCUO and PS2 atm. So I’ll vote for EQ3. Somehow I feel they will struggle with this one.
I tend to think EQ, EQ2, and DCUO are safe too. Even if Daybreak went under, someone would buy those games up. But new games? Yeah, the studio struggles to put anything new out. The wild initial success of H1Z1 seems to have been an anomaly rather than a trend.
Speaking of today’s DG question, I would support MOP’s efforts to buy out Daybreak’s assets via a /Kickstarter initiative…
…I know, there are several issues with what I am getting at, to put it mildly. So consider this entirely hypothetical in the hair brained pigtail’d sense. But I would soooo support that if that ever became a reality! <3
I have no clue if that EQ mobile thing will still be a thing if that relationship is now not a thing unless it is still is a thing.
If we want to be honest here the year DBG may have a global problem is 2021 onwards(taking into account the cash they got in advance from EQs) but I hink H1Z1 BR version may be shut down due to being unprofitable and not because of DBG financial status
Don’t think DCUO is on the death block, server population (PC/PS4) is really high.
PS2 will be fine, it’s the only game of its genre and it’s plenty active.
I think DBG is the most vunerable of DBG assets.
All of the above should be renamed to: Yes.
Z1 Battle Royale is clearly the most likely candidate for immediate closure. Its player numbers… which you can see because it is only on Steam… are abysmal. Daybreak tried to get somebody else to spiff it up in the NantWorks deal and they gave up and handed it back in less than a year. I don’t know how H1Z1 is doing on PS4, but Daybreak didn’t attempt to hand that off, so maybe it is still viable even if they are mishandling it.
Basically, in 2020 Daybreak has four viable titles:
–EverQuest (1999)
–EverQuest II (2004)
–DC Universe Online (2011)
–PlanetSide 2 (2012)
Of those the first two get expansions and updates every year, while the third was actually ported to a new platform in 2019 and also gets content updates.
PlanetSide 2 was promised a big announcement in early 2020. I suspect that will indicate (on purpose or not) how things stand there. We just need to wait for after 3pm Pacific time on a Friday for that press release to hit.