Leaderboard: What’s the most vulnerable Daybreak MMO in 2024?

Every year when it comes time to update this poll for January, I consider tossing it out. But the last few years of Daybreak have been more interesting than ever, so I just can’t bring myself to do it. The purpose of this topic has become less about bracing ourselves for the worst and more about examining the Daybreak business outlook in general, and I don’t mean to stop it.

So let’s recap: Back in 2015, SOE had reformed as Daybreak post-SOE and was purging games left and right (~20 of them), with piles of layoffs, canceled games, the weird thing where they tried to hide acquiring SSG, the Columbus Nova fiasco, and then the inside takeover of EG7. This was an MMO studio that once won best studio four years in a row from us for saving so many MMOs but quickly turned into a dumpster fire. And we’ve been trying to guess what it’ll use next for kindling ever since. Our readers are pretty good at this:

• In 2015, you picked Dragon’s Prophet (and it sunsetted later that year).
• In 2017, you picked PlanetSide 2 (but it was Landmark that died in 2017).
• In 2018, you picked Just Survive (so dead).
• In 2019, you picked the unannounced EverQuest game aka EverQuest III (which actually does appear to have been canceled at one point and now is back on deck – we’ll get to that in a sec).
• In 2020 and 2021 you picked PC H1Z1 aka Z1 Battle Royale (even Daybreak barely remembers this franchise).
• In 2022, the Z1 franchise took both first and second place, followed by EverQuest III. (In fact, it was the Marvel MMO canceled, again, that year).
• And last year in 2023, you guys once again picked the H1Z1 franchise over all others. To be fair, it’s astonishing that it’s still technically online.

This year, I really have no idea what to think. I’m not sure any of the Daybreak MMOs are in trouble, which is a good thing. Yes, H1Z1 has been deeply, deeply neglected and may as well be closed down – but we’ve learned so much about Daybreak’s goals in the last year, including the fact that it’s been pitching not just EverQuest III but a new H1Z1. We also got an update on the relative health of some of the live MMOs, so we can pretty much assume they’re not going anywhere because they collectively print money.

Let’s hop to the polls for another round: Which Daybreak MMO do you think is most vulnerable now?

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