At the start of this season, I mentioned that I had plans to bring stories of the past, present and future of EverQuest……
We’ve explored the past. We’re now experiencing the present. But now it’s time to discuss the future of EverQuest and the franchise…
EG7 Development of the Next EverQuest MMO
Let’s start with the elephant in the room.
Within the last month, we all received the incredible news that we’ve been waiting to hear. There are very early plans to build a new EverQuest MMO.
And now, exclusive here to The EverQuest Show, I have a comment from Daybreak Games Company on this recent news:
We’re very excited to be able to discuss this with the world. To reiterate our CEO Ji Ham’s message, this is still in the conce[y phase. There is nothing more to add at this time.
Daybreak Games Company
Ok, though it’s not offering anything new, it’s adding confidence and emphasis on the future.
So what exactly are the future plans? Well exclusively on the EverQuest Show, I’m showing you concept images of a never before seen EverQuest Game.
But before we get to that, and speculation on what a new EQ might look like, it’s important to know where EverQuest stands with the people that control the money…
So, to keep you from watching the entire 3-hour presentation by Ji Ham,
I’m giving you a very simple cliff’s notes version of everything related to EverQuest and a very clear picture emerges of what we know:
Future Of EverQuest – State of the Franchise
Of course, I should by stating the obvious, that the future is always uncertain, and sometimes there are things out of the control of developers, investors and gamers. Things like the economy, war and management turn over.
But barring those uncontrollable variables, the picture looks very good for our beloved franchise:
Firstly, and most important for good business. EverQuest and Daybreak are stable and profitable
On the live service side : Daybreak, that’s our bread and butter. PC is our biggest revenue source. It’s highly stable portfolio that we’ve been magaing. EverQuest is turning 25 next year. It’s a mixed portfolio of games.”
Ji Ham – CEO of Daybreak Games Company and Acting CEO of EG7
This is great news for the future of Live service games EverQuest and EverQuest II and gives merit to additional opportunities.
And the biggest takeaways from Ji Ham’s presentation and the heart of their business model is : Focus on franchises.
Ultimately, it’s not about more games. It’s about having franchises, because franchises create more predictable outcomes. We have a number of first party owned IPs, which we believe are highly highly valuable and can be utilized for additional titles. EverQuest being at the top of the list
Ji Ham
But before we get to additional titles for EverQuest, what about the current EverQuest and EverQuest II live games.
EverQuest Live Key Points
“Existing live games will be maintained with investments as necessary. We’re not pulling money out. We’re going to invest as necessary to continue to prolong. Like EverQuest will be here a decade later. And I would not be surprised if it’s still where it is today. And we want to make sure that it continues to be. But when I say no major investment, we’re not going to remaster, like DC Universe Online. We stepped away from that idea.”
Ji Ham
What you heard there at the end was also that plans for an EverQuest remaster are not likely.
I know some fans want to see the graphics updated or bring it into a new graphics engine. But here’s a little bit more from Ji Ham on why that isn’t a good idea.
We said Hey let’s go remaster Lord of the Rings. It sounded really great. And we went through the numbers. And when we did that we gotta spend like 30 million bucks. Why aren’t we just making a new game?
Ji Ham
And while I’d love to see a graphics update of original EverQuest, I think most of the numbers reflect that old school players like EverQuest the way it is.
“It’s difficult to see here, EverQuest numbers have actually have gone up. It’s super stick. A core audience that’s not going anywhere. We continue to push out great content. And they’re sticking with us. And we expect 2024 to be an even better year as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of EverQuest”
Ji Ham
EQ : 25th Anniversary Plans
Which brings us to the 25th anniversary of EverQuest.
“In case where we need to invest , in the existing business of certain games. For example the 25th anniversary of EverQuest, yeah we should invest in that.”
Ji Ham
We’re still waiting to find out exactly what those plans are. I still have my hopes set on a FanFaire or an event similar to that.
For a look back on all the previous FanFaires and my editorial on what should happen for the 25th anniversary check out Episode 18 of The EverQuest Show.
Moving to a Growth Phase
But now we shift to a new phase with EQ and Daybreak:
So transitioning from maintain to growth. When we do that…. If we funneled every single dollar that we make into trying to keep the existing portfolio where it is, we can. But that wouldn’t be a very good return on capital. So we don’t want to do that. So we’re going to moderate it as much as we can. And be able to invest in larger, better risk adjusted growth opporutnities.
Ji Ham
And that means the development of a new EverQuest MMO.
The Next EverQuest MMO
So here’s what we know about that project. First of all, we’ve already established that it won’t be a remaster. This will be a new game.
We also know a proposed model of the game.
Development model: Some variation of 80-10-10. Sometimes it’s going to be 60-20-20.
Ji Ham
And you hear a lot about this 80-10-10, so what is it?
This just means that 80% of the game will be something that is proven or existing.
10% will be something that is improved upon. And 10% will be new.
But what we don’t want is 10-10-80. Meaning, a little bit of old, little bit of improvement and big everything else is new.
Ji Ham
For those of you keeping score, EverQuest Next would have fallen into this category. It also costs a lot of money, and it can be risky.
10-10-80 is what developers love to do. And it’s risky.
Ji Ham
So minimizing that risk, and a better chance of the game to come to fruition. As we know from EverQuest Next, a risky proposition led to no game.
Which leads us to the next point, and something that may be good news for EverQuest hardcore fans.
It;s going to be true to the original EverQuest experience.
What that means is, EverQuest, the original, is a hardcore game. For many years we thought about , how do you make it more accessible. Well we’re not. Our view is, Thank you From Software. You said hardcore is ok. It could be mass market. And we want to try and bring back that original experience for EverQuest. That’s where we are starting.
Ji Ham
And while that’s great news for original EverQuest players, EverQuest Online Adventures players may have something to think about as well
EverQuest : PC and console future.
Ji Ham
In addition to PC, could we see this new EverQuest MMO launch on a console?
If they could put whatever next EverQuest MMO on console, I’d be very interested. I think probably the entire EQOA community would check it out. Because that fit more into the lifestyle. Console gaming is a different lifestyle than desltop gaming.
Alutra – EQOA Fan
And while this is just the ideation phase, what’s the timetable?
EverQuest. I say slotted for 2028. That’s not a promise by any means. EverQuest is a tricky one, but we have an idea of how we want to approach it.
Ji Ham
And so it’s a huge undertaking. But how do they plan to go about developing the next EverQuest MMO?
In order to make the new EverQuest, so the skillset for game development. There’s a skillset regarding genres,. but there’s also skillset in regards to where you develop in the lifecycle of a particular title. So a team that is exceptional in games as a live service, may not be the team that can ship a game. So for a new game, while we obviously want to utilize Darkpaw, the studio that oversees EQ and EQ2, it’s not going to be all of them. We do think that particular experience, we don’t want to ever make that go away. We don’t ever want that to go away . So we want that staff continuing to focus on that. We will borrow. We will obviously work with that team. But we do need to ramp on top in order to get the new one done.
Ji Ham
There are still plenty of unanswered questions about how we get to the next EverQuest MMO. And many of these points can change over the next several years of development.
But at least we have a clearer picture about EverQuest, the franchise, and what could be ahead for the next MMO.
What Does it Look Like?
So what does the next EverQuest Look like?
I’ve asked a lot of important EverQuest people, and they all have different ideas.
I’d totally go like Warhammer 40k. Way into the future.
Tony Garcia – Original EverQuest developer
Brad would have said “What is the vision?” How do we take all the things that we thought were cool and adapt it to a whole new group of people?
Geoffrey Zatkin – Original EverQuest developer
One of the things that kinda saddens me is when the business side gets so much in the way of the creative development side
Farzad Varahramyan
That last guy you saw there? You may not recognize him….But he’s reimagined the world of EverQuest , like we’ve never seen it!
Was EverQuest X going to be EQ3?
You can visit THIS article from The EverQuest Show to see the full transcript of Farzad’s interview.
So, IS THIS the next EverQuest MMO, well, The short answer is No.
Farzad’s work was completed in late 2018, several years after the cancellation of EQ Next.
I reached out to Darkpaw and Daybreak Games for comment on this artwork and the game EverQuest X or EverQuest Dungeons, and this was their response:
These were from a previous iteration of a potential new EverQuest game. However, that specific concept of the game is no longer the direction we’re moving towards. The concepts provided by Farzad may or may not be utilized in future EverQuest games.
Daybreak Games Company
And it certainly is different, but it may be too far removed for the 80-10-10 concept moving forward. Time will tell!
SWAG STORE UPDATE
You may have noticed this nifty new EverQuest II polo I’m wearing for this episode, and I wanted to share an update about the Darkpaw Swag Store.
I’ve recently purchased several items from the store and I’ve found the quality is really good, the prices are reasonable and the shipping is fast!
I LOVE the EQ2 games mats.
The colors are really vibrant and they are huge! They come in different sizes, but look at these!
I’ve purchased some mousepads and posters and a few shirts as well, including my favorite T-shirt so far.
Well, soon you can expect even MORE great items up on the Swag Store.
I asked Darkpaw 2 questions regarding the Swag Store and got these responses:
Question: Will new items be added to the EQ2 Swag Store for the upcoming expansion, Ballads of Zimara?
Answer: Yes
We’ll likely see at least posters and game pads or mouse pads for the expansion.
And I also asked:
Question: Will 25th anniversary EverQuest(1) items be put on the Swag Store? (PLEASE!)
Answer: Most likely yes. Not at the beginning of the year though.
Yet another reason to be excited about the future of EverQuest. You can visit The Darkpaw Swag Store here.
I know in the short term I have plenty more content for the EverQuest Show just around the corner, but it looks like I may have content for many years to come!
I can honestly say, this is the most positive I’ve been about the state of the EverQuest franchise since before EverQuest Next was canceled.
Let’s keep it going strong. Please like, share, and comment on what you’ve seen here and subscribe to the channel for the next episode of The EverQuest Show!
Thank you for watching. I’ll see you in Norrath
The EverQuest Show 