f13.net

For those not up on the news --> http://massivelyop.com/2016/12/19/turbine-spins-lotro-and-ddo-teams-out-to-new-studio-using-daybreak-as-publisher/

and now back to what i believe is going to happen, Standing Stone Games will create EverQuest III.

I too look forward to seeing an MMO built by an operations team.

The press statement says Daybreak Games has "a long, successful history developing and publishing MMOs", but that is a reference to Sony Online Entertainment, the business sold by Sony in 2015. The new owners renamed it Daybreak.

All Daybreak has done since then is to cancel EQ Next, which was in development. It did release Landmark, but that was half-finished when SOE was sold and as far as I can see Daybreak simply released it in a half-finished state.

I'm not sure if it makes sense to say the business as it exists today has any history of developing games. I don't know if anyone involved in developing EQ or EQ2 or Planetside or SWG is still there.

This is actually kinda a big deal and maybe good news for LOTRO and DDO fans (I know, I know, MMO's are passe and nobody plays them anymore and they are half full of urine or something but I still do play and I had a real soft spot for LOTRO).

Under the guidance of Warner Brothers Turbine's support for LOTRO has been moribund at best. There have been regular updates, but to say the quality has been lacking is to understate the matter considerably. And to make it worse the license to use the Lord of the Rings IP was up for renewal, and there was serious concern that WP/Turbine would even bother (Turbine is only doing mobile games now).

So apparently the current team of working devs somehow put together financing to secure the license not just for LOTRO, but also DDO, and are moving both games out from under WP/Turbine and into inde-dev territory, using Daybreak as a publisher.

Yeah, this is nuts, but otherwise the writing was on the wall for LOTRO to just get shut down in the upcoming year. But as far as I know there are only five devs involved (all that were currently working on the game anyway, to show how sad the state of affairs has gotten), and only one of those has been around long enough for me to recognize his name (Made of Lions -- can't remember his meatbag name). How in the world are they going to keep interest going in a ten year old game that has been on the decline for half of that and is (finally!) nearing the end of its story arc (we're now at the borders of Mordor, poised to go in)?

But, even if they just bug-fix and keep the lights on, this may be the only way we're ever going to see Baradur and finish up the story. Maybe even get some writing equal to the original Shadows over Angmar storyline for the wrap-up.

Maybe. I'm grandmastered, so I'm in for the duration whatever happens. I guess it's time to update my install and see what's in store...

Don't forget H1Z1, a potential-filled open-world Zombie survival game that turned into a giant arena-shooter.