Daybreak Game Company ceases development EverQuest Next

Development studio Daybreak is discontinuing development on EverQuest Next, the newest game in the franchise. In the course of development it would have turned out that the game is simply ‘not fun’ to play.

Russ Shanks, the head of development studio Daybreak, announced the decision on the company’s website. “Game cancellations are a reality that we deal with from time to time,” he says. “While we’ve achieved incredible things with EverQuest Next, we have to admit that we found the game just wasn’t fun.” The game had been in development at the studio since around 2009, which at the time was still operating under the name Sony Online Entertainment.

EverQuest Next was scheduled for release on Windows and the PlayStation 4. Shanks assures players that development on EverQuest and EverQuest 2, mmorpgs from 1999 and 2004 respectively, will continue unabated. The studio is also working on H1Z1: Just Survive and H1Z1: King of the Kill. These two games are the result of the split of multiplayer survival game H1Z1. Daybreak is also responsible for PlanetSide 2. Since February 2015, the studio is no longer owned by Sony. The new owner is Columbus Nova, an investment firm.