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Interesting read: Is EverQuest II in a downward spiral?
TheScavenger
Member EpicPosts: 3,321
http://massivelyop.com/2017/09/21/everquesting-is-everquest-ii-in-a-downward-spiral/
As I've been saying, ever since SOE turned into Daybreak and owned by an investment company, that it'll only lead to the selling of (or more likely) the complete closure of multiple IPs. A great sign is them pretty much just putting Everquest 2 on life support and milking the players in the cash shop. Sad too, because EQ2 is one of my favorite MMOs and offers tons of content for soloing, group or social activities. It (EQ in general that is) also is one of the first major IPs of the MMO genre.
As I've been saying, ever since SOE turned into Daybreak and owned by an investment company, that it'll only lead to the selling of (or more likely) the complete closure of multiple IPs. A great sign is them pretty much just putting Everquest 2 on life support and milking the players in the cash shop. Sad too, because EQ2 is one of my favorite MMOs and offers tons of content for soloing, group or social activities. It (EQ in general that is) also is one of the first major IPs of the MMO genre.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Comments
Sad, since its such a good game/world and well known series.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
The problems with EQ2 started a long long time ago,bad direction,people making systems that make no sense and cheaper expansions.
This is not some DBG or SOE problem this is plaguing the entire industry,devs are selling us a lot of crap and justifying it with the excuse of early access or KSr's ,in other words "give us a break,our game is not finished yet".
Just like Wow,Eq2 was good for that era because they were sort of the pioneers of linear questing games but after playing months,years of that type of design is super boring.As well going the cheaper lazier route SOE began removing some of the player customization and imo food was always done poorly.
EQ2 is /was right alongside vanguard,so close but still good for gaming 10+ years ago but in 2017.the Wow's and their clones are not good game designs anymore.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
MAGA
So I don't think the woes of EQ2 should be laid at the feet of CN. Credited for keeping the game open maybe.
Some costs will probably be shared with EQ1 but when it starts to lose money I would expect it to be closed. So the fact that it is still open probably speaks volumes. Long term though I would expect it to be closed.
Expansion coming VERY soon for Everquest 2
Still the best PVE raiding game around , WAY more fun then WoW hahah
I assume most of you do not play Everquest 2 still , but I do and its a really amazing PVE game
way more fun then WoW ever was
and I played both games for over 10 years
still raiding 3 days a week in Everquest 2 , quit wow because it turned to Shit
zero people in my guild Multi box accounts also ...because it is very easy to find people to raid with, meaning there is Enough people playing this game to sustain all the guilds who need raiders
Maybe you should join the maj'dul server and check out how Packed it is with players, Always full of friendly people willing to help newbs
And if they invest in a new expansion they will expect that to see a financial benefit.
If they spend X and they get back more than X in sales then that is pretty straightforward.
However the expansion probably doesn't have to back 100% of its costs right away. Usually expansions act as advertisements though and generate a bump so they will probably count direct revenue (from people buying the expansion) plus any bump in revenue - over and above what they expect if they do nothing - for 6 months, maybe a year.
Remember a game can still make money even if it is in a downward spiral. Especially if operating costs are cut right back. Which is what CN have done - the biggest drain they put a stop to being EQN development. So whilst the demise of EQN may be lamented the positive is that DBG's profit & loss account no longer has a huge red number in it.
(How overheads are spread is a minor factor as well.)
EQ2 always struggled with player numbers. I played here and there since launch. The population was "ok-ish", where you would meet enough people to form a group, but it never felt crowded.
In 2010 (6 years post-release), when I started to play extensively, we had a guild of around 20-30 daily active users. I joined the SOE Live volunteer team (running GM events). The unannounced events always attracted around 30 people. The population wasn't record-breaking, but it was fairly alive.
In 2011, Destiny of Velious came out. Whoever was in charge of that expansion needs a medal. The new player population spiked substantially. Hundreds of people were returning to EQ2 and actually staying for a decent amount of time. Raiding picked up heavily, to the point where you'd have many groups doing raids at a time - something that was not common in the months before. The online player numbers reached mindboggling heights, considering the so-so state of the game beforehand.
In 2012, the SOE team reorganised. I'm not sure what exactly happened internally, but the people assigned to work on the next expansion were quite different. I am guessing the people who did Velious were moved to work on EQ Next, in light of the success. The following EQ2 expansion was nowhere near as amazing as Velious. New people weren't arriving and retention of old players wasn't great. The people attending the GM events dropped rapidly and our SOE contact (our Live volunteer team had an SOE employee work with us 1-2 days a week) was assigned elsewhere. I left the volunteer team around that time, as the whole support structure was falling apart for some reason (there must have been a turmoil going on in the background at SOE).
This was even worse with the following expansion and in 2014, the most popular server was pretty much dead. My estimates are that the population had to be somewhere in the hundreds at best.
The Daybreak transition happened in 2015, at which point EQ2 was already in a very poor spot.
To reverse the trend, you'd have to create a pretty substantial overhaul, akin to Velious. This would need a decently sized team. I don't think anyone will justify that investment, given the age of the engine and the non-existant playerbase. It makes much more sense to reboot the franchise somehow - which they don't seem to be doing either.
still Thousand's of people playing EQ 2 (Regardless of what you people think)
the Marketplace sells cosmetic items , Nothing you need to buy
I have over 300 USA dollars worth of marketplace cash from the Years of Free cash every month
and I have never wanted to spend 1 cent of it in the Shop
just waiting for 1 day something catches my eye.
50K, 100K?
Or are you talking about 2 or 3K?
If the latter you are on the equivalent of the Titanic, it will sink...just a matter of when.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Plus even on official forums, people are asking for server merges...which isn't a good sign
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/server-merge.581042/
In WoW, while leveling I often see people in every zone I go to. There are people everywhere. A big part of that is that cross realm stuff, but that makes a huge difference. In EQ2, its literally a singleplayer game until endgame lol. No one to find groups with, extremely hard to find dungeon groups and most people are at max level.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
WoW has huge amounts of players in each city, especially the high pop servers. EQ2 though was completely opposite, randomly I'd see one person run by me on occasion in Qeynos. Freeport a little bit more, so maybe evil is slightly more popular, but still not much.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
As @DMKano says it is possible that DBG could keep EQ2 going if it wasn't making money but if they wanted to simply "maintain" the brand they would only need to keep EQ1 or EQ2 going not both. So I am inclined to lean towards "both are making ends meet" currently.
As to whether DBG would, come the crunch, keep one of the games going if they were both losing money - certainly possible but I don't think they would. Would be a CN call though not a DBG one.
I agree with others that guild halls and endgame don't help. They always made the population feel less than what it was. But that doesn't change the painful fact that the total online population is close to nothing overall.
I think the only reason why EQ2 is still running is the DBG transition. They are now owned by an investment group, and the most valuable asset they bought is the EQ brand. The investors couldn't have bought SOE hoping to make long term profits on current products. They probably don't feel comfortable making further investments to create new products (hence the EQNext cancellation). So the goal likely is to keep the brand going and then sell it off to an interested buyer?
How do these investment meetings even work? Do the people investing know the space? I wondered this in relation to things like the SOE buyout, but also in ESports. Are the tech people pitching crazy projections? They can't be buying based on current numbers, right?
"We have 3 million registered users across all our products! Imagine the exposure and reach you could have!"
"Well, let's have a look at the financials Bob, how much in sales did you make last quarter?"
"If we launch EQ Next, we are looking at 1 million sold copies, plus micro transactions Q1 next year. And that's a cautious guess! Did you know gaming is a billion dollar industry, with females playing as many games as males these days? It's an untapped gold mine!"
"That's interesting, so you're telling me your products reach a diverse audience. And you have access to 3 million registered users who follow your products?"
"And we will have more! Did you know 90% of our active player base buys our expansions?!"
The last expansion for EQ claimed to have added seven expansion zones, eight raids, new quests and missions, and a new feature for familiars.
The last expansion for EQII claimed to have added new dungeons (some for raids), four new ascension classes (whatever that is), a mercenary equipment system, and other stuff.
That seems a lot of work for games on their last legs.
That expansion you mentioned was set in motion a year or two previously and may not reflect current plans.
There have been MMOs previously which scaled back or closed shortly after the launch of an expansion, so no guarantees just from seeing one.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Any game can be closed at any time, so pretty much... that point is pointless.