Feldon 
Note: No EQ/EQ2 Content
From DaybreakGames.com:
Hello Players, Partners, & Friends!
It’s been an eventful few months for us here at Daybreak and since our last update, we have been working diligently on our plans for fall and beyond. We wanted to take a moment to share some of these updates with you.
First off, we’re about to embark on a major (and exciting!) move here in San Diego, transitioning our corporate headquarters to a new, custom-built office that is larger and more equipped just down the way from our current offices. What’s great is that for the first time ever, our San Diego staffers will be together under one roof (we’ve been split between four different buildings the last 15+ years!). Our new campus includes themed spaces for each of our development teams, community gathering areas, a screening room, gameplay rooms, fully-outfitted livestreaming studios, and a dining and entertainment lounge dubbed “Happy Hour” featuring the original Tanarus server, which today has evolved and is living out its dream as a handcrafted Daybreak-branded kegerator. We look forward to having our friends in the industry over for a visit as soon as we’re moved and settled in.
We’d also like to announce our newest Executive Creative Director at Daybreak Games: Jens Andersen. Jens has been the driving vision behind DC Universe Online as its Senior Creative Director, and this new role expands his creative direction to include DCUO, along with H1Z1,PlanetSide 2, EverQuest Next, an as-yet unannounced title we’re currently working on, and more. It’s an extremely exciting opportunity for Jens, and we could not be more thrilled to have him join the executive team here at Daybreak.
We’re still in celebration mode here after the success of our inaugural H1Z1 Invitational tournament at TwitchCon late last month. Hundreds of thousands watched as 60 of the country’s top streamers competed against one another in two rounds of H1Z1’s intense Battle Royale mode. Twitch personalities Ninja and MrGrimmmz came away as the big winners, but we gave out more than $173,000 in community-generated prizes to our top 20 finishers. H1Z1 is still in Early Access, and we have some very cool updates in store in the next few months, so stay tuned.
Finally, we just announced the 12th expansion for EverQuest II and the 22nd expansion for the original EverQuest. Both EverQuest: The Broken Mirror and EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra are open for pre-order now and will launch in mid-November. It’s a testament to the fans of these games that this long-running franchise continues to thrive, and I know the devs love being able to support them with new content and ideas.
As you can see, lots of exciting things are happening here at Daybreak. We will continue to loop you in as we embark on new adventures in 2016.
Cheers!
Michele Cagle
Senior Director of Global Communications
Daybreak Games
You know, I’m actually feeling pretty hopeful.
A big move like this means more space, potentially more devs?
Hmm well I too am hopeful, if this really is a custom designed space.. but I also think the lays off (fewer employees) have allowed them to consolidate.
One thing I think of is, they are sticking around for a bit if they are making this move. At least as a gaming company, which title stays around is a different story
Interesting tournament idea, if its all funded by fans then its all good.
Now, if only they could get their EQ, EQ2, DCUO and PS2 fans to fund a SOELive/Fanfaire, I’d be happy to chip in a couple of hundred dollars for a weekend 🙂
And forget the prizes, just put on the entertainment, that pleases far more people then 10-20 people winning some cash, afterall there are plenty of opportunities to do that elsewhere in Las Vegas 🙂
We’ll see how it goes when the low-attention-span Goons get tired of H1Z1 and go back to shooting space pixels in EvE-Online.
It was looking bad there for a sec.. Thank the gods you guys are coming through.. No more Xpacks for Eq2 or 1 felt like the end of the universe lol.
This has been such good news. I hope development continues; even accelerates in other areas of these games.
I did not know the teams were all split up; a lot of good things can come from this new office plan it seems.
Gl and best wishes.
For me the take away line was: “…an as-yet unannounced title we’re currently working on, and more.”
How many people are working on this unannounced title?
Did they come from the EQ:N team?
This cannot be good news for supporters of Landmark/EQ:N.
I’d be more worried about EQ1 & 2. This new creative director is influencing EQ Next apparently but there was no mention of any involvement with this game. As if the ever shrinking amount of content for these games and the continuous cuts to staff wasn’t enough, I think that line, above any, shows the priority Daybreak puts on the previous Everquests.
I have been playing DCUO again lately, and have to say, you can see the difference in DBG attention compared to EQ2. While i have no doubts the devs love EQ2 and want to do right by it. EQ2 now feels like Vanguard was in the last year or so, with respect to SOE attention, when compared to DCUO
Earlier a source shared some interesting information on Daybreaks interest in the Everquest franchise. It was allegedly only in the game development engine for EQnext/Landmark. The community and staff that supported/developed content for it was seen as a cost. This information was just after the transfer to Daybreak. At first it sounded ludicrous/missleading, but as time went by and one by one of the true Everquest franchise spirits and resources left/got fired, the information became more and more scary. And now after seeing Daybreak and even Smedley’s talk in regards of E3, the Everquest franchise high status is obviously gone. It is for Daybreak the “second hand” franchise, and its obviosly not their “baby” like the H1Z1 and new project. Remember EQ Next won award at 2013 and at E3 2015 not mentioned neither Landmark, this close to launch??? Last but not least for the people skeptical is to check the Landmark and EQ Next community’s treatment (remember many paid 100usd to support this project and much more ingame) and what is left is developers making livestreams that is spiraling out of control in quality and content. And they suspended all EQ Landmark development (people paid for it!)Look at the early EQ Next and Landmark talks and livestreams. And look now at this years livestreams. They cant almost get the sound/video tech working with the poor group struggling left for the franchise, all they show is what community have done and appologize for reasons why the game is far from ready though the community have done almost all the artwork for them. And yet every week now all they talk about is artwork and almost 0 game engine development. So the big question for Daybreak should be: If Everquest franchise team isnt working and developing the EQ Next game engine anymore then what team is? And if it’s as feared the H1Z1/secret project team then we should be concerned. EQ Next’s game engine/ world creator and destructability is among the best at the moment so it makes sense to share it after they are done with EQ Next, just dont scrap our beloved Everquest franchise!
DBlive for Everquest sounds very much like a fantasy now sadly unless the community stand up and fight for it. DBlive would likely be 90% Zombie 9% Humanity and maybe some 1% teary eyed nostalgic Everquest devs.
What I hope with my post is for EQ2WIRE who we who love and protect the Everquest franchise is the closest to a news paper can investigate this further.
It is by purpose portrayed as a very dark future but I believe we can still change it if we dont just selfie the iceberg and go sit in the lifeboats 6month in advance.
//Everquest gamer since 2000
Five months later …
While looking over the state of DayBreak Games/Columbus Nova, one year after the Sony sale, found again this article.
Two months (23 Nov 2015) after that update:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelecagle https://archive.is/8eMN3
Michele Cagle
Head Ninja / Sr. Consultant
Ninja Kitty PR, Events & Digital Marketing
December 2015 – Present (4 months)
https://twitter.com/goninjakitty https://archive.is/zbJPm
Hope she’s still DB gaming.
/*
https://www.daybreakgames.com/news/daybreak-update-letter-october-2015 https://archive.is/YZjvr
“We will continue to loop you in as we embark on new adventures in 2016.
Cheers!
Michele Cagle”
ex-Senior Director of Global Communications, Daybreak Games