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NantWorks Makes Strategic Investment in Daybreak Game Company; Mobile Versions of H1Z1 & EverQuest

Discussion in 'EverQuest II General Discussion' started by Feldon, Sep 6, 2018.

  1. Meneltel

    Meneltel Active Member

    Yes, Anogi, I agree. I had/have friends on AB but I am a casual player and RPer and my guild stopped grouping (for the most part) and I found less and less reasons to log on as I wasn't having fun in the game. I miss my guildies and friends, but I don't miss DBG!
     
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  2. Castegyre

    Castegyre Active Member

    Sometimes I think you need a hug and a doll so you can point out the places where DBG violated you, Meneltel. :(
     
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  3. Meneltel

    Meneltel Active Member

    We both know what they have done to me... and others... and are STILL doing! To be rude, crude and socially unacceptable: There are no virgins playing Eq2... for DBG has screwed ALL the players at one time or another!
     
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  4. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    Z1 Battle Royale :: Z1BR and the Daybreak Transition

    My first reaction was "NantG gave us a **** sandwich and we're still trying to find the mayo.… " but then, the game was already on life support when it was transferred to NantG, so is the fact that NantG did not find a cure really their fault?
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2019
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  5. Dizzy

    Dizzy Active Member

  6. Dellmon

    Dellmon Member

    After reading the public Daybreak response to this - my thoughts are even stronger now that NantWorks exercised an out-clause in the agreement which Daybreak was not expecting.

    What I do wonder is about any fiscal effects / penalties / paybacks that Daybreak might have to deal with in this latest boomerang'ing transaction

    The press release on Page 1 on this thread included a comment from J. Epstein (private owner and Chairman of the Board) where he says "...NantWorks as our investment partner to support and accelerate the growth of our company"
     
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  7. Castegyre

    Castegyre Active Member

  8. Errrorr

    Errrorr Active Member

    12 months ago;
    DBG: Hey NantWorks, we think you'd really like to invest in our Console H1Z1 games!
    Nant: That sounds pretty cool - Hit up our legal team!
    DBG Legal: Here, sign this! You'll get access to all of H1Z1! It's brilliant!
    Nant Legal: All of it? Ok, but we only wanted console/mobile. Can we hand back PC in 6 months if unsure?
    DBG Legal: Sure no problem!
    DBG: They'll never hand it back, it's the most awesome thing since sliced bread. We know that as we made it!

    6 Months ago;
    DBG: Thank you for the money!
    Nant: Thanks for the game!

    5 Months ago:
    Nant: This PC version is ****. Wtf have they given us.
    Nant Legal: It was a freebie!

    1 week before handback date:
    Nant Legal: You know we can hand it back right?
    Nant: I love you guys.

    Last week:
    Nant: Thank **** that's gone. Get rid of those staff too!
    DBG: Omg are these guys morons! H1Z1 is AMAZING.
    DBG: ****, now we have to commit to doing stuff again.

    1 Months time:
    DBG: Due to unforseen circumstances, we're shutting down H1Z1 in 3 months.
     
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  9. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    Nantg would have been stupid not to include a recision clause in the contract, and they would have been really stupid not to exercise it.

    Soon-Shiong does not strike me as stupid.

    I have this niggling feeling that this is the tip of the ice berg. Soon-Shiong negotiated himself a partnership and board slot, so he's privy to an unmanipulated view of what's really going on (remember all the weird Krono stuff that went on during the spring/summer last year (for example)).

    A line in his recent press release was telling, he does not want his brand associated with Daybreak.

    I wouldn't be surprised if things get testier between Nantg and Daybreak.
     
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  10. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    SOE/Daybreak has an interesting history of partnering with other companies.

    Company: Allakhazam
    Product: Partnership with SOE allowing Zam to display EQ2 items, recipes, spells, guilds, characters, a 3D model of your character and pick gear upgrades as well as browse a live broker system.
    Outcome: This may be a he said she said deal, but Zam had trouble with the data from EQ2 and had to do major rewrites of their site to handle changes. Zam did offer a realtime broker but it was costly to maintain the server and usage was insufficient to support it. Character data was never used.
    Timeline: 2008-201(?). After years of SOE attempting to unsuccessfully sell API access to different fan sites, a free public API became available in fall 2011.

    Company: AbleGamers
    Product: Making games more accessible for disabled players.
    Outcome: SOE's support of AbleGamers made a big splash at Fan Faire 2009, but 10 years later, EQ2 still routinely introduces content that cannot be played by color-blind players. In a surprise move, the "screen shake" animation was made optional last year. This cosmetic movement of the camera causes extreme vertigo in some players.

    Company: Heroic Prints
    Product: "Epic Prints" Photo Prints and Mouse Pads
    Outcome: Only 18 designs were offered. Plans to increase the number of choices and the ability to get a photo print of your OWN character never materialized.
    Timeline: Launched Aug 2010, Last archive.org scrape 2011, domain expired 2014.

    Company: Fastpoint Games
    Product: Fortune League -- an EQ2 Facebook game
    Timeline: Launched Jan 2011, Sunsetted July 2011

    Company: AFK Interactive
    Product: Everquest 2 Mobile
    Outcome: Never worked. Required always-on connection as you were essentially logging in as an elevated user into the EQ2 Census server. Support activity on the dedicated (and long since gone) EQ2 Mobile App subforum quickly became sparse and the company folded. But at least it paved the way for EQ2 Census.

    Company: Major League Gaming
    Product: Guidelines for Planetside 2 competitions and original programming on the MLG network.
    Timeline: 2013+
    Outcome: No idea!

    Company: J!NX
    Product: T-shirts
    Timeline: Dec 2014 - ?
    Outcome: While the store had several PS2 and H1Z1 items, they only ever had 1 EQ2 and 1 EQ T-shirt. Today no SOE/DGC products are listed on the site.

    Company: ProSieben
    Product: Selling all SOE customer accounts to a German company for $7 million.
    Outcome: In February 2012, it's announced that ProSieben, a German broadcasting company with hopes of spinning their own service to keep Netflix from becoming established, has licensed the rights to all EU-based SOE accounts. Months of anger, miscommunication, and tomfoolery later and tens of thousands of EQ and EQ2 players quit their games forever. In June 2014 the contract ends and those few customers who had endured come back. A couple years later, language support for French, German, Japanese, and Russian are dropped.

    Company: Storybricks
    Product: AI for EQNext so that content designers didn't have to populate zones or place NPCs.
    Timeline: In May 2015, Storybricks folded. EQNext followed on March 2016.

    Company: NantWorks
    Product: H1Z1
    Outcome: Daybreak finds an investor/company to support its flagging H1Z1 on PC, console, and mobile. NantWorks finds the PC game to be unsalvagable and sends it back in a box marked "No thanks." Meanwhile the original game that H1Z1 was supposed to be -- Just Survive -- is dead and buried.


    I can't post the bad without the good.

    Company: Pizza Hut
    Product: EverQuest II players were able to order Pizza Hut by typing /pizza.
    Timeline: Feb 2005 - ?

    Company: Standing Stone Games
    Product: Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online
    Outcome: So far they seem to have been largely left alone.

    Company: Vivox
    Product: Voice chat for EQ2
    Outcome: Despite downtimes and instability here and there, the service remains running.

    Company: WB Games
    Product: DC Universe Online
    Outcome: We'll find out when the license comes up for renewal.


    What did I miss?
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2019
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  11. Dellmon

    Dellmon Member

    Not sure where you draw the line between partnership and licensing...but here's a few more I think remember of the top of my head (but some of this is admittedly fuzzy)

    Pizza Hut
    How could you forget /pizza??? The grand-daddy of them all

    Topps Trading Cards
    Physical media Free Realms Trading card game along with the ability to mint your character on a card, possibly for use in the physical TCG

    Wildstar Comics
    Published several Free Realms comic books

    LucasArts
    Star Wars Galaxies


    There were EQ ringtones at one point as well - not sure if they were done by SOE or by another company.

    Also Vivox - not sure where this fits - while yes, built in voice did have a HUGE positive impact on gameplay. They had much more planned for it. I believe I remember one Fan Faire where Hammerfel was demoing the ability to call into your Station ID and voice chat with players while not directly connected to your game title. If I recall none of that materialized and went to the bone yard when Station.com did.
     
  12. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    Ok I've added Pizza Hut. :)

    Remember when Vivox not working with the Fan Faire live feed delayed us all 45 minutes coming into the theater? We were all just standing around in the antechamber.
     
  13. Fendhar

    Fendhar Member

    oh those times ...

    StarWars Galaxies for sure is worth a mention like Dellmon already said. They lost the license when SW:ToR became a thing and it was the first and only time I remember where SOE reimbursed players for a whole expansion if you requested it (Trials of Obi Wan it was I think) due to how much it changed the game.

    The Pro7 deal folded because Pro7 simply couldn't do it right. (And that was expected by Euro folks anyways *lol*. I remember where I had screenshots ready where they tried to hide the fact that Pro7 volunteers were given access to customer accounts ..)
     
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  14. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    I thought there was a significant time gap between the NGE and SWTOR.
     
  15. Fendhar

    Fendhar Member

    yes - but there was trials of obi wan and a few days after NGE which made daybreak reimburse the xpac if you requested it.
     
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  16. Zhaanish

    Zhaanish Active Member

    And for this I am so grateful since I have a lifetime sub for LOTRO. They still have decent customer support and a thriving community thanks to being left alone.
     
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  17. RhodrisNZ

    RhodrisNZ Geographically Challenged

    SOE also had a bad habit of wrecking any game it took over. It bought Matrix Online from Warner Bros, and completely wrecked it with stuff like seasonal festivals. No, Agent Smith DOESN'T have a pumpkin for a head in October. Pathetic. When they sunsetted the game, it was sad, but it was almost a huge relief as well, especially for those of us who were there from the beginning and knew how far the game had fallen.
     
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  18. Castegyre

    Castegyre Active Member

    I'm so freakin' glad I missed that.
     
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  19. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    An interesting tidbit...

    I always thought it was strange that Nantg laid off staff before handing z1br back to Daybreak.

    Can't remember where I saw it, but people were claiming Nantg only calculated years of service from the time Nantg bought the title.

    That's some major douchebaggery .
     
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  20. Castegyre

    Castegyre Active Member

    I've had that happen to me before. That, and I had to go through 'team skills' training to prepare for the restructuring. I'm not sure which was more insulting.
     
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