Daybreak Game Company to Be Acquired by EG7 for $300 Million

Agree. Domino started a character on LOTRO (around Halloween, I believe), and has tweeted about her experiences a couple of times. DCUO makes sense, especially with Wonder Woman '84 promo's all over the place, and the viral enthusiasm for the Snyder edition.

 

Lotro really is a decent game, especially for the casual crowd. It can be kind of grindy and buggy at times, but it's also a super immersive environment. Really good stories.

I loved my champion and my bard, and I've been tempted to reactivate my account and jump back in more than once.

 

Yep I come and go from LOTRO. Lately I've been digging "casual" survival games like Raft or deck builders. However, I did still log in to LOTRO daily during the recent fall festival and I plan to do so again during the Yule festival. I got a lifetime sub back in the beginning and sometimes I still get an itch for an interactive world with other players. It's nice because I don't have to put money into it and can just come and go as I please. I don't have any friends there, but sometimes it's just nice to be in a "living" world.

 

Massively wrote up a solid summary of the numbers and the other nuggets from yesterday:

https://massivelyop.com/2020/12/02/everything-we-just-learned-about-daybreak-thanks-to-eg7/

 

I play Lotro super-casually on and off, and I personally find Skirmishes way more fun than I ever found Advanced Solos in EQ2. I also think they've done a fairly decent job of making each class feel very unique, something which can definitely not be said for EQ2. The combat can feel pretty clunky at times, and the lag is real, but it's not a horrible experience.

 

That is an interesting question.... it could mean that it is 66k paid subs for the four titles in total. Could EG7 really missed the all access model?

 

Oh no, I'm sure they asked the creative lead, and Kander was 100% transparent with them....

 

Looking at the numbers for EQ2 there's no wonder it's so P2W, which it absolutely is, and how much it would be grossing if it wasn't. I also wonder where the krono sales figures come into play.

 

According to the report that was linked the average spending of an active EQ2 player is 53$/month.

 

If $53 is right... that seems very very high per month...... I do not spend that per month on all my gaming

 

It's not a number that shocks me, especially with the loot boxes added in. The monthly sub is $15, the premium edition expac is $140 so that averages out to $11.50/mo. Then $25-30/month on average for DBC to buy loot boxes and other stuff. Oh and also, the cost to upgrade skills which can be well over $100 per skill depending on various factors.

I'm sure there are some whales who spend 4x that, and bring the average number up.

 

Benito, never not fluffing the developers

20k paying subscribers is ridiculously low and the game is clearly kept afloat by cash shop purchases.

Also, the 'dump' inspiring confidence is beyond silly. This is Baghdad Bob level ridiculous.

 

I don't know one way or another, but I'm guessing they're looking at looking at recent player activity to judge this (ie: how many all access accounts logged into [x] game in the past [y] days).

 

He's probably getting that from me, but as usual, he's misinformed about what I actually said.

My guesstimates came down to between 5-10k active customers. I still believe that's not too far from the truth, because I have a sneaking suspicion Krono sales are muddying the waters considerably, and, we have no way of knowing how they are accounting for all access subs to come up with those assignments.

It's probably higher than my estimate and lower than the number reported, but in any case, yes, strawman, because bottom line is all that matters, and it's terrible.

A couple of years ago, I hypothesized that Longdale was strip mining eq2 to subsidize and protect her beloved EQ, and looking at the numbers for that title, I may have been right. EQ's performance is nothing to write home about either. In fact, I am surprised, because I assumed the sub numbers over there were way, waayyyyy higher.

 

I'm just trying to contextualize the numbers that we are seeing, and I understand that what I'm posting needs to be taken with a grain of salt because I don't have perfect information.

Using Steam Metrics to compare current players, there are currently:

23,681 playing Elder Scrolls Online
14,855 playing Black Desert Online
14,182 playing Final Fantasy XIV
8,543 playing Albion Online
7,011 playing RuneScape
6,869 playing Star Wars: The Old Republic
5,809 playing Phantasy Star Online II
4,970 playing EVE Online
2,366 playing Planetside 2
1,195 playing LOTRO
538 playing DCUO
237 playing EverQuest
372 playing Dungeons & Dragons Online
168 playing EverQuest 2

Benito and people like him need to get a grip. EverQuest 2 isn't thriving whatsoever and the numbers should not be spun in any way to suggest that. EverQuest 2 isn't even a wave in the ocean compared to other titles in the MMO genre. All I'm saying is that, if I were making the decisions at EG7, EverQuest 2 would be - literally - the first game that I would shutter in favor of developing other titles.

Edit - and I say this as someone who started EQ2 at launch and raided not only through its peak but also more recently through Kunark Ascending, Planes of Prophecy, and Chaos Descending. I love the Everquest world and don't want to see it fail. But the people buying the IP have no emotional attachment to EQ or EQ2 whatsoever. They will make the decision on the future of EQ as an IP based solely on what revenue it can generate going forward, and I think it's pretty clear that EQ2 is pretty tapped out. The obvious next step, to me at least, is to explore whether a third EverQuest title will bring back players, and based on the messaging put out I think it's something they will consider. But the notion that EQ2 is going to thrive with EG7 is something that I seriously, seriously, doubt.

 

Based on the numbers reported, not only do I believe that eq2 is vulnerable, but eq1 is not exactly safe either.

 

For EQ2 to recover it would need such an overhaul it might as well be EQ3.