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EG7 acquires Daybreak (EverQuest, H1Z1, Planetside 2) for $300m

Bullet Club

Member
EG7 acquires Daybreak

Multi-disciplinary gaming firm buys EverQuest, H1Z1 studio for $300 million

Enad Global 7 continued its holiday shopping today, announcing the acquisition of Daybreak Game Company, the outfit behind EverQuest, H1Z1, and a variety of massively multiplayer online games.

The deal values Daybreak at $300 million paid in a mix of cash and newly issued EG7 shares. It is the second announced acquisition for EG7 in as many weeks, coming off last Wednesday's purchase of Vancouver-based Mechwarrior studio Piranha Games.

"Daybreak is a perfect fit for EG7, we are a family of companies with complementary skills and expertise, combined to form a major video games business to deliver amazing games and experiences to gamers around the world," EG7 CEO and co-founder Robin Flodin said. "Daybreak has a rich portfolio of owned and third-party IPs and we look forward to adding to that portfolio of games in the years to come. "

Originally known as Sony Online Entertainment until a split with parent company Sony, Daybreak runs a stable of games including H1Z1, EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Planetside 2, and DC Universe Online. It also publishes Standing Stone Games' MMOs The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online.

As for whether the acquisition would result in layoffs for any Daybreak employees, an EG7 representative did not immediately respond.

In August, Daybreak acquired Cold Iron Studios, a San Jose-based studio working on a game using the Alien IP.

A move to EG7 would be the fifth time ownership of Cold Iron has changed hands in the past two years, but it's not entirely clear the studio is being picked up along with the rest of Daybreak.

The EG7 acquisition announcement mentions that Daybreak is headquartered in San Diego with development studios in Austin and Boston, but makes no mention of Cold Iron or a San Jose studio. Inquiries to Cold Iron and the EG7 representative were not immediately returned.

Daybreak was acquired from Sony and took its current name in 2015, announcing that it had been acquired by investment management firm Columbus Nova.

When Columbus Nova's Russian parent company had its assets frozen by the US government in 2018, Daybreak said it was never owned by Columbus Nova and instead was only ever owned by one of the firm's partners, Jason Epstein.

EG7 has said that as Daybreak's main shareholder, Epstein will hold approximately 10% of EG7 shares after the deal closes.

Source: Game Industry
 

Ozzie666

Member
Somehow Everquest 1, 2 and DC Universe Online continue to move along, in a bad way. Daybreak hasn't really developed anything new. All these games are on live support to the highest degree. DCUO is especially predatory and pay to win mechanics everywhere.
 
The Lord of The Rings Online was actually very good. Considerably better than the competition imo.

So at least there's that, in other news - the next Online Lord of The Rings game is being worked on and is supposed to be a massive undertaking with limitless talent at it's disposal.
 
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Compsiox

Banned
All of those games are on their last legs. I can see them canning all of those projects and starting new ones.
 

Rikkori

Member
All these games are on live support to the highest degree.
Yeah but what that really means is that they're just printing money now as development costs have been covered already. This phase is the bread and butter of any MMO and why they are kept going indefinitely until there's only 10 subs left.
 

demigod

Member
Time Locked Progression servers are keeping EverQuest alive. Live servers are pretty much dead, I doubt they have over 100 people per live server. They have been pushing out a new TLP yearly. Selling new subs on TLP, bags, experience potions is their cash cow now.

It's a bit strange since earlier this year they broke off each game to different companies like EverQuest was under DarkPaw, now all of a sudden its back to DayBreak?
 
All of those games are on their last legs. I can see them canning all of those projects and starting new ones.

Neither EQ1 or 2 is on its last legs..they continue to plod along at exactly the same rate they have for the last 15 years. they make enough money to keep the lights on and pay employees and plug out new expansions every single year ( which they do). I have lots of stuff on their marketplace so i can tell the condition of a game.
 

Compsiox

Banned
Neither EQ1 or 2 is on its last legs..they continue to plod along at exactly the same rate they have for the last 15 years. they make enough money to keep the lights on and pay employees and plug out new expansions every single year ( which they do). I have lots of stuff on their marketplace so i can tell the condition of a game.
Why did the sequel get cancelled then

edit: Oh maybe it isn't. I remembered hearing about it when H1Z1 was starting to boom.
 
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W

Whataborman

Unconfirmed Member
Why did the sequel get cancelled then

EQ:Next?

My guess is because it was way too ambitious and they just couldn't get it to work.

They released a beta of their world builder game, which was essentially a dumbed-down minecraft where people could build things for inclusion in the main game and I think it failed miserably.
 

Inviusx

Member
Daybreaks portfolio is a bunch of decade old MMOs and other dying franchises. 300 million seems like an insane amount if im being honest.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Daybreaks portfolio is a bunch of decade old MMOs and other dying franchises. 300 million seems like an insane amount if im being honest.

It is basically pure profit at this point. The expansions can't be expensive to make and they have their dedicated loyal fans that will be playing indefinitely. They know the habits of their customer base in and out. It's a very stable and predictable business unlike the rest of the vidya industry.

Obviously without the insider data on how they arrived at the price I can't say whether or not it is reasonable but my guess is that the number was well supported.
 
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Holammer

Member
300 million for maintenance mode games? It'll be great if we could get a new EQ and Planetside.

I'm gagging and ready for a new MMO.

They're "Planning visual and technical updates" for LOTRO (which daybreak owned) and release it on consoles ahead of the upcoming TV series.
If the show is a success, we're probably going to see something similar to The Witcher 3's absolutely fucking insane spin-off sales.

Personally, please make a remake of EQ1 with the visual style of EQ NEXT.
 
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Romulus

Member
Daybreaks portfolio is a bunch of decade old MMOs and other dying franchises. 300 million seems like an insane amount if im being honest.

Planetside 2 has outlived many games. It's still going strong. I can easily skip around to multiple 200 player battles on PC or PS4(not crossplay either) on multiple servers.

Since 2012, and they're constantly doing updates and they just added the 2 largest updates since release this year.
 
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Kerlurk

Banned
 
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TheMan

Member
Tested Planetside 2 on the PS5 the other day, and it's now very smooth, and was quite impressed.

It had a little too much judder in the PS4 Pro version for my tastes, and that has been fixed.

God I remember the eagerness for planetside 2 when the ps4 was still a baby. The game kept getting pushed back and then it finally landed and... a big fat nothing. Didn't seem like anyone really gave a shit
 

Kerlurk

Banned
 
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God I remember the eagerness for planetside 2 when the ps4 was still a baby. The game kept getting pushed back and then it finally landed and... a big fat nothing. Didn't seem like anyone really gave a shit

Yeah very true. I was part of the problem there. For some reason I was super eager to play that with my friends and when it finally came out it wasn't a crowd-pleaser and nobody got into it.
 

Ceadeus

Member
Too bad DC is gone this way because I really do love the gameplay. It's super fun and addicting but the end game content is incredibly grindy in a bad way. This is when you can find a party :/ it's a chore , to be fair.
 

Snakey125

Member
Somehow Everquest 1, 2 and DC Universe Online continue to move along, in a bad way. Daybreak hasn't really developed anything new. All these games are on live support to the highest degree. DCUO is especially predatory and pay to win mechanics everywhere.

Everquest will likely live on with private servers. Just like how the original Planetside has a small private server currently.

Daybreak (and hopefully EG7 now) don't exactly support them but have turned blind eyes to them.
 
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Malakhov

Banned
Ultima Online?
UO was the first, not the revolutionary one. Having played both extensively, EQ was.

Pretty sad McQuaid went through what he did and died without finishing his project as well. He deserved better after what he did for MMOs
 
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They're "Planning visual and technical updates" for LOTRO (which daybreak owned) and release it on consoles ahead of the upcoming TV series.
If the show is a success, we're probably going to see something similar to The Witcher 3's absolutely fucking insane spin-off sales.

Personally, please make a remake of EQ1 with the visual style of EQ NEXT.

And EQ2's composer.
 

Malakhov

Banned
His new game was basically Vanguard 2.
I had more like first real EverQuest successor vibes from it. Didn't enjoy anything after EQ be it vanguard or other stuff, haven't heard if they will continue the project. I think he had fallen back into his addiction and took some money from the project, don't know how true these rumors were
 
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Trogdor1123

Member
Tested Planetside 2 on the PS5 the other day, and it's now very smooth, and was quite impressed.

It had a little too much judder in the PS4 Pro version for my tastes, and that has been fixed.
Might have to give it a go. Does it have some stupid system where you need to make an account on top of your psn 0account does it?
 

Kerlurk

Banned
 
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Vandole

Member
I loved to EQ world and lore. I always wanted to see more games take advantage of that game history, even if it's not an MMO. I'd take another Champions of Norrath.
 
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