EQ Live Has 66k Active Accounts (and Other Fun Facts From the Acquisition)

[loramin]

As a follow-up to the acquisition news, it turns out the acquisition revealed some fun information about Daybreak, including how many subscribers (or at least active accounts) EQ Live still has: sixty-six thousand.

If you're curious the article (https://www.mmorpg.com/news/monthly-users-lotro-on-console-and-more-details-emerge-in-aftermath-from-eg7-acquisition-of-daybreak-game-company-2000120245) has the numbers from all the different Daybreak owned games, plus this fun graphic:

https://i.imgur.com/8txI6qh.jpg

[Swish]

Did the sale not include H1Z1?

Look at those release dates. Daybreak didn't release anything themselves.

[Jibartik]

Cool link! Man this is wild.

I wonder how many of the 66k live accounts are single users, Like, is it 30k single users and on average everyone has 1.1 boxes? I wonder.

[Tunabros]

I had so much fun with planetside 2

[imperiouskitten]

that's a great link! super interesting to see this data after so many years.

[zaldaben]

I personally have had up to 10 live accounts and still are attached to my email. I havent played in over 2 years on live so I wonder what their definition of active means. I can log into them all for the most part. (if I can remember the passwords)

[Nuggie]

look how far EQ2 is behind EQ1... yikes

[BiG SiP]

those poor nerds
they were just like us... once

[Ahldagor]

Loramin, really interesting numbers to consider for a business model. Is p99 going to survive?

[douglas1999]

Not eq related but tangentially relevant; according to google, ultima online is "estimated to have" 318k players, and it still costs 13 bucks a month. How the shit this is possible I'm not sure.

Like a lot of people my mmo progression went UO -> Everquest -> Everquest 2 for about a year. Then P99.

[Topgunben]

I had so much fun with planetside 2

That game was amazing. It definitely wasn’t a flop, but I think it could have done so much better.

[Swish]

That game was amazing. It definitely wasn’t a flop, but I think it could have done so much better.

The most annoying thing for me is the customization. If I'm looking at a Terran or NC soldier I don't want to see them dressed in purple, or white, or anything that makes me have to think for an extra split second on whether someone just came into my field of view is friend or foe.

Also its still poorly optimized, my PC before my current one I installed PS2 first and it couldn't handle the game on high settings :D :rolleyes: (it wasn't a mega Alienware machine but I had hopes for PS2 rendering etc okay).

[Baler]

a bit surprised by 66k members, Must be TLP helped that number a lot. Offical UO pales in comparison.

Everquest live is making enough money to do expansion packs still. I don't think P99 is doing anything other than helping that number to be honest. I doubt a majority of the p99 players would even pay a subscription, so it's not like there is a huge loss with us playing p99.

In regards to planet side 2, it was a core gamer, game created at the end of the core gamer era. It also had too much grind for too little reward combined with micro transactions.
I enjoyed it in it's hay day but it will never recover.

[mcoy]

Waiting for them to pick up Earth and Beyond and bring that back. The emu scene on Net-7 still has a handful of players. Hit me up for a jumpstart (rez) or wormhole (port)! Yes, Explorers (clerics) can port - woo!

-Mcoy

[-TK-]

...so I wonder what their definition of active means...

The info graphic says "As of September 2020. Members defined as customers who have purchased a monthly membership."

[Zukan]

No mention of Vanguard which is interesting. I didn't know Daybreak owned LotR Online or DND though. Or is that the new owners' stuff they already had?

[JayDee]

Funny to anyone else how EQ revamped character models a couple years in then left them as shitty as they are for decades

[Danth]

Funny to anyone else how EQ revamped character models a couple years in then left them as shitty as they are for decades

Probably got gunshy due to the outcry associated with the first revamp, then by the time they might've be willing to do it again there's no funding for it. The great mistake was, I think, changing the style and scale of the models the way they did instead of simply improving the polygon counts and texture quality. Didn't even look like the same game.

With respect to Vanguard, were other long-defunct titles mentioned?

Danth

[douglas1999]

They did revamp them twice right? I seem to remember a second set of new models some years after luclin, when that expansion came out that let you play as some dragon hybrid race.

But yeah, the art direction on the original models was perfect, higher poly updates with higher res textures would have been great

Actually I think I'm misremembering. I don't think they made a second set of new models, but they did make a new model for the new dragon race. I think I'm just thinking of that.

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/gallery/tss/2006-0831-tss8.jpg

Not as bad as the luclin models but still kinda meh. Totally out of whack with the original art style

[Swish]

It might be a forgotten point in the timeline but it was a period of much outrage.

SOE decided at some point before GoD I'm fairly sure that they weren't happy with the Luclin model running animation...characters were running bolt upright etc and not leaning into a running stride.

So they changed it for about about a week? Characters would now run in a more realistic way... except everyone hated it, passionately. The forums blew up and they decided to go back to the original stiff/upright run on all characters.

People just don't like change :D

[Mblake81]

Probably got gunshy due to the outcry associated with the first revamp, then by the time they might've be willing to do it again there's no funding for it. The great mistake was, I think, changing the style and scale of the models the way they did instead of simply improving the polygon counts and texture quality. Didn't even look like the same game.

What I thought EQ2 was going to be at first.

The original models were inspired art, dated sure. Those new models were goofy. The Trolls and Ogres lost all their charm and everyone adopted that silly spread-legged model to ride a game breaking horse.

https://i.imgur.com/SjVQOff.jpg

[douglas1999]

The EQ2 models at least had respectable animations, if a bit generic overall. The luclin model animations are just an abomination on every level

[Mblake81]

https://www.tor.com/2017/08/14/dd-illustrator-david-a-trampier-is-one-of-the-best-fantasy-artists-of-all-time/

https://i.imgur.com/1Fr47VS.png

[Swish]

Talking of Luclin models and shittyness...Iksars lost their flowy swim animation to the standard one everyone had, no tail movement :s

[Knuckle]

As a follow-up to the acquisition news, it turns out the acquisition revealed some fun information about Daybreak, including how many subscribers (or at least active accounts) EQ Live still has: sixty-six thousand.

If you're curious the article (https://www.mmorpg.com/news/monthly-users-lotro-on-console-and-more-details-emerge-in-aftermath-from-eg7-acquisition-of-daybreak-game-company-2000120245) has the numbers from all the different Daybreak owned games, plus this fun graphic:

https://i.imgur.com/8txI6qh.jpg

DDO had so much potential, but they took the original idea of an immersive dungeon crawl tabletop simulator and turned it into one of the original p2w games, super fail on their part. I'm sure the wales make it profitable and im not challenging their business model, just the actual gameplay itself.

[loramin]

New fun fact (didn't want to start yet another thread): Daybreak owns a license to make a Marvel game! (https://www.mmorpg.com/news/daybreak-games-has-a-license-agreement-with-marvel-according-to-eg7s-investor-report-2000120291)

Apparently they have one last game in production, and no one knows whether it's the Marvel one or something else ... but honestly I kind of hope it's not a Marvel MMO.

Daybreak isn't exactly known for making the greatest games, so I suspect any sort of "City of Heroes wannabe" they might make would be a disappointment.