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Ambiturner

Ssraeszha Raider
16,040
19,498
Honestly surprised that DCUO is their biggest earner. I thought that was gonna be at the bottom of the list.

One of the DBG dev posters ( E Elidroth i think?) used to mention that DCUO was their most profitable game.

I'm guessing it being on consoles and most console MMOs being ass is a big reason why. DCUO works really well on a console
 

Bobbybick

Trakanon Raider
481
700
People sleep on DCUO but yeah, it's on 4 seperate consoles and got a switch release earlier this year, and its F2P so people browsing the digital marketplace for cheap games see a free DC based superhero game and will actually try it out, unlike something like EQ.
 
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Bobbybick

Trakanon Raider
481
700
I wonder how much of a loss EQOA really was that they never released another EQ console or ported it past the PS2 considering how much of a marketshare console represents nowadays especially with increasing hardware capabilities. Plus you don't have to buy a weird adddon like the PS2 did just to get network access. Champions of Norrath was also really well received by the people that bought it, though I think it wasn't marketed well enough for mainstream gamers to find it, I see people mentioning it all the time in random hack n slash reddit threads with nothing but praise.
 

Zaide

TLP Idealist
3,714
4,337
EQOA had the misfortune of being compared to EQ1 in its prime. All other EQ media looked like a failure in comparison.
 

Animosity

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
6,420
5,406
EQOA had the misfortune of being compared to EQ1 in its prime. All other EQ media looked like a failure in comparison.
Agreed. People who never played EQ loved EQOA. I thought it was a ton of fun as well. But was a lot different than EQ. It was also hard to keep a good internet connection on PS2 at the time too.
 
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Sancus

Trakanon Raider
20
4
Any info on the next expansion?
Pretty standard stuff. It's the continuation of Torment of Velious, the gist of the lore is that restless ice started permeating across Velious and creating restless dead stuff. We go everywhere looking for the source even though it's obviously from Sleeper's Tomb, where Vulak is using the weird EQ2 items from CotF to call Veeshan to get rid of pesky mortals. The Restless Ice is a byproduct of that and maybe something Zlandicar did to gain more power?

As far as features/content, it's about as basic as it can be. Standard six re-textures of already existing zones (no new ones), four missions, three partisan/mercenary quests per zone, copy/paste spell upgrades, a few copy/paste AA upgrades, no level cap increase, and nine raids. I like the raids more this expansion than those in ToV, but the absence of an evolving item/upgraded Type 18/19 augs is a massive bummer. It doesn't offer a whole lot in general in terms of character progression outside of standard gear upgrades (no interesting rewards for progression).
 
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Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
45,320
73,376
Pretty standard stuff. It's the continuation of Torment of Velious, the gist of the lore is that restless ice started permeating across Velious and creating restless dead stuff. We go everywhere looking for the source even though it's obviously from Sleeper's Tomb, where Vulak is using the weird EQ2 items from CotF to call Veeshan to get rid of pesky mortals. The Restless Ice is a byproduct of that and maybe something Zlandicar did to gain more power?

As far as features/content, it's about as basic as it can be. Standard six re-textures of already existing zones (no new ones), four missions, three partisan/mercenary quests per zone, copy/paste spell upgrades, a few copy/paste AA upgrades, no level cap increase, and nine raids. I like the raids more this expansion than those in ToV, but the absence of an evolving item/upgraded Type 18/19 augs is a massive bummer. It doesn't offer a whole lot in general in terms of character progression outside of standard gear upgrades (no interesting rewards for progression).
All they have to do to keep us try-hards interested is just boost the shit outta some raids and group encounters as a hard mode and add some long dumbass grind like the evolving gear. Without those things, EQ has no end-game. It wouldn't even be hard, I mean, we're not asking them to fix pet DPS in raids!

Hopefully the new owners of DPG can hire a few developers to right the ship.
 
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gugabuba

Golden Knight of the Realm
129
38
They're pulling in 11m a year and they can only manage retexturing six zones? I wonder what they're operating expenses are, did that come out?
 

Rajaah

Honorable Member
<Gold Donor>
11,003
14,656
One of the zones (Cobalt Scar) is combined with Siren's Grotto, so if you want to fudge the numbers it's 7 retextured zones.

I like the story at least, dragons are cool.
 

DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
12,755
14,587
They're pulling in 11m a year and they can only manage retexturing six zones? I wonder what they're operating expenses are, did that come out?

I mean, they may be really profitable, but the devs aren't making decisions about personnel allocation. I'm sure even JChan can't say "I need X more people." It's about the finance/business people at Daybreak and they probably don't think they'll get return on investing more money in to the game so it's just a cow they milk as long as possible. Maybe the new company will see it differently, who knows.
 
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gugabuba

Golden Knight of the Realm
129
38
I mean, they may be really profitable, but the devs aren't making decisions about personnel allocation. I'm sure even JChan can't say "I need X more people." It's about the finance/business people at Daybreak and they probably don't think they'll get return on investing more money in to the game so it's just a cow they milk as long as possible. Maybe the new company will see it differently, who knows.
This is certainly true and what I thought before knowing these numbers. But the sheer extent of it is pretty wild. I bet their budget is 2m a year and they take 9m off the top.

It makes me wonder who makes the call on resources for EQ and how. EQ has to be one of the first video games to be profitable for over a decade though there have been several since (that list would be interesting to see: WoW and several MOBAs come to mind). So not much precedent to base analyses on. Meanwhile the money men have been betting since probably 2002 that EQ was about to die or could not attract new players even with a substantial budget and therefore not worth reinvestment.
 

Vanessa

Uncle Tanya
<Banned>
7,689
1,417
/random thought

After nearly 20 years of having EQ in my life, I've come to the epiphany that EQ "died" the day they stopped showing the actual players per server on the server select screen.

We all have different empirical experiences as to when the game stopped being fun or when the game changed enough to not be what you remembered or it got nerfed too much for personal tolerance or when it reached the point where too many friends quit etc etc, but really... that moment where they pulled the curtain over the numbers was telling imo~
 
  • 1Seriously?
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Muligan

Trakanon Raider
3,209
890
Can we just attempt to fight Veeshan but instead she destroys all of Norrath so it can be reborn? Think somewhat of a Fortnite event in how they handle their changes in seasons/maps.

Veeshan shows up, all of Norrath attempts to take a stand, Zeb or someone zaps us somewhere else in time... maybe years into the future or an alternate dimension, screen goes black, "See you in Everquest 3".

They can reopen EQ1 servers later or whatever, all free, no future updates, and we continue in this new Norrath. This new EQ3 storyline could last a few years and in that time they can be recreating EQ1 with updated graphics, modern features, etc. and at the end of this new EQ3 storyline, the create another event where we finally restore power or find a way to where we make it back to "our Norrath" (Classic + Kunark + Velious) and we are attempting to stop ourselves from awakening the Sleeper or some other old school event such as PoP....whatever. Once we change history, EQ 3 could now travel down this alternate timeline of the EQ1, original Norrath but in an updated MMO world.

That's my dream... lol
 

ZyyzYzzy

RIP USA
<Banned>
25,295
48,789
Can we just attempt to fight Veeshan but instead she destroys all of Norrath so it can be reborn? Think somewhat of a Fortnite event in how they handle their changes in seasons/maps.

Veeshan shows up, all of Norrath attempts to take a stand, Zeb or someone zaps us somewhere else in time... maybe years into the future or an alternate dimension, screen goes black, "See you in Everquest 3".

They can reopen EQ1 servers later or whatever, all free, no future updates, and we continue in this new Norrath. This new EQ3 storyline could last a few years and in that time they can be recreating EQ1 with updated graphics, modern features, etc. and at the end of this new EQ3 storyline, the create another event where we finally restore power or find a way to where we make it back to "our Norrath" (Classic + Kunark + Velious) and we are attempting to stop ourselves from awakening the Sleeper or some other old school event such as PoP....whatever. Once we change history, EQ 3 could now travel down this alternate timeline of the EQ1, original Norrath but in an updated MMO world.

That's my dream... lol
So, Zeb gives us a mulligan...
 
  • 1Picard
  • 1Worf
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DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
12,755
14,587
Can we just attempt to fight Veeshan but instead she destroys all of Norrath so it can be reborn? Think somewhat of a Fortnite event in how they handle their changes in seasons/maps.

Veeshan shows up, all of Norrath attempts to take a stand, Zeb or someone zaps us somewhere else in time... maybe years into the future or an alternate dimension, screen goes black, "See you in Everquest 3".

They can reopen EQ1 servers later or whatever, all free, no future updates, and we continue in this new Norrath. This new EQ3 storyline could last a few years and in that time they can be recreating EQ1 with updated graphics, modern features, etc. and at the end of this new EQ3 storyline, the create another event where we finally restore power or find a way to where we make it back to "our Norrath" (Classic + Kunark + Velious) and we are attempting to stop ourselves from awakening the Sleeper or some other old school event such as PoP....whatever. Once we change history, EQ 3 could now travel down this alternate timeline of the EQ1, original Norrath but in an updated MMO world.

That's my dream... lol
Death of a franchise, pretty cool.
 
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Vanessa

Uncle Tanya
<Banned>
7,689
1,417
This sounds familiar...
There is a brilliant flash and you find yourself displaced through time and space. For a moment you lose touch with yourself. As you wake, you find yourself back in the Plane of Knowledge, moments after talking to Maelin with the information of retrieving the Quintessence of Elements. Druzzil has preserved the timeline, and restored existence back to its normalcy.

LOADING, PLEASE WAIT...
You have entered The Plane of Knowledge.
 

Mahes

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
4,621
5,212
There is a brilliant flash and you find yourself displaced through time and space. For a moment you lose touch with yourself. As you wake, you find yourself back in the Plane of Knowledge, moments after talking to Maelin with the information of retrieving the Quintessence of Elements. Druzzil has preserved the timeline, and restored existence back to its normalcy.

LOADING, PLEASE WAIT...
You have been disconnected.....
Fixed that for you. No charge,
 
  • 1Worf
Reactions: 1 user