EverQuest Next had been in development since 2009, but it was time to tell the world more about this ambitious MMO project. The year was 2012 and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) Live attendees had gathered together to hear an exciting announcement. John Smedley, the former president of SOE, stated that EverQuest Next had been completely redeveloped in order to create a new completely new version of EverQuest unlike anything which had been seen before. From there, small reveals of in-game footage and concept art would be shared with the world. The fans were ecstatic!

EverQuest Next’s counterpart Landmark was announced in a similar fashion. It was created to be a world-building tool which fans could use to help shape EverQuest Next‘s game world, Norrath. Landmark‘s official alpha testing started on January 31, 2014 and anyone would join in so long as they purchased the $99.99 Trailblazer Pack or the $59.99 Explorers Pack. The purchasers of the much cheaper Settler Pack were also able to join during the closed beta phase, which began on March 26, 2014.

The EQ Next and Landmark development teams were very involved with the community for a time. There were fun polls to take part in on the website, Landmark building contests, and roadmaps were provided on which features would be added to Landmark next to provide fans new content to look forward to. However, the stream of information and fan interaction did not last forever. SOE did make the occasional announcements during the information drought, but these were few and far between.

People who had previously been very excited about EQ Next had begun to worry. Landmark was fun, but what they really wanted was more information regarding the core game. Was the development of the complicated, reactionary AI delaying the game? Was Landmark taking too much time and attention away from EQ Next? Why was SOE being so silent?

On February 2, 2015, Sony announced the sale of SOE to Columbus Nova and that the studio would be renamed Daybreak Game Company. EQ Next fans thought this surely meant the end of the unreleased game. However, Daybreak Games stated that the development of both EverQuest Next and Landmark would continue. In spite of that, an announcement was made in June 2015 which stated that Daybreak was shifting their main focus to EQ Next and that Landmark development would no longer be getting as much attention. But, on March 11, 2016, Daybreak then announced that EverQuest Next development had to be discontinued and that Landmark was to become the main focus instead.

Some Landmark Founder’s Pack purchasers were understandably upset upon hearing of EQ Next‘s cancellation. Some of these players went to the forums and stated that they were requested a full refund for any money they had spent on the game. Some also stated that they were never going to play another Daybreak game. Additionally, others chimed in saying that they would never be “tricked” into paying for an MMO alpha or beta access founder’s pack ever again. Those looking on the positive side decided to focus on the fact that now more features would be coming to Landmark. It was slated to be released in 2016, so that had to be a good sign, right?

Sadly, it seems that Landmark was also doomed to fail. Just a few days ago on January 6, Daybreak announced that the Landmark servers, forums, and social media channels will be closing on February 21, 2017, at 4:00 pm PST. Current players are welcome to spend the remaining time enjoying the game, but new players will no longer be able to join them due to the game no longer being available for purchase. For some, this will come as no surprise because they saw it coming when EQ Next was cancelled. But for others, this news is absolutely devastating. A lot of their time and money was spent towards building something astonishing which will soon be gone forever.

The future of the EverQuest franchise is not looking very strong right now. MMOs EverQuest and EverQuest 2 are going to continue on for the foreseeable future, but the outlook for any fresh and exciting EverQuest content looks bleak.