Just Forget You Ever Saw These Pictures…

Screens you saw from a couple years ago are completely obsolete now and are not pertinent to the current game at all.

-Dave “Smokejumper” Greorgeson on EverQuest Next

These pictures we got to see about two years ago… now just trivia.

Freeport Next? I guess not!

Kelethin Next? Think again!

Okay, they were just concept art in any case.  But don’t expect anything to replace those mock ups. You likely won’t be hearing or seeing anything about EverQuest Next from SOE this year.

I guess they are trying to avoid falling into the same hype and silence cycle they went through with The Agency… though an announcement followed by a long silence cycle can’t be the optimum path either.

He also said that there was no reason that EQ or EQII should not continue on forever… unless EQ Next is just so freakin’ awesome that you would be wasting your time playing those old pigs.

Not a direct quote.

6 thoughts on “Just Forget You Ever Saw These Pictures…

  1. bhagpuss

    I wasn’t expecting EQNext until 2015 at the very, very earliest so this comes as no surprise. I have a nagging worry that Sony itself will split asunder before we ever even get to see EQNext and SOE might just disappear down a crack taking all its games with it. How long can a company go on making annual multi-billion dollar losses before it breaks up?

    I just hope they can survive whatever happens to Sony and also time the launch of EQNext advantageously in regard to Titan, whatever and whenever that is.

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  2. Ahtchu

    Contrary to many voices on that site, but this news actually peaks my curiosity in the project. While I remain highly speculative, I have become intrigued.

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  3. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    @Ahtchu – There certainly could be some reverse psychology going on here.

    “Don’t ask, because we’re not going to tell you anything about EverQuest Next!”

    Wait, what aren’t they telling us about it? Now I must know! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!

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  4. Pingback: EQNext, Not Next Year | Ardwulf's Lair

  5. Aerynne

    I keep reading in forum posts how much money SOE is losing each year, but I have never seen any official confirmation of that fact. Sony has taken a beating lately, but that is due to its television division. I would be interested in any links to data actually showing SOE revenue loss.

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  6. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    @Aerynne – Sony has clearly been losing money for a while now. But like you, I have not seen anything that indicates that SOE, which is part of SCE now, is losing money. But I do not think Bhagpuss was saying it was SOE losing money, he just changed horses mid-stream there.

    They have had layoffs and restructuring, closing some remote offices, so there may have been an issue. But I think if SOE were actually losing money today as an organization, we would be seeing more such cuts. A group like SOE within a big company generally isn’t allowed to continue losing money, so we can assume that they are making revenue targets if they aren’t being cut back.

    However, with Sony as a whole losing money, nobody in the organization is going to invest in SOE to try and increase their business. And this is all the more so since, as a subgroup of SCE, the PlayStation people, they are not a part of the core business.

    Or so it appears to me from the outside with my own experience of being in a similar product group within a big corporation.

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