Dragon’s Prophet left the Daybreak fold pretty much as it entered; almost completely unnoticed. I totally missed its launch at SOE and was only reminded that it was even a thing when I noticed its logo mixed in with the other SOE titles.
So I was late on board with the game, tried it for a bit, and never went back. I think that was more than what most people did.
Dragon’s Prophet seemed to be the Asian import replacement for Wizardry Online, which SOE shuttered, along with Vanguard, back during the summer of 2014.
Not that it felt like SOE needed a replacement Asian import MMO.
But Dragon’s Prophet was from the same people who did Runes of Magic, an early free-to-play title when it came to the west (perhaps most famous in some corners for the now-it-seems-cheap $10 horse)and one of the few Asian import MMOs that seemed to succeed in getting a decent following outside of its place of origin.
Unfortunately, that did not seem to be enough. Being from “the same people as…” can be a dubious tie to fame in a market with few recognizable developer names. Meanwhile Wizardry Online had a history that gave it some name recognition on its own. It had its roots as one of the great early dungeon crawler RPGs.
Granted, the Wizardry franchised moved from those origins through a long and winding path to become a Japanese RPG, but it was still a name that a lot of people knew… even if the current incarnation seemed a bit odd.So Wizardry Online at least had a chance based on name. It attracted some attention.
Dragon’s Prophet enjoyed no such luxury. It never even made it onto the SOE All Access plan, a sign for me that its days were numbered.
I predicted back in January that it would be gone by the end of the year, and felt that was pretty much a gimme.
Now it is gone, at least in North America, where SOE/Daybreak was the publisher, removed completely from their web site.
It apparently lives on in Asia, from whence it came, and in Europe, where a company called Infernum Productions is the publisher. Given their portfolio, Dragon’s Prophet probably means much more to them than it did to Daybreak.
Now, will somebody else pick up the game for North America, or it is just done here?
Will Daybreak try its hand with another Asian import, or was that sort a thing only an affordable luxury when they were snug in the embrace of Sony? Now that they have Columbus Nova Prime looking at the bottom line, it seems likely that Daybreak can’t screw around with science experiments and things that “seem” like a good idea the way they could when then were SOE.
And so it goes.
Did you play Dragon’s Prophet? Will you miss it?