It is Friday and I don’t have anything worth a full post, so here are a few tidbits mostly about Daybreak.
- 64-bit EverQuest II
I was actually thinking about writing a full post about this, but there isn’t that much to say at this point. Server and client have been upgraded to 64-bit, which was pretty much necessary to ensure the long term viability of the game.
There wasn’t a lot of fanfare around the launch. It just showed up at the top of the patch notes and got a short news item on the site. But they have done 64-bit upgrades for the other titles in the Daybreak stable already, so it doesn’t seem all that exciting.
The system requirements for the game have changed, and if you’re still running on 32-bit Windows XP then your days of playing the game are over until you upgrade. But otherwise, just another day at Daybreak.
- Drunder Goes Under
It seems like ages ago when Daybreak announced the unique “special” server that was Drunder.
Fortress of Drunder is included on the Drunder server
It was almost seven years ago when they hit on the idea of collecting all the problem children together. Anybody busted for breaking the game’s rules wasn’t to be banned, they were to be banished to the Drunder server. There they could hang out with all their fellow miscreants and reflect on their crimes. Also, they would get no customer service support and would have to pay a subscription to keep playing. It was a strange idea. I wrote a whole post about it when they announced it, with links out to like posts.
Well, the Drunder era is over. It was announced on the forums that the server was no more.
We are announcing today that Drunder has been retired. This also means all accounts associated with Drunder will no longer be accessible.
It was strange to think that somebody might continue to play, or even subscribe, when they had been banished. But if somebody was doing so, they can play no longer as their accounts are not longer accessible.
In an ironic twist, the forum message ends with:
Please contact Customer Service with all questions or concerns here: https://help.daybreakgames.com/
Since they were not supposed to get any customer support once banished, I wonder what they should expect now? Or if there was anybody left to expect anything in any case. I have a feeling that if the server was active with still paying customers it wouldn’t have gotten the chop.
Related Coverage:
It seems they banned Daybreak accounts and not just the EverQuest II access. Oh, Daybreak.
- Robin Flodin Paid Off
This isn’t strictly a Daybreak thing, and it happened more than a month ago at this point, but it has been in my notes to bring up at some point. Robin Floodin, one time CEO of Enad Global 7 and the enthusiastic face of the company that bought out Daybreak, was bought out of the company. Per the statement published back at the end of May:
On May 25, 2022, the EG7 executive team and select board members purchased 2,446,592 shares, representing 2.8% of outstanding shares, from Robin Flodin, the former CEO of EG7. The purchase price was SEK 16.25 per share and amounted to almost SEK 40 million. After this transaction, Mr. Flodin will no longer be a shareholder in the company. The purchasing group was led by Jason Epstein, a current board member and the proposed new chairman of the board who acquired 1.1 million shares; Ji Ham, the acting CEO, acquired 900,000 shares, doubling his stake; and Alexander Albedj, the current chairman of the board, acquired 250,000 shares. Additional participants in the group included the deputy CEO and CFO, IR-responsible and independent board members.
A nice payday for Mr. Flodin I suppose, but it does make one wonder if Enad Global 7 really acquired Daybreak or if it is ending up the other way around. As noted over at MMO Fallout, “acting” CEO Ji Ham doesn’t appear to have an replacement waiting in the wings many months after taking on the center stage role. One might begin to think that it is less an act and more a fait accompli.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 