EverQuest Next Gets Canceled Because It "Wasn't Fun"

Online games have been around for a while, but EverQuest gave birth to the MMO as we know it. Yes, Ultima Online did come first, but I'd argue that EverQuest really popularized the genre. Daybreak Games (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) has been hard at work on the third installment of the MMO series, dubbed EverQuest Next for some time. Unfortunately, it would seem that all of their hard work was for naught.

The company made a major announcement today that will probably upset fans of the franchise. While they have been working on the game for a long time, it would seem that the final product just wasn't fun. Those aren't my words, mind you. Russell Shanks, president of Daybreak Games specifically said in his letter to the community that "we found that it wasn't fun."

That's got to bt one of the saddest things that I've heard come out of a company. To put years of effort to create a new installment of a game, only to find out that somewhere along the line you strayed from the path, and you made a game that even you didn't enjoy. As you can imagine, they don't want to release a game that isn't fun, and the entire project has been scrapped. That's right, EverQuest Next has been officially canceled.

I have to say that I respect their decision, as hard as it must have been to make. The first EverQuest game really changed the way people looked at online gaming experiences. The second installment might not have been a game-changer, but a lot of people still enjoyed it. In his letter, Shanks reaffirmed the company's dedication to the world of EverQuest, so despite the cancellation of Next, we may yet still see another title in the future. You can read the letter in its entirety here.