Over the past few years we have been hearing about the fourth installment in the EverQuest franchise, EverQuest Next. Despite a slew of updates we heard come to the game like new classes and races, the game has been cancelled by developer DayBreak Games (formally SOE).
DayBreak president Russel Shanks broke the news to the community through a post on the official studio site, saying that while the develops had worked hard on the game it simply was not a fun game:
"For those familiar with the internals of game development, you know that cancellations are a reality we must face from time to time. Inherent to the creative process are dreaming big, pushing hard and being brutally honest with where you land. In the case of EverQuest Next, we accomplished incredible feats that astonished industry insiders. Unfortunately, as we put together the pieces, we found that it wasn’t fun. We know you have high standards when it comes to Norrath and we do too. In final review, we had to face the fact that EverQuest Nextwould not meet the expectations we – and all of you – have for the worlds of Norrath."
Prior to it's cancellation it was announced that EverQuest Next would be ported to the PlayStation 4 after its PC release.
Development for EverQuest Landmark, the world building game announced alongside Next, will continue as planned. The world building game had been planned cross into EverQuest Next, allowing the community's creations to be seen in the MMORPG. Landmark was released on Steal Early access in May 2014 at the price of $19.99 for the standard game, $59.99 for the 'Explorer Pack' and $99.99 for the 'Trailblazer Pack'.
Landmark is set to launch this Spring, according to an announcement released alongside the cancellation for Next.