Daybreak pulls the plug on ambitious MMORPG EverQuest Next

Daybreak Games president Russell Shanks published a letter to the studio's community today announcing that after years of work, the company is cancelling development of its massively multiplayer online game EverQuest Next.

This is notable for being the final nail in the coffin of an ambitious, long-running project that went all-in on user-generated content but lost both lead talent and tech resources last year after Sony Online Entertainment was sold to Columbus Nova and rechristened itself Daybreak. 

According to Shanks' public statement, the project has been cancelled because "as we put together the pieces, we found that it wasn't fun...in final review, we had to face the fact that EverQuest Next would not meet the expectations we -- and all of you -- have."

It's yet unclear how this will affect folks working on the project, though Gamasutra has reached out to Daybreak for further details on that point. The studio is expected to continue operating its long-running MMORPGs EverQuest and EverQuest II.