Daybreak Game Company

Template:Use American English
Template:Use mdy dates

* (1997–2006)
* Sony Online Entertainment LLC
* (1997–2005)
* SCE Worldwide Studios
* (2005–2015)
* Inception Acquisitions

**Daybreak Game Company LLC** is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as **Sony Online Entertainment**, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in February 2015 and renamed Daybreak Game Company.

They are known for owning, maintaining, and creating additional content for the games *EverQuest*, *EverQuest II*, *The Matrix Online*, *PlanetSide*, *Star Wars Galaxies*, *Clone Wars Adventures*, *Free Realms*, *Vanguard: Saga of Heroes*, *DC Universe Online*, *PlanetSide 2*, *H1Z1: Just Survive*, and *H1Z1: King of the Kill*, along with more recent acquisitions *Dungeons and Dragons Online* and *Lord of the Rings Online*.

## History

### Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (1997-2005)

 File:Sony Online Entertainment Logo.png
Sony Online Entertainment began with Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA), an internal game development studio of Sony, formed by 1995. In 1996, John Smedley was put in charge of SISA's development of an online role-playing video game. The game would evolve into the MMORPG *EverQuest*. Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover, who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the single-player role-playing game *Warwizard*.

 File:Sony Online Entertainment headquarters 20080217.jpg
In April 1998, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) was formed by merging parts of Sony Online Ventures with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Within a matter of months after this change, Sony Interactive Studios America was renamed 989 Studios. Towards the end of 1998, 989 Studios shifted its strategy to making PlayStation games. The company's video game and online development branch spun off; John Smedley, Brad McQuaid and Russell Shanks, as well as 55 other ex-989 employees, founded RedEye Interactive, later renamed Verant Interactive.

Verant Interactive launched *EverQuest* on March 16, 1999, through Sony with modest expectations. The game became successful. Sales continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed. As of 2004, Sony reported subscription numbers close to 450,000. In March 2000, Verant released *EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark*, the first in a long list of expansion packs for *EverQuest*.

In April 2000, Verant hired former *Ultima Online* developers Raph Koster and Rich Vogel. They formed an office in Austin, Texas, to develop *Star Wars Galaxies* for LucasArts. SOE acquired Verant in June 2000, and eventually promoted Brad McQuaid to be its Chief Creative Officer. In October 2001, McQuaid resigned and founded Sigil Games Online, drawing many of the original developers of *EverQuest* from SOE.

Developed by Sony Online Entertainment, LucasArts released *Star Wars Galaxies* in 2003, which saw rapid growth, as expected. Bruce Woodcock estimates that *Star Wars Galaxies* reached nearly 300,000 subscribers within the year, before trailing off. LucasArts has released three expansions for *Star Wars Galaxies*, *Jump to Lightspeed* in October 2004, *Rage of the Wookiees* in May 2005, and *Trials Of Obi-Wan* in November 2005.

In 2003, the company also explored relatively untouched MMOG territory with the massively multiplayer online first-person shooter *PlanetSide* and the PlayStation 2 MMORPG *EverQuest Online Adventures*. *PlanetSide* enjoyed a reasonably successful launch, however it never attracted wide popularity. SOE released two expansions for *PlanetSide*, a retail product titled *Core Combat*, and *Aftershock*, a free expansion. *EverQuest Online Adventures* was not as successful, but it spawned an expansion, *EverQuest Online Adventures Frontiers*. The game was shut down on March 29, 2012, after nine years of operation.

*EverQuest II* was released on November 9, 2004. The sequel was set hundreds of years after the original. Similar in strategy to *EverQuest*, SOE has released several adventure packs and expansion packs for *EverQuest II*, starting with *The Bloodline Chronicles* in March 2005.

In January 2005, Sony Online Entertainment announced the creation of Station Publishing, a new label for distributing titles made by external developers. In November 2005, SOE added the New Game Enhancements to *Star Wars Galaxies*, changing many of the game's core mechanics. This upset players and critics, with the level of concurrent players reduced to around 10,000; relatively few for the MMO industry.

SOE has produced numerous *EverQuest* expansions and spin-off video games, including *Champions of Norrath* (for PlayStation 2) and *Lords of EverQuest* (Windows). They published *Champions: Return to Arms*, the sequel to *Champions of Norrath*, in February 2005. In August 2005, SOE entered a deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment which saw the acquisition and transition of *The Matrix Online* to the existing line up of SOE games.

### Sony Online Entertainment LLC (2006-2015)

 File:Everquest 2 babes.jpg
In April 2006, Sony Online Entertainment, Inc. became Sony Online Entertainment LLC, owned by Sony Pictures Digital and Sony Computer Entertainment America. In May 2006, it was announced that SOE would be co-publisher of *Vanguard: Saga of Heroes*. However, Sigil retained full development rights, and SOE's role was only that of marketing, distribution, technical support, and hosting the game servers. SOE also announced the release of *Field Commander*, its third game for the PlayStation Portable System. In August 2006, SOE announced the acquisition of developer Worlds Apart Productions, renaming the studio SOE-Denver. The studio has since released an online version of the *WizKids* pirates constructible strategy game. In November 2006, SOE released its first PlayStation 3 title *Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom*, within the launch window of the PlayStation 3 system. SOE also released *Pirates Online Constructible Strategy Game*, the online version of the *WizKids* Pirates Constructible Strategy Game.

In January 2007, SOE announced that it has licensed rights from Midway Home Entertainment to develop and release six classic Midway games for PlayStation 3 download, including *Mortal Kombat II*, *Gauntlet II*, *Joust*, *Rampage World Tour*, *Rampart*, and *Championship Sprint*. The games were available from the PlayStation Store. The announcement came shortly after SOE released its second PlayStation 3 digital download *GripShift*. On May 15, 2007, Sony Online Entertainment announced that they had completed a transaction to purchase key assets from Sigil Games Online, including *Vanguard: Saga of Heroes* (described as Sigil's "tentpole property").

On March 13, 2008, Sony Online Entertainment announced that Sony Computer Entertainment will have direct control over SOE.

On January 16, 2009, the company joined Steam, selling *EverQuest*, *EverQuest II* and *Vanguard: Saga of Heroes* via Steam. On the same day, the company purchased Pox Nora, an online turn-based strategy game. On August 1, 2009, SOE shut down *The Matrix Online* after 4 years of operation. Players were treated to about 2 months of gaming despite some initial setbacks that left many veteran players unable to access the game for about a week after the announcement was made. A memory book was developed and was made available for download on the game's site.

As of May 2010[update]Template:Dated maintenance category, John Smedley is the CEO of Sony Online Entertainment. SOE is headquartered in San Diego, California, with additional game development studios located in Austin, Texas, Denver, Colorado and Seattle, Washington. On July 15, 2010, SOE eliminated 35 full-time positions and an undisclosed number of temporary positions to "...better align the company's resources..." On August 8, 2010, SOE announced that *EverQuest Next* was in the early stages of development.

On January 7, 2011, SOE and Fastpoint Games announced the alpha launch of the Facebook game *Fortune League*. *Fortune League* integrates real-time performance data such as damages, deaths and healings directly from the massively multiplayer online game environment and uses them to form "Hero Stats" that drive the game. Therefore, player actions inside *EverQuest II* affected what happened in Fortune League, and prizes from Fortune League helped users advance in the *EverQuest II* environment. Fastpoint Games CEO, Kelly Perdew, positioned Fortune League as a new category of "snackable" data-driven games that would help MMO franchises acquire users and tap new revenue streams. On February 1, 2011, SOE unveiled new PlayStation Network games to be released throughout the year. These included *Acceleration of Suguri X Edition*, *Akimi Village*, *Plants vs. Zombies*, *Rochard*, *Sideway* and *Slam Bolt Scrappers*. On March 31, 2011, SOE confirmed that "it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle, and Tucson studios." Production of *The Agency* was also discontinued.

On December 6, 2011, *EverQuest II* switched to a free-to-play model, with optional subscriptions. On December 15, 2011, *Star Wars Galaxies* was closed. SOE maintained a Memory Book for former players.

#### Data breach

*Main article: 2011 PlayStation Network outage*
On April 27, 2011, Sony, the parent company of SOE, released statements regarding an intrusion, on or about April 18, into the PlayStation Network, and the potential theft of up to 77 million subscribers' personal data. Sony maintains that PSN and SOE are hosted and run on completely separate subsystems and that the PlayStation Network intrusion had no major effect on SOE's online services. SOE developers posted messages of concern and apology, but also assurances the SOE servers and systems were not compromised.

On May 2, 2011, SOE interrupted their online services. Players were told "We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems, we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday)." Later, SOE disclosed that "personal information from approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts may have been stolen", including names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, gender, date of birth, login ID, and hashed passwords.

### Daybreak Game Company (2015-present)

On February 2, 2015, Sony announced that SOE had been sold to investment company Columbus Nova for an undisclosed amount and that it would be renamed Daybreak Game Company. Cutting its ties with Sony, Daybreak subsequently became able to develop their games for platforms other than PlayStation, including Xbox and mobile platforms. On February 11, employees of the company reported they were undergoing layoffs, including several senior developers and project managers. Shortly after, Daybreak responded by announcing the layoffs were intended to make the company profitable, but did not detail the extent of the layoffs or whether it would affect the development and support of their new and existing games. On July 22, 2015, Daybreak announced that John Smedley had stepped down as the company's President, and that Russell Shanks, the company's former COO, will take up his position. On August 21, 2015, Smedley left Daybreak to found a new company. In October 2016, Russell Shanks left Daybreak.

On December 19, 2016, it was announced that Daybreak games would become the new publisher of *The Lord of the Rings Online* and *Dungeons & Dragons Online*, taking over the role from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. However, the two games would maintain their old account system and server centers, not integrating with the rest of Daybreak. The result of this deal would cause the closure of *Asheron's Call* and *Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings* on January 31, 2017.

In April 2018, Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian businessman and owner of portfolio company Renova Group, was sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury as part of an investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Columbus Nova had previously identified itself as an affiliate of Renova Group, while Renova Group had listed Columbus Nova as part of its corporate structure. Subsequently, it was believed that Columbus Nova, and consequently Daybreak, had also been affected by these sanctions. Daybreak subsequently began to deny that it had been sold to Columbus Nova, stating that the company had actually been acquired by Jason Epstein through his company Inception Acquisitions, LLC instead. At the time of the acquisition, Epstein had been a partner to Columbus Nova, though he left that company in 2017. A Daybreak spokesperson claimed that Epstein's exact ties to Columbus Nova had caused confusion in media reporting of the sale, even though its deleted press release made the same claim. Columbus Nova also stated that it had never been owned by Renova Group, though Renova Group had been their largest client.

In September 2018, holding company NantWorks announced its strategic investment in Daybreak, and the resulting new venture in which the company will bring popular Daybreak games (including EverQuest and H1Z1) to mobile platforms. Three rounds of layoffs occurred between April 2018 and October 2019; the December rounds was estimated to have affected around 70 people. These layoffs were towards "a realignment of the company into separate franchise teams, which will allow us to highlight their expertise, better showcase the games they work on, and ultimately provide tailored experiences for our players."

Template:Anchor
Following from the October 2019 round of layoffs, Daybreak announced in January 2020 that it would reorganize its internal structure to form three divisions: Dimensional Ink Games, Darkpaw Games, and Rogue Planet Games. Dimensional Ink became responsible for ongoing maintenance of *DC Universe Online* while working on a new MMO, Darkpaw to focus on the *Everquest* franchise, and Rogue Planet to focus on PlanetSide 2.

## Station.com

Sony Online Entertainment's Station.com was a portal to its PC, console, casual and mobile games. Players could access and download games such as *EverQuest*, *EverQuest II* and *PlanetSide*. Station.com also provided sneak previews to new games for Sony PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, including *Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom*. November 2006. In August 2006, Station.com added several games by Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment.

## ForgeLight engine

The ForgeLight engine is a game engine developed by the company, and used for *Free Realms*, *Clone Wars Adventures*, *PlanetSide 2*, *Landmark*, *EverQuest Next*, *Just Survive*, and *H1Z1*.

## References

1. ↑ Bree Royce (December 19, 2016). "Turbine spins LOTRO and DDO teams out to new studio using Daybreak as Publisher". Massively OP. http://massivelyop.com/2016/12/19/turbine-spins-lotro-and-ddo-teams-out-to-new-studio-using-daybreak-as-publisher/.
2. ↑ Keefer, John (March 31, 2006). "GameSpy Retro: Developer Origins, Page 19 of 19". http://www.gamespy.com/articles/697/697083p19.html.
3. ↑ Parker, Sam (June 1, 2000). "Sony Acquires Verant". http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/everquesttheruinsofkunark/news\_2580857.html. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
4. ↑ William Vitka (February 21, 2006). "In 'Galaxies' Far, Far Away...", CBSNews.
5. ↑ Chase, Matthew (December 16, 2005). "Star Wars Galaxies: AED Review for PC from". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120710061338/http://www.1up.com/reviews/star-wars-galaxies-empire-divided. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
6. ↑ Jim Reilly. "Layoffs Hit Sony Online Entertainment - PC News at IGN". Pc.ign.com. http://pc.ign.com/articles/110/1106394p1.html. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
7. ↑ Socal Tech Article retrieved January 7, 2011
8. ↑ Sacramento Bee ArticleTemplate:Dead link retrieved January 7, 2011
9. ↑ "Sony Unveils New Playstation Network Games - License". Licensemag.com. February 1, 2011. http://www.licensemag.com/licensemag/News/Sony-Unveils-New-Playstation-Network-Games/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/705584?contextCategoryId=40474&ref=25. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
10. ↑ Fahey, Mike. "Sony's MMO Studio Confirms Massive Layoffs, Closes The Book On The Agency". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5787698/sonys-mmo-studio-confirms-layoffs-closes-the-book-on-the-agency.
11. ↑ "F2P/AoD/GU 62 Producer's Launch Letter! (12/06/2011)". Forums.station.sony.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120808035152/http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic\_id=510206. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
12. ↑ Wikipedia Star Wars Galaxies entry
13. ↑ "SWG Memory Book". http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/index.vm.
14. ↑ Pham, Alex (April 27, 2011). "Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity hacked", *Los Angeles Times*.
15. ↑ "Sony Apologizes For PlayStation Network Security Breach", *Huffington Post* (May 1, 2011).
16. ↑ "SOE - Service Under Maintenance". Maintenance.station.sony.com. http://maintenance.station.sony.com/. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
17. ↑ Press release. Sony Online Ent. Announces Theft Of Data From Its Systems, Tokyo, May 3, 2011.
18. ↑ "Sony woes continue as SOE confirms data breach (update: 24.6 million accounts affected)". May 2, 2011. https://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/sony-woes-continue-as-soe-confirms-data-breach/.
19. ↑ "Sony sells its Everquest-making arm; games will expand to Xbox and mobile". https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/02/private-investment-firm-buys-out-sony-online-entertainment/. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
20. ↑ "Layoffs At Everquest Next Studio, Including Director Of Development Dave Georgeson". http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/02/11/layoffs-at-everquest-next-studio-including-director-of-development-dave-georgeson.aspx.
21. ↑ Grubb, Jeff (July 23, 2015). "Daybreak Game Company’s John Smedley steps down as chief executive officer". *VentureBeat*. https://venturebeat.com/2015/07/22/daybreak-game-companys-john-smedley-steps-down-as-chief-executive-officer/. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
22. ↑ Chalk, Andy (August 21, 2015). "John Smedley has left Daybreak Games to start new company". *PC Gamer*. http://www.pcgamer.com/john-smedley-has-left-daybreak-games-to-start-new-company/. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
23. ↑ "Linkedin for Russell Shanks". November 18, 2016. https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-shanks-1965642. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
24. ↑ Bree Royce (December 19, 2016). "TURBINE SPINS LOTRO AND DDO TEAMS OUT TO NEW STUDIO, USING DAYBREAK AS PUBLISHER", *Massively Overpowered*. Retrieved on December 20, 2016.
25. ↑ Bree Royce (December 20, 2016). "ASHERON’S CALL AND ITS SEQUEL WILL SUNSET AS PART OF THE TURBINE/STANDING STONE SPLIT", *Massively Overpowered*. Retrieved on December 21, 2016.
26. ↑ "U.S. sanctions on Vekselberg have $1.5-$2 billion assets frozen:...". April 21, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-renova-idUSKBN1HS0FB. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
27. ↑ "Columbus Nova: Meet The Russia-Linked Firm That Hired Trump's Lawyer". https://www.rferl.org/a/columbus-nova-meet-the-russia-linked-firm-that-hired-trump-s-lawyer/29217547.html. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
28. ↑ "Daybreak Games denies reported links to sanctioned Russian oligarch [Updated]" (in en-us), *Ars Technica*.
29. ↑ "Russian Billionaire's Swiss Empire Rocked by U.S. Sanctions" (in en), *Bloomberg.com*.
30. ↑ "Viktor Vekselberg, Russian Billionaire, Was Questioned by Mueller’s Investigators" (in en-US), *The New York Times* (May 4, 2018).
31. ↑ Gach, Ethan. "One Video Game Company Has Murky Ties To Trump’s Lawyer And Russian Payments" (in en-US), *Kotaku*.
32. ↑ Protess, Ben; Rashbaum, William K.; McIntire, Mike (May 22, 2018). "In Michael Cohenâ€™s Rolodex, an Investor Tied to Russia Saw Pay Dirt". https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/us/politics/michael-cohen-andrew-intrater.html. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
33. ↑ Lanier, Liz (September 7, 2018). "Nantworks Invests in Daybreak Game Company for Mobile Game Venture".
34. ↑ Horti, Samuel (October 12, 2019). "Daybreak Games makes multiple layoffs, including on Planetside Arena team". https://www.pcgamer.com/daybreak-games-makes-multiple-layoffs-including-on-planetside-arena-team/.
35. ↑ Batchelor, James (October 14, 2019). "Daybreak Game Company suffers more layoffs". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-10-14-daybreak-game-company-suffers-more-layoffs.
36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Kerr, Chris (January 21, 2020). "Daybreak Games restructures internal studios around key franchises". *Gamasutra*. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/356783/Daybreak\_Games\_restructures\_internal\_studios\_around\_key\_franchises.php. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
37. ↑ "Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom". Darkkingdom.station.sony.com. http://darkkingdom.station.sony.com/. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
38. ↑ "EverQuest Next and Planetside 2 To Use New Forge Light Engine". July 10, 2011. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111555-EverQuest-Next-and-Planetside-2-To-Use-New-Forge-Light-Engine. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
39. ↑ Palumbo, Alessio. "PlanetSide Arena Interview - Devs on What Makes It Unique, Adding Story Progression & Third Person; Cross-Play Planned". https://wccftech.com/planetside-arena-interview-devs-on-what-makes-it-unique-adding-story-progression-cross-play-planned/. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
40. ↑ Sites, Andy. "A Message From The Development Team". DaybreakGames. https://steamcommunity.com/games/987350/announcements/detail/2988632806212615010. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
41. ↑ Good, Owen. "PlanetSide Arena shuts down after a short, troubled life". Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2019/12/14/21021862/planetside-arena-shuts-down-servers-pc-steam-refunds. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
42. ↑ "SOE Confirms PS4 Everquest Next & Talks Star Wars Galaxies". Gameinformer.com. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/01/27/soe-confirms-ps4-everquest-next-talks-star-wars-galaxies.aspx. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
43. ↑ "EQN News: A Letter from Daybreak's President". DaybreakGames.com. https://www.daybreakgames.com/news/daybreak-president-community-letter-everquest-next-2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
44. ↑ "Landmark The Game Home Page". https://www.landmarkthegame.com/home.
45. ↑ "EverQuest Next Landmark, a free-to-play voxel building game, coming this winter". PC Gamer. http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/02/everquest-next-landmark-announced/.
46. ↑ "Free Realms Coming Soon to PSN". IGN. March 11, 2011. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1155107p1.html. Retrieved March 11, 2011.

## External links

* Template:Official website

Template:Daybreak Game Company