MMORPGs are an elaborate and risky genre. Not every planned game actually sees its release. We present to you 5 titles that died before their launch.
New MMORPGs are regularly released and at least 5 new games have already been announced for 2023. However, not every game manages to actually achieve a release.
In this list, we present to you 5 MMORPGs that looked really good on paper but never saw the light of day. Some of these mechanics were so innovative that one would still wish for a release today.
EverQuest Next
Setting: Fantasy | Developer: Sony Online Entertainment/Daybreak Games | Announcement: 2012 | Cancellation: 2016 | Planned Platforms: PC, PS4
What kind of game was it? EverQuest Next was supposed to be the third part of the MMORPG series but wanted to do many things differently than its two predecessors. The focus was on the idea of a gigantic sandbox that players could participate in. The idea seemed innovative and ingenious.
Players were supposed to be able to shape the environment and build their own structures, similar to Minecraft. This was supplemented by a special technology for NPCs, allowing them to respond to the customized world, such as entering houses or adjusting dialogues. This was meant to make the often rigid MMORPG world more dynamic.
The classes were supposed to offer you a lot of freedom. Your skills were dependent on your weapon choice but also on keywords like damage, damage over time, or healing. You could customize these even within the abilities. Like in ESO or Guild Wars 1, you were to be limited to a few abilities so that builds within a class could differ drastically.
An addition to EverQuest Next was supposed to be the “game” Landmark. With Landmark, players gained access to tools to create their own content. This content could then optionally be included directly into EverQuest Next by the developers. This would allow players to become developers themselves.
Besides the many freedoms, EverQuest Next also wanted to offer more classic MMORPG content. The quests, for instance, were supposed to be similar to those in Guild Wars 2. There were to be no classic hubs with tasks, but rather on-site events, such as goblins raiding a village or helping with the harvest before enemies burned the field.
With the EverQuest brand backing it, veteran John Smedley as head, and Sony as the financier, it seemed like EverQuest Next could revolutionize MMORPGs.
What did it fail at? Four years after the announcement, the developers announced that work on EverQuest Next had been discontinued. Officially, it was stated that the MMORPG wasn’t fun after they put all the parts together.
Dave Georgeson, a former head of the game, later said: Under Sony, we would have made it. Just before the cancellation, the studio Sony Online Entertainment was sold and renamed to Daybreak Games. The new owner might have found the project too expensive and risky.
