Not every planned MMORPG makes it to market. We present to you 6 online role-playing games that never made it, even though they sounded really exciting when these 6 new online role-playing games were announced at the time.
MMORPGs are gigantic game projects: they are meant to excite fans for years or even decades. The development of the games is also expensive and takes a long time.
However, as good as some ideas for new titles may be, not all planned games see the light of day.
We have picked out 6 MMORPGs for you that had an exciting approach but never made it to release.
Everquest Next
Setting: Fantasy | Developer: Sony Online Entertainment/Daybreak Games | Announcement: 2012 | Cancellation: 2016 | Planned Platforms: PC, PS4
What was Everquest Next supposed to be? The MMORPG Everquest Next was planned as the next major game in the online RPG series “Everquest”. Essentially, it would have become Everquest 3, but with some innovations that were supposed to significantly advance the MMORPG genre.
Everquest Next was not supposed to be just another Everquest but was fundamentally intended to herald an evolution in the genre. The developers planned it as a gigantic sandbox MMORPG that would provide the fans of the series with a parallel world to the regular Everquest, in which the story would have unfolded differently.
What was the special feature? Everquest Next relied on a voxel-based graphics engine. This was supposed to allow the environment to be destructible, for example, during battles when fireballs would create craters in the landscape.
The voxels would also have allowed for the individual creation of structures.
Additionally, they promised innovative ways to create an MMORPG with tons of content:
- They had hired the AI team “Storybricks”, which was supposed to bring revolutionary ideas into Everquest Next – similar to the “Node System” that is now applied in Ashes of Creation.
- Moreover, content was to be created by players – with Everquest Landmark they got access to the same developer tools as the devs. Great buildings were already created there before Everquest Next got underway.
Developer says: We would have made it under Sony
Why was it canceled? In 2016, the developers announced that they were stopping work on Everquest Next. About four years after the announcement. The reason given was that Everquest Next was not fun once the team put all parts together.
Some speculated, however, that it might also be related to the fact that Sony’s studio was sold and the new owner had no interest in financing such an expensive and risky undertaking as a new MMORPG.
The lead developer said that they definitely would have made Everquest Next if they had stayed with Sony.
