I half expected Storybricks to have been absorbed by Sony Online Entertainment months ago but as it turns out, they’re closing down and in the process, actually attempted to buy SOE along the way, before Columbus Nova got involved.

I find this whole story a sad and disappointing beginning to Daybreak's future. Storybricks, alongside Voxelfarm were the two key components that could have truly revolutionised massively multiplayer games. Unfortunately it sounds as though Storybricks has been for sale for a long time and with the Daybreak acquisition taking place, they found themselves without a home. Does that mean EverQuest Next has abandoned the use of Storybricks all together? I’m really not sure. It appears that Daybreak own the majority of the work that Storybricks has done, so there’s every possibility it might still be used.

"The majority of the work we have done is about EverQuest Next and is co-owned by Daybreak. But there are few side projects and a demo that we plan to release for free that are unrelated to EQN. It's nothing major but maybe some Storybricks tech can live in other games. Give us some time to sort that out."

However, considering almost all the Storybricks team have moved onto new projects, I really can’t see it happening.

"Brian 'Psychochild' Green is working on Camelot Unchained, Guilherme Tows is at Mediatonic, Wallace Poulter and Brian Schwab are at Magic Leap (but they can't say what they are up to yet. Super secret stuff) and so on."

The massively multiplayer genre desperately needs a shakeup and from the videos I had seen, Storybricks really would have transformed the genre for years to come. Perhaps like many players, I’m sick of seeing NPC’s stood motionless or repeatedly using the same dialogue over and over. I want worlds that feel alive and lived in, not ones with window dressing.

I’m really glad to see that the creative minds behind Storybricks have managed to find new employment but boy, what a waste of such exciting technology.

 


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Last Updated: Mar 14, 2016

About The Author

Lewis is a long standing journalist, who freelances to a variety of outlets.

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