Review of Daybreak Game Company

While I usually try to use this blog as a way to share information, providing some commentary but keeping it mainly fact related, I felt a need to write a more opinionated post on Daybreak Game Company. A month ago I wrote a post about developments with H1Z1 and Daybreak Game Company. The controversy over splitting the game and charging for both parts rubbed many gamers the wrong way. Well, last week, the same gaming company announced that they will be discontinuing one of their long awaited MMO games, EverQuest Next.

EverQuest Next was announced back in 2012 as a next gen title for the company’s highly popular EverQuest franchise. The game was supposed to be released not only for the PS4 but also the Oculus Rift. Fans of the franchise and the MMO genre, including many of my friends, have been waiting ever since the announcement for the game, part of the reason being that, like H1Z1, EverQuest Next was meant to be free to play (F2P). Daybreak Game Company claimed in their announcement that they canceled the game because it simply did not live up to their expectations in terms of quality.

While I appreciate that the company chose to cancel their game for the sake of quality over quantity, I think that the cancelation comes at an interesting time. It hasn’t been very long since they announced the split of H1Z1, and I can’t help but think that this was an opportunity for them to focus instead on their cash cow, rather than a title that they haven’t finished (even after 4 years). Instead of releasing two widely popular F2P games after years of waiting, Daybreak Games has cut their popular title list in two and charged double for one of the games. Could they be making up for the revenue loss from EverQuest Next with H1Z1? I can only speculate, but I do not doubt it.

I understand that this company has to make money, and I would not fault them for covering the costs of EverQuest Next with H1Z1 sales if the game lived up to the expectations. My personal opinion is that the game really has not made any significant changes. They have updated the game a few times since the title was split, a new game mode was even added, but these updates were marred by an equal amount of bugs.

Positive updates included the addition of hitmarkers, making it easier to judge the drop on bullets when shooting from far away, and the addition of a new game mode. While I am not necessarily a fan of the new game type, I still think it is good that they are trying to add more content to the game.

However, in implementing these changes had a number of negative effects. First, there was the bug that made it impossible to drop items in stacks. Before, you could drop any number of bullets in a group for your friend to pick up, making it easy to share ammo. However, for a brief period of time, this function was broken and player had to drop bullets one at a time.

Luckily, this bug was fixed. However, as soon as it was, the new update threw in another bug. If you are a passenger in a covered vehicle, the camera glitches by changing perspective at about 10fps. In all seriousness, this sort of glitching should have come with an epilepsy warning, but for those who do not have epilepsy it was still quite an eyesore. As far as I am aware, this bug had not been fixed as of March 18. A smaller issue is the missing graphic of the player profile pictures in the lobby, but this is a small bug that does not affect game play.

Other changes to the game can be found on the Steam update page, but in my opinion none of these updates really add to the game but are, instead, fixes.

The one thing Daybreak had going for them was that H1Z1 was one of the few games of its type. However, there is now a new game titled The Culling which is very similar to H1Z1 in that it is a battle royale type game, but with smaller server groups and more crafting. The reviews for this game are also very positive, and perhaps it could become an alternative to H1Z1.

While I will continue to play H1Z1, I am curious to see where they go with the game, I am beginning to have my doubts when it comes to Daybreak Game Company. They have canceled one of their most long awaited projects, one that they had made numerous promises about, and it makes me wonder if we will ever see any development with H1Z1: Just Survive. H1Z1, though still popular, now has mixed reviews on steam, which is not necessarily good feedback for a company. Overall, I am simply not impressed with the company or the promises they haven’t kept. 

H1Z1: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Image source: http://goo.gl/JCX19s

Fans of the survival/first-person shooter game H1Z1 will be pleased to hear that after spending over a year in early access, some of the game will be released on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in the summer of 2016. 

According an announcement from the the game's developer, Daybreak Game Company, the game will actually be split into two parts: Just Survive and King of the Kill. This split  spawned from the original game's differing modes that all gained favor within various groups of gamers. H1Z1: Just Survive will consist of the survival mode from the early access version where the focus is on killing zombies and navigating the post-apocalyptic world whereas H1Z1: King of the Kill will include the player vs player modes like the popular Battle Royale.

The split will officially take place on February 17, 2016, and players can still purchase the combined title until then. Those who have the combined title will receive both copies of the split game on the 17th. But for those who only want to purchase one part of the game, they can do so after the 17th for $19.99 on Steam. However, since the combined version is $19.99 on Steam now, players might want to consider purchasing the title before the split. 

Daybreak Game Company has also assured that any in-game items players own will transfer over to the new version so players don't have to worry about losing their items. The in-game transactions will still play a part in both games for PC, so players will still be able to sell and buy game items as they wish. 

Now for the bad news. While H1Z1: King of the Kill is set to come out of early access this summer (already a vague release date), the developers have not made any promises about H1Z1: Just Survive. Already players have been waiting over a year for the official release, and it looks like they still have quite a wait ahead of them. 

And the ugly? Well, the reason behind so many players waiting for the game's official full release is because the game was supposed to be a free-to-play title once out of early access. Early in 2015, president John Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment (now Daybreak Game Company), claimed on reddit that the game would eventually be free to play. However, Day Break Games has stated in their game release announcement that they do not intend to make H1Z1 free after all. 

While I anticipate that fans of the game will be exited about the release on consoles and even the splitting of the game (it seems most people play one mode or the other), I have a feeling some will not be so pleased that they will have to pay $39.98 (at least for early access after the 17th) for the whole package after waiting over a year to play it for free. While companies certainly need to make money from their products, one has to wonder whether Day Break Gaming is simply taking advantage of the growing popularity of their game and cashing in on it. What was supposed to be free with in-game transactions to support it will now be the same price as the full early access title, for only half of the game. Will it be worth the money? Players will have to wait until the 17th to find out.