Luke Sigmund hit the jackpot and won the video game career lottery. With no fanfare or maudlin farewell letter, he quietly left Daybreak Games and is now employed by the Blizzard 2.0 collective. Like rats deserting a sinking ship, a steady stream of Daybreak Games developers have swum to the safety of the Blizzard Entertainment shore. Given the uncertainty of working for Daybreak Games with their constant layoffs, can you blame them?
The ex-SOE/Daybreak alumni is growing at Blizzard. A few years ago Josh Augustine left SOE, most recently Holly Longdale left Daybreak Games. I’m sure there are more. Of course, ex-SOE developer Steve Danuser has been with Blizzard 5 years.
Most EverQuest players have never heard of Luke, so it’s doubtful he will be missed. To be honest, I’m not sure what he actually accomplished in the past few years in the realm of EQ and EQ2.
The only time I recall he expressed any passion for EverQuest was in a Gamasutra article.
Long time SOE veteran, Kyle “Kander” Vallee is the new creative director of Darkpaw Games. It will be interesting to see what if anything happens to the EQ franchise on his watch.
I hope and pray that Blizzard also hires Alan “Absor” Vancouvering from Daybreak. He is perhaps the greatest MMORPG developer to have walked the earth. We mere EverQuest loving mortals are to lucky exist in the shadow of his magnificence. Blizzard could definitely benefit from hiring this towering creative genius. Perhaps if he puts in a few transgender characters in the next EQ expansion he will sufficiently pad his resume with enough wokeness for Blizzard’s consideration. It worked for Holly Longdale, perhaps it will work for him.
Like Holly Longdale, Luke Sigmund will likely disappear quietly into the Blizzard 2.0 corporate machine never to be heard from again. Welcome to the machine.
I’ve been following the career of Luke Sigmund for the past year because I was convinced by the mounting evidence that he, Holly Longdale and others were busy doing pre-production for a new version of EverQuest.
Now with Luke gone I have no hope that Daybreak/Darkpaw Games has any plans to make a new version of EverQuest — that ship has sailed into the good night. I believe that Daybreak will stay the course continue to milk the nostalgia and loyalty of EQ fans by releasing yearly TLP servers and token expansions.
It’s probably for the best and a blessing in disguise. I’m sure that Darkpaw would have released an EverQuest themed Fortnite clone and disgraced the spirit of EverQuest.
I do not believe that Daybreak Games gives a damn about the legacy of the EverQuest franchise or creating a updated version of this fantasy virtual world classic. I hope that Daybreak Games does the right thing and sells the EverQuest IP to someone who actually cares and can do it justice.
Seems he wants to make some money before retiring, can’t blame him for that.
I guess the sale of the Everquest IP might indeed happen. The division in separate studios already is a telltale of lower wages for more work and an expectation to dismantle the losing companies with minimized losses if they don’t meet expectations. Mismanagement brought SOE down, Daybreak breaks up even more, soon it will all be dust and memories. PlanetSide 2 and EQ were busy and got good press recently, but I dare to say adding fresh bells and whistles to the sinking ship doesn’t keep it afloat longer.
Who might buy the EQ IP? I am afraid Korean/Asian studios or Amazon. While this would keep the IP alive, it could end up in having not much more in common than the name.
Agreed. If I worked for Daybreak I would want to get out of their as fast as I could. Clearly, Luke has used the last few years to bolster his resume and it worked. I’m happy for him.
The only hope for a future EQ is for them to sell the IP. Daybreak Games is a dead end.