"PlanetSide" was a huge hit when it was released in 2003, providing players with a scale of multiplayer gameplay that had never been seen before, with hundreds of players at a time battling it out in massive, sprawling maps for control over territory. After 13 years, the game is finally being shut down by its developers, Daybreak Game Company. Another Daybreak game, "Legends of Norrath," a trading card game based on the wildly popular MMORPG "EverQuest," was also announced to be closing down.
Daybreak Game Company, which was known as Sony Online Entertainment at the time of the launch of the original "PlanetSide," cited "evolving business needs and technical requirements" as reason for closing the PlanetSide servers, in an announcement on their website. The game had gone free-to-play in April 2014, but faced competition from its own ranks in the form of its own sequel, "PlanetSide 2," released in November 2012 and also free-to-play. A PlayStation 4 version of PlanetSide 2 was released in 2015.
"PlanetSide" will be shutting down on July 1, at 4PM PT.
"Legends of Norrath" in turn has not been in active development for some time, according to another Daybreak announcement on the game's website. The game was released in 2007, and allowed players to gain loot cards for both "EverQuest" games. Daybreak have said that the closure of the game's servers is "in the best interest of our company and players," and will take place on August 17, 12NN PT. Booster packs for the game and All Access Membership claims will no longer be available on July 18, 10 AM PT, a month before the closure.
Earlier in March, Daybreak Game Company announced the cancellation of "EverQuest Next," which was to be the sequel to "EverQuest II." The game was first announced in 2013, and would have been a radical free-to-play refresh of the "EverQuest" lore and formula. Another game, "Landmark," which had been announced alongside "Next," was asserted to have still been under development, and was released earlier this month on June 10.
