Landmark, a voxel building MMO which spawned from the cancelled EverQuest: Next project, will shut down next month. Daybreak Games announced the news today on its official website, indicating that the game will close down on February 21.
The game has already been delisted on Steam, and for those who already have it installed, Player Studio items are no longer available for listing or for purchase, according to the announcement. On the day it closes, all related official websites and forums will also disappear. Those with Daybreak Cash remaining will be able to use it in other Daybreak Games.
Meanwhile, the potential for the game to endure in someone else's hands – a fan's, for example – appears to have been ruled out. "Daybreak Game Company will retain all of the code and data from Landmark," the announcement reads. "Daybreak Game Company will not license or authorize the operation of a Landmark emulator or a fan-operated Landmark server."
After a long period in beta, during which time it was briefly known as EverQuest Next Landmark, the MMO launched on June 10 last year. When Daybreak Games cancelled EverQuest Next in March, the studio announced it would focus its efforts on Landmark instead.
During that announcement, a Daybreak Games spokesperson said that "as the community has grown and designs have flourished, we no longer view Landmark as just a building tool. We’ve been toiling away making Landmark into a wonder unto itself.
"While the look of our world was inspired by what was intended to be the voxel world of EverQuest Next, Landmark has evolved into its own game with its own unique identity and purpose.”
With a lifespan of only seven months, Landmark didn't have a long life. Still, it's a fairly volatile world out there for the ye olde MMO, even if your approach is a little out of the ordinary.
