Still not allowed. But they were asked to make avail. Hopefully they follow up on that. Even if costs $10, its a good thing. They could do the same with other client versions too. Which would be too cool. Haynar
this is amazing. The fact this is even possible gives me high hopes for this server and recreating AK
Tho this is great news to have a somewhat official recognition of an emu server. IMO it was strategic. The population on p99 rivals official servers. The release of new content on p99 will have major impact on numbers on live. It just makes perfect business sense really. I doubt we have their interest peeked due to our stage of development and our limited fanbase numbers. But one could hope this sets a great partnership and development of further cooperation with the official owner of the game we all love.
I also hope that there is future cooperation, but in my opinion, the greatest thing done here is that they set a precedent. With this decision of theirs, I doubt they would have a leg to stand on if they ever felt the need to take an emu server to court. My biggest fear has always been that they would eventually serve a cease and desist order. Because of this precedent they just set, I'm encouraged that will never happen now.
I am betting in the fine print there is a "Terms are subject to change" Not that I am trying to naysay. It would make absolute sense from a business standpoint. I just hope that the emu community can keep working together instead of being fractured and make sure we present our community as something they would continue to want to work with.
SOE is dead, long live SOE. Sony would have never made this deal, they always chose to ignore the Emus hoping they would just go away. Apparently DBG can see the elephant in the room. I doubt they would ever share code or a DB that is still making them money, but time will tell. I'm hoping they give up on EQ and release the code for sale.
While this agreement with P1999 sounds great, and am happy for their devs if this is what they wanted. My concern is that they may lose control of their project to Daybreak. Or Daybreak does decide to shut it down. Its really what the contract said and the environment at daybreak. I dont see this as necessarily a positive move long term for the emu community.
How about they reactivate Al'Kabor, give the TAKP team the hardware to bring back the decade of work for folks since Daybreak still need a true mac client. If you want to re-connect the player base, that would be a great start. I just don't trust them too much after what happened with EQMac, and rightly so. But this is a great opportunity to open doors with a very loyal fanbase of the game and share a new outlook on the company.
Would be sweet, but there since the marketplace wasn't compatible with EQMac, I'm sure they were looking for a good reason to retire it in the first place. I would all for it being subscription based only, as I'm sure most people that played there would be.
Hobart knew the codebase quite well on EQmac. I'm sure something could be worked in to benefit Daybreak. Mac sales also have skyrocketed since the closure of Al'Kabor. It would be a grave error to ignore this market of potential new players and the fanbase already established well over a decade of time. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/the-apple-ipad-is-fading-but-mac-sales-up/542665-11.html
A lot would depend on the resources needed to maintain the mac server. And whatever support staff it needs to be maintained too. We have no idea of the server costs, etc., that it would use. If its not profitable, they are probably going to keep the mac server down. Their emphasis to be profitable increased when they were sold. They cannot have areas that lose money, and make up for it elsewhere. Not the kind of business model investors use. Its all about profits profits profits ... oh, and some PR too maybe, if it helps profits.
Ad nauseam: Maintenance/infrastructure/hosting costs had to be loooow. It was the support-center impact costs(petitions) and drama PR that brought alkabor down. Turn it back on, turn on low-cost subs ($5), state very plainly 'minimal support/unsupported lol', and you've got a stew goin' small money printer. But back on topic: Good for the p99 crew! Sounds like great news.
Or they could just treat outdated versions of Everquest like franchises. They license the software to interested third parties who must abide by certain guidelines and receive a portion of the profits. There's little to no risk involved in a business model like that. Hence so many retail stores and restaurants use it. A similar logic was used when dealing with athlete endorsements. Notice how there are far fewer athlete run clothing and product lines? Theyve been advised in recent years to only do marketing, let other people do the hard work.
Or have player admins and GMs with a quota of logins/involvement to obtain free full subs on their regular play accounts.
