UPDATE - Saturday February 14:

• Daybreak had connection issues overnight; forums are back up, but login may not be completely stable yet. It is being worked on.
• 12:30pm ET: Smed, Holly and Emily (Domino) have all confirmed that there are DDOS attacks going on. They're doing what they can, but expect things to be unstable until it's mitigated.
• 3:30pm ET: Everything should be back online now!
• Holly posted a bit more this morning on the EQ2 forums, and twice on the EQ forums, both of which we've included after the jump.
• If you're unfamiliar with Holly, read this comment.

Holly "Windstalker" Longdale, now the Executive Producer for both EverQuest & EverQuest II, has posted letters on the EverQuest and EverQuest II forums. She introduces herself to EverQuest players, and offers reassurances that both games will continue development.

You can read and comment on both letters (linked above) on the official game forums. The main point seems to be to invite everyone to livestreams. Here's the info:

EverQuest Livestream:

• Wednesday, February 18
• 2pm Pacific Time
• http://twitch.tv/DayBreakGames

EverQuest II Livestream:

• Wednesday, February 18
• 3pm Pacific Time
• http://www.twitch.tv/everquest2

UPDATE, Feb 12th: Thanks to everyone who has reached out to us regarding this news. I doubt we'll get an exhaustive list, but it's obvious that the community team, producers and developers were all hit pretty hard. You can contact us at news@zam.com or directly to @Cyliena on Twitter if you have more information.

One year ago I took the above picture of a smiling Linda "Brasse" Carlson, the Director of Community Relations, in her expertly handmade dwarven regalia, on the Sony Online Entertainment campus.

About an hour ago the first confirmed layoff from the transition to Daybreak Games hit, with Linda posting on Facebook that "I have been released from the best and most challenging job I have ever had. I thank you all for being part of that incredible experience. Too many people to thank personally, but know that I am extraordinarily grateful and very curious where life takes me now."

Linda isn't the only one affected. EverQuest franchise Director of Development Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson has confirmed now on Twitter that he was laid off. EverQuest II artist Aaron "Gnobrin" Bisnett has also confirmed that he is gone, and we've been told that Systems Designer Akil "Lyndro" Hooper (confirmed now) from EQ/EQ2 has been let go as well.

Also confirmed are Adam "Ngreth" Bell (EQ dev) (x), Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence (Community) (x), Racheal "Afista" McKenny (EQ2 Community) (x), Endymion (EQ2 dev) (x), Eric "Felgon" Smith (Landmark/EQNext producer) (x), Noah Watkins (H1Z1 artist) (x), Steve "Moorgard" Danuser (EQNext Lead Content/Story Designer) (x), Kelduum Revaan (H1Z1 Technical Designer) (x), Aimee "Ashlanne" Rekoske (Community) (x), David Carey (PS2 producer) (x), Jeffrey Bard (EQ2 dev) (x) and Michael "Xelgad" Ganz (EQ2 dev) (x). There are likely many more, but these are the only ones we publicly know of at this time; a list on Reddit has a few more names not mentioned here.

On Thursday, February 12th, both H1Z1 developer Ryan Elam (x) and PlanetSide 2 Creative Director Matt Higby announced their voluntary resignations.

Colette "Dexella" Murphey posted the company's official statement; here are the key points:

Last week we announced that we were acquired and are now operating independently as Daybreak Game Company.

Unfortunately, this realignment means adjusting staffing as well. We announced today that we will eliminate positions in our San Diego and Austin studios.

These reductions will not affect the operation of our current games and as mentioned above, will help better position our company for future success.

Daybreak's full statement is found after the jump. Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence has discussed turning over a new leaf on her blog, while former PlanetSide 2 producer David Carey posted an insightful public note to the community regarding the layoffs over on Reddit.

We wish the best to everyone involved.

News rolled in over the weekend that Nathan Richardsson was taking up the reigns of Senior Producer at Behaviour Interactive for Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade. Interested in all-things-Warhammer and a self-professed lover of spandex as well as technoviking, Nathan brings with him over a decade of experience in the industry.

Earlier this week we chatted with Nathan about his knowledge, interests and how things are looking over in Eternal Crusade.

Nine New Trailers

That week just flew by! Today we've collected nine videos from a variety of games including Final Fantasy Type-0 HD/FFXV, Archlord 2, 0rbitalis, RIFT, the just-announced Victor Vran, Gigantic, Guild Wars 2, Cities XXL and H1Z1.

Erollisi Day Returns on February 5th!

In celebration of the Goddess of Love and the Hunt, the Sisterhood of Erollisi, along with Aaronolis Swornlove, will be seeking assistance in New Halas throughout Erollisi Day. Dalron Pinot and his cheesy love lines makes a return while Diana Heartstrings and David Torchsong are hopeful that some adventurers will help them play matchmaker. The Hearts a'Flutter contests in Antonica and the Commonlands also return, with a new grand prize to win.

Three new quests can be found this year in Great Divide, Lavastorm and the Thundering Steppes. Creatures around Norrath will be dropping hard candies and love notes again, which can be used in crafting, consolidated into a single type, or exchanged for event currency. Spend your Erollisi Coins at Steven and Douglas, who are found in the East Freeport or Qeynos Harbor. Douglas offers eight new merchant goodies this year, including love-themed flight wings. Steven's newest recipe scroll has 14 additional holiday themed items to craft.

Get in the mood of Erollisi Day this year with ZAM's YouTube playlists, featuring the songs that are the namesake of many of the Erollisi Day quests! Both the full and lite lists have been updated to include the three newest quests.

Erollisi Day will begin at 12:01am PST on February 5th and end at 11:59pm PST on February 18th. Don't forget to keep your alts in order with our Erollisi Day Quest Tracker, and continue after the jump to check out the first edition of the new fan-run Norrathian Chronicles video series, featuring all things Erollisi!

Hello and welcome to the 33rd edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week’s column, we’re going to try our hands at designing another job for FFXIV. Heavensward, the first expansion for FFXIV, has promised us three new jobs without base classes so far, but there are so many additional options we can bring to Eorzea, both for standalone jobs and for those with base classes. 

UPDATE: Linda "Brasse" Carlson confirmed there will be no convention this year. "For those asking about SOE Live: we are taking a hiatus from our annual Live event to shift our focus to our exciting transition and the future of Daybreak Game Company."

This morning, Sony Online Entertainment announced that it was acquired by a company called Columbus Nova and will be rebranded as "Daybreak Game Company." SOE will operate as an independant studio and will even branch out into the Xbox platform.

At PAX South this weekend, ArenaNet took control of the Main Theater to announce their first expansion for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns (HoT). We got a chance to sit down with GW2 Game Director Colin Johanson as well as President and Co-Founder of ArenaNet Mike O’Brien to get more details about HoT. If you missed the announcement, you can find an overview of all the features the two revealed during the announcement here on ZAM.

Many people guessed that Heart of Thorns was going to be the first expansion for Guild Wars 2, but that didn’t steal the thunder from ArenaNet as Mike O’Brien took to the stage and showed off the announcement trailer for the game’s first expansion pack.

Hello and welcome to the 32nd edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week’s column, we’re going back to one of the main additions coming with the Heavensward expansion, flying mounts. In particular, we’ll be talking about the Free Company airships. As skeptical as I may have been about adding flying mounts to more MMOs, there certainly are some great things that could be done with them.