Daybreak Game Company unveiled its new logo and website last week, giving a fresh face as it looks toward the future. We chatted with Daybreak President John Smedley and the Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing Laura Naviaux yesterday evening about the origins of the company's new name and logo, Columbus Nova, the future of its fan convention, and more.
Daybreak Games will perform a general maintenance beginning at 7:00AM PDT on Monday, April 27th. The current estimated downtime for this maintenance is three to five hours, depending on the service.
This maintenance may impact the following Daybreak services across all games:
Here's our handy Time Zone Conversion Tool to help you plan.
In the conclusion to this week's Film Friday, we have videos from Axiom Verge, Echo of Soul, H1Z1, Nosgoth, The Weaponographist, Tower of Guns, Trials Fusion, Trove and Victor Vran.
Beginning at 10:00AM PDT on Friday, March 27th, if you redeem a $20 Station Cash Game Card, you will receive 500 Bonus Station Cash! All $20 Station Cash cards feature artwork from Landmark like this one.
These Landmark game cards are available in select locations of the following U.S. retail stores: GameStop, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Toys R Us.
But hurry! The 500 Bonus SC is only available if you redeem the $20 Station Cash Game Cards between 10:00AM PDT on Friday, March 27th, and 11:59PM PDT on Sunday, March 29th.
The Fine Print: Bonus Station Cash will ONLY be awarded on the redemption of a $20 Landmark card. Other Station Cash cards are not eligible for this promotion.
Grab some popcorn and settle in, today we have eighteen new trailers for you! The first nine videos include Final Fantasy XV, H1Z1, Trine 3, Heroes & Generals, Rocket League, Shiftlings, The Sims 4 Get to Work and GTA Online Heists.
Daybreak Games has announced a general maintenence affecting all their games:
Attention players: we will perform a general maintenance beginning at 7:00AM Pacific on Tuesday, February 24th. The current estimated downtime for this maintenance is up to three hours.
This maintenance may impact the following Daybreak services across all games:
- Commerce functions, including purchases, for all games
- Game logins
- Web and forum logins for all Daybreak sites, including account creation
Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance.
Here's our handy Time Zone Conversation Tool to help you plan.
Here's a great collection of videos to heat up this cold winter day! Action and fun is coming your way with The Book of Unwritten Tales 2, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball, Worlds Adrift, The Charnel House Trilogy, The Sims 4, Deadman's Cross, a couple of livestream recordings by the H1Z1 and Skyforge teams, and some eSports trailers from Call of Duty and Halo.
Lindsay "geektr0n" Ferguson hosts ZAM's latest installment of Friday Update Arcade! Topics discussed include the Lost Vikings being introduced to Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends Nemesis mode, the World of Warcraft Mythic Blackrock Foundry guide, recent layoffs at Daybreak Games and Atari's reveal of the survival game, Asteroids: Outpost.
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.
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.
