Developer Daybreak Game Company, previously known as Sony Online Entertainment and Verant Interactive, has now split off into three new development studios: Dimensional Ink Games, Rogue Planet Games and Darkpaw Games. Each of the three new studios individually focuses on specific franchises: DC Universe Online, Planetside, and EverQuest, respectively.

With this news comes a possible hint that a fresh game in the EverQuest franchise is currently in development by the newly formed Darkpaw Games, one of the three development studios that were created when Daybreak reorganized. On the Daybreak webpage, it’s mentioned that Darkpaw will lead “the next innovation” for the franchise. In an interview with DualShockers, Darkpaw’s Holly Longdale also mentioned that her studio is “currently digging into where this franchise could go and not limiting our ideas. We have a history of being creative and innovative. We want the next 10 years and beyond to be just as magical.“

It's unclear whether these tidbits indicate that a new title is coming for sure, or whether it simply means that the team will continue to innovate within their existing titles. EverQuest 1 and 2 are still actively receiving new expansions and updates, so those comments could just as easily be in reference to those. Still, the prospect of a new EverQuest title is exciting for long-time fans, many of whom played EverQuest when it first released back in 1999.

If it is eventually announced, this would be the first new mainline EverQuest title since the long-awaited EverQuest Next, which was canceled in 2016 for a variety of reasons. Daybreak Game Company has been responsible for creating titles like Planetside and EverQuest for over 20 years now, and the studio clearly has no plans to stop working on these franchises anytime soon.