If I understand things right, the big thing is DDO has a license in perpetuity. Like, that's how DDO has survived for so long because WOTC agreed to license the IP out for DDO over 20 years ago with certain pieces of the IP. It's why we can still get expansions in Eberron/FR, but historically licenses that SSG didn't have as part of those early deals are just completely inaccessible, like Dark Sun.
It also explains why they consider themselves not to have an active MMO, because they likely don't get paid a profit share for DDO at all, just a annual (or even one-time, not sure) license fee. If WOTC could easily shut down DDO they would have done it probably ten years ago when they were really pushing products like Neverwinter as the 'next generation' D&D MMO. It's also why SSG is in a very unique position within gaming; Most parent companies would really prefer to shut games down long before they reach the stage DDO has gotten to with something like 10-15,000 players spending money to keep the lights on.
I think it's been a kind of quiet secret for years that SSG/Daybreak's relationship with Wotc has had pretty severe ups and downs. Daybreak is almost a unicorn in the sense that they're basically the only company in the industry today that supports active feature dev on titles this small. I'm extremely glad they do, but it doesn't change that it's almost unheard of. But if SSG didn't have an iron-clad licensing agreement there is no way in hell they'd have survived multiple management shifts and philosophy changes at wotc. The people who actually liked DDO either left or retired many management teams ago.
I also would say that I think SSG may genuinely be one of my favorite companies in the world because like, who else keeps these games going this long? Remember: City of Heroes had like 10x DDO's population when NCSoft killed it because they didn't want it to compete with Guild Wars 2. Marvel Heroes (The ARPG/MMO) had like 50,000 people regularly paying when the parent company got rid of it.
Cherish DDO for what it is, because in a games industry full of vultures picking apart the corpses of every once-popular IP, DDO is a ******* unicorn.
It also explains why they consider themselves not to have an active MMO, because they likely don't get paid a profit share for DDO at all, just a annual (or even one-time, not sure) license fee. If WOTC could easily shut down DDO they would have done it probably ten years ago when they were really pushing products like Neverwinter as the 'next generation' D&D MMO. It's also why SSG is in a very unique position within gaming; Most parent companies would really prefer to shut games down long before they reach the stage DDO has gotten to with something like 10-15,000 players spending money to keep the lights on.
I think it's been a kind of quiet secret for years that SSG/Daybreak's relationship with Wotc has had pretty severe ups and downs. Daybreak is almost a unicorn in the sense that they're basically the only company in the industry today that supports active feature dev on titles this small. I'm extremely glad they do, but it doesn't change that it's almost unheard of. But if SSG didn't have an iron-clad licensing agreement there is no way in hell they'd have survived multiple management shifts and philosophy changes at wotc. The people who actually liked DDO either left or retired many management teams ago.
I also would say that I think SSG may genuinely be one of my favorite companies in the world because like, who else keeps these games going this long? Remember: City of Heroes had like 10x DDO's population when NCSoft killed it because they didn't want it to compete with Guild Wars 2. Marvel Heroes (The ARPG/MMO) had like 50,000 people regularly paying when the parent company got rid of it.
Cherish DDO for what it is, because in a games industry full of vultures picking apart the corpses of every once-popular IP, DDO is a ******* unicorn.
