Landmark Servers Shutting Down

Daybreak Games announced today that the servers for its creative building game Landmark will be shut down on February 21, 2017, along with the accompanying forums and social media channels. The shutdown will occur at 4:00pm PST (7:00pm EST). The announcement was made on Landmark‘s official site and included a personal thank you to the players.

Since Landmark first entered Alpha, we have been impressed by the creative talents in this community. You pushed the boundaries of what Landmark could do, and we are grateful for the time and energy you shared through your creations in this game.

In addition to the announcement of the imminent closure of Landmark, Daybreak also stated that the Player Studio — a real-money marketplace where Landmark players could buy and sell player-made items in the game — would also be closing. The ability to list items for purchase was removed at the time of the announcement, and all items still listed for sale would be reduced in cost to 1 Daybreak Credit (DBC). The game itself is also no longer available for purchase.

Since it was first announced, Landmark has had a rough time gaining momentum. Originally slated to be an add-on to the now defunct Everquest Next, it was intended to allow players to have a hand in building the EQ Next world. While Landmark itself was intended as a stand-alone, it was initially stated that the best player-made worlds would be integrated into EQ Next.

Although development on EQ Next stopped and the game itself was officially cancelled in March of 2016, development on Landmark continued and the game was officially launched on June 10, 2016. The launch itself was rocky and plagued with bugs, including server outages, difficulty connecting and staying connected, and graphical errors that caused the game to be unplayable for many lower-end systems.

Despite the problems, many players still purchased the games and enjoyed building up Lumeria. The game received several updates during its short lifespan. However, players often cited a lack of content or community as an incentive to keep playing, and the population swiftly dropped off. While the concept had potential, Daybreak failed to capitalize on it, and the rocky road to launch likely chased off many players who might have otherwise been interested in playing.

When the servers shut down for the final time, Daybreak Studios will retain full control of the code and data from the Landmark Servers, and have stated that they “will not license or authorize the operation of a Landmark emulator or a fan-operated Landmark server,” a familiar sentiment to many City of Heroes fans. Whether or not anyone will try to buy the rights from Daybreak Studios remains to be seen.

Did you play Landmark? If so, how do you feel about them shutting the doors barely six months after launch? If not, what didn’t appeal about the game?