![everquest 2 all in one pack everquest 2 all in one pack](https://mmos.com/wp-content/gallery/everquest-2-1/EverQuest-2-Main-Mount.jpg)
Both EQ and EQ2 have dropped a lot of them: EQ at 28 and EQ2 at 18 as of this writing, plus Adventure Packs that remind me of Diablo 3‘s Rise of the Necromancer pack. I think the durability of EverQuest owes a lot to its relatively fast development time on expansions. More expansions are probably key to keeping player interest Both of those MMOs are profitable, and while in the past profitable MMOs have been canceled abruptly - I’m looking at you, NCSoft, and the way you killed Carbine and Paragon, depriving us of more WildStar and City of Heroes - it’s clear that the longevity of EverQuest means that an MMO can hang on for a long time with a loyal core of players. I bring this up because there’s a lot of debate about which MMO is bigger right now, WoW or Final Fantasy 14, and I’m here to say it really doesn’t matter.
![everquest 2 all in one pack everquest 2 all in one pack](https://mmos.com/wp-content/gallery/everquest-2-1/EverQuest-2-Bard.jpg)
Daybreak Games has three long-running MMOs under its wings, four if you count EQ2 as a separate MMO (which you should) - besides the two EQ games, they also have DC Universe Online under Dimensional Ink Games and Planetside 2 under Rogue Planet. One of them is that MMOs don’t have to be the biggest of their genre to be profitable.
![everquest 2 all in one pack everquest 2 all in one pack](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/QUsAAOSwmrlUymWh/s-l300.jpg)
There are several lessons we can learn from all of this. With these elder MMOs continuing to thrive with new content and expansions… just what is the lifespan of an MMO?ĮverQuest proves that staying power isn’t linked to market dominance Heck, even EverQuest 2 is still out there trucking along, and releasing its 18th expansion in December. To put that into perspective, World of Warcraft has had eight expansions in 17 years, which isn’t even an expansion every two years. In that time, it’s managed a scorching pace on expansions - 28 expansions in 21 years is 1.3 expansions a year. It’s survived the death of one of its visionaries, the aforementioned corporate restructuring, and other MMO’s coming along and eclipsing it in the public eye, and it’s kept on putting out content year after year, expansion after expansion, for 21 years and counting. It’s changed hands from Sony to Daybreak Games, which then restructured and put Darkpaw Games in charge of the MMO. EverQuest, the MMO that launched in 1999 and was for several years the biggest MMO in the world, is still kicking. Terror of Luclin, the 28th expansion for EverQuest, is coming out in December.