Regardless of what happens with EQ Next, the question is now what about licensing Everquest products? I can easily see licensing private servers like this as a revenue stream. The licenses could allow for altering content or anything using the code or even modifying that. Admins of these licensed servers could then charge for their services if they wanted to.
Now before you go off on that, take it to the EQOA community. They've wanted the ability to do that for a long time. Now move to Vanguard. It could be done there too. Same for EQ2. Sorry for the Stars Wars folks, but that cannot happen due to issues with Disney.
I doubt this would be a serious revenue stream, but it would be money going against losses. Let's look at why Columbus bought SOE. They had to have a reason to pour money into the purchase. What do they expect in return? Are they banking on EQN or the zombie game? What if they fail? Do they then sell off the pieces? This is going to have an effect on the emulator community at some point down the road. It could be very, very positive.
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Borox, Cleric of Supremacy
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