Overview
Landmark was a free-to-play online sandbox creation game by Sony Online Entertainment, tied to (but distinct from) the studio's then upcoming MMORPG EverQuest Next. It allowed players to claim a plot of land and create a variety of structures, items, and other objects. Players could discover recipes for crafting a large selection of items, as well as create their own architecture with in-game editing tools.
The original plan was that players would eventually be able to sell their creations in SOE's Player Studio for real-world money. If one player buys another player's item, then modified it and sold it again, the original player would earn royalties for having created the original item. The concepts of Landmark were similar to Minecraft in many ways, although the level of detail allowed by its creation tools was much higher.
The game was divided into worlds, in most of which players were free to create whatever the game's tools allow, but there were some themed worlds that restrict users to theme-appropriate creations. Most notably, there was planned to be Norrath-themed worlds, which would only allow players to create things that would fit thematically into the world of EverQuest Next. Some of these creations could have been picked by SOE developers to appear in EQ Next. SOE promised there would be many player-built items in EverQuest Next at launch.
Development
After a couple months of a closed alpha phase in early 2014, SOE launched the closed beta on March 24, 2014. With the launch of the beta, the name of the game was officially changed from "EverQuest Next Landmark" to simply "Landmark." Dave Georgeson explained that the name change was due to the fact that the name "EverQuest" evokes a fantasy setting, but Landmark aims to encompass other types of settings as well.
Development on EverQuest Next ended on March 10, 2016, thus eliminating many of the promises that were made about how Landmark would function.
Discontinued
Daybreak Game Company disconnected the game servers and forums on February 21, 2017.
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