Tag: West

Blade & Soul Hits Western Shores This Winter


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Put down your torches and extinguish your pitchforks, because Blade & Soul is joining Fievel and going west. The long awaited MMO from NCSoft will go into closed beta this fall with a launch sometime during the winter. Players will be able to get their hands on six classes, four races, and a level cap of 45 at launch to go through the game’s first three acts (the Korean version is up to act 6).

Blade & Soul has been a bit of a mystery for the past few years, with NCSoft touting the game’s success and continued growth in its launch territories while refusing to give a hint on westward expansion. Today’s news should ease those pained hearts.

Gamers will be able to get their hands on Blade & Soul when it launches as a free to play game this winter.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

PSO2 Delayed, Not Cancelled


pso2_title

Is Phantasy Star Online 2 coming to the west? Some say yes, some say no, and I’m just referring to Sega on different days of the week. We learned from sources last October that Sega didn’t think that the game would be profitable enough to launch in North America and Europe. As it stands, however, Sega recently replied to a tweet for information with a note that they are still working on bringing the game westward.

PSO2 is still delayed. SEGA is currently working on bringing PSO2 to the West and will update as soon as we know more.

More news as it appears.

(Source: VG247)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Isn't Coming Westward


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The good news is that Phantasy Star Online 2 is fully localized in English and ready to go for a launch in the west. The bad news? It will likely never launch here. According to an undisclosed source in an article by Tristan Oliver over at TSSZ, Phantasy Star Online 2’s localization will only be rolling out to English speaking Asian countries. Sega hasn’t officially shot down any prospects of the title coming to the Americas and Europe, however the source speculates that there may be enough doubt that the game would be profitable in the west to prevent the game from ever making its way overseas.

Sega has been silent about a western launch since their appearance at the Penny Arcade Expo last year. Some gamers are already playing PSO2 on the Japanese servers with English patches, and you can too with this handy guide from Kotaku.

(Source: TSSZ)

Phantasy Star Online 2 Isn’t Coming Westward


pso2_title

The good news is that Phantasy Star Online 2 is fully localized in English and ready to go for a launch in the west. The bad news? It will likely never launch here. According to an undisclosed source in an article by Tristan Oliver over at TSSZ, Phantasy Star Online 2’s localization will only be rolling out to English speaking Asian countries. Sega hasn’t officially shot down any prospects of the title coming to the Americas and Europe, however the source speculates that there may be enough doubt that the game would be profitable in the west to prevent the game from ever making its way overseas.

Sega has been silent about a western launch since their appearance at the Penny Arcade Expo last year. Some gamers are already playing PSO2 on the Japanese servers with English patches, and you can too with this handy guide from Kotaku.

(Source: TSSZ)

Lineage 2 Heading Free To Play


NCsoft wants you to play Lineage II your way. Coming off the heels of City of Heroes taking the free to play route comes the announcement that NC is pairing up with Innova to bring free to play to Lineage II. The new model is being called “Play Your Way,” and is not being referred to as free to play, but rather a hybrid model, by NCsoft. So far the details are sparse, but user Pocket Medic of the Lineage II forums posted specifics from Innova’s other services:

Anyone can play for free. However, if you pay the monthly subscription, you get permanent 2x Exp, SP, Drops, Spoils.Item store includes items like Buff Milks, 30-day rent-a-Buffpet, 30 day rent-a-Mount, New Hair Accessories, etc.

More on this to come. Lineage II is one of NCsoft’s best performing games, and I think the dip this past quarter may have been the first indication that the west would go free to play or follow in Lineage’s footsteps and simply shut down.

Lineage Shutting Down In NA: Pick Up Your Package


[Update: 5/18] I’ve been seeing a lot of searches pointing to this page by players who want to know if their accounts will work on the Korean version when the North American servers shut down. Simple answer is no, your account will not work on the Korean version.]

Writing this article, I’m reminded of a few random comments placed on the last NCsoft article I wrote (about how NCsoft’s subscription games were performing better than their non-subscription games). Lineage entered the scene back in 1998, a year after Ultima Online, and with it brought the little game studio known as NCsoft to an eagerly awaiting pile of money, spawning a sequel as well as shuttling NCsoft into one of the major players nowadays in the MMO industry. Ironically, the designer of Lineage (Jake Song) had previously worked on NEXUS, for Nexon.

Lineage is still going strong in Korea, some unknown number under one million according to Wikipedia, but over here in the west the game just isn’t doing well. Not well enough to maintain profitability anyway. Today, NCsoft announced that the western service for Lineage will be shut off this June 29th. While there are no updates planned, the article does mention ruleset changes and in-game events planned.

Information on compensation is already available. Unused time will be refunded, and any player with an active subscription during 2011 will receive:

  • Lineage II activation code and two months game time, as well as some free items.
  • Aion activation code plus collector’s upgrade, and two months free game time, as well as free items.
  • Guild Wars activation code.
  • City of Heroes activation code and two booster packs.
It’s always sad to see a game go, especially knowing that it is still available (just not in your region). For what it’s worth, Lineage’s western counterpart lived a full life, and died a ripe old age of thirteen years (that’s 91 in MMO years)