GRAN SAGA Global Release Date?

So, seeing Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds launch yesterday, having just completed the Tower of Fantasy Closed Beta, and being wholeheartedly disappointed by Noah’s Heart‘s Closed Beta, left me wondering: What happened to GRAN SAGA? Did.. did everyone just forget about it?
If you recall, when this was announced – it was one of the best looking Anime MMOs on the immediate horizon! And – I get it. Launching an MMO is a very difficult thing to do.
And more often than not, games – MMOs specifically, end up buckling under the pressure with one of two outcomes: The developer either rushes their release, or they cancel their game all together.
GRAN SAGA proved neither option to be true, and instead, managed to launch in January 2021 – with over 5 million players pre-registered within South Korea alone. Within its first month, it went on to make over $100 million dollars in total revenue, becoming one of the largest, highest grossing cross-platform MMO releases anywhere in the world.
In November 2021, the game launched within Japan, totaling over 3 million pre-registered players, making it one of the fastest growing titles across Asia.
Yet here we are, in the middle of 2022.. with no Global release. What happened?

When NPIXEL initially revealed GRAN SAGA, they made the bold claim that they were looking to make the next great MMO. With no fully cross-play compatible MMOs available at the time, NPIXEL took the opportunity to reveal an absolutely stunning open-world AAA-budget Anime MMO with hundreds of millions of dollars funding.
Think Final Fantasy XIV levels of funding. And while the game was confirmed to be releasing within South Korea, many players were left wondering what their plans were for an international release.
Months passed, new trailers dropped, more information was revealed. And that was when NPIXEL decided to inform its community that they had expectations of releasing Globally – that an English version was something they were definitely interested in pursuing.
They didn’t have a release date for it. Heck, they didn’t have a date in mind for when they would even begin WORKING on it.

Fast forward to today, May 25th, 2022. A year and a half after releasing in Korea. 6 months after releasing in Japan. NPIXEL have yet to release any information pertaining to an English release for the game.
No confirmation that they’ve made any progress at all. No confirmation that they’ve even started localization on any version outside of the Japanese version of the game. And, I get it. I do. Japan is an ideal market to monopolize – they love their Anime-inspired games more than anyone.
And given the unique Anime aesthetic of GRAN SAGA, it makes logical sense that this would be their ideal first market. But 6 months. 6 months and no news on the next region. A year and a half and no news on the Global release.
With the success of Genshin Impact in the West, with the popularity Tower of Fantasy has accrued over the last year, you’d think NPIXEL would reveal something. Anything to remain relevant to us Western players, but alas.. that just isn’t the case.

They haven’t confirmed the Global version is canceled.. yet. And honestly, from a financial standpoint, it would make no sense to cancel it. There’s a massive market overseas for MMOs, Anime games, and games available cross-platform.
Yet I can’t help but assume the worst. Blue Protocol has gone over half a year without updates, but we know they’re still working on it given their last few updates.
GRAN SAGA, though? When approaching 2 years, it’s natural to lose hope.

GRAN SAGA is a Gacha MMO just like Tower of Fantasy.
You obtain “weapons,” that take on Human appearances, and recruit other characters to join your group. You can control up to 3 characters at any given time.
Combat utilizes some absolutely stunning aesthetics. The world is large and open. From a graphical standpoint, this game is by far one of the better looking cross-platform titles out there.
It’s fully voice-acted, receives regular updates, and… well, still kind of has an expected release date.. sometime in the future, I guess?
This could be one of the greatest Anime MMOs of the last several years.. if only they’d release it for us to play.