MMORPG News: Ascent: Infinite Realm BETA, Traha, Astellia, Mad World, Anarchy, Albion, BDO & More

Let’s start this off with some sadder news.
2 weeks ago Wiggy did a video on Kritika where she tested how the game was playing in 2019. She saw that the game’s population was non-existant – but the combat and gameplay were both still a lotta fun.
Which is why it’s sad that En Masse officially revealed that they will be shutting the game down on April 30th.
En Masse have went on to disable new player registrations for the game, allowing current players to continue playing until the inevitable shut down happens.
While I may not have played much of the game personally, it’s always a sad day when an MMO shuts down, not to mention when people lose their jobs over it. With all these companies letting people go recently.. well, it’s foreboding.

Let’s shift to some good news now, yeah? The upcoming MMORPG Mad World is holding what is being referred to as a “Real, traditional alpha test” – Yup, there will be no founder packs or anything of that nature to guarantee you get into future Alpha tests.
Jandisoft, the team behind the game went on to state that “This test is not indicative of the final product. There will be glitches, errors and significant development changes. Your progress will be wiped.”
The Alpha will also be under an NDA, meaning you won’t be able to record or stream footage of the game.
For players wanting to sign up to the new Mad World MMO, you can go right ahead and visit our website MMOByte.tv using the link in the description and click on the form to be redirected to their Alpha registration.

For fans of Star Trek Online, or console fans more specifcally, you’ll be happy to learn that the Mirror of Discovery update that launched onto PC in Jaunary of this year has arrived on consoles!
This is more of a quick heads up in case you weren’t aware – so get to exploring the two new feature episodes included in the update!

Following suit with NCSoft, Blizzard and En Masse laying off employees, Portalarium, the team behind Shroud of the Avatar have announced the closure of their official office.
The announcement was made in a livestream over the weekend, where the company told players that in an attempt to save money, they were going to relocate.. to a home office.
As in, each and every staff member working on Shroud of the Avatar will now work on the game.. directly from their home.
I’m aware that rent in Austin is expensive, but let’s be real here.. if a game studio can’t afford a building to work out of, how much can we really expect out of it? I’m not hating on the move, I just think it’s a first step in a downward spiral for the company.

In one of the most bizarre crossovers I’ve ever seen, TERA has introduced PubG themed cosmetics and monsters in-game.
Beginning March 5th and lasting until April 5th, TERA players on every platform can travel to Northern Arun and scour the region for air-drops that contain rewards exclusive to the event and do battle with PubG-themed monsters.
Additionally, if you hadn’t had the opportunity to try out the TERA Classic servers, then Gameforge announced TERA Classic – a brand new event that will allow players to play through the game as it was back in 2013.
The event began on February 12th and is expected to last approximately 6 to 8 weeks.
So, if you never had the opportunity to experience the game in its original iteration, or mostly original iteration as there are small variations from the original game, then you’ll wanna jump in and try it now!
But then again.. Gameforge. So approach at your own risk.

I did a video on Riders of Icarus in August 2018 that went on to get almost 100,000 views.. so clearly interest is there, however, nobody seems to want to invest time into the game.
Which is why I, and many other players have been under the impression that the game is dead.. although, even if that is the case (and let’s be real here.. when playing I saw like 4 other players from level 1 to 30, even in the cities,) Nexon are patching in a completely new dungeon and content related to it.
Riders of Icarus’s new Hadakhan’s Underground Labyrinth adds completely new loot along with a new questline leading you into the dungeon. Accompanying the patch are double XP buffs – so if you ever wanted to try the game out… now’s your chance.

Yup.. in his spare time, Thor plays Traha. It is confirmed, the God of Hammers – I mean, the God of Thunder is a fan of mobile MMORPGs.
Nexon loves naming their games weird shit. “Traha”, “Project BBQ”.. regardless, I would like players to take note, Nexon is actually boasting record pre-registration numbers for their upcoming Traha mobile MMORPG – numbers they’ve never seen before.
An entire million players interested in the game after the registration being available for a mere 48 hours.
While Nexon have yet to announce the official global release date for Traha, and I’ll admit, the game looks absolutely stunning for a mobile MMORPG, the Korean release is scheduled to launch on the 18th of April.
Traha is being developed in Unreal Engine 4 and is being called a “Proper MMORPG” with “high-end graphics in mind”. There was quite a bit of information released by Nexon, all of which I plan on letting you Google for because.. well, I mean.. there’s a lot.
If you’re subscribed to our MMOByte Mobile Youtube channel then you can stay updated with Traha news and we’ll even have an official Traha video up as soon as it launches!

A few days ago I did a video on Black Desert Online’s new Shadow Arena. I had a lot of fun but found it very difficult. Now, with the addition of their anniversary, the team behind BDO are introducing new “trial characters”.
You will be limited to three Trial Characters per account, and can choose to play as any of the 17 classes available in-game.
Unfortunately, the character will only be available to trial in PvP combat, such as the Battle Arena, Red Battlefield, Arena of Arsha and the Savage Rift, but that’ll give you more than enough time to figure out if you enjoy its playstyle.
For my wife MrsStix and I, leveling is part of the journey, and it helps you learn your class slowly and gradually over time – something I honestly prefer.
Additionally, Black Desert actually launched onto the Xbox One a couple days ago, and was met with.. more sales and players than I or anyone thought it would. The game is only $10, but packs go all the way up to $100 if you’re interested in forking out more.

Last month it was announced that Dungeons and Dragons Online would be getting its fourth expansion: Masterminds of Sharn.
While the expansion in question doesn’t have an ETA yet on when it’ll release to the public, they did tease that accompanying Update 44 could potentially be a new secret class.
Many fans of the game are expecting it is the Psionicist, but ultimately nobody knows. What do you think it’ll end up being, and are you excited?

I actually did a video on Dungeon Fighter Online a few months ago where I elaborated on why I enjoyed it so much. So, knowing that the game is getting a new major update – titled Harlem: Shadows of Kashipa got me excited.
Players will head to Harlem where they get to partake of several new dungeons and an increased level cap from 90 to 95.
There’s a lot of changes and tweaks coming to the game as well, so if you’re on a break, have never tried the game out or.. well, whatever your reasoning is for not playing right now, then you should try it out!

For fans excited to re-play the game another time as the new Zandalari Trolls and Kul Tiran Human allied races, you’re in luck! Come March 12th, the new allied races will become available to begin unlocking! So.. I guess if you’re interested in that, get to it!

I bet this is a title you never expected to see in a news video, hmm? Funcom surprised many a fan when they announced that they would be introducing a new “fresh start server” for the game.
The reason for the surprise? Development has been dormant for years, and that was to be expected. The game hasn’t found much in the way of a playerbase as it aged – I mean the game released back in 2001!
The new server will be a subscription-only progression server, where players will play through each expansion, working their way from scratch up to what we have now.
Some players have expressed warranted concern over the pay to win nature of the game, the cash shop and a few bugs that could jeopardize the game overall but Funcom have promised additional information further in the year.

In Albion Online news, Sandbox Interactive, the team behind the game have announced a new content patch titled “Oberon”. The update both adds and changes a significant amount of the game, brings in new monsters, drops, chests, changes to dungeons and more.
I covered this mostly in the last video I did about Albion Online, so I won’t go into further detail but if you’re interested, you can read up on what changes are coming on their website.

Last we spoke of Astellia Online, we mentioned that the game would likely be buy to play over here in the West, however it had yet to be confirmed.
Since then, the team behind Astellia have announced that it will launch over here as a buy to play MMORPG that will not, under any circumstance be pay to win, and unlike its Korean counterpart, will work on un-gender-locking classes for its release over here.
While Bless made similar promises such as releasing its classes after the launch and dodging pay to win, well.. we know how that turned out.
Here’s hoping that when the game launches officially this Summer, they don’t fall victim to what has become known as the “import smash-and-grab.”

Yes I left this until the end.. not because I hate you all, but purely because.. well, honestly, because I legit wrote this up last and didn’t wanna change where in the video this would end up being.
So, Playpark, the South East Asian publisher for Ascent: Infinite Realm will actually be holding their closed beta for the game on April 25th.
While the game will be completely in Thai, interested players can pre-download the client on April 10th in preparation for its April 25th beta.
As we’re well aware, A:IR will be 100% free to play, and as such there will be a cash-shop introduced for players to waste money in. How pay to win that cash shop will end up being is unknown, but Playpark’s version will actually incude a cash shop.
This might end up providing us a small glimpse into what we can expect when it launches globally. Confirmation on a Western release still eludes us, but a closed beta is hopefully still going to take place this year.