MMORPG News: Black Desert RU Shut Down, MapleStory 2 Launch, New World MMO, Blade&Soul Mobile

Quite a bit of news has circulated its way around the internet this week and I plan on covering as much of it as I can in this video. So sit back, grab a slice of pizza from the fridge and let’s jump into this weeks’ Weekly Byte of MMORPG news.

Let’s start this off with some news that I’m sure Nexon is happy about: MapleStory 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of Nexon’s most successful games, Maplestory, finally launched a couple days ago as a free to play MMORPG both on Steam and through the Nexon Launcher.
The game had originally launched its Headstart for Founder’s on October 1st but this marked the first time free players could join in.
According to Steam, the first day of its launch MapleStory reached a concurrent player number of 22,000, followed by 30,000 on its second and a monstrous 33,000 on its third.
While not groundbreaking numbers alone, a large majority of players play Nexon’s games through their official launcher, so showing 30,000 players through Steam alone is quite impressive.
While no concrete number is given for the cumulative concurrent player number for both Nexon’s Launcher and Steam, we can expect it’s at at least 50,000, if not more.
This marks well over a hundred thousand players actively playing – maybe even a few hundred thousand, something Nexon is no doubt gleefully reveling in.

GameNet has been the local publisher for Black Desert Online in Russia until recently – Pearl Abyss chose not to renew their license with GameNet, however both companies vowed to work alongside one another to transfer over all player data.
GameNet closed down the servers this week as planned however left an ominous note stating that “all responsibility for the future” was on Pearl Abyss.
Pearl Abyss went on to state that they were “making every possible effort to solve the problems” they were experiencing.. without elaborating on what those “problems” actually were.
Shortly after, Pearl Abyss sent out an email to players stating that they had “failed to acquire their game data from GameNet”.
This means that negotiations to acquire player data fell through and all data would be lost to the void.
Pearl Abyss have since blamed GameNet for the loss of data, with GameNet rebutting that with claims that they were ready to transfer all player data, and Pearl Abyss themselves were at fault.
According to GameNet, Pearl Abyss wasn’t going through the correct legal route to manage personal information in Russia, resulting in the failed transfer of data.
Pearl Abyss have stated that they won’t have their Russian servers up immediately as they lost access to GameNet’s localization, requiring they localize the game fully from scratch.
There is no ETA on when the Russian version of the game will be back up, Pearl Abyss merely providing a vague “we’ll work on it” for all Russian players.
Quality work as always, Pearl Abyss.

In lieu of Bless’ upcoming free to play scam-I mean, launch, Neowiz released a “Road to Bless Online” press release on Steam.
They went on to state that the reason they’re going free to play is for the community, not themselves. They want to make sure the game can provide an amazing experience for all players, but also that it can reach as many audiences as possible.
Neowiz stated that the “player response to Bless coming to Steam was initially very positive”, further claiming that “there was a mismatch of expectations between the development team and players”.
“Despite this, the team saw Early Access as a success, collecting important data and feedback from players” – and doing absolutely nothing with that data and feedback. That last part wasn’t a quote, just a general statement.
Finally, Neowiz noted that they are aware of what players want, but what players will get remains to be seen. “The Bless team isn’t ready to talk about all of the details”, they said in a finishing statement.
So.. mark your calendars. Bless is almost here.. again.

Citadel Studios are proud to announce that their flagship title, the upcoming “living, breathing” classic sandbox MMORPG Legends of Aria is finally launching into Early Access through Steam on December 4th, 2018.
They went on to detail Founder’s Packs – which cost $29.99, $49.99 and $89.99 respectively.
All players that pre-order the game between now and December 3rd will have the opportunity to participate in a 7-day Head-Start while obtaining each Founder’s Pack bonus associated with the pack purchased, including the chance to lay claim to your very own plot of land and have the ability to build your home before any other player.
Legends of Aria is being touted as the “spiritual successor to classic MMORPGs”, having a “massive, player-run world in a modern and beautifully realized setting”.
Citadel Studios are promising a “return to a setting where giving the player choice and freedom is paramount” and having a game-world where “hand-holding and gear scores have no place”.

Netmarble held its media conference for Blade and Soul: Revolution on October 11th, and had quite a bit of information to divulge regarding the upcoming free to play MMORPG. Blade and Soul: Revolution, powered by Unreal Engine 4 is based on the popular IP from NCSoft, “Blade and Soul“, released on PCs with a console port in the works, was revealed to have finally been given an official launch date for South Korea: December 6, with pre-registration beginning yesterday.
Blade and Soul: Revolution, following in the footsteps of NCSoft’s other mobile adaptation, Lineage 2: Revolution, will follow the original game’s story, including the conflict with Jinsoyun and the search for Twilight’s Edge while aiming to stay as true to the original PC game as possible.
Key features from the PC iteration of Blade and Soul are making its way into Revolution, including the glide and sprint mechanics which are said to be a requirement to explore the 5 massive zones that comprise Blade and Soul: Revolution. Additional features include large-scale real-time 500 vs 500 clan battles that make use of watchtowers and cannons to provide strategic elements to the game, and over 150 high-quality cinematic cutscenes that are completely voice-acted.
There are 4 total races announced to be making their way into the game, the Jin, Gon, Yun and Lyn.
There are 4 classes associated with each of those races, having the Blade Master and Kung Fu Master (JIN), Destroyer (GON), Blade Master and Kung Fu Master (YUN), Machinist/Force Master (LYN).
The Machinist for the Lyn is actually supposedly a new class but is reminiscent of the Force Master as it makes use of elemental spells.
This is actually a downgrade in terms of what is available on PC, as the PC version has access to Assassin, Blade Master, Destroyer, Force Master, Kung Fu Master, Summoner, Blade Dancer, Warlock, Soul Fighter, Gunslinger, Warden.
Although these classes are all that is available right now, this does not mean NCSoft has no plans of introducing those classes as the game continues to receive updates.
While there has been no confirmed English release for Blade and Soul: Revolution as of yet, Lineage 2: Revolution had a rather fast Western release so we can expect Blade and Soul: Revolution to hit Western shores sometime in the near future!

ArcheAge 5.0, which is still somehow alive, has a new major content expansion on its way. Trion have announced that the 5.0 update, titled “Relics of Hiram” will be arriving on October 24th.
Relics of Hiram will add the Malediction skill set, meaning players will gain the ability to play with a total of 45 new class combinations.
Trion are merging servers together prior to Relics of Hiram’s arrival to attempt to combat the lack of a semblance of a playerbase.

EverQuest 2 is launching yet another expansion: Chaos Descending. The expansion is available right now for pre-order and will launch officially on November 13th.
Players that pre-order the expansion can begin playing the beta for it as soon as their payment clears.
There are three different versions of the expansion on sale – the Base game going for $34.99, the Collector’s Edition going for $89.99 and the Premium which goes for a whopping $139.99.
Chaos Descending brings with it expanded lore, a new mount equipment feature, and additional dungeons, zones, adventure quests, raids and more. While the game itself is free, expansions are required to be purchased to play.

After what seems like an eternity of waiting for news on Amazon’s upcoming full-loot open-ended sandbox PvP MMO New World, a video was released on October 11 showcasing some beautiful Alpha footage of an area we’ve already seen enough of – Windsward, a region “composed mostly of grasslands and forests that are packed with harvestable resources”.
We can clearly see abandoned crates, farms, windmills, cottages, wagons and more along the side of the road, with lit torches and railings.
However that is pretty much all we see.

Finally.. I’d like to take a quick moment to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!
Every MMO ranging from WoW to Final Fantasy XIV to Guild Wars 2 to Elder Scrolls Online are launching their very own Halloween events in-game, so make sure you log in to your favorite game to participate!