MMORPG News: Blue Protocol Closed Beta, PSO2 PC Launch, Aura Kingdom 2, SamuTale Early Access, Swords ‘n Magic and Stuff

Hey! Welcome to this week’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News! Hopefully you’re all staying safe, enjoying the time off and finding new and exciting ways of entertaining yourself.
We got plenty of news to talk about this week so let’s jump right in!

Let’s kick this off with the most important news: PSO2 has officially launched on the Xbox One, and with that launch came the announcement that we’ll be getting the PC version of the game next month.
Yeah, it’s really that close. They noted in their blog post “Windows 10 players will not have to wait much longer, the game officially launches on the platform in late May 2020!”
Whether that’s May 21st or May 31st is up for discussion, but we now have an approximate estimate on when we’ll be getting it, and that’s all we’ve really wanted all this time.
You’ll still have time to purchase a Founder’s Pack if you’re interested, as they still have packs currently available. They also revealed a plethora of events they have planned for the game over the next few months, with PC players being able to participate in most of them.

If you’re busy waiting on new content in Blade and Soul, then you’re in luck. NCSoft just pushed out the new Steel Uprising patch that features the new 12-player Steelbreaker raid, new events like the Awakened Raid, a selection of new gear, including legendary gear and some overhauls.
They have additional content planned as per their 2020 roadmap earlier this year so you shouldn’t be without content for too long!

Here’s a title I’d never heard of until now: SamuTale, an upcoming buy-to-play sandbox MMO currently in Early Access. The reason I’m talking about it currently is due to the fact that with their recent 0.2 patch they’ve overhauled quite a substantial amount of content.
The game features various different biomes, the ability to craft, build and PvP. Yes, it’s a survival MMO much like every other indie developed “sandbox MMO” these days but honestly, this doesn’t actually look half bad.
I went to their website and apparently Founder’s Packs are currently available if this sounds or looks like something you’d potentially be interested in.

I know we’re not all fans of Kickstarter backed games, and especially not Kickstarted MMOs, but Swords ‘n Magic and Stuff is a brand new upcoming “casual, cooperative open world RPG,” much like Genshin Impact.
They recently hit their goal on Kickstarter and fully funded their game and already have an expected Early Access release date set for September 2020.
The game will feature a dynamic, immersive world with exploration being the key focus of the game. Combat is a feature present but is in no way the focal point – housing, decorating and non-combat activities are what highlight the experience for players.
Honestly this looks pretty solid and I’ll be keeping an eye on it. While it does seem a little Minecraft-y, I’m sure it has enough to set itself apart.

I don’t talk about DC Universe Online that often because honestly, it doesn’t receive nearly as many updates as it potentially could but they’re still frequent enough where players keep coming back for more.
In response to the new Harley Quinn movie, Daybreak introduced a brand new update episode titled “Birds of Prey,” yup, just like the movie. The update went live on April 17th and features a.. slightly different roster of characters from the movie.
I’ve only ever played a little of DC Universe Online but not only did I enjoy the Birds of Prey, but I love the Birds of Prey comic books so if you’re interested in any of the above.. this is worth a look at.

I’m not sure how many of you remember Eternal Magic. I did a video on it last year sometime and honestly, with the exception of a few little controversies surrounding the assets used within the game the game itself wasn’t bad.
It wasn’t good by any means but it wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. If you’ve been waiting to try the game out for whatever reason, then it just rolled out onto Steam a couple days ago.
Logging in currently will net you a bunch of items, so this is as good as any time to check it out. Although if I recall, there really isn’t a whole lot to do in-game that would really warrant checking it out either way.

Very few Anime MMOs receive updates in this day and age. Aura Kingdom? Nope. Fiesta Online? Nuh-uh. FlyFF? I wish. So it’s always interesting to see that even though Twin Saga has no real population left, the game remains updated what seems like quarterly.
I think they just received a brand new class a few months ago – and now we’re receiving two brand new zones and an accompanying dungeon.
If you’re searching for an Anime MMO that is still being actively updated and isn’t a hub-based dungeon-crawler like Soul Worker or Closers, then this is probably one of your only options.

A few weeks ago Atlantica Online was announced to be rolling out onto Steam under the title “Atlantica Global” on May 14th, 2020.
Accompanying the Steam release will be a brand new server for players to begin their journey on and feature support for additional languages, allowing for a larger audience of players to enjoy.
There will be restrictions in place when beginning on the new server – specifically pertaining to cross-server functionality.
Finally, for players that log in there will be in-game events and packages being sold in celebration of the new server’s opening and launch onto a new platform.

EverQuest was released back in 1999 and still somehow maintains a regular update schedule.
Yet there has always been one issue that players ran into when wanting to fully try the game out, and that is that the most important servers – time-locked progression servers were locked behind a pay-wall.
Meaning that to play on them – and these servers are where everyone wants to play – you’re required to pay a subscription fee.
Daybreak, the team behind EverQuest announced a week or two back that they were actually opening up all progression servers, with the exception of the servers merging together to all players until May 8th.
So if you wanted to see what the real game is like.. now’s your chance. And for those of you that normally pay to play the game.. enjoy the queue times!

Earlier this week, in anticipation for the upcoming Greymoor launch of ESO, Zenimax announced that they were going to be unlocking subscription benefits for all active players until April 27th.
While you’ll only have until Monday to make use of these benefits, I’d recommend jumping in and claiming everything you possibly can. Especially considering this will unlock the latest DLC, Harrowstorm, which leads into the Heart of Skyrim DLC planned over the course of the year.

Nobody can deny the success that WoW Classic had over the first months of its launch, however, over time player population has dropped quite significantly.
Not nearly enough where it could be an issue, of course, but it’s still noticeable. One thing that contributes to that is the difference in difficulty.
Phase 4 went live in WoW Classic last week and with it the Zul’Gurub raid was introduced for players to partake of.. and not even 48 hours later, a guild had already managed to accomplish a world-first kill.
This kill will go down in history as the kill never happened back when this content was relevant. I won’t go into specifics, but this is an accomplishment to gloat about.

I’ve only ever played APB Reloaded once.. and the accompanying video I did for it didn’t go over very well. People apparently had an issue with me messing around and “having fun,” but that’s a story for another time!
If you’ve been keeping up with the game, then you’d be aware there were quite a few plans made to overhaul the game over the last.. year I think it was? Well here we are, with the 2.1 Beta build in all its glory.
The team behind the game had 15 streamers gather and duke it out in a PvP battleground, but this should give players a look at the progress that has been made and what to expect going into the future.

I know most of you guys aren’t fond of mobile games. But this one I kind of have to talk about because it’s a sequel to the Aura Kingdom Anime MMO. And my god does the game look gorgeous. Or, the character models do rather.
The game itself is a pretty generic Mobile MMO and I have a video covering the entirety of the game on my mobile channel MMOByte Mobile but I figured I’d let you all know that last week the game went live and is fully playable.

I’m sure you’re all aware by now but Blue Protocol went into Closed Beta testing on April 23rd. While it did suffer from some issues initially, the Beta in question has gone over quite well so far.
Lots of players got in and have been playing – however that isn’t the case for everyone. Bandai Namco announced at the last minute that all non-Japanese players would have their applications rejected, and that caused a lot of frustration for players.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t unexpected, and they were completely within their right to do as such.
The closed beta in question was actually extended through April 27th to deal with the Closed Beta issues, and your boy Stix is actually going to be in-game obtaining footage thanks to one of our epic viewers who gave me access to their account, Cross Lockhart.