MMORPG News: Dragon Nest 2, ArcheAge: Unchained, Project V4, Seed, Killsquad

What better way is there to end the final week of August 2019 then with a Byte of Weekly MMORPG News video?
Since this is the final week of August, I would, one last time, like to thank all of you for being a part of this journey.
August marks the 3-year anniversary of my channel and I – along with the channel – wouldn’t be here without all of you.
We’ve built up quite the community – and I hope, together, we continue to grow larger, and closer.
So with that in mind, go grab a drink and raise a glass for this weeks Weekly Byte of MMORPG News and all the updates we have to look forward to!

So, for those of you unaware, Legends of Aria launched earlier this month to.. mixed reviews. While there were no doubt some issues surrounding the launch, I feel like it went off without too much trouble.
They rolled out some hotfixes pretty fast and made some quality of life changes and overall, since launching onto Steam, saw an increase of over 3x in terms of activity from both new and old players alike.
That’s pretty damn good! I’ll have a video up on Legends of Aria soon discussing my thoughts and showing the game off for anyone that has yet to try it out but all in all I’m impressed with the population numbers.

It’s been a little while since we had any news on Ashes of Creation, so you’ll be happy to know that Intrepid, the team behind the game have announced.. yes, drum roll please.. that Apocalypse, the Battle Royale mode, will be launching onto Steam.
Or, they’re launching Apocalypse’s next testing phase onto Steam, anyway. All registered users will be able to play Apocalypse and unfortunately, the old launcher will no longer function.
The Battle Royale will have no region-locking and will be completely free-to-play for everyone, however there will be a cosmetic cash shop.
I’m sure you’ve all been highly anticipating the Apocalypse Battle Royale launch, right? I’m glad they’ve made so much progress on it! We don’t need updates on the MMORPG. The Battle Royale’s where the money’s at!

If you haven’t heard of Killsquad yet.. then you must be living under a rock because this game has been topping Steam’s global top seller list for a while now.. and from what I can tell, it looks to be worth it.
Killsquad is a brand new online action role playing game – like Path of Exile or Diablo. However, unlike those games that follow a story, Killsquad looks to be more of a session-based online action shooter.
Which is a lotta fun, granted, but listing this is an OARPG is a little disingenuous.
Over 100,000 players are playing the game and new updates are planned – so if this is something you’re interested in trying, or you’re looking for a new co-op action game, then this might be right up your alley!

So this one’s a little confusing. See, currently, there exists Dragon Nest for PC. Then, we have World of Dragon Nest for mobile devices.
I’ve played World of Dragon Nest and honestly although kinda similar – it’s still a pretty different game. But, Dragon Nest 2 was just announced at ChinaJoy and it’s.. also quite different.
Dragon Nest 2 is taking the traditional MMORPG route: You play in a large open world – as opposed to Dragon Nest that has you run instances repeatedly.
Unfortunately, the game is for mobile devices – but from what we’ve gathered, it includes a large, open world, open-world PvP, 7 classes, a large selection of PvP modes and 30-player dungeons.
Since the game is Chinese, and being built for a Chinese market.. it could be a long while, if ever, before we see the game. And there’s no telling how invasive the cash shop will be or how tiresome the grind will become.

I did a small segment on Blade & Soul’s Unreal Engine 4 update back in July but after releasing my latest Blade & Soul video I was bombarded by requests to re-address it.
While I have a video completely dedicated to that update in specific planned in the next week, I just wanted to let you all know that there is a teaser for it and.. it looks pretty damn good.
A lot like Black Desert, but pretty damn good.

This is honestly the very first time I’ve heard of this game, but “Seed” is another SpatialOS powered MMO that has interestingly raised almost $40 million dollars in total funding.
Their most recent round of funding earning them over $22 million – which was largely in part thanks to LEGO. Yup – this just got even weirder.
Seed is a space colony simulator that is attempting to “push the boundaries of what MMOs can be.”
I don’t really have much more in the way of information, but nevertheless, I’m curious to see where this goes, especially considering the state SpatialOS games are in these days.
Well, that and the immense amount of funding from LEGO.

I just started a full play-through of Guild Wars 2 and shortly after I did, ArenaNet announced that they would be running a special 2x mastery experience event beginning September 3rd.
This is to assist in allowing players to catch up to current content. Why they’re trying to assist with the grind is uncertain, but it may have something to do with their “big announcement” coming on August 30th.
Are we getting news on a new expansion? Maybe, let’s wait and find out!

When games like Astellia Online and Ascent: Infinite Realm – both PC MMORPGs are being built using Unreal Engine 3.. and mobile MMORPGs are being built using Unreal Engine 4.. I have to question.. why?
Project V4 is the latest Unreal Engine 4 built mobile MMO – announced by Nexon and developed by Nat Games.
Not much in the way of information has been revealed yet, but for those interested, it’s supposed to be a photo-realstic MMO that is pretty “high-spec,” requiring a pretty updated phone to play on.

Yes, it’s true. The once popular MapleStory MMO is merging servers, leaving North America with a grand total of.. 5 after the dust settles.
Players will have additional character slots and guild leaders will likely run into a few issues but otherwise, it should be a pretty smooth ride.
Server merges will begin on August 27th – with the game being playable by August 28th.

If you’ve ever wanted to play through a Minecraft powered MMORPG.. then Hegemony may be exactly what you’re looking for. The game is being developed by an indie dev team whose lead dev works for the company behind Path of Exile.
It is supposedly a full-fledged MMO – of course completely powered by the Minecraft game, and has over 1,500 hours worth of content to partake of.
Honestly, from the trailer alone, it’s a damn good looking game – if you’re fine with it looking like Minecraft of course.

And now, for the news I’m sure a lotta you guys have been looking forward to.. ArcheAge: Unchained.
Yes, it’s true. Gamigo are actually launching a brand new standalone version of the game that is going to run alongside ArcheAge, concurrently.
They plan on keeping both versions of the game completely up-to-date with one another, but run them separately, with the base ArcheAge being free-to-play, and Unchained being buy-to-play.
Which I’m sure is confusing to a lotta you – and I don’t blame you guys.
Their goal, according to them, is to listen to the feedback of the community and provide everyone with a pay-to-win free version of the game we can all enjoy. It just has an actual price tag.
What I believe is happening in reality, is that they are attempting to milk more money out of us like the classic Rift servers. But that’s just speculation on my part.
We all know Gamigo are amazing publishers.