MMORPG News: PSO2 New Class, A:IR Announcement, Peria Chronicles, ArcheAge Unchained & More!

It’s a brand new month and honestly, more stuff has been announced in the last couple weeks than pretty much any other week since I’ve been doing these videos.
So, let’s not take up too much time with the intro, yeah?
We got a lot of news this week: Peria Chronicles, ArcheAge: Unchained, Zenith, Astellia, Caravan Stories, A:IR, PSO2, BDO Mobile and more.
So lean back, relax, and let’s jump into September 2019’s first Weekly Byte of MMORPG News.

I covered this last week but I figured it is worth including in an MMORPG News video as well purely due to the fact that so many people were highly anticipating the game and now.. well, now thanks to Nexon’s internal issues, it’s something that will never see the light of day.
Yes, Peria Chronicles, the Anime MMORPG we were all excited for is officially cancelled. But not only Peria Chronicles, several other currently unnamed games Nexon was developing along with various Nexon subsidiaries.
These include 2 North American companies as well – leaving hundreds of people without jobs.
So yes the cancellation of Peria Chronicles is definitely somber news, the worst news this month is that there are now hundreds of people unable to feed their families because Nexon couldn’t get their shit together.

I did a video on A Tale in the Desert earlier this week where I went on to discuss how unique of an MMO it was.
Surprisingly a lot of you hadn’t heard of it, let alone played it so I was right in assuming it was a good time to feature it.
Especially given that Tale 9, the most recent update for the game just went live last week, bringing with it a complete wipe of the entire game and all progress with it.
Leaving people to begin anew – something A Tale in the Desert does every 18 months to keep the game evolving, changing and never growing stagnant.
Honestly, it was one of the most unique experiences I’d had in a long while and recommend trying it out now while everything is highly active if you haven’t already.

Before I get into the ArcheAge Unchained news.. I want to inform you all that I’m holding a giveaway for the game.
If you don’t want to support the game in case it ends up failing again, being pay to win or.. worse, then make sure to participate to win a free copy of the game and test it out without wasting a cent!
Now, for everyone interested.. and I know there are quite a few of you that are, ArcheAge Unchained is officially launching on September 30th as a buy-to-play MMORPG.
Unchained is not a new game – it’s an alternate version of the current game without pay to win features. Or, at the very least that’s what we’ve been told.
While I’m not going to question the validity of what Gamigo are stating will or will not be in-game, I’m going to remain skeptical until proven true. Founder’s Packs went live last week in anticipation of this announcement.

So I did a video on Pagan Online months ago discussing what I thought the game was going to be like after playing it for a little bit.
The last 2 weeks though I got to delve a lot further into the game than I thought I would’ve been able to as I was given access to a more updated version of the game than what the public had access to.
I got to play new characters, test out new features and.. well I had fun.
I know the game may not be of interest to some people but since it just launched last week I felt it was crucial I let you all know it’s fully playable and fully accessible now.

I spoke about Zenith last month – how they managed to raise the $25,000 funding to fully fund their game in a mere 4 hours.. but as of earlier this week, the game has crossed well over $200,000 in total funds raised.
Which is ridiculous.
Various stretch goals have been met thus far with more looking to easily be met over the continued length of the campaign and for those of you that are concerned it’ll be for VR only, Zenith is planned to release onto desktops as well.

It’s no surprise that Atlas has received mostly negative reviews since becoming available last year. It, just like its predecessor, ARK, is a buggy mess.
And the team behind the game – again, like with ARK, thought it was a good idea to release it in its current state. This has proved to be a.. less than stellar idea as the game has yet to really take off.
The new lead designer for the game whos name I shall not even attempt to pronounce has assured us that there are changes set in motion to change the games course before it’s too late.
They offered a new development roadmap that lists a large selection of changes that they have planned to make to appease the community that – to this day – are still somehow playing.

Before I get into the official release date, like with ArcheAge I do want to let you all know that I’m holding a giveaway for Astellia – completely on my own, not sponsored in any capacity.
The team behind Astellia have confirmed that the game will be officially launching on September 27, 2019.
Anyone that has pre-ordered Astellia will be able to log in as early as September 20th as part of the headstart event. Do note that the game is buy-to-play, not free-to-play, so you are required to purchase the game to play it.
A single purchase – not a recurring fee.

Caravan Stories, after a regrettable delay have confirmed that they will now officially be releasing onto PS4 on September 10th.
The game will be completely free-to-play, offer full Japanese audio with English subtitles – something I’m sure a lot of you are going to be more than happy with.
I know you guys have been waiting for this one as Anime MMOs – especially on consoles are in very short supply.

You may hate mobile games but you can’t deny that Black Desert Mobile looks pretty damn good for a mobile title.
Now for those of you excitedly anticipating the game – and even those of you that are merely interested in trying the game out, you’ll be happy to know that global pre-registration has begun, allowing players to register in preparation for its launch.. which looks to be inching ever closer.
While no official set-in-stone date has been given currently, they are continuing to reiterate their statements made earlier this year that the game will be available on both iOS and Android devices simultaneously in 2019.

I keep getting contacted by the team behind the upcoming Bless Unleashed to take a sponsored look at the game, and every time I’ve told them the same thing: That I had a bad experience with Bless Online and can’t in good faith take a sponsored opportunity from them because I haven’t tried the game out and it could end up.. messy.
In light of this, they have announced that there is a new open beta planned for November 7th that will be running through November 21st for those of you interested in trying out the game before.. well, their next beta test or the launch, whichever comes first.
Updates have been made since their first closed beta back in April – including performance improvements, combat overhaul and.. some small rebalancing to the early-game progression.

I spoke in the past about how Nexon was losing publishing rights to Riders of Icarus because of issues they were having – issues that have affected Peria Chronicles’ release and issues that have left hundreds of people jobless.
Now, after transferring the game over to Valofe Global – with absolutely no data loss by the way, the new publisher is promising to keep the game more actively updated and remain more actively engaged in the community itself.
Bold promises to make, but I hope for the sake of Riders of Icarus players that they hold true.

I haven’t heard much in the way of Population Zero in a little while so when it was announced that they would be opening up Founder’s Packs on their website, in anticipation of their upcoming Closed Beta this month.. I was a little skeptical.
Regardless, with an expected Closed Beta release date of September 18th, it looks like more of us will have the opportunity to fully test out what the game has to offer us as players.
Population Zero has been in Alpha testing since early this year in March.
The game is officially slated for launch in 2020 sometime as a completely free-to-play title, so if opting into the Closed Beta this month isn’t enough to get you to purchase a Founder’s Pack – not a big deal, you’ll be able to play it sometime next year either way.

After an informational-drought over the last couple months, the team behind Ascent: Infinite Realm have finally offered up a little in the way of information.. however it isn’t pertaining to a Western launch.
Instead, they’ve shown off some of the cute little pets you’ll be able to obtain in-game along with some new locations. But that’s pretty much it.
They’re still remaining silent on when the game will launch over here – not a peep outta them in a long while.

Netmarble, South Korea’s largest mobile-gaming company – responsible for games like Lineage 2: Revolution have announced that they have acquired worldwide publishing rights for the upcoming Mad World MMORPG.
I can’t really speak to how pay-to-win the game will be as I’ve never, honestly, played a Netmarble game but it’s promising information to learn that the game now has a confirmed worldwide release scheduled.
Exactly when is still unconfirmed though information will be made available eventually. I mean, hey! At least we have confirmation we’re getting it!

So if you weren’t aware that Phantasy Star Online 2 is coming to North America next year.. then here you go, this is now news you’re aware of! But that’s not it!
The Japanese developers announced that a brand new class was coming in October called the “Etoile” – my French is terrible so I’m not gonna elaborate on pronunciation any further than that.
Kinda reminds me of KOS-MOS from Xenosaga. There isn’t much in the way of information release on it right now but it does utilize beam-sabers, so… yeah.
Considering it was revealed that the North American version of the game would be up-to-date with the Japanese version.. it looks promising that we’ll have access to the new class when it’s inevitably released here next year.