Looks like Astellia Online is losing it's publisher in South Korea.

k61977

I always hate to see games close down, even ones I don't play.  This was a game that I gave a pass after testing myself.  Didn't enjoy it, even though I thought they had some good ideas.  January 16th will be it's last day there.  Will be curious to see if they keep self publishing an working on the game for western gamers and if they try to publish the game themselves back in South Korea. 

Quizzical

The Korean version was "free to play" with a pay to win item mall, wasn't it?  I don't know how the game is different there, but from the English version, I can't imagine how they could structure a pay to win item mall in a way that would tempt whales.  I mean, what would they sell?  The ability to reroll stats on dropped legendary gear?  More astel points to star up the astels that you don't even use?  Building a pay to win item mall that is ignored by whales and drives away non-whales isn't a way to make a successful game.

The games that have been really successful at milking the whales with a pay to win item mall were built around it in game mechanics from the start, and didn't just tack on an item mall at the end.  They're often built on saying, you just got crushed in PVP, but if you buy this item or this package or whatever, you can win next time.  But that's just not a thing in Astellia, as the game is pretty much purely PVE all the way to the level cap, with only a bit of optional PVP tacked on at the end.