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Inquiry on release date for US?
nukempro
Member Posts: 76
in Blade & Soul
Hey all, I was just wondering if there is any info at all on when this is coming to the states? Or alternatively info on any beta going on ! Thanks!
Comments
They sent out a letter way back on Dec.4th saying they were working on it and it is coming out soon, but haven't herd a thing since.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
yea sort of sucks as the gameplay videos and story sequences I have seen look like a lot of fun..
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
I think it was posted on another thread that this title was going to get released sometime in 2014 for the West. Seems that lack of content is currently the #1 issue (or at the very least a major one).
http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/05/12/ncsoft-has-high-hopes-for-blade-soul-launch-in-china-but-remains-tight-lipped-about-worldwide-release/
Looking at the usage charts, Blade and Soul is currently doing well in the Korean market, but it hasn't been out that long. Given the game's current results, I think it's safe to draw a few conclusions:
Production values will be solid. The game probably looks, plays, and sounds good. You don't really hold top spots in Korea this long with new launches if this isn't true. In addition, the combat is likely good.
What we don't really know yet is how the content will sort out. There have been a lot of games which have done very well in Korea until their gamers hit endgame and found nothing to do. Those games drop off a cliff not long after.
As for a release date, there are rumors circulating that B&S will launch in Europe first.
"Hi Girls & Boys i want to share with you about information what i get yesterday , from my secret source.
Good News :
Blade & Soul is almost done with Translate.
Blade & Soul will be realase in Europe Faster than we expect , because one of company give a lot of $$ to nc soft and want fast relase.
Bad News:
This Copany is Gameforge gmbh."
Take it with a grain of salt. If I had to go ahead and drop a predicted date, I would wager we'll see this game in late 2013, likely November or December for NA and possibly slightly earlier for Europe.
Gods, after what happened with Aion EU I sincerely hope this rumour is complete BS. Unfortunately, given what happened to Aion EU it's also at least vaguely credible.
Europeans get screwed a lot, as far as MMO's go. It's really down to two factors. To start with, the market is still maturing in EU. A lot of the homegrown import publishers you have at play there are able to secure licenses for really good titles, but they often don't really don't field very good hardware to support them. Gameforge, PS7, Codemasters, and a bunch of others over the years have fallen into this category. On top of this, they're much more willing to engage in frustrating cash grab tactics like avoiding cash shop currency sales even when the native version has them. Many of these companies are hated and rightfully so.
Let me explain what I mean by still maturing. What people fail to realize is how new the idea of heavy MMORPG participation is for Europe. Prior to World of Warcraft, there was no MMO that topped the 50k subscriber mark in Europe. While both Asia and NA had blockbusters before then (games like EQ and DAoC in NA and Lineage in Korea), there was no MMORPG that had notable market penetration in Europe before WoW. As such, most of the players that eventually became the big importers were really just non-MMO operations that happened to be in the right place at the right time. Seven years isn't really a long time to develop a great import industry. That's why you have a lot of shitty players still around.
That first issue leads to the second issue. The vast majority of MMO's are still coming out of the US or Korea, with a smaller but notable number emerging from Canada, China, and Japan. There aren't that many homegrown European MMO's, nor do that many big MMO developers create EU subsidiaries. That's really what most EU players want: for the original developer to host the game themselves through a subsidiary they directly control. While most of the really big players now do this (like Blizzard), many smaller or newer players from NA/Aasia find it easier to rely on companies like Gameforge to take care of things for them. Especially when it comes to Korean games, they're rather gun-shy about direct European launches.
NC Soft is a bit of a unique case, though. NC rose to explosive prominence with the incredible success of Lineage. For reference, Lineage eventually exceeded two million subscribers, and this was in a country of 50 million. Lineage was actually the first true megablockbuster MMO, achieving incredible usage rates before WoW. Lineage 2 also did very well. With the treasure earned from this game, they were then able to move aggressively into NA, funding a number of studios there. Most of the games that came out of this venture collapsed rather dramatically, though. Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa failed miserably from a financial standpoint (I actually enjoyed both games). CoX held on for a long time with a small but devoted fanbase, but it was not very profitable by NC's standards. Not only that, but the Korean heads clashed rather dramatically with some of their Western counterparts. NC eventually decided to pull out most of their hard investments in NA. Their sole remaining Western darling was Arena Net.
The drama more or less ends here for most Americans. But it continued in Korea. NC remains a big player, make no mistake. They have three titles that remain very high on Korean playtime charts (Aion, Lineage, and Blade & Soul) with Lineage 2 having lost much of its mojo but still remaining within the top 50 (keep in mind that the South Korean gaming scene is extremely saturated, and these usage charts track _all_ online games). But they've had serious internal schisms. At one point, they actually pissed-off one of their lead developers, and after they fired him, nearly the entire development team for that game left with him. With thid kind of fractured management, NC has been plagued by a certain lack of strategic initiative. They abandoned most of their drive to expand aggressively into NA or Europe, and they're only very recently starting to get it back.
That's why they're not going all-in for Blade and Soul. They're being very conservative as to gauging its potential success in the NA and EU markets. I actually don't think they seriously believe it will take hold in these markets at all, especially not in Europe, which tends to be kinder to American imports than Asian ones.
<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.mmorpg.com/profile.cfm/username/Kurush"; href="http://www.mmorpg.com/profile.cfm/username/Kurush"; title="View information about Kurush" suhlink"="">Thanks for that it was really informative. I hope that it does make it big in the US but i guess time will tell..