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Blade & Soul: No North American or European Release This Year
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
German site Mein-MMO.de has stated that indicates NCSoft will be releasing Blade & Soul in either North America or Europe in 2014.
While we'd all love this to be true, we reached out to Lincoln Davis, NCSoft Director, Corporate Communications who confirmed that this simply NOT the case. Blade & Soul is now anticipated to be released in North America and the EU sometime in 2015. Maybe... we hope.
Comments
It's got to the point where even if I see it, I won't believe it.
Kind've funny that on the latest news section to the right, it says... "Blade & Soul Closed Beta Begins in First Half of 2010."
More interested in Lineage Eternal at this point. Though I guess Blade & Soul will do well if they release it at the right time and have a good payment model.
I was somewhat hopeful around this game . . . 2 years or so ago. The Western release has been in development Hell for so long that even assuming there is a working English client & it was just held back for marketing reasons until Wildstar either (a) became established or (b) crashed and burned, by the time it releases in NA / EU the game is likely to look & feel somewhat dated.
That's what I was thinking.
There was just no way some obscure website would've been privy to that information while every major game site was clueless.
If they announced that release, it'd be at some huge gaming convention, or at least a large press release.
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https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Check the video, according to the subtitles he said "before next year". Someone from Korean here who can translate the CPO of NCSoft? Well, it was too good to be true ;(B & S was never really up against games like Archeage / Black Desert in terms of its core appeal anyway, far as I can tell the game is pitched as a story-centred themepark with faction-based flagged PvP. That in and of itself might limit its potential market and will certainly get it flamed on this site, but with or without Archeage's Western launch it would never have drawn that many people looking for Lineage type OW-PvP.
There was a time back in 2010 or so when I was really looking forward to Blade & Soul but now I have moved on. ArchAge pretty much made Blade & Soul obsolete in every way that is relevant. Even if it did get ported over no one would even care. It is not going to drag enough people away from ArchAge or other Western MMOs to make it worth their time. The thing is they had two almost or three years to port over and they blew it. They had the perfect opportunity to be the sizable niche for players that have grown tired of TERA but were waiting around for ArchAge, BlackDesert, Bless, Lineage Eternal. There was a pretty big dead space between 2012 and 2014 with there few new OWPvP games to play but 2015 is going to be so overcrowded with competition there would be no point to consider Blade & Soul.
So I guess that is that.
Boooooo!
I wanted this in NA for sometime time now!
But every game "limits" its potential market because of the decisions made in the making of the game. For instance:
it would never have drawn that many people looking for Lineage type OW-PvP.
If the game did have Lineage type "Open world pvp" Then that would most certainly limit the potential market.
If anything, having a story based themepark with flagged pvp will probably appeal to people who like theme parks and people who jump into games, play them for a bit and then jump out.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Point taken. I have no particular interest in AA, Black Desert &c, & mostly do play "story-centred themepark" games with PvP shunted off into arenas / dedicated warzones where it can be safely ignored (FF XIV: ARR, Secret World, &c.) & probably will play B&S if / when it finally manifests in EU / NA.
I was mainly responding to "Archeage will kill B&S" / "Black Desert will kill B&S" type comments.
Completely agree, these games aren't going to kill anything.
Hopefully they flourish and don't kill themselves.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I suspect it was a translation error somewhere, yeah.
Unfortunately I don't speak Korean, so I'm no help there! :P
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I also agree, and don't wish ill on B&S so hopefully you didn't take my comment as such. I merely wanted to say I think B&S has taken too long in coming to the Western market and I don't think it has much to offer.
I have played it and all I can say is - it's pretty, it's well animated and the story is ok. At least when I played there seemed to be open world pvp as after level 30 (ish?) I was getting ganked by reds and hadn't flagged specifically. Hence I was making an ArcheAge comparison, but perhaps I am wrong.
Ah OK. I stand corrected, I had not been following this game closely, my understanding which could well be in error or based on things which have changed was that at a certain point in the story / levelling you aligned with a faction, and flagged for PvP by wearing that faction's "colours" as it were.
That's interesting. So maybe it is like Archeage and once you hit a certain level it's open season? Not sure.
Again, I imagine it will be like many other games that are story driven and will attract people who move through the content and then move on.
I suppose we'll know more "at some point".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Bad piece of news I'd sad to say
Imo NCSoft has dropped the ball really hard on B&S, it could have been a success in the West.
LOL. You'd have to hope that they've just ran into a lot of issues releasing the game here, I don't think any game wouldn't want more popularity, but idk, I haven't been following this game at all really.
I played the on the chinese server and wasn't too impressed.
A few new mechanics didn't change the way the game played or felt and combat felt slow and clunky. Unless NCSoft was going to change many things I don't see it taking off too far in NA.
I think it's just getting to the point were NCSoft just doesn't care about this market anymore. We've become so fickle and demanding that huge investments are such high risks, the return just isn't there in the games they want to build for their home market.
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"
~Lord George Gordon Byron