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A few days ago we talked about some of the
major titles that we had to wait a lot in order to get a western version, and after checking this
reddit post where things turned into a small war (besides the article format), it seems like the Asian players have the same issues regarding different MMOs that came too late or never saw the light of day.
Today we are going to take a look at those games and just to be clear from the beginning, this article contains already released MMOs that didn't reach the CN market in time.
Path of Exile![]()
Grinding Gear Games started developing a new hack-and-slash game somewhere in 2007, and three years later, on September 1, 2010 they announced Path of Exile, a new game that was considered by some players to be the spiritual successor of Diablo 2.
After a long closed beta phase, the game entered the open beta on January 23, 2013 and made it on Steam on October 23, 2013. Path of Exile was well received and was named PC Game of the Year by Gamespot and PC role-playing game of 2013 by IGN. In February 2014 the game was already surpassing the 5 million registered user mark.
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Shortly after the official launch, Chinese players tried to contact Grinding Gear Games through various methods including emails, forum posts, etc. in order to get a localized version in their country. As the publisher was quite new on the market, players soon realized that their only chance at that time was to start playing on our servers.
For some Asian players the solution came pretty fast as in November 14, 2013 Path of Exile entered a Closed Beta phase in Malaysia/Singapore, through Garena, while others had to wait a few more years. On the official announcement, Grinding Gear Games assured its players that there will not be an IP restriction, so they will be able to continue playing on the western server if they so desire.
Due to China strict online policies, it's almost impossible for a western publisher to localize its games there, so they had to sign a deal with one of the local giants such as Tencent, Shanda Games, Netease, etc.
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This year, Tencent and Grinding Gear Games (latest reports made by SuperData claim that they are 19th worldwide on the f2p MMO market) finally reached an agreement. The wait is not over yet, as the Chinese version needs to remove/censor several things like skeletons and other dead things. Besides graphic elements there might be other issues that needs to be adressed before the launch, such as the story behind a lesbian character.
"For example, in Path of Exile, one of the characters is lesbian. We don’t make a big deal about this, but it’s there. It’s mentioned in various bits in passing, this subtlety. This is something that wouldn’t be allowed if it was completely visible." said Chris Willson, game founder and general manager at Grinding Gear Games.
The CN version will have its own servers and will probably have a distinct business model, as China is well known for its p2w market (they have a different approach towards the cash shop, and what we considered to be a deal breaking may pass as something fair over there).
Black Desert![]()
Pearl Abyss' latest sandbox MMORPG was in development since 2010 and entered the closed beta testing phase in KR on October 2013. Black Desert was released in 2014 in KR, in 2015 in Japan and Rusia and in 2016 in North America and Europe through Kakao Games. Besides the EU/NA versions that are b2p, the other versions are f2p with the usual cash shop.
The original reviews were quite good and the original announcements hinted at over 400.000 copies sold in the first month on the western market, and also 100.000 concurrent users. Now the game slowly recovers after a huge scandal regarding the new p2w system that was announced by Kakao Games.
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Besides some old rumors, we don't have any news regarding a chinese publisher. Some screens with a chinese translation were circulating around the web, but I wasn't able to track the original source, so I am thinking that probably Pearl Abyss has started the localization process, as we had several such screens back in the day, when all we did was browse through KR gameplay videos, hoping that one day this AAA MMORPG will be available on the west.
Will there ever be a Black Desert CN release? I'm sure there will, but it will probably come towards the end of 2018.
The Elder Scrolls Online ![]()
The Elder Scrolls series is the most popular western fantasy RPG series in China. Without a single TES game being formally released in mainland China (due to the violent and mature contents), The Elder Scrolls series have millions of fans in China. Elder Scrolls Online was announced in 2012 and the game soon became a highly anticipated game in China although Skyrim was much more popular in China back in 2011 and 2012. Perhaps it's because of the failure many western MMORPGs had in China (Rift, Warhammer Online, The Lord of the Rings Online, Everquest, etc.), no Chinese publisher would take the risk to sign Elder Scrolls Online for the Chinese market.
Bethesda considered operating the game themselves in China and they opened an office in Hong Kong years ago. Unfortunately the complicated rules to release a game in China along with other reasons, Bethesda never actually made a substantial move on this. Now The Elder Scrolls Online has been launched on PC, MAC, PS4 and Xbox One, it has ditched the subscription fee, and it has got several major updates and numbers of DLCs, but it's still not going into the Chinese market.
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The absence of the game in Chinese market not just hurts the Chinese MMO gamers but also ZeniMax Online Studios, the developer of the game. Elder Scrolls Online reported to have over 7 million players worldwide, which was about 3 million less than World of Warcraft. If the ESO enter the Chinese market, it had a chance to reach WoW's level in player base. ESO is 10 years younger than WoW, and it still has a bright future. The game has a big player base on console, which is a surprise: the player base is "pretty much divided 30 percent, give or take" between each of the game’s three major platforms — PlayStation 4, Windows PC/Mac and Xbox One. So I think ESO may still enter Chinese market in the future. Chinese players just have to wait.
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Skyforge![]()
Skyforge was announced in 2014 and soon became a game wanted by many players around the world. First the game boasts visually unique art style, then it has a flexible class system that allows players to unlock their favorite classes and change between they have unlocked anywhere anytime, and last, the game is free to play.
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I noticed many Chinese media cover this game, especially around E3 2014 and I almost believed the game would announce to enter Chinese market soon. Skyforge launched in 2015 in NA, EU and Russia, and this year the game will release a massive expansion Ascension, which greatly change and improve the game.
Perhaps the game is not the most popular F2P MMORPG in the west, it's safe to say it's an anticipated western MMO in China. There are numbers of forums and community sites of the game in China. Again, as I mentioned in the Elder Scrolls Online's part, Chinese publishers are very careful when they look at a western MMORPG.
EVE Online Free to Play Version
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EVE Online was launched on May 6/23, 2003 worldwide, originally by Simon & Schuster Interactive. A few months later, in December, CCP Games decided to purchase back the rights and start self-publishing. EVE Online was available on Steam on January 22, 2008.
In the past 13 years, EVE Online has grown to one of the most successful subscription MMO, with the most royal players. Finally and unexpectedly, this year in November,
EVE Online is going free-to-play in the Tranquility server (global server) with the launch of Clone States expansion. And Chinese market is not included because they have their own server operated by a Chinese company.
For China it took 3 years for EVE to launch under Optic Communication in 2006. Chinese players were quite lucky and owe a lot to Horace, an EVE Online player at that time that saw a great opportunity in a localized version. He contacted CCP trying to get their attention, and after showing the great potential that such an MMO had on the Chinese market, he was sent to look for a local publisher.
The first few months were a huge success as they had over a million registered accounts and a login peak of around 39.000, but after a while the numbers begin to fall drastically. In 2007-2009, the local server called Serenity never saw more than 6.000 players logged in during peak hours.
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In 2011, after the original agreement expired, CCP changed the local partner and signed a deal with TianCity, one of the 10 top publisher in Mainland China (the studio is known for games like Mabinogi, KartRider and Counter Strike Online). After a strong marketing effort, the audience started to come back and a new record of 42.000 logins was set. By the second expansion the paying subscriptions doubled their numbers.
This second deal shows again that opposed to our type of localized content, where we only get a translation and a slightly changed business model, the Chinese publisher are taking full control and shape the game to their specific needs. TianCity was responsible for all marketing activities including web presence, advertisements, (and here comes someting that we usually don't get) partnerships, promotions, events and even a series of online action comics set in EVE's universe.
There were some discussions about unifying the western world with the Chinese one, but it was shown that this is almost impossible for the moment. And now Chinese players have a new question, will their version also become free-to-play? Probably this question can't even be answered by CCP themselves, at this moment.
On the other hand, Smilegate hasn't confirmed to attend the convention, which would disappoint fans of Lost Ark. The absence of NCsoft and Smilegate will directly benefit Nexon, who has secured nearly one third of the show floor as their booths together with their partners. You can see that at the floor plan below.
From what I see now, G-STAR 2016 will be more international, and it will have VR area. Still it could be big disappointed that we may not be able to see several of the most anticipated MMORPGs there.
Skyforge was announced in 2014 and soon became a game wanted by many players around the world. First the game boasts visually unique art style, then it has a flexible class system that allows players to unlock their favorite classes and change between they have unlocked anywhere anytime, and last, the game is free to play.
