The majority of current MMORPG projects with budget and ambitions come from Asia. However, to achieve sustainable success here in the West, they need to stop making the same mistakes over and over or insisting on their peculiarities.
Regularly, great MMORPGs come from the Asian region. In contrast, Western publishers have been struggling to publish ambitious online role-playing games for more than a decade. This is partly because they don’t want to take the risk, or because development is halted midway or dragged out for ages.
What stands out: The upcoming generation of Asia-MMORPGs from Aion 2, ArcheAge Chronicles, and Chrono Odyssey aims to target the Western market with a greater focus than in the past. How? Well, the strategies are diverse:
- Grinding and PvP will be toned down, with a spotlight on story experiences and PvE challenges for small groups.
- PC and consoles are becoming more important as main platforms again, mobile ports will be skipped or serve as an additional offer for specific activities.
- A Chrono Odyssey does not feature gender locks in character creation or random mechanics in crafting or upgrading equipment and weapons.
- Many of the responsible developers emphasize at every opportunity that there will be no Pay2Win mechanics and that they want to design a fair payment model.
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The trailer for Chrono Odyssey from Summer Game Fest 2025:
A large portion of Western fans is skeptical
On paper, all these measures sound good, except perhaps for fans of grinding and PvP. However, there are several problems:
- In the past, some promises have turned out to be blatant lies – for example, Tarisland, which long presented itself as a full-fledged PC MMORPG without Pay2Win.
- Asian MMORPGs have several idiosyncrasies that clash with the Western target audience.
- Many Western genre fans associate such negative experiences with major Asian publishers that they are skeptical of every new project.
When NCsoft, for instance, presents a new game like the MMO shooter Cinder City, many players immediately assume it will feature fun-sapping monetization like in Throne and Liberty and Blade & Soul. Or one recalls the cancellation of WildStar, which still has many fans today.
NetEase? They have churned out mobile cash grabs like Diablo Immortal! Tencent? We’re back to Tarisland. Pearl Abyss? The shop and grind of Black Desert. Smilegate? Free2Play access plus real-money auction house in Lost Ark.
All in all: Asian publishers currently have a trust issue. If they want to impress the Western market, it’s not enough to just promise improvements. Instead, they must first show with their next games that they are genuinely willing to develop high-quality games for a global audience.
What mistakes MMORPG expert Karsten Scholz believes they should avoid in order to succeed in the West will be discussed in the following pages.
