It seems that the Korean MMORPG Bless no longer has a publisher for a port to Europe and the USA. The release here in Germany is therefore at high risk.
It is even worse: Bless is apparently completely dead
Update 8.6.: There is now a statement from Gamigo, i.e. Aeria Games – which can be read on mmorpg.com. It states that the cooperation between Neowiz and Gamigo has been mutually dissolved.
Bless Online did not meet the quality standards of Neowiz and Gamigo Games. It is added: In Bless there are technical difficulties that could not be overcome.
Therefore, they do not want to complete Bless for the respective markets.
Actually, Neowiz wanted to thoroughly revise Bless – but the statement can also be interpreted as if the further development of Bless is completely finished. That would be bad – and would mean the end for the MMORPG Bless: Not only in Europe, but worldwide. Currently, however, fans still hope that another publisher will release Bless in North America and Europe.
Original report:
Since Whit Monday, a rumor has been circulating on the US side MMORPG.com that Aeria Games has exited as a publisher for Bless Online. This came from an anonymous source.
The US site has already reported on this and was waiting for a confirmation from Aeria Games. This did not come. Even the calls from the Bless fan site Bless-Source, which usually has a close connection to Aeria Games, went unanswered.
We at Mein MMO also inquired with Aeria Games about the rumor. Since no confirmation or any other comment came, we did not report on this rumor.
Planned Germany release of Bless is canceled
So far, by Wednesday morning, there had been no confirmation, but now it is here. As reported by MMO Culture, various Korean websites have confirmed that Neowiz and Aeria Games have terminated the publishing contract. Thus, the Europe release of Bless is highly at risk: Bless has no publisher for Europe and North America. Consequently, no release is planned anymore in Germany.
The exact details regarding the termination of the contractual relationship are still unclear.
Long Backstory – Bless is considered an AAA MMORPG
Bless belongs to the same MMORPG generation as Black Desert – it was developed with great effort over the years. It was intended to be a more western-oriented, classic MMORPG – with two factions, PvE and PvP.
The MMORPG Bless has also been released in Korea but was not a big success there. It lies between worlds – while the production values are high, graphics and sound are excellent, the gameplay seems to be lacking. The combat system is described as difficult – and the game systems are still questionable.
Therefore, Bless is currently being thoroughly revised by Neowiz in South Korea – the “new revised version” was supposed to be released here in Europe and North America. Aeria Games reported that the localization of such a large game will take time.
Fans were already worried at the end of 2016 that there could be difficulties because it was so quiet around the port of Bless. Rumors could then be dispelled. This time, it does not look that way.
Now fans need to hope that Bless finds a new publisher for a port to Europe and North America. We will keep you informed about Bless Online’s further fate at Mein MMO.
In April, the Russian publisher pushed Bless back into development:
Bless Russia: End after 5 months – MMORPG back in development
