Something is happening in the MMORPG market in Asia. While Final Fantasy XIV is exploring a new market, Tera and Devilian are losing connections to local publishers, resulting in server closures in certain regions.
Final Fantasy 14 comes to South Korea
Final Fantasy XIV has now launched in South Korea. South Korea is as much a “Free2Play” country as Germany is a beer-drinking nation. Final Fantasy XIV takes this into account to some extent; although a subscription model is offered, the game can also be paid for “by the hour”: a 30-day subscription costs about 17 US dollars, while 30 hours cost 11 US dollars.
According to MMO Culture, FF 14 is well received in Korea, ranking third among the most popular MMORPGs after Lineage 1 and Blade and Soul. We’ll see if this will be maintained after the initial rush subsides.
Devilian leaves South Korea
On the other hand, for Devilian, which is being prepared by Trion Worlds for the western market, there is rather bad news from South Korea. They have lost the local publisher, the servers are closing, and they are now looking for a new partner.
This is said to be because the South Korean publisher wants to focus on the mobile market. They are confident to find a new partner.
Tera servers temporarily closing in Hong Kong and Taiwan
TERA has similar problems in the Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau region. The local publisher seems unable to agree with Bluehole Studios to continue the partnership. The servers will close on November 18. A new publisher is expected to be found, who will take over the data and continue to operate the servers.
