In ArcheAge and Unchained, a new expansion will be released in June. This mainly brings endgame content. Additionally, an event is planned to allow players to obtain good equipment for the new update more quickly.
What is this update about? With the expansion “Garden of the Gods”, ArcheAge will receive a lot of new content. The new area, the Garden, is located in the eastern Hiram Mountains and is thus one of the endgame zones.
There you can expect:
- 59 new quests that further the story
- New items and treasures
- New tiers for the Erenor, Hiram, and awakened raid armor
- New raids against bosses
When will the expansion be released? As the trailer for “Garden of the Gods” reveals, the new expansion is set to release on June 11. Many more details cannot be gleaned from the video, as it consists of cinematics and not gameplay scenes.
The expansion will be released for both the classic ArcheAge and Unchained, the Buy2Play version of the MMORPG.
New Endgame, but is it enough for the players?
What is currently the problem with ArcheAge? ArcheAge is a sandbox MMORPG and thus places a lot of value on players being creative and finding their own endgame content.
However, with the latest expansions and Hiram equipment, the gameplay of ArcheAge has changed. Many now focus on daily quests and follow clear routines. As a result, new endgame content suddenly becomes more important.
Additionally, in classic ArcheAge, there is almost “Pay2Win”, as players can directly purchase in-game currency for real money and have clear advantages with a premium account.
In Unchained, the situation is better, although it is criticized here that players with multiple accounts have advantages. Officially, only 3 accounts per player are allowed, but this limit seems to be rarely enforced.
Is anything changing with the problems? Currently, there is no information on whether Gamigo, which took over the publishing rights for all games from Trion Worlds in 2018, plans to change anything. In Korea, some daily tasks have already been changed to weekly tasks (via XL Games).
At least when it comes to equipment, there seems to be a small adjustment with the new update. From May 14 to June 4, there will be an “Equipment Growth” event. Players may have the chance to bypass some of the grind.
What exactly will happen at the event has not yet been revealed.
What does the future hold for ArcheAge? The MMORPG is doing well in the West despite its problems, at least in terms of revenue. Gamigo’s figures for 2019 show that ArcheAge accounted for about 25% of the revenue from the best-licensed games.
The Western version is also lagging behind the Korean version, so there are still some contents that should come to us.
Long term, however, a successor to ArcheAge could be released. XL Games is currently working on a new MMORPG in Unreal Engine 4. Some speculate that it could be a kind of ArcheAge 2.
