In the MMORPG Bless Online, the servers went offline on Steam this morning. The MMORPG has become history after nearly a year and a half: it was the last major AAA MMORPG that tried to launch in the West and failed brutally.
When did it end? The service for Bless on Steam was officially discontinued today at 9:00 AM on Monday, September 9th.
Although Bless can still be downloaded and installed via Steam, the launcher can no longer find a region: a sad sight.
The end of Bless was already announced by developer Neowiz in June.
People want their money back
What’s the mood on Steam? In contrast to dead MMORPGs like WildStar, whose end was accompanied by nostalgia and wistfulness, the prevailing emotions in Bless are anger and disappointment. (via steamcommunity)
Only a few comments express regret.
On Steam, players call the developers “frauds.” They say the developers can save their warm words; they want their money back.
Because Bless is now, quite literally, just unplayable.
What makes people so angry about Bless? Bless had a rough run:
- It was released in May 2018 in Early Access on Steam. There was neither a beta nor another way to preview the game – hence some bought it “blindly,” many of whom immediately regretted the purchase. Only 60% of buyers reached level 5 in Bless.
- People were aware of the MMORPG’s issues in other regions: however, the developers promised to significantly revise the MMORPG for the West.
- The MMORPG cost $60 million to produce and was marketed as a AAA MMORPG, but failed to meet the technical minimum standards at launch.
- Later it was said that this had been a misunderstanding – Western players expected a finished MMORPG, but it was an Early Access launch.
- Then Bless was released as “Free2Play” – which upset those who had already invested money.
- However, Bless couldn’t really achieve much at the “real” launch – the hype had long since faded.
- Content was sparse after the launch, and those were parts that had been cut from the MMORPG and withheld – Bless couldn’t turn the tide even in the slightest. In the end, Bless had an average of 26 players online on Steam. At its peak in June 2018, there were an average of 8,500 (via steamcharts).
Here’s what it’s about: Bless was one of the last major AAA releases for MMORPGs on Steam in the West. There hasn’t been much since Black Desert – maybe with the exception of MapleStory 2.
All the more disappointing how it ultimately all went down. The story of Bless shows us how great the interest in a “new MMORPG” is here in the West, but also how brutally hope and anticipation can turn into frustration and disappointment.
The positive aspects of the MMORPG like the taming system or the world will likely fade into obscurity for most MMORPG games, or they never got to experience that side of Bless.
The people on Steam don’t seem to mourn Bless; they rather mourn their money.
