The MMORPG Lost Ark is receiving a new version in Russia. It will come without a region lock, it is now said. For us in Germany, some barriers are being removed to play the MMORPG: However, the language barrier remains.
Update 1.2. 13:08: The article was originally published on January 28. But apparently, there is a change of plans (via mmorpg.com). Mail.Ru has changed its FAQ about Lost Ark.
Now it is said that they reserve the right to install a region lock after all. MailRu is only dealing with the Russian localization and the distribution of the game in Russia and the CIS states.
At the moment, there are no restrictions and players can buy a Founder Pack for Lost Ark at Mail.RU, but whether the game will really remain open seems unclear.
Original announcement:
This is the game in question: Lost Ark is an MMORPG with all the trimmings that has been making waves in South Korea since late 2018. The game is played in an isometric perspective, which we know from titles like Diablo 3, but it is a proper MMORPG.
In South Korea, the game was overwhelmed at beta launch and people are ecstatic: This is again a real MMORPG with a fair cash shop that is being greatly expanded and developed, is the consensus.
After years of drought in the MMORPG market, Lost Ark seems to be a success that mainstream is also noticing.
However, there is a catch: Lost Ark is currently only playable in South Korea and they have a region lock active, which excludes us Europeans.
To still play Lost Ark from Germany, one must overcome some hurdles.
This is the good news: Lost Ark is expected to enter beta in Russia in 2019. The Russian tech giant Mail.ru will distribute the game there in the former Soviet states, the CIS region.
Mail.ru has now announced in a new FAQ (via mail.ru) that there will be no “region lock”. So anyone can log into their version of Lost Ark.
This is the catch: For one, Mail.ru is not hugely liked here in the West. They have a reputation for adopting a pay-to-win model.
More importantly, it seems Mail.ru is only distributing the game in Russian. This makes the Russian version particularly interesting for players who speak Russian or who don’t care about the story and plan to muddle through the MMORPG.
Maybe by then there will also be an “English patch” available to play Lost Ark at least to some extent.
Although Smilegate has announced, to bring Lost Ark to North America and Europe, there is still no concrete release date.
The beta in Russia also does not have a specific release date yet, but should be released in 2019.
We regard Lost Ark as one of the MMORPGs with the best prospects:
