In November 2017, Bluehole, the developers of the shooter PUBG, introduced a new MMORPG: Ascent: Infinite Realm was meant to be an action MMORPG featuring airships. In October 2021, the game was finally released in the West as “Elyon”. However, just 11 months later, the publisher Kakao announced an end on September 7: the free-to-play MMORPG will close on December 7. It has catastrophic player numbers on Steam.
Why were people so excited about the game?
- 2017 was a different time: Back then, Bluehole was one of the hottest and trendiest developers in gaming thanks to “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds”. Before Fortnite copied the game and became even bigger, the Koreans had a mega-hit with PUBG on Steam. Additionally, they already had experience with online role-playing games thanks to TERA, an action MMORPG.
- A:IR was supposed to be developed together with Kakao, the publishers of the MMORPG Black Desert, which was impressing at the time due to its great graphics.
- Furthermore, Ascent: Infinite Realm looked exciting in the first trailers (via youtube) and brought a thrilling new spin to the MMORPG genre with the idea of fighting in airships. Instead of always focusing on fantasy, the game radiated a quirky steampunk flair.
Here is everything important you need to know about Elyon:
How did the development go? From the perspective of Western MMORPG fans, the development did not go well at all. As is common with Korean MMORPGs, the MMORPG kept disappearing from the public eye for long periods as the developers went ‘dark’ to develop quietly away from public scrutiny:
- From testing in November 2017, there was nothing good to report: The game was simply not fun, it was said.
- In May 2019, it was reported that A:IR was too grindy and had major issues. The idea of airships, which sounded so good, apparently didn’t work out either.
In April 2020, the game made a major cut: “Ascent: Infinite Realm” became Elyon. It was now supposed to be an action MMORPG, featuring a special skill system and massive battles. The MMORPG almost felt like a new game and strongly reminded players of TERA.
Free2Play MMORPG loses 57% of players on Steam after one month
How did it go at release? Poorly. The team never managed to reconnect with the initial hype generated by the first trailers of A:IR in 2017. Somehow, excitement for Elyon completely waned.
When the game finally launched on Steam in October 2021, it averaged only 8,689 players and they quickly disappeared. By February 2022, the MMORPG had only 560 players left.
The reviews on Steam are only a mediocre 54%.
This is now the developers’ decision: Publisher Kakao Games says that after long discussions with Bluehole, they have decided to shut down the servers for Elyon in Europe and North America:
- Only very few players who started with Elyon remained with the MMORPG
- The number of active players has continued to dwindle
- Thus, they cannot provide players with the MMORPG experience they are longing for
They apologize for this.
The servers will go offline on December 7 (via elyon).
MMORPG Elyon drowns in the massive bug wave of New World
What’s behind this: Elyon had a problem: It lacked a unique selling point, that one element that would draw attention to the game and make it stand out from the mass of MMORPGs.
When it was A:IR, there was still the idea of aerial combat, which seemed exotic.
Once the aerial combat was scrapped, experts’ judgment was something like: “Solid MMORPG with a good combat system – but nothing special.” Furthermore, Elyon was unfortunate to launch amidst the bug wave of New World, which captured all attention in 2021.
Elyon was also on the “death list” of our MMORPG expert Alexander Leitsch:
