No MMO lives forever, and in 2019, some games were shut down again. We present to you the 9 MMOs that you won’t be able to play in 2020.
Every year, new MMOs are released, but every year, others are also discontinued. While some MMOs died in 2019, these were mostly less known titles, unlike the previous year, which saw Wildstar, Paragon, and Gigantic shutting down.
On this page and the following pages, we will introduce you to the games that will cease to exist in 2020.
1. Bless Online (May 30, 2018 – September 9, 2019)
What was Bless Online? Bless Online was a AAA MMORPG from Asia that reportedly cost 61 million dollars to develop. It looked graphically appealing and caused a small hype in 2018.
Here in the West, people were desperately waiting for a new MMORPG. Although Bless was already struggling to succeed back in its home country of Korea, players were excited about the game here. This was partly due to the developers giving players hope for a version of the MMORPG tailored for the West.
What did the MMO fail at? Bless failed in the West on many levels:
- There were issues with technical implementation. The performance was rather weak.
- Promised content was missing, available in other regions.
- It was hardly adapted for the West, and the localization was severely flawed.
- Even a switch to Free2Play in October 2018 did not bring the hoped-for turnaround.
In June 2019, the end for Bless Online was announced. It was then shut down on September 9.
What are the best memories? The game was praised mainly for its good taming system, where you could capture 660 different creatures. Some of them were pets, while others could even become mounts.
The game world of Bless was also beautifully designed. Players probably won’t have many more positive memories, as many demanded refunds on Steam.
Are there alternatives or successors? Bandai Namco plans a reboot of Bless under the name Bless Unleashed for Xbox One. Bless Unleashed takes place in the same world, but a different time and was initially supposed to be released at the end of 2019. However, this version has become quiet in recent months.
A good alternative is the MMORPG Astellia. It also comes from Korea but offers specific adjustments for the West. Exclusive areas for us have already been added, and the Pay2Win has been removed. Work is also being done on the gender lock.
