The Korean mobile MMO Royal Blood aims to become the first “real” mobile MMO of the quality of a PC game in the West. However, the competition is right behind – the release of Lineage 2 Revolution is expected to be announced this weekend at TwitchCon.
In South Korea, mobile MMOs are currently experiencing unabated success. The immensely popular Lineage 2 Revolution by Netmarble managed to generate over 146 million US dollars in its first month after release. The game has also been successfully marketed in Japan and other countries in Asia since then.
But in the West, another game is set to snatch a large part of the mobile MMO pie: Royal Blood!
Gamevil wants to participate in the mobile MMO market
Royal Blood is a complex and beautiful mobile MMO. The game comes from developer Gamevil, a company that, while not small with its 450 employees in Korea, is more of an underdog compared to giants like Netmarble.
Nevertheless, the folks at Gamevil are not afraid of the competition and plan to establish their own IP in the 46 billion dollar market of mobile games with Royal Blood. Royal Blood aims to establish itself on the market as a full-fledged mobile MMO through the following features:
- Large, vibrant game world with many players
- Raids with dozens of players and powerful loot
- Various “stances” of heroes. Depending on your stance, you should have a different playstyle.
- High gloss graphics thanks to the Unity engine
- Dynamic quests for solo players and groups
- Networking technologies like in a PC game
- Side activities like fishing
Royal Blood offers top items and conquest campaigns in PvP
Moreover, Royal Blood includes realm vs. realm PvP with up to 200 players. This is another way to distinguish itself from Lineage 2 Revolution. While it also features mass PvP, Royal Blood sees itself at an advantage here.
In Royal Blood, you will be able to conquer entire areas in PvP. For this, you will earn “Lord Points”. With these, you can unlock rare and powerful items. PvP should be worthwhile as top gear is said to also be available there and not just in raids.
Royal Blood wants to score points in the West before the competition
Kyu Lee, the president of Gamevil, realizes that the fight for the top in Korea will be extremely tough. Lineage games have been established there for years. Additionally, they actually wanted to release Royal Blood in Korea before Lineage 2 Revolution. However, they couldn’t manage that. Lineage 2 Revolution was released in December 2016, while Royal Blood, despite having over 100 dedicated developers, is still in development.
In the West, however, the market is still largely untapped and he sees a good chance for success there. Especially if his game is released here before the competition. Royal Blood is therefore heavily focused on success in the West.
According to Lee, mobile devices are a good platform for MMOs. The mobile market offers great potential here and is expected to grow stronger in the future than the PC market. The release of Royal Blood in the West is set for sometime in 2017. However, Lineage 2 Revolution is also highly anticipated and will likely announce its release date at Twitch Con starting October 20.
Royal Blood, on the other hand, has no concrete announcement for its global release other than “2017”. The race will be close and Gamevil must hurry if it wants to gain an edge before Lineage 2 Revolution.
Read here why Royal Blood could change the way you play MMOs.
