In The Exiled Realm of Arborea (TERA), a Korean MMORPG, was released in the West in 2012 and is appreciated by many for its action-packed combat system. However, in June 2022, the servers will be permanently shut down worldwide. This comes as a surprise, as a major update was released as recently as February.
Why is TERA closing? As the Western publisher Gameforge announced on April 20, the MMORPG is being discontinued because the developer Bluehole is no longer producing new content. Therefore, the company is forced to shut down the Western version as well.
Gameforge has been the publisher for the European version for over 10 years and later took over distribution in Russia and lastly in America in 2020.
When will the servers close exactly? On June 30, 2022, at 10:00 AM German time, TERA will be shut down. The service in Korea is also expected to end on June 30 (via Gamemeca).
Shutdown comes as a surprise to many
How was TERA doing recently? The MMORPG received regular updates. Just in 2020, we published a major report on the development of TERA, the upcoming companion update, and many adjustments. Shortly after, a new MOBA mode for PvP was released, which was quickly disabled due to poor reception from players.
The last major update came in February 2022. Three new dungeons were released, some old dungeons were revamped, and a new season with a season pass was launched.
In addition to new updates, there were regular events and rotations in dungeons. Therefore, it never felt like TERA was going to be discontinued anytime soon.
YouTuber Josh Strife Hayes reviewed TERA at the beginning of 2022 and praised the combat system, although he had some criticism:
How was the player count? There are no exact player numbers for TERA since many played through the Gameforge client, which does not share information.
The Steam version was released only in 2017, but player numbers remained stable between 800 and 1,400 concurrent players for many years. Only in early 2022 did the numbers drop permanently to triple digits and below 600 concurrent players for the first time.
In Korea, TERA had been among the 50 most played online games for many years. It last appeared there in May 2021 at number 40 (via Gamemeca).
TERA was known for action-packed battles and plenty of PvE content
What kind of game is TERA? In TERA, you create a hero with which you can complete many quests and defeat enemies. There are 13 different classes to choose from.
Highlights of the game included the varied dungeons and the action combat system. When the game was released in the West in 2012, the action-packed battles were an absolute highlight, and they have aged relatively well, unlike other content in the MMORPG.
In combat, you must constantly keep moving, actively target enemies, and dodge or block their abilities.
What criticisms are there? TERA has always been criticized for its aggressive monetization in the shop and the fact that there is no consistent style in the world. Alongside regular mounts, there are also flying carpets, pigs, or police cars as mounts.
Costumes also allow for anything, which significantly hampers immersion in the game.
How are players reacting? Although TERA is no longer among the major MMORPGs, it had a loyal community, as shown by the comments on reddit:
- “This is sad. This game ruined the combat for me in most other MMOs.”
- “TERA was so much fun in its prime, it’s a shame.”
- “This is sad. TERA was my first introduction to action combat and I was extremely addicted for a few years.”
- “One of the games I had the most fun with when it was full of players. I haven’t played it in recent years, but it’s still kind of sad to see it being shut down.”
What do you think about the surprising shutdown of TERA? Will you miss the game? Will you give it another look before the shutdown, or have you long since moved on from the MMORPG?
However, TERA is not the first MMORPG to be shut down in 2022:
2022 has already claimed 2 MMORPGs – One of them is now dying for the second time
