Parallel to the announcement of the release date of Throne and Liberty, an article appeared on the official website of Amazon Games, in which the publisher, as well as developer NCSoft, comment on the upcoming launch in the West.
When will Throne and Liberty be released? The MMORPG by NCSoft will be released with a Free2Play model on September 17, 2024, for PC, PS5, and Xbox, in North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Amazon Games will accompany the launch as the publisher. From July 18 to 23, 2024, an open beta phase is planned to take place on PC and consoles.
In South Korea, Throne and Liberty was already released in 2023. However, the MMORPG fell short of NCSoft’s expectations there. Consequently, the leadership of the team changed. Ahn Jong-ok is reported to have stepped down from his position. Executive Director Moonyoung Kap is now setting the direction, and is openly considering a mobile port.
What influence does Amazon Games have on Throne and Liberty? Similar to Lost Ark, the studio behind New World is handling tasks such as localization, marketing, publishing, and management of the live service.
In an article on the official website of Amazon Games (via amazongames.com), Moonyoung Kap explains what fruits this collaboration has already borne:
Even though some international players are already enjoying the experience on Korean servers, we do not often have the opportunity to gather and evaluate comprehensive feedback. Thanks to the collaboration with Amazon Games, we received feedback from a broad audience of global users.
Amazon Games did not simply dismiss user needs as demands. They convinced our team through various reports and data of why certain changes were necessary and how many users would welcome them.
Moonyoung Kap, Camp Captain at NCSoft for Throne and Liberty
According to Daniel Lafuente, Globalization Design Manager at Amazon Games, the direction Throne and Liberty has taken over the past year has been significantly shaped by the hosting of public testing phases and the insights gained from them.
The adjustments arising from the insights aim to ensure that Throne and Liberty “hits the mark with a global audience” upon launch in September. How? By improving the core experience while preserving “what makes Throne and Liberty so great.”
The new trailer for Throne and Liberty introduces you to the world of Solisium:
The Strengths of Throne and Liberty
What is to characterize the MMORPG? Throne and Liberty places a strong emphasis on content where large groups of players can cooperate or compete against each other, such as siege battles, guild wars, and world boss challenges.
Moonseop Lee, Game Design Director at NCSoft, praises an aspect that many participants in the recent tests had also highlighted positively:
“For many, Throne and Liberty offers a seamless gaming experience, even in environments where many players meet. This is one of the strengths of the game. A multiplayer online RPG is distinguished from a single-player adventure by the large number of players. That is why we are very proud of the technical skills of our development team.”
Daniel Lafuente emphasizes this strength of the MMORPG:
The game is based on a few really powerful technologies that make massive PvP battles and events, where thousands of players compete against each other, and the smooth experience we have all learned to love, possible.
I love the pursuit of greatness and spectacle, but what excites me the most is the focus on the community. Throne and Liberty has an exceptionally deep guild system that allows players to face challenges together with friends. It’s the perfect mix of modern features for cooperation on such a large scale.
Daniel Lafuente, Globalization Design Manager at Amazon Games
What advantages do guilds offer in T&L? Moonseop Lee also has an answer to this question: “In Throne and Liberty, many goals can be achieved through guilds, such as guild leaderboards, conquest battles, or castle sieges. Guilds are at the heart of strategic, competitive battles.
Guild members pursue common goals hand in hand and benefit from a guild reward system. This includes receiving raid items and rewards from events that are shared among members. However, the greatest incentive of a guild is the sense of belonging. You always have a companion at your side.”
What are conquest battles? Conquest battles are large PvP events in which guilds compete against each other for two objective goals: blessing stones and discord stones. The guild that controls one of the two stones receives valuable bonuses and guild resources. Furthermore, the guild that possesses a discord stone is granted the exclusive opportunity to challenge a daily field boss.
What happens during castle sieges? In castle sieges, players compete against each other to capture a … you guessed it … castle. In these chaotic battles, sophisticated strategies are supposed to lead to victory.
The attackers must strategically divide their forces, effectively use unique elements like golems, and secure respawn points. Smaller guilds are also intended to participate and contribute, for example, by taking over looting sites to collect taxes.
What else does Throne and Liberty offer? In the MMORPG, you can expect PvPvE dungeons, a classless character system that allows you to switch between two weapon types at any time, as well as a game world that is supposed to make exploration feel rewarding.
The latter is supposed to be supported both by the dynamic transformations into animal forms and by the way the game world reacts to weather phenomena. Torrential floods, for example, can inundate areas extensively.
What experience does Amazon Games have with MMORPGs? Amazon’s Games division has already shown that it can handle successful MMORPG launches with New World (internally developed) and Lost Ark (developed by Smilegate).
With 1,324,761 (Lost Ark, rank 4) and 913,027 (New World, rank 7) concurrent active players, it has managed to etch itself into the all-time top 10 on Steam (via steamcharts.com) not just once but twice. However, retaining a large number of players long-term has not yet succeeded. Both MMORPGs have suffered from various issues since their respective launches, which persist to this day.
The comparison with Lost Ark arises not only because Amazon Games acts as a publisher for another Asian developer here. The payment model will also be comparable in T&L (Free2Play with in-game shop).
Thus, Amazon Games’s goal for T&L must be to create a foundation for the launch in September that avoids the issues of Lost Ark (bots, grind/random factor in endgame, overwhelm) and builds an active community in the long term. More information about the new MMORPG: Amazon Games is bringing Throne and Liberty in September – trailer, date, and open beta
