Neowiz announced the MMO Bless Unleashed during Gamescom. The MMO is being developed in collaboration with Bandai Namco and is set to release in 2019 for Xbox One. Players of Bless Online have questions.
The Bless series is getting a new installment: Bless Unleashed will take place in the world of Bless, but offer a completely new experience for console players. Of course, the announcement raises questions among fans. What does the future hold for Bless if Bless Unleashed releases in 2019?
In a Steam post, Bless developer Neowiz addresses some questions from players.
2 separate teams are working on 2 independent games
Focus is on PC version: According to Neowiz, the newly formed developer team Round Studio 8 would be working on Bless Unleashed, while another team continues to provide content for the PC version of Bless Online. The team behind Bless Online will still focus on content for the PC title, while Round Studio 8 will take care of Bless Unleashed.
The PC version would be published by Neowiz itself. Bandai Namco will handle the publishing of Bless Unleashed. For the team behind Bless Online, the PC version has priority. Since the two projects existed independently, Neowiz could maintain 2 games simultaneously.
Bless Unleashed has no impact on Bless Online
Bless Online is set to release in 2018: According to Neowiz, the release of Bless Online for 2018 is still planned. Bless Unleashed would only release as a full game in 2019.
The Early Access of Bless Online has given the team the opportunity to receive direct feedback from players and improve Bless Online before it releases as a full game.
Player feedback should benefit Bless Unleashed: Neowiz would take the insights gained from the Early Access phase of Bless Online and share them with the team behind Bless Unleashed, so that the action MMO releases in the best possible state in 2019.
The decision to develop Bless Unleashed was made independently of the release of Bless Online on Steam.
This is how players react to the announcement of Bless Unleashed
Players express their opinion: Under the Q&A post on Steam, on Reddit, and in the Bless Discord channel, players are commenting on the announcement of Bless Unleashed.
- For some players, it is completely clear that Neowiz has only released Bless Online on PC to gather funds for Bless Unleashed. This role has now been filled by Bless Online.
- Other players are astonished that Neowiz intends to release Bless Online this year. The team behind Bless Online still has a lot of optimization work to do before they believe it is ready for release.
- Some players do not want to believe the announcement. The most ironic thing in their eyes is that the console version will likely be better optimized than the Steam version.
- Some players wish for an upgrade of Bless Online to Unreal Engine 4. Then Bless Online and Bless Unleashed would run on the same engine. They also expect a performance boost from the switch.
