For years, the Korean giant NCSoft has been developing the MMORPG Project TL (formerly: Lineage Eternal or Lineage 3). The release was actually scheduled for 2019, but there has been silence for a long time. What is going on?
What kind of game is Lineage Eternal? Originally, the game was called “Lineage Eternal” and was supposed to be a hybrid game that would run on both PC and mobile.
It was announced as early as November 2011.
Lineage Eternal was intended to be an action MMORPG from an isometric perspective, similar to Lost Ark.
At that time, the game was considered a beacon of hope for the struggling NCSoft: Their PC games were getting older, they seemingly missed the shift to mobile and hadn’t had anything substantial in the pipeline except for Lineage Eternal.
In March 2015, Korean analysts from Daewoo Securities predicted that WildStar would not succeed and that NCSoft’s future depends on games like Lineage Eternal.
After several delays, Lineage Eternal was relatively advanced in 2017: the classes had been revealed, beta tests were planned and announced here in the West. We should have been able to play Lineage Eternal for 2 years already.
But in August 2017, it was then said: Hold on. After negative feedback from Korean testers, NCSoft scrapped the plan for Lineage Eternal:
- They changed the engine – from the Guild Wars 2 engine to Unreal Engine 4
- They dropped the mobile part
- and changed the team leadership
The release plan and the beta plans were completely scrapped.
Additionally, they hinted that future PC games should also be released for “the consoles”. This probably referred to PS4 and Xbox One.
Silence since May 2018
What is the current status? Indeed, nothing has been heard from NCSoft’s new PC games for a long time – silence also prevailed over other projects.
Everything has concentrated in recent months on the current trend hit, Lineage M, and the successor, Lineage 2M.
Job offers show: Development is still ongoing
This is the current status: NCSoft has barely commented on projects other than Lineage 2M. However, from the job site it is clear that work continues on Project TL and many other games (via careers.ncsoft). NCSoft is currently advertising jobs for:
- Project TL – they are looking for people for interface and PvE content
- Project LLL, a shooter
- Also for Blade and Soul 2 and Aion 2 – two mobile MMORPGs
- And more, yet-to-be-announced games
So it seems at least certain that none of the announced games has been canceled.
Currently, it is expected that new information about NCSoft’s games will emerge at a “Media Day” in November.
The release of Project TL for 2019 now seems highly unlikely.
Is Project TL suffering from the success of Lineage M?
Why is it taking so long? The project has apparently been very difficult for NCSoft from the beginning and has only progressed sluggishly. Early problems arose.
Moreover, the market in South Korea has shifted in recent years – away from PC MMORPGs to Mobile MMORPGs. NCSoft has also implemented this shift. Since the second half of 2017, they have had a huge mobile hit with Lineage M.
Due to the mobile boom in South Korea and the great success of Lineage M, priorities have apparently shifted and a game like Project TL is now less important when the big money is to be made in mobile.
It is quite possible that NCSoft is not as dependent on the timely release of Project TL as it was before the success of Lineage M.
Thus, Project TL has been postponed after it became clear that NCSoft has found a new cash cow with Lineage M. NCSoft can afford to wait with the game. From the perspective of PC gamers, one can now hope that the long wait will pay off.
The game was to be called “Project TL” and only release for PC. Then a fancy trailer came out.
That was the last we heard: The last info on Project TL came in May 2018. At that time, it was said that the project was going great.
The game was supposed to receive a closed beta for South Korea in 2018 and a release in 2019.
Additionally, they hinted that future PC games should also be released for “the consoles”. This probably referred to PS4 and Xbox One.
Silence since May 2018
What is the current status? Indeed, nothing has been heard from NCSoft’s new PC games for a long time – silence also prevailed over other projects.
Everything has concentrated in recent months on the current trend hit, Lineage M, and the successor, Lineage 2M.
Job offers show: Development is still ongoing
This is the current status: NCSoft has barely commented on projects other than Lineage 2M. However, from the job site it is clear that work continues on Project TL and many other games (via careers.ncsoft). NCSoft is currently advertising jobs for:
- Project TL – they are looking for people for interface and PvE content
- Project LLL, a shooter
- Also for Blade and Soul 2 and Aion 2 – two mobile MMORPGs
- And more, yet-to-be-announced games
So it seems at least certain that none of the announced games has been canceled.
Currently, it is expected that new information about NCSoft’s games will emerge at a “Media Day” in November.
The release of Project TL for 2019 now seems highly unlikely.
Is Project TL suffering from the success of Lineage M?
Why is it taking so long? The project has apparently been very difficult for NCSoft from the beginning and has only progressed sluggishly. Early problems arose.
Moreover, the market in South Korea has shifted in recent years – away from PC MMORPGs to Mobile MMORPGs. NCSoft has also implemented this shift. Since the second half of 2017, they have had a huge mobile hit with Lineage M.
Due to the mobile boom in South Korea and the great success of Lineage M, priorities have apparently shifted and a game like Project TL is now less important when the big money is to be made in mobile.
It is quite possible that NCSoft is not as dependent on the timely release of Project TL as it was before the success of Lineage M.
Thus, Project TL has been postponed after it became clear that NCSoft has found a new cash cow with Lineage M. NCSoft can afford to wait with the game. From the perspective of PC gamers, one can now hope that the long wait will pay off.
