It has been almost half a year since the release of the open beta of Lost Ark in Korea. What is the status of the highly hyped MMORPG?
How has Lost Ark been doing so far? The isometric MMORPG developed by Smilegate had a strong start in the open beta phase in November 2018. That was the soft launch of the game, the version that “counts.”
The servers were bursting at the seams and the feedback from Korean players was mostly positive. Western fans looked enviously towards Korea and sought ways to get a verified account as well.
However, it has been rather quiet around Lost Ark for a few months now. What is the current state of the MMORPG?
What is happening with Lost Ark in Korea? Even though things have quieted down for Lost Ark, the game receives regular updates. The developers post roadmaps on the official blog for the content that has either already been released or will be released:
- The new class Lance Master just came out this week on April 24
- Players will soon be able to explore the new island Allegro
- The continent Rohendel and a new storyline related to it have been announced
- Adjustments to prices and items in the cash shop are being made
- As well as balance changes in PvP and PvE
In the PC charts, however, Lost Ark has dropped significantly despite the updates. According to the Korean analytics site Gametrics, the PC bang market share of the MMORPG fell from 14% down to 3.64% between November 2018 and April 2019.
It has lost its original third place to Overwatch but still remains in the top 5. That is a very strong position. It has been many years since a new MMORPG has managed to stay in the top 5 most played games for several months after release.
Additionally, developer Smilegate has currently posted many job openings targeting developers with experience in Unreal Engine 4 for PC and mobile.
Players suspect a switch to UE4 and a mobile version of the MMORPG.
What is the mood like in the western community? Even among fans in Europe and the USA, the hype around Lost Ark has noticeably declined. The official Lost Ark subreddit is empty and receives only a few new threads per day.
The reason for this is clearly the lack of a release in the West. Fans of the MMORPG continue to look over to Korea and follow the development of Lost Ark, but they have come to terms with the fact that a Western release is likely still far away.
On the other hand, the official Lost Ark Facebook page continues to be bombarded with comments asking for a global release with every new post.
Western gamers are therefore split into two camps:
- Players who are still interested in Lost Ark
- And players who have lost interest and are now indifferent to the MMORPG
It is hard to assess how large these two groups actually are.
What’s next? Currently, Lost Ark fans are looking skeptically towards Russia. In December, the publisher Mail.ru announced that they would be responsible for the release of Lost Ark in Russia.
Mail.ru, especially their subsidiary My.com, has a reputation among Western players for implementing strong monetization in their games. Therefore, the news was received with concern.
Since then, however, nothing has changed on that front either. Russian YouTubers like Evrial mock that players shouldn’t expect beta tests before the end of summer 2019. Mail.ru had not taken any measures at the time of the announcement to prepare for the beta tests of Lost Ark, let alone a release in Russia, according to Evrial.
In any case, Western fans will likely have to wait a long time for Lost Ark.
