Your Weekly Byte Of MMORPG News: Bless Online Going Free To Play? Upcoming MMO Project DH, MapleStory 2 2nd CBT

You might be wondering why this video is coming out on a Wednesday, but the last week has been a little barren in terms of news.
Well, PC news anyway. There’s always a metric ton of Mobile MMO news to cover, so much so that I’d need to hire a whole team to go cover even a fraction of what I’d like to.
Maybe I should now that we’re hitting 100k.. food for thought!

Ack, I’m going off topic. Welcome back everyone to your Weekly Byte of MMORPG news – Happy 4th of July! I hope you’re all there enjoying yourselves celebrating like the world’s ending tomorrow. I know I will be.
.. who am I kidding. I’ll be inside playing video games.

Let’s kick this off with something I’ve been talking about for the last 2 weeks now – MapleStory 2.
The 2nd MapleStory 2 English Closed Beta will be happening on July 18th. That’s a mere two weeks away. Nexon have already announced who got accepted into the closed beta – but for those of you that didn’t, fret not.
They have gifted us with around 30 closed beta keys to give out. These will be handed out only to people that are subscribed to our channel and leave a comment saying they want one.
Alternatively, if you post that you want a key directly on our website as well, then that will double your chances to get in.
The second closed beta will feature additional dungeons for players to run, new quests and the Meret Market system. They are also announcing unique Founder’s Packs – however the supply will be limited.
So.. might wanna consider it if you’re interested in the goodies it’ll supply you.

Admittedly, this is the first I’ve actually heard of the game. Project DH is a Korean steampunk themed MMO set in a world where “giant beasts are ravaging Humanity’s dominions.”
Players set out in an attempt to hunt down and kill these monsters with their trusty steed.. incorporating mounted combat into Monster Hunter-esque gameplay.
While not much is known of the game, Nexon did recently offer a brief glimpse of what the game looks like and how it plays.
Graphically, the game looks beautiful, and it could very well give Dauntless a run for its money if it ever releases in the West.

The team behind the upcoming MMORPG Crowfall posted their mid-year checkpoint update last week, highlighting the game’s progress over the course of 2018.
Their post states that “the soft launch is not going to happen by the end of the year”, stating that additional changes are required to be made to their core systems. Alpha testing, however, is expected to kick off at the end of Summer 2018.
While this is indeed unfortunate news, focusing on improving and perfecting the game overall is in no way a bad move to make.

Yes, the game is still alive.. somehow. And the game is still receiving updates!
My.com recently revealed that Revelation Online will be receiving a graphical overhaul with the addition of new content in their New Sulan update later this Summer.
While they haven’t elaborated much on what content will be included in the patch, My.com did point out there there will be new features and mechanics.

It seems as though we had but a mere week free from TERA news.
Which is more than fine with me – TERA’s releases are so frequent that I daresay it’s the most actively worked on free to play MMORPG out there right now.
With their latest update, En Masse are bringing back the Dreadspire and Manglemire dungeons – albeit with alterations.
Additionally, the Phantom’s Keep update will also introduce the new Guardian Legion: Dragon Hunt mission, which respawns on the hour, requiring players hunt down large, powerful enemies.

This is more of an update and some unofficial thoughts, rather than actual official news.
On June 13th I posted a video titled “The State of Bless Online”, where I pointed out that their concurrent playerbase was peaking at around 14,000.
I went on to say that after 2 weeks, the playerbase would be dipping below 8,000. Now, a little over 2 weeks later, the Bless Online concurrent playerbase is actually down to a mere 5,000.
Now, while I believe that the game will continue to dwindle in number, I am also of the opinion that Neowiz, instead of shutting the game down, might ultimately make the game free to play in an attempt to stay afloat.
We’ve seen it happen in the past with games like Aion, WildStar, Rift, TERA, Guild Wars 2 and more.
I do plan on posting a video on this in the near future, so stay tuned for that if you’re interested in playing Bless Online and want to hear my thoughts on the potential model shift.

With all of that being said and done.. that’s it for everything this week.
Once again, I hope you’re all having a fantastic 4th of July, and I hope to see you all next time.
Peace.