by ByteStixBless Online Confirms May 30 Release Date + $200 Founders Pack
Bless Online Information
Oh, my.
So a few hours ahead of Neowiz’s official Bless Online press conference someone accidently leaked the webpage showcasing the exact release date for Early Access, along with the prices for each Founders Pack.
And.. it’s not looking too good.
So let’s start with the obvious, first: Bless Online has a 100% confirmed release date: May 30th at 10AM PDT. If you purchase a Founders Pack you get 2 days head-start.
There will be three separate editions to choose from:
Standard Edition – which offers Advanced Access and a 1 month premium membership (which we’ll talk about in a minute).
Deluxe Edition – Everything the Standard Edition offers along with 2 months premium membership, 2,450 bonus premium currency and an exclusive mount and pet skin.
Collector’s Edition – Everything the Standard Edition offered, a unique title, Premium customer service, a “Twinkling wing effect”, 3 months premium, 3,800 bonus currency and other exclusive skins for your weapon and costume slots.
Now 2 things:
1.) Originally, Bless was said to be a free to play MMORPG. Neowiz then decided a buy to play model was actually a good idea for the West and a lot of players were happy with that.
However, now we’re learning that there is also the option for a premium membership addition – a VIP of sorts, with undisclosed benefits. Do they get boosted XP? Boosted currency? Stat increasing items?
Yeah, the premium membership is very concerning.
Now, if the premium membership follows the Japanese version, and it very well may, then you’re looking at the following:
20% increase in hiring experience, honor points earned, adventure points earned, riding pet experience, reducing repair costs, and the most concerning of all: Increasing the dungeon limit per day.
Meaning a premium membership will grant you additional entry into dungeons that free players will not be able to enter – allowing you additional chances at gear. Creating the pay to win aspect they promised to steer clear of.
Now, granted, this isn’t a guarantee – and Neowiz has the opportunity here to prevent the premium membership from being destructive, but from what I’m seeing, they don’t care.
2.) The prices for the founders packs are absolutely absurd. I have never heard of an MMORPG costing $200 – and gating “Premium customer service” behind a $200 price tag is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
We’re all buying your game. We should all get the same quality of service. Then Neowiz go on to say “Details regarding exactly what is in these packs will be available on May 28th, when they go on sale.”
So in essence, we won’t know everything the packs have to offer nor will we have access to what the premium membership offers until the game launches.
Again, very concerning.
Not only did they recently anger the general Bless community with the announcement that a lot of their Emissaries are people who don’t actually produce MMO content, but they’ve shown how inept they are by not even fact-checking who applied.
As an example, Sodapoppin, a very popular Twitch streamer was announced to be an Emissary and also to be livestreaming at the Bless conference today. However he took to Twitter to let people know he hadn’t even applied to be an Emissary.
So once again, Neowiz showcasing how professionally they’re handling things.
Now, these are just a few examples of reasons why I am now very, very concerned about Bless and my hopes for it have all but diminished.
I was incredibly excited for the game, as can be seen in my previous Bless videos, and look – I’m not hating on the game, nor am I saying the game will be terrible, pay to win or that the end is nigh by any margin.
I’m merely stating that Neowiz hiding things, deleting the official announcement, their ineptitude, their unprofessionalism and inability to fact check are all concerning to me as a gamer who is going to spend money on this game.
What are your thoughts now that we have a confirmed release date, confirmed early access founders pack prices, and the whole Emissary situation?
I am literally speechless at this point… I would hope that this is something that was leaked in error, and that they reconsider the pricing scheme. Bad form Neowiz
It was officially confirmed to be the pricing.
Not looking good for Bless. Will rather save my money for one of the other mmos releasing this year.
I’ll play regardless, but I have much higher hopes for Battle for Azeroth!
Yep..basicslly killed my enthusiasm. Premium membership…just..no..no more please..
I hear ya.
gg my hopes and dreams
They have the opportunity to fix this!
I mean the membership I could deal with depending on the perks but 200$ for a collectors edition shit better come with rl stuff like a statue or some shit jesus christ like 100$ would be like super pricey but within the realm I might consider it you can get the WoW or xiv or hell any other mmo with the collectors edition for less like wtf even there physical ones are less pricey.
You’re essentially paying for the Premium customer support.
I’d a whole group of friends (including myself) hyped and can’t wait to play this game. But this news might just end that from happening. 🙁
Well they have time to remedy this.. I myself will be playing regardless but it would be nice to know they dealt with player concerns first.
If anything it’s good that this was leaked because this gives Neowiz time to revaluate things. This might have actually saved Bless….if they even care. But with all the other things you pointed out…I’m not so sure.
They have the opportunity to do something about it for sure, but whether they do or not remains to be seen.
This could be a good and bad thing. The good thing is, they could hear the playerbase’s reaction regarding the $200 premium pricetag which is kinda unreasonable since you’ll only pay for the customer service. But the bad thing is, you’re actually playing the customer service. Lmao I hope they listen to what the community is saying or consider fixing the pricetag because it’s just ridiculously expensive and those perks are gamebreaking for those who haven’t bought the $200 membership lul
You are all stupid why is it that the west complains about every little thing. Just buy the 30 dollar one and stop complaining. They are not forcing you to buy the 200 one. And on top of it the founders pack are not out yet for us. Just wait I will be buying this day one.