Bless Online Is Going Free to Play.. In 2019 In Overhauled “Bless Unleashed” Console Port

In a totally unexpected turn of events, Round 8 Studio of Neowiz – a company, no, actually, a subsidiary of Neowiz itself, has announced that they are bringing an entirely new MMORPG to consoles in 2019.
If you’re unaware of who Neowiz is, or forgot the damage they recently did.. then allow me to refresh your memory.

You remember that highly anticipated MMORPG everyone was super excited for? The game players actually thought would hold them over until Battle for Azeroth, Pantheon or Ashes of Creation?
Neowiz are responsible for the disaster that is Bless Online. Not even 3 months after launch, and the game has shed almost 95% of its playerbase.
Why? How, even? Bugs, translation issues, poor handling, terrible balancing updates, and.. a, generally, a lack of care for the game.
Bless Online launched in several countries prior to releasing in North America and Europe, and failed in about as many countries as it launched in.
So it should come as no surprise that there were improvements that needed to be made – and with a budget of over $60 million dollars.. there really should have been.
The sheer amount of bugs at launch were.. and I’m not even kidding, just.. insurmountable.
FPS issues that players fixed through use of a .ini tweak. Translation issues that players fixed through editing basic files in a notepad file.
Duplication bugs that were present in previous iterations of the game that destroyed the economy. Class balancing nerfs that made the game unplayable.
$60 million dollars. Sixty. Million. Where the fuck did that all go?

Regardless, with the funding they got through gullible players that purchased Bless Online, Neowiz went ahead and created a small company to tackle the console market called Round 8 Studio.
Together with Bandai Namco, Neowiz – I mean, Round 8 Studio plan on releasing a new MMORPG called “Bless Unleashed“, a free to play MMORPG for the Xbox One.
The game is billed as “an untamed world with a rich backstory created with hardcore MMO gamers in mind,” according to a statement directly from Bandai Namco.
Bless Unleashed is supposedly being developed with Unreal Engine 4 – something a lot of players believe Bless Online should have been released in.
And while I personally have no issue with how Bless Online looks, I can see how a lot of players had concerns with the release of Bless in the state – graphically, it was in.
The game is supposed to feature five classes, two of which will be the Mage and Berserker, utilize a deep combo-driven combat system, include competitive PvP, and take place in a vibrant, visually stunning, persistent world.
So.. it sounds like they took Bless Online, made it a little prettier, and are re-relasing it for Xbox One.
Bandai went on to say that “Every aspect, from the story to combat, to the skill progression has been carefully crafted to portray a new console MMORPG experience”.
Are you fucking kidding me? And people are actually buying into this.. “new MMORPG experience”, just like they did with Bless Online. And don’t get me wrong – I bought into Bless as well. I’m all for giving games a second chance – a chance to improve.
But Neowiz took their dick out and whipped me, along with tens of thousands of other people in the face with it one after another.

With how little Bless Online receives in the form of updates, and how poorly overall the game even functions as a playable MMORPG – you’d think barely anyone even worked on the game.
That’s not true. There is actually quite an active development team for Bless.. just not the Bless you want.
When Neowiz formed Round 8 Studio, they split the Bless Online team, wanting to focus their time and effort into Bless Unleashed – it is their new cash grab, after all. Bless Online is done. Bless Online made its sales.
So while they continue to maintain the game with a ghost-ship of a staff, the main focus of the Bless team will be on Bless Unleashed.
Players that thought Bless Online would continue to be actively worked on are clinging to a false hope. Sure, there will continue to be updates, but let’s be real here.. every other country has dead versions of the game.
We’re essentially just playing catch up to an un-updated game at this point while they’re rebuilding the game into a console port.
Which is just.. disgusting. Abhorrent. Repugnant.. and.. any other words that generally mean terrible.

I thought Trion, Gameforge, My.com were all bad. But Neowiz.. they released their failed bug-ridden game with early access packs to try and get as much as they could from players.
Then they have the audacity to redirect the focus of the team towards a console iteration of the game to milk more money out of a starving genre? C’mon! You have to have some morals!
Are you really so thirsty for money that you would abuse the very players that are paying for all of this? Because this is just sickening at this point.

Now, I’m not traditionally one to hate on games – especially MMORPGs. I’ve hated on a few over the last 2 years of running the channel, sure, but never have I felt such loathing for a company or a game as I do right now.
And knowing that a large portion of the console MMO populace is going to play it because they’re so starved for content.. makes this shit even worse, because it validates what Neowiz are doing.
Sigh.
Regardless, this is just an update on what Bless Unleashed is, and where Bless Online is going.
I have strong feelings on this because I told people Bless had the potential to be a decent game. I believed that Neowiz were putting in time and effort and attempting to improve this version as it was an “all or nothing” last-ditch-effort.
If Bless Online failed, they’d lose everything. And look – it did incredibly – so much so that they’re re-releasing it!
So, my final thoughts on this are that I’m disappointed with the company, and I hope the playerbase boycott the game when it launches onto consoles. And I say “consoles”, because they mentioned that it will be launching onto Xbox One “First”.
Meaning it has the potential to launch onto other consoles into the future.

• A Visually Stunning MMORPG Experience – Utilizing the Unreal Engine 4, the game brings
  unparalleled visuals and deep gameplay mechanics which offer one of the most beautiful
  MMORPGs built for a console platform.
• Combo-Driven Gameplay – Survive a menagerie of mythical beasts and other players with
  deep and rewarding combat system that features skillful combo mechanics coupled with
  action-oriented combat with dodging. A progression system handcrafted for online play and
  an integrated players-vs-player (PVP) mode provide added challenges and rewards at every
  turn.
• An Immersive Fantasy World – Dive into an open persistent world with a rich backstory and
  an intricate plot as players uncover divine secrets on their journey to defeat the return of an
  evil goddess.
• A MMORPG Built for Modern Consoles – Built from the ground up to be a comprehensively
  and robustly supported live service, every aspect, from story to combat to skill progression,
  has been carefully crafted with the console experience in mind.
• Classic Fantasy with a Twist – Choose between five classic fantasy jobs, including the
  arcane wielding Mage or the bloodthirsty Berserker. Travel the world in search of the truth
  about the gods with other adventurers and experience a personal brush with divinity.