What Happened to Justice Online? NetEase’s 2022 Global MMORPG

Justice Online is one of the most beautiful wuxia inspired action MMORPGs I’ve ever seen. It was announced several years ago and had remained a Chinese exclusive.. until 2022, when NetEase – one of the largest tech companies in the world, revealed they had plans to expand Globally.
Not only was a public announcement made, but NetEase reached out directly to me, asking if I would be interested in doing sponsored content advertising the English version before anyone else, providing me access to an Early localized build.
I was ecstatic, as I’d been actively covering Justice Online for 5 years now, ever since it was revealed to the world as “Treacherous Waters Online.”
Naturally, I agreed. This was a great opportunity to capture footage nobody else had, and to really get a gauge on whether we should be excited or not. That was over 8 months ago. After exchanging several emails with the studio, they went completely silent. What happened?

Justice Online has been in active development for the better half of a decade, releasing within China as a premium subscription-based MMO. It is a stunning, open-world game akin to Swords of Legends Online – published by Gameforge recently. Just.. with a premium polish on it.
Players choose 1 of several Human classes, all based on various Chinese weapon or fighting styles. Combat is a hybrid action combat system similar to Guild Wars 2. The world allows for a lot of freedom to explore, unlike SOLO which had significantly smaller, more linear zones.
Justice Online has the potential to really fill a part of the market that has gone largely untapped since Age of Wushu and Perfect World International were relevant titles. But will it?

On January 17th, 2022, I received an email from NetEase asking if I wanted to be a part of a small, select group of influencers allowed to access the early, localized version of Justice Online.
They claimed they had an announcement coming “on January 25th,” with an English version to follow shortly after their announcement. I did a video on the announcement specifically, but ultimately never had the opportunity to do the video on the English version they were alluding to possessing.
They had me confirm that I would not speak about the English version, and that I would keep any and all information concerning the English version of the game between the studio and myself. Granted, I never signed an NDA, but I was happy waiting for them to release the information themselves. They just never did.

Several months later, I received a new email from NetEase asking if I would be interested in covering their yet-to-be-released, super top-secret wuxia MMORPG launching in English “soon.”
They were very vague this time, though, refusing to reveal the name of the game. Only stating that it would be a premium, subscription-based PC MMO with a wuxia theme, available currently only in English. So Justice Online. Which they’d already contacted me about.
This time they had an NDA, and a lot of legal documents they wanted me to sign before working with me, including providing my Passport to verify my identity. I don’t feel confident giving Chinese companies important information like that, so I declined, and never heard back from them.
That isn’t to say that they won’t reach out to me again as they approach a time closer to their release, but I don’t believe that release will be any time soon.

Justice Online has been available in China for years, and was expected to release Globally, as a premium MMO in 2022, having influencers cover the game leading up to its launch. Which just never happened.
Instead, NetEase, who announced the game earlier this year have chosen not to provide players any updates, and remain silent. Which is concerning for the game’s future, and definitely shows a certain degree of unprofessionalism. But this is a Chinese company – it’s par for the course, right?

Justice Online is not releasing this year, despite releasing a full trailer showing off the game for Western audiences and making public announcements confirming they would.
When will it release? Nobody knows. They’ve cut off communication with Western influencers for the time being, as nobody I have reached out to has heard anything from them all year.
2023 would still be a decent bet, but with Blue Protocol launching next year.. honestly, there’s going to be no contest concerning which game people will be playing.

Regardless, I’m still excited for Justice Online. I just hope they release it while there’s still people that are.
Now if Justice Online isn’t your thing, no problem, I got 2 videos on screen right now that’ll be of interest to you. 1 featuring a brand new MMO that was just announced, and the other featuring a list of every MMO launching this month, in the month of December 2022.