MMORPGs Launching Quickly in North America

New MMORPGs and MMOs that launched in South Korea and China are making their way fastest to the West than ever before. Just recently Perfect World Entertainment launched their newest game – Forsaken World into closed beta here in the West. The game is STILL in closed beta testing over in China. So the game was localized and launched in BOTH regions at around the same time. I say “around the same time” because it was out in China first, but not by much. Nexon, the company best known for MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter Online, launched Vindictus in North America within 6 months or so of launching it in South Korea. The time it takes for an Eastern game to reach Western shores have been decreasing steadily for quite a few years now. Loong: The Power of the Dragon from Gamigo is yet another example. Unfortunately, things haven’t always been this way.

Digimon Battle from WeMade Entertainment for example, launched in North America some 5+ years after it launched in South Korea and China. Darkeden from JoyMax launched in the States nearly 8 years after it originally debuted in Korea. Just recently PWE launched Heroes of Three Kingdoms in North America, but it had been available in South East Asia as “Redcliff” for numerous years. It’s only recently that games have begun launching in different regions at “around” the same time. Black Prophecy, an upcoming MMORPG from Gamigo is scheduled to launch in both North America and Europe at around the same time too.

Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of games available only in South Korea and China which haven’t launched in the West yet. Luckily, some of these games – JX2 Online, Battle of Destiny, Super Dance Online and Hot Dance Party (Steps) are all playable from North America, even though they are published in South East Asia. Most games not released in America have IP restrictions preventing foreign users from logging in. Beanfun for example has half a dozen games available in Taiwan that aren’t yet available in the West. Luckily, they’re bringing the Japanese MMORPG Lucent Heart to North America real soon. But there are so many other games available in Asia that have yet to be announced in North America.

Even though the gap between new MMORPGs announced in Korea and coming to the West is decreasing, I feel that a lot of the older games are never going to make it to Western shores. It’s unfortunate because many of them would probably be really successful here. I mean just look at games like Silkroad Online from JoyMax and Conquer Online from TQ Digital – both of these Eastern games are huge hits in the West. Legend of Edda, FreeJack and Zentia for example are all really popular here in the West. These titles are new, but even older games “relaunched” here are big. Just look at Fantasy Earth Zero from GamePot USA. It’s an older Japanese MMORPG but it’s a big hit!

Bring some older Chinese MMORPGs and Korean MMORPGs to North America! After all, American MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons Online are available all over Asia already!

GamesCampus MMO Publisher is Growing Fast!

GamesCampus – the free to play MMO publisher which launched back in 2006 with one MMO (Shot Online) has been growing rapidly over the years. They now publish at least half a dozen games with plans to launch numerous new games in the future. I’ve written about other MMORPG publishers in the past, but I wanted to talk about GamesCampus today because they recently announced that they would be publishing Drift City in North America. Yep – you heard me correctly. GamesCampus will be publishing Drift City soon. After October 28 to be precise. So what’s going to have to the ijji version of the game? It’s going to shut down. Don’t worry though – players can transfer their characters to the GamesCampus version after the game closes its doors. Unfortunately cash shop items bought on the ijji version and Gcoins acquired will not be transferable. Players can spend their Gcoins on some other MMORPGs that ijji publishes though like HolyBeast Online, Rohan Online, Genesis A.D, Lunia, Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu, and numerous other titles.

Besides Drift City, GamesCampus launched a new anime MMORPG into closed beta this week – Legend of Edda. The game actually entered into closed beta on September 30, 2010 and is a cute MMORPG with chibi style graphics. After playing the game for a while I was surprised to learn that Legend of Edda is actually a PvP intensive game. The game features large scale faction battles like Aika Online from gPotato and Fantasy Earth Zero from GamePot USA. On a side note I think gPotato has been doing really swell lately too. They continue to update their older games like Rappelz and Fly For Fun. Even Tales Runner remains updated too. Too bad FreeJack launched recently, it’ll be competing with Tales Runner, as it’s the only other parkour style foot racing MMO. GamesCampus is also working on launching a tank themed MMO called Tank Ace, which will compete with World of Tanks. Too bad there’s no definitive release on Tank Ace, as the game looks neat. I thought World of Tanks was neat, but the game was super annoying, as higher level players and tanks 1 shotted lower level tanks. It’s realistic and all, but bleh. It played too much like NavyField.

Over the last few months GamesCampus also launched two games into full release. Soul Master being the more interesting one and Heroes in the Sky being the other. I like Soul Master because it’s a unique with strategy elements. It plays like Dragonica Online from Gravity Interactive, except with some unique strategy aspects. Heroes in the Sky is cool too because it’s one of the only dog fighting MMOs – except for perhaps Ace Online from Suba Games. The game is also set during World War 2 and has plenty of real life airplanes in it. So World War 2 buffs or airplane aficionados will find something to love in the game.