Source: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791462503921/announcements/detail/1694929321633441318
The game is expected to come out of early access with an official launch in October. That doesn’t really leave a lot of time to get what exists into better shape considering that 1 and 2 of the above timeline are slated for this month. The future content portion of the timeline is vague at best (while the bug and fixes are stating the obvious since that is expected throughout the process).
Now I do understand not everything might be highlighted, but then it is better to not call it an actual roadmap and maybe just an initial synopsis where “we’ll provide a more detailed roadmap by the end of August” (subject to change of course). Given the lack of communication to date, it just makes the above look very underwhelming.
So I can honestly see why Kuntara Online failed in South Korea. The above makes Neowiz Bless Studio look really great by comparison. PLAYWITH did a decent job listening and communicating with ambassadors during the pre-early access phase but they are clearly not doing the same with the rest of the player base during this early access period.
The excuse that “this is just the first week of early access” does not fly with me. This isn’t a completely new game. The company in general has long been a publisher in Korea, Asia, and in the NA/EU region.
I still do not agree with MMOBytes assertion that this was a “disgusting cash grab” (rebranded yes) because you cannot have a cash grab with a peak of 469 players after having given away close to 1500 keys (majority obviously farmed by resellers and possibly gold farmers), sponsoring a few content creators and streamers, and generally operating this with a negative cash flow. Bless Online was a cash grab with a price range from $30 to $150 (nearly 35k peak with maybe only a small fraction who refunded in time).
This is just a company that thought they could revive a game that quickly failed twice but found out the hard way when Kuntara Online didn’t gain traction (once people learned it was a remastered version of ELOA). Trying with a different name and business model in the west seemed like a logical choice given how that market has been a gold mine for milking. Except Neowiz took it to another level with Bless Online and that proved to be enough to cause enough fatigue with this propensity for the quick cash grab. PLAYWITH hasn’t helped any given the poor advertising/marketing.
I was originally going to give them all of their early access period to show they were going to live up to their community focused approach but it’s already clear there is a disconnect both internally (Korean developers and the team handling the Steam publishing; more specifically, whomever is overseeing the business operations) and the early access participants. The rest of early access also won’t make much of a difference for this game as they’re burning through goodwill with how they are handling it. Players who are having fun should continue playing while the game is available though. Spending money on it should come at each persons own discretion (it won’t do anything for the longevity); as I mentioned before, consider it as entertainment money and not an investment (i.e. the sunk coast fallacy). I don’t see this having a long life when it officially launches.
Realistically, I would make the executive decision within the next week to change that deadline and extend the early access period in order to get what exists on better footing. Until something major like that is announced, I will probably stop wasting time writing any more feedback or posting about this game/company until they come out of early access. Maybe they will prove me wrong by then.
P.S. some may wonder why I bother? Because I cared to see this at least handled properly where it could at least have a chance (even if niche) of some longevity. I’m just tired of seeing games that I end up enjoying, being shut down.
