The ongoing regulation of online gaming in China (including an ongoing bottleneck in approving new releases even for Tencent, one of the countries largest gaming companies) is causing more companies to re-evaluate their priorities,
One of those companies is Smilegate which recently launched LOST ARK into open beta test in Korea. The companies first person shooter title CrossFire, has done exceptionally well in China (published by Tencent) since its launch there in 2008. Last year in China, it generated over $526 million in revenue (not the highest either which was back in 2013 at just a shade under $1 billion).
Because of the crackdown in China (where the government also wants to regulate the amount of hours that can be played), Smilegate realizes the impact this could potentially have not on just CrossFire, but their Chinese release of LOST ARK. Previously, the company had placed priority on that market (due to their success with CrossFire but also, their decade long relationship with Tencent who also have the publishing rights for LOST ARK China).
The new approval process (which has not approved any new games for awhile now), signaled a potential shift in Smilegate’s position back in September when Tencent saw their shares plummet in August due to this ongoing moratorium of approving new games in the country. In this linked September 2018 Chosun Biz article, Smilegate’s CEO telegraphed this changing priority when announcing the open beta launch date. Due to the regulatory upheaval in China, he mentioned they planned to target LOST ARK at “more developed” countries like the US and Europe (the context is lost in the translation but by “more developed” it probably means how the government views its role in the gaming industry in terms of what is and what isn’t regulated).
Servicing Korea is currently their highest priority now that the game has officially soft launched. Just a few days ago, I mentioned how there is this huge window of opportunity to take advantage of Blizzard’s botched/tone-deaf announcement of Diablo: Immortal at BlizzCon. While LOST ARK isn’t a true ARPG, the games overall depth when it comes to game systems, activities, and story content, would really be taken to by many of those players. And on the MMO side, it would satiate players looking for something new.
I’ve never sugarcoated how I felt about this game even during my limited play time during the first two CBT’s (skeptical to be exact about the monetization) or how cynical I was when others were hyping up an over the top trailer in 2014 that they would even be able to pull off a fraction of this. So it says a lot when I can say the proof is in the pudding with how well polished the game already was back during the final closed beta test and how much content there is currently in just the initial open beta test launch (with a lot of land areas not yet developed).
I would say that the time is right (for Smilegate) to strike when the iron is still hot. Echtra Gaming has Torchlight Frontiers coming into its technical alpha this week and a launch in 2019. Blizzard has no firm date for their mobile only Diablo: Immortal, has no near term content updates for Diablo III except that they do have some plans for the next seasonal ladder, and also no announcements set for Diablo 4 in the near term future (let alone, an actual launch date as they go through who knows how many design iterations now that they will get a better peek at Torchlight Frontiers, and also will be hearing more about this Korean MMO-ARPG called LOST ARK).
