As expected, Amazon Games will be launching Lost Ark in the west this fall. Last summer, Smilegate RPG had signed a publishing agreement with the company (but did not specify the game itself). Smilegate RPG’s only game however is Lost Ark (making it clear the two companies would eventually be bringing the game to the west).
What does surprise me is they decided to launch it as a free-to-play title. The closed technical alpha (with limited content and an NDA) will be going live on June 11th via Steam. Per their information, it is effectively an infrastructure test for Amazon Games.
Amazon Games has founders packs available for sale (in-game premium currency of Royal Crystals is the same as the Korean version). The last time I played the game was in 2019 (Korean soft launch until just prior to the Rohendel update). Following is a playlist of gameplay from the early release version.
Since that time, there have been significant changes (streamlining with the leveling, changes to end game systems, addition of the island housing system, and content updates). As such, the western version will have a freshness to it (plus actual proper localization for the west). Given the lack of quality MMO’s, I am actually looking forward to playing the western version.
This may also put a dent into Kakao Games launch of Elyon (4th quarter of 2021). While they are two very different games, Lost Ark WILL make a major dent just based on the amount of content it will have relative to Elyon (unsurprisingly, Kakao Games announced CBT2 earlier today along with adding access for it to their pre-orders).
