Back on June 30, 2022, TERA PC was closed for all regions (this being a decision made by Krafton back in April 2022). Shortly after that, I ended up taking a 3-month journey into the leaked server files (v92.03 and 100.02 from the already shuttered Taiwanese version) and tried being a conduit to at least get the word out regarding options that would allow being able to experience the game in some form, once the official servers went down.
As expected, there were a lot of TERA private server projects that popped out of this. Menma’s (which pre-dated all of this since it was at the time, running what was previously a closely held v92.04 leak), is still the most populated TERA private server. I learned that it was recently targeted with a “supposed” cease & desist from Krafton (I don’t think they ever released the actual C&D letter with the law firm name though, and given that my MEGA TERA file archive (or even many of the others) that still sees terabytes of download activity hasn’t even been hit yet with DMCA takedowns (something that Krafton initially was very aggressive with back in 2021 when the v92.03 server files were made widely public), I kind of doubt it was an actual official C&D (versus some party that wanted to try to scare them to shut down).
Yes, Krafton has every right to issue such C&D’s and take downs since it is part of the process of protecting their intellectual property, service/trade marks, and copyrights as it relates to the TERA franchise. But they’ve also exhibited a very “look the other way” approach when they learned the futility of playing “whack-a-mole” with the v92.03 and v100.02 server file leaks. I sort of chalk that up to their corporate legal (given some of the really crazy copyright/intellectual property lawsuits they filed with PUBG) not really caring given how easily the company swept a lot of its history under the rug with TERA PC’s closure.
Digressing (back to the private servers), several ended up closing over the past 9 months (a couple that were attempting to launch, never did). IMHO, there were just way too much for what is a niche; with the server files available to anyone, one could also just setup their own offline version (like what I did). While I initially tinkered with the files and got involved with the TERA private server community on RageZone, I stopped even running the setup locally because I didn’t want to completely over shadow the fact that there would be no further official development of the game (I explained my thoughts about this at the end of this post).
I didn’t want this upcoming first year since the closure, to feel like it hasn’t been closed (as a result of playing on a private server or playing around with my local offline setups). I haven’t touched my local setup since July 2022 because I didn’t want to negate the actual experience and memories (good and bad) of playing the actual live service (in my own way). I was also hoping one of the final leaks (v105) that made it out of HappyTuk (the Taiwanese publisher) would surface over the following months (a quick check shows that it hasn’t). Nonetheless, I for one am grateful to this day that we have both v92.03 and v100.02 (because this option never materialized for Devilian except for endless false leads or people saying they had the server files, but it turned out to be just the game client).
TERA Console (as the sole official service of the TERA franchise) still continues trucking along (though most of the updates aren’t major content updates since this thing seems to be running out of contractual obligations, and not because Krafton is investing anything into it). Krafton’s recent financials (while some of the best in its history) are predicated on the continuing success of their PUBG franchise because everything else is a blip on their financial statements (and with Elyon shutting down in South Korea and NA/EU by Kakao Games and SEA by Playpark in April 2023, Krafton’s Bluehole Studio subsidiary is basically operating on a thin lifeline and borrowed time with TERA Console and Elyon Japan). That’s just the business realities given that the company has made a conscious decision to move away from developing MMORPG’s (since even veteran designers at the company are aware of the focus/cultural shift). To date, none of the other initiatives the companies various subsidaries have been working on, have hit an actual launch window.
Come June 30, 2023, I will probably run my v.92.03 offline setup to revisit the world of TERA once again, but then put it aside again so that I can re-watch some of the closure videos from last year as players made their final goodbyes to the game (back in March, I re-watched my video of Devilian’s closure from 5 years ago where the memories from its final month came flooding back; where it was just 5 years that passed by in a blink).
