Per this article from WCCFTECH, Kakao Games (KR) quarterly financial report confirmed some additional details regarding ArcheAge 2 (AA2). The company anticipates to have its first CBT towards the tail end of 2024 (which would push the actual launch into 2025, a delay of sorts). The company also noted they hope to have a playable demonstration at Gamescom 2024 (which is usually held in August).
The company also announced some game play systems are being changed to hone in on “western players tastes”; namely noting that AA2 will be focusing less on large scale PvP (which was one of the key aspects of the current ArcheAge title). Part of this change is based on a relatively generalized view of western gamers preference for “action packed, single player PvE based console games that is also story driven”. AA2 is targeted for both PC and console; thus a lot of changes are also being driven by this deployment (an example of that is the shift from tabbed targeting that is used in ArcheAge, to BDO/TERA style non-targeted action combat).
XLGAMES has very little in-house expertise when it comes to actually designing console games though (there’s a level of design competence when it comes to game systems (skills, targeting, combat, mob AI, etc), UI I/O abstractions, UI designs, etc). It’s why I have been less than optimistic about AA2’s actual longer term longevity since part of the game seems to just be taking parts of AA, and redoing it in Unreal Engine 5 where it is also cross platform between PC and console. I pretty much expect AA2 to be a hyped up front-loaded cash grab that isn’t designed for any sort of long term viability.
Now I personally don’t mind the more casual focus with some of the game features (like housing), BUT I do also understand what drew a lot of players from a broad demographic to the original game since even I as a casual non-PvP focused player, am still playing ArcheAge (Unchained) while I disregard aspects like the PvP. And I will continue playing the merged (into legacy business model) version until the plug is pulled. That eventual service termination will likely be pushed out now that we have this information regarding a potential CBT date towards the end of 2024 (which puts a launch into 2025).
