http://mmoculture.com/2017/05/lineage-eternal-ncsoft-replaces-the-leadership-of-development-team/
The writing is on the wall with this game (eternally in development). I mentioned before that it cannot afford yet another design change but that is what is going to end up happening given the “new development schedule”.
PC MMO development is generally on the decline in South Korea due to the increased popularity of mobile gaming there (so game development studios, publishers, and gaming portals just follow the money) which doesn’t help any in terms of sustaining momentum for this particular title.
Sure, the fact that Devilian did not end up doing well in South Korea highlighted that isometric style MMO’s that tried to copy too much of Diablo III, was a niche that didn’t attract a large portion of that player base. The problem is that NCsoft decided to do a redesign to de-emphasize that original aspect (shown off in the 2011 G-Star trailer) leading to the somewhat lackluster first CBT.
Webzen now has pretty much a free reign in this niche with MU Legend until NCsoft can get Lineage Eternal off the ground again or whenever Lost Ark happens. It will be interesting to see how well they can manage the business operations in the global version. They have stayed away from the whole founders pack thing so far nor are there any clues how their cash shop will look like. Wacky costumes are indeed a thing in the Korean version which was part of the attraction for Devilian in South Korea (because who doesn’t want to slay monsters while wearing a panda suit?)
