This news should surprise absolutely no one; Kakao Games Europe announced they will be terminating the service of Elyon on December 7, 2022 (after discussion with Krafton) due to low player retention rates (as well as the inability to meet many of the other metrics). Elyon NA/EU launched back on October 20, 2021. As I noted initially, the game didn’t really have a long term future in NA/EU, and would not have anywhere near the longevity that TERA had (despite all of its own issues over its decade plus run on PC).
That leaves Krafton’s Bluehole Studio subsidiary basically with just Elyon KR and SEA (which are also not in a healthy state) and TERA Console as their remaining offerings (until their other projects are completed). This will put further pressure on this subsidiary to deliver results until their new offerings are ready; a challenge in itself with neither title generating significant revenues (this will be apparent in their Q1 2023 filing).
And I again have to repeat; Bluehole Studio does not have any TERA (or MMORPG) PC follow up in the works; that ship has sailed. They don’t even have a solid plan for their blockchain/NFT initiative (I initially thought they might do a quick TERA based NFT cash grab, but that seems unlikely now). The projects they are working on are a console shooter (Project BLACKBIRD) and two mobile titles (Project FF and Project Whale). It is not clear yet which subsidiary studio is handling Project Windless (currently known as UNANNOUNCED PROJECT).
What I am expecting in the future (2023/2024 timeframe), is that both Elyon (KR and SEA regions) and TERA Console to be shutdown once these newer projects actually launch, and Bluehole Studio will likely be reorganized/rebranded/have new objectives (since it is currently designated as their MMORPG arm; a genre they are no longer focusing on/investing in based on their investor relation material).
