Like clockwork, NCSoft used their financial conference call to announce the latest news regarding Throne and Liberty (what was previously known as Project TL and Lineage Eternal before it). A transcript (in Korean Hangul but is mostly understandable via machine translation) was posted on this message board.
This time, the latest news is that it has been delayed to the first half of 2023. This reminds me of the time when they announced the global beta for Lineage Eternal would be taking place sometime in 2017. The project went silent instead. And when it was rebranded to Project TL, the company announced (in a financial conference call), that the CBT would occur some time in 2018 with release set for 2019.
As I mentioned previously, it’s a fools errand pegging an actual release date for this long delayed title when they keep disclosing potential dates that end up never materializing in their financial disclosures. If I were a financial analyst, I’d be skewering company executives regarding the lengthy delays, and the expenses being incurred for what amounts to a title being trapped in development hell. Responses in the past have usually been to the effect of needing more time to polish the game while this time around, it’s some very vague information regarding strategic expansion overseas (while acknowledging the game is designed for the domestic market first; this being an unsurprising norm for every Korean development studio).
Even now, I doubt what they have is even close to being beta ready (where the first half of 2023 release sounds like yet another over optimistic estimate). The company doesn’t even seem to be confident about the data (to use as a basis for Throne and Liberty) from their prior Lineage titles, Aion, or even Blade & Soul with what has worked, and what hasn’t for their overseas deployments (not to mention subsidiary ArenaNet with Guild Wars 2).
I’ve said it numerous times in the past with this game, might as well “STICK A FORK IN IT”.
