Formerly known by it’s codename “Project T” that Netmarble had been teasing on April 4th, the actual working name (TERA Origin) was announced several days later to be a prequel of TERA Online. And yes, it is a mobile title that has been under development by Krafton’s SQUALL (formerly Bluehole Squall) subsidiary. Netmarble previously licensed the TERA IP to create TERA M (which ended up doing poorly in Korea and other regions; it was never released in the west). TERA M’s story itself took place before the events of the PC version (1000 years prior).
The SQUALL subsidiary was also involved with TERA M (partnering with Netmarble for parts of its design and development). So yes, part of this is likely a a re-leveraging of the TERA M assets but with changes to the game play, game systems, and parts of its story (since there really isn’t that many ways to actually do touch based controls and I doubt the TERA franchise is suitable for augmented reality type of play). Subtle changes to some in-game story and graphics to appeal to the Japanese are likely what is being fine tuned.
Krafton’s other subsidiary studio Red Sahara, is working on TERA Frontier which is their attempt to bring most of the PC version of TERA (same time arc and story line) to mobile. This is something the company has been working on prior to Bluehole (now known as Krafton) acquiring the studio in 2018 (Bluehole at the time was focusing on licensing out the TERA IP).
This version of TERA is seemingly being targeted at Japan only for now, and will utilize “a new way” to experience the game on smart mobile devices (Android and iOS). Netmarble stated the details about the game play and the prequel aspect of the story will be “coming soon”; the website is still only in teaser mode.
