On March 7th, Kakao Games announced on Twitter it would be officially moving announcements to its official Kakao Games Twitter, ArcheAge’s dedicated Discord and its website.
Effective March 17th, the game’s official Twitter account will cease operations.
Since its announcement, many ArcheAge players took to both Twitter and Discord to express their opinions of the game’s future.
And considering the MMORPG’s publishing history, many followers believe the game is truly on its last leg.
A Challenging Publishing History
Since its founding in 2013 by XL Games and Trion, the Korean-founded MMORPG ArcheAge has had consistent challenges in retaining players.
Based in the mythical land of Auroria, the seamless, open-world MMO boasts unique character building mechanics, and fun role-playing features (including instrument building and jewelry crafting). Players have a wealth of activities to choose from, whether it’s building, crafting, collaborating on missions, and competing within the world’s many regions.
The game itself is incredibly in-depth, with a robust guild community structure, a unique mercantile trading system, and a non-instance housing format encouraging first-come-first-claim “land rushes.”
Yet it wasn’t long before players began to voice their opinions on in-game exploits and flag concerns with the publisher’s long term, free-to-play monetization practices.
The game eventually traded publishing hands from Trion to Gamigo in 2018, which meant a full global relaunch of new fresh start servers, in addition to mergings of the old. Players who invested hundreds of dollars lost faith in the publishing companies’ capabilities of sustaining the game, and long-time players were left frustrated at the continuing game imbalances.
This led to the launch of ArcheAge: Unchained by Gamigo.
AAU was its pay-to-play model that promised transferring players the chance to pay once then play free from heavy in-game monetization practices, similar in fashion to Black Desert Online. It would thus eliminate the MMORPG’s controversial pay-to-win model.
All while keeping the original ArcheAge servers alive for players who were not willing to once again start fresh.
Yet, with the takeover from Kakao Games in 2021, AAU players were once again informed that the model was shifting to a “premium” subscription-based one.
We’ve thought long and hard about the idea behind ArcheAge: Unchained and what is needed to fulfill your vision of what Unchained represents. We’ve made some pretty significant changes to how the service will be provided, what will be available in the cash shop, and how various functions such as ArchePass and Patron will work.
ArcheAge: Unchained will now have a subscription model!
In order to remove the possibility to increase in-game power with real-life currency, we’ve opted for a monthly subscription method. Many of the previously paid benefits and Marketplace-only items will be automatically included for free or acquired through in-game methods with Manastorm Crystals. This gives even more value to the subscription. Also, any paid items will be purely cosmetic.
-Kakao Games, Reintroducing ArcheAge: Unchained
This was in order to ensure a more balanced in-game experience, proper support, and the development of key game features and expansions.
Kakao Games’ Growing ArcheAge Initiatives
Efforts to keep promises in mind while pushing the franchise forward seem true as Kakao looks into ways to engage new players, including the launch of two new ArcheAge Unchained Fresh Start Servers earlier this year.
This does make its latest Twitter delete announcement for the now 10-year old MMORPG seem out of place but, for many players, unsurprising.
The news also happens to be shared the same month Kakao Games expects to release their new MMO ArcheAge War, which is set to launch on March 21st in South Korea.
Still, we can’t help but consider the true answer to these two questions:
- Is this shut down of ArcheAge’s dedicated twitter a sign of reprioritization or the eventual close out of both legacy communities ahead of the studio’s two new games?
- Or is the publisher living up to their player promises by simplifying communication to the their main channel, websites, and the game’s ArcheAge Discord?
Some players expressed understanding, noting that there was a preference for Discord due to the amount of information shared, while another user highlighted it would help them save time by no longer having to visit both.
ArcheAge Community Manager Jyx also took to discord to ease player worries about the game’s future, revealing that they will also be shutting down the Instagram page.
Yes, we are closing down the Twitter, but it has nothing to do with a game closure coming. […] Activity is rather low, as most of our players are on discord compared to other games.So we decided to focus more of our time and energy here for now.
We will still give you regular updates through our playkakaogames account: https://twitter.com/playkakaogames “
– CM Jyx on March 8th
It could also be guessed that there will soon be a huge focus by the team on their two upcoming MMORPG titles, however that plays out.
As a long time AA player since Alpha, I can only hope that Kakao Games’ decisions come from a true desire to better streamline communication with their current player base and reignite a love for what has always had the potential to be a phenomenal game experience.
Especially ahead of their much anticipated ArcheAge 2 MMORPG.
What do you think about publishing studios shutting down their games’ twitter and instagram channels? Is that the right call to make? Let us know what you think on our Twitter at BossRushNetwork or comment down below.
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Source: Kakao Games
Featured Image: Kakao Games
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