1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (364 votes, average: 3.55 / 5)
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Lost Ark

Lost Ark is a 3D fantasy MMORPG with action RPG style combat and a huge world to explore. Set sail on your own ship to discover new regions and battle powerful bosses with a raid party. Lost Ark offers a feature-rich gaming experience combined with stunning visuals and skill effects.

Publisher: Amazon
Playerbase: High
Type: MMORPG
Korean Release Date: November 07, 2018
Global Release Date: February 11, 2022
PvP: Arenas
Pros: +Satisfying action oriented combat. +Huge variety of collectibles. +Solid PvP design. +Excellent late game content (raids).
Cons: -Moderate learning curve. -Poor leveling experience. -Generic story. -RNG upgrade system can be frustrating.

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CrossFire Is Shutting Down In Korea

South Korean studio Smilegate has announced the closure of the tactical shooter CrossFire in its home market.

Despite grossing over $1 billion last year, CrossFire has only found success in Mainland China where it is licensed by Tencent. The success of this licensing partnership has made the founder of Smilegate a billionaire and Korea's 8th richest man.

An English language server for CrossFire is still running and the franchise has two spinoff titles in the works: CrossFireX and CrossFire ZERO. CrossFireX is coming to Xbox and PC in 2020 through a partnership with Microsoft.

The Korean servers are scheduled to close on March 3, 2020. The Japanese servers were closed back in 2018.

Smilegate is the developer behind Lost Ark, a MMORPG long anticipated in the West but with no firm release date.

Further Reading: Gametrics [Korean]

CrossFire Gameplay First Look HD - MMOs.com

Crossfire X Coming To Consoles In 2020

A console version of Crossfire, the world's most popular shooter, is coming to Xbox One in 2020. Titled Crossfire X, the console version is developed by Smilegate, the same studio behind the 2007 original Crossfire.

The original PC version of Crossfire still boasts over 8 million concurrent players, over 650 million registered accounts, and its routinely grosses over $1 billion dollars annually. The game's success is largely due to China, but a Western version has been available for several years, but failed to find much of an audience.

Inspired by Valve's Counter-Strike, Crossfire quickly branched out to add new game modes such as zombies, vehicle modes, underwater matches, and much more. The sale of skins, new characters, and powerful weapons keeps the money rolling in. No word yet on weather Crossfire X will maintain the original's pay-to-win business model.

While Crossfire X will launch first on Xbox, expect a PlayStation release later on.

CrossfireX - E3 2019 - Announce Trailer

SmileGate Confirms Lost Ark Is Coming To The West

7 years and 100 billion Won (~$88 million USD) later, Lost Ark finally entered Open Beta Testing in South Korea on November 7, 2018. Smilegate, the company behind Lost Ark, has announced that they are targeting 'more developed countries' such as North America and Europe for their next launch phase.

Usually China proves to be a more alluring next-step for Korean MMORPG developers, but the recent gaming approval freeze in China means that the world's biggest gaming market is currently off limits. To give a sense of China's importance to SmileGate, 80% of their total sales last year came from the Chinese version of their tactical shooter Crossfire.

China's loss is our gain. With these Chinese market closed to them, SmileGate has chosen instead to focus its attention on an English/International version of Lost Ark. Lostk Ark seems a good fit for the Western audience as the action-RPG oriented gameplay is well established here. Lost Ark will compete with other Korean titles like Mu Legend, but also with established action RPG franchises like Diablo 3 and Path of Exile. But unlike the latter two, Lost Ark boasts a persistent world and many more MMORPG features.

Further Reading: Chosun Biz (KR)

Lost Ark (KR) - Official Open Beta game trailer

Crossfire - Europe's Next eSport?

Quick, what's the biggest FPS in the world? Overwatch? Counter Strike? Nope. Its Crossfire!

First released by the Korean studio Smilegate back in 2007, Crossfire is a free to play tactical shooter inspired by Counter-Strike 1.6 but with crazy game modes, a cash shop, daily rewards, and all the other Asian bells and whistles thrown in. Crossfire has consistently been one of the most profitable games in the world year after year. The game currently generates about $1.3 billion a year, topped only by Tencent's League of Legends.

Despite its enormous financial success, gamers in North America and Europe may be forgiven for never even hearing about Crossfire. The game's success is largely due to the enormous and persistent popularity it enjoys in China. A Western version is available, but hasn't drawn a lot of attention. Smilegate hopes to fix that this year with a renewed push in the West, Europe in particular. The Korean studio has owned a new office in Berlin with the stated goal of making Crossfire a successful European eSport. The new office is headed by an all-star cast of free-to-play veterans including Emanuel Schleussinge (former CTO of Aeria Games), Andrezj Ilczuk (former director of Live Games at Aeria Games), and Christian Baur (former Gameforge product marketing director.)

The first task for the new office is to translate the client into German and create content suited for the European market. Other languages are likely to follow. Crossfire will be present at the IEM Expo in Poland which takes place later this month. A $15,000 prize tournament for Crossfire will be held there on March 4th. Smilegate is wise to target Europe, specifically Eastern Europe where economic conditions are closer to that of China which has proven to be fertile ground for the low-spec FPS title. Its certainly going to be an uphill battle for Crossfire as it will have to go up against Europe's reigning FPS champion, Counter Strike Global Offensive.

CrossFire Gameplay First Look HD - MMOs.com

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CrossFire

Crossfire is a tactical 3D first-person shooter that emphasizes teamwork in a modern warfare setting. Choose between one of two mercenary corporations and engage in a large variety of game modes.

Publisher: Z8Games
Playerbase: High
Type: MMOFPS
Release Date: May 3, 2007
Pros: +Lightweight client. +Varied game modes. +Daily rewards. +Permanent weapons.
Cons:-Items locked behind in-game currency. -Dated graphics.

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