Amazon Reveals Lost Ark Closed Beta Start Date And Monetization Plans

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Amazon Game Studios has laid out their plans for the upcoming Lost Ark closed beta test as well as their monetization plans for the highly-awaited Korean MMORPG.

Like the alpha test earlier this year, the closed beta will take place on Steam starting on November 4th at 9am PDT through November 11th 9am PDT for both the NA and EU servers. The first few hours will be dedicated to testing server capacity so expect a short queue when logging in as all players will be forced to login to a single world.

“This is an intentional part of the testing, and we will be expanding worlds as more players come online after the first few hours of load testing is complete to ensure all Closed Beta participants are able to hop into Arkesia quickly,” says Amazon.

The playtest will include the new prologue, the Striker class, a level 55 cap, the second batch of awakening quests and skills for all classes, new tutorial content, along with new dungeons, raids, and zones. Players will also receive an allowance of premium currency that they can use to test out the cash shop which will be partially-stocked with a variety of items. Crystalline Aura, which is basically a subscription option for the western version, can also be purchased from the cash shop.

On the subject of the in-game cash shop, Amazon assures the community that they will not be selling pay-to-win items and that microtransactions will be limited to Founder’s Packs, content-related item bundles, and convenience items. The team has also added a regular currency to premium currency exchange system to ensure that everyone can benefit from items sold in the cash shop.

The upcoming closed beta test will not be covered by an NDA which means that beta participants will be free to stream, record, and share information about the game from day one.

Lost Ark is schedule for release in early 2022. Check out the new closed beta trailer below.

Lost Ark - Closed Beta Teaser Trailer