Astellia Launching in Korea in 2018, May be Pay 2 Play in the West

Most Korean Free-to-Play MMORPGs don't succeed in the West. While many games can keep themselves up and running, K-MMORPGs that aren't nearly as popular with Western audiences as they are with Eastern ones.

It is for this reason that Astellia, published by Barunson Studio, are looking into seeing what they can do to make Astellia more appealing to Western audiences. In an interview conducted by mmorpg.com, Barunson Studio said that though the Korean version is a Free to Play game, they are looking into perhaps considering a Pay to Play model. According to the developer, Barunson Studio, the reason for the business model change is to "meet the NA gamers' expectations."

Interestingly, Astellia seems to be joining the ranks of Black Desert Online in that its free to play in its home country and pay to play in the West. This is likely because free-to-play still carries a negative preconception by many Western gamers.

Aside from the news of a potential pay-to-play model, Barunson also talked about PvE and PvP content. They plan to have 4-man dungeons, and raids of 16 to 20 players. There will also be 1v1 Dueling, but there will also be an Arena that provides 1v1 and 4v4 combat. Barunson stated that "Avalon" is the focal point of Astellia's PvP, and will provide small to large scale PvP battles.

Personally, I am eager to see how Barunson Studio approaches the task of creating a game that is popular and memorable to Western audiences. Seeing as how many foreign game releases spike up drastically and then taper off quite significantly, it will be interesting to see if Astellia survives in the Western market.

Astellia is expected to launch in Korea next month with a Closed Beta Test, and an official release sometime in Q2 2018. Western service will come "at a right time after stabilizing Korean service" - with Nexon, the publisher, expecting a launch at the end of 2018.