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Rift: Headed to Korea
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Trion Worlds has announced that a deal has been inked with Korean games developer and publisher CJ E&M Games to bring a localized version of Rift to Korea. There is no timeline set for the Korean publication of Rift.
“We are very happy to introduce the premium MMO Rift to Korean gamers, as it delivers a truly dynamic experience which I am personally enjoying very much, and I am confident Korean gamers will also enjoy this great title,” said Whon Namkoong, Head of Games Business, CJ E&M.
The agreement comes hot on the heels of NPD’s March Report which lists Rift as the month’s top-selling PC game at retail in North America. While digital sales have significantly outpaced retail sales, the report details a strong retail performance for Trion’s first premium online title.
Read more about Rift.
Comments
I just don't see this game appealing to the Korean market, especially when they've already got: Tera, Archeage and Blade & Soul. Three vastly different MMOs that are either already out or set to release soon, in Korea.
Oh and let's not forget Guild Wars 2. Since NCsoft are the publishers, the game will definitely release in Korea not too long after the NA & EU release.
Clearly, the success of Rift will only contiue to grow with exposure to Korean players. It's heading to Russia later this year too.
Tera = Aion without sticky targetting
Archage is a sandbox - we all know they only appeal to a minority of gamers as most prefer themeparks (WoW, Lotro, Rift, etc. hold all the market share).
Blade & Soul is just now going into open beta - Rift is out, polished and ready to make $$$
For some reason I don't think this will end well. Rift does not seem like the type of game that will endure to the Korean & Russian market.
~over-extending much?~
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Now it's Korean MMO players turn to throw this 'It's not Korean enough / where are my scantily clad women / it's just another Westener quest grinder' lol. Judging from the art style alone, Rift's gonna struggle alot just like how TERA / Blade and Soul is doing with the EU and NA audience. Aside from that, Korean players have more than enough of fresh MMO such as Dragon Nest, Vindictus not to mention big names like TERA, Blade and Soul. Rift is just another dual faction, tab-targeting MMO within Aion and 1346572 F2P MMOs there.
An ambitous but way too risky move of Trion.
And localizing an MMO takes time. Just look at how long it's taking Tera to be "Westernized" (¬_¬).
Could be till early next year that the Koreans get a whiff of Rift and by then they would have experienced a variety of MMOs, with fairly unique combat mechanics. So I doubt many of them would like to go back to the "same old same old". Also if Rift is beaten by Guild Wars 2, in being released to the Korean, then Trion has no chance especially with NCsoft marketing the thing and how GW2 will be trying to appeal to the e-sport crowd.
The process to Easternize Rift:
Add 1,000,000,000,000,000 experience points in order to level.
Why not? WoW is huge in Asia. If rift is the wow clone naysayers claim, why wouldn't it thrive? I think it will do well.Can work :-) Rift got potential, and those Koreans will maybe like it. Would be good for TRION!
Eaglix
i think they can actually do it.
Trion prolly did their marketing research befour going to korea with rift
Proof? I can't recall any AAA company making any sandbox MMO's recently. The only one I recall was UO, and that was hugely popular for the time (97-2004) and had a stable sub base that most AAA modern day themepark MMO's could only dream of.
As does eve, which is niche game (space) with a sandbox world, not even a AAA title, yet has ~250k subs (again, dwarfing most AAA themeparks), and is one of the few MMO's which has seen continued growth post WOW.
Now consider how saturated the themepark market is, and how jaded most MMO players are getting with the 'same old same old'....
And yeah, just sayin'.
I laughed so hard I spit out some soda. Sad but true.
man, i miss UO
LOL, QFT!
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert