Prospective 2022: What Asian MMORPG will mark the year 2022?

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The MMORPG Asian industry is particularly dynamic and sometimes at the forefront of trends that will mark the rest of the world soon. And the sector has experienced several significant developments in 2021. In bulk and in disorder, it has for example been found that the historical actors of the industry that were concentrated so far on the MMORPG also showed of interest for the more narrative games playable in small committee (at The image of a Crimson Desert at Chen Pearl Abyss in Korea or a Black Myth Kong at Game Science in China) and that these new projects benefited from budgets AAA. It has also been noted that this same industry that only swore by mobile platforms seems to have rediscovered the PC and the consoles (including the new generation of consoles and to distribute its new narrative games) and makes the bet of MMORPG Cross. —Platforms distributed on both PC, consoles and mobile platforms in view of an upcoming democratization of cloud gaming. Another trend, after seeing the new platforms as a growth lever, the MMORPG Asian industry is now focusing on new markets, that is, the distribution of its Games outside the borders of Asia and Notes The multiplication of global projects with vocation to be launched simultaneously or almost around the world.

After years of mobile MMORPG distributed in Asia, the time of the MMORPG PC (or at least Cross-Platforms) distributed worldwide came? This seems to be the project of several MMO industry mastodons in China, Korea or Japan and some MMORPG from Asia might mark the year 2022.

Cross-Platform blockbusters

Among these significant Asian MMORPGs, it must undoubtedly remember lineage W : The game may not be the most breathtaking graphically but the MMORPG aims to bring down the boundaries between players. Concretely, lineage W is the global version of the first lineage (which is needed as one of the gender references for nearly a quarter of a century in Korea), with fortress seats and fields From battles of a colossal scope and opposing players around the world — NCS OFT has even imagined artificial intelligence technologies and instant translations to facilitate exchanges between players regardless of their language. The game knows a few failing (the global launch scheduled last November has finally limited to an Asian launch, waiting for a phase 2 in Russia and in the early 2022), but Lineage W could impose itself as one First real MMORPG actually massif, in the world of term.

His main Challenger will probably be Odin: Valhalla Rising : There too, the game was launched in Korea in June 2021 (where the MMORPG Cross-Platform encounters a solid popular success, to the point of competing NCS OFT lineage) and the game must be the subject of a global operation on the servers of Aka Games (first in Taiwan and Japan at the beginning of the year 2022 and then in the rest of the world). Again, the game is undoubtedly significant for its technical realization (Odin Valhalla Rising is impressive graphically) but beyond its interest, its economic model questions — we imagine (we hope?) That Aka Games will adapt it for the West.

Here, no doubt can we also mention Mad World, the MMORPG of the studio Bandicoot, currently in global alpha-test — an alpha 4.0 was held a few weeks and a 5.0 is already announced for February 2022. The game is not a blockbuster, but again it is a technological feat since it is fully done in HTML5 — the game does not rest on a game client to download, but takes the form of a simple Web page and is playable in real time from a browser. If Mad World manages to realize its ambitions, it could help to change our playful video uses: to start a part of a click, without resorting to Cloud Gaming.

It will also be mentioned here The Ragnarök, the MMORPG of Chinese Ne tease which also promises to push the traditional limits of cross-platform titles by the scope of its universe, in addition to proposing A hybrid gameplay mixing strategy gaming mechanics (on a world map) and RPG elements, sprinkled with geisha games to collect souls of fallen warriors. We will judge on room the time coming.

but also surprises

The distant East preserves its secrets, but several MMORPGs that we do not yet know much could significantly mark the year 2022 in Asia. We note two main, both signed by NCS OFT.

First Ion 2 : this is again a cross-platform project and if we do not know anything or almost its content (the game suffered from several delays and Reports), the license Pique The curiosity of the players and NCS OFT promises a global launch in 2022 – We will then discover a title taking place 900 years before the events of the first opus and relying on an open gameplay (no class playable, but of choice of weapons that determine the character's capabilities). Then we think about the famous Project TL of the South Korean developer, this long-standing MMORPG PC by NCS oft and which must be a good technological forward for the massively multiplayer gender — including Thanks to the long-standing artificial intelligences in NCS OFT laboratories to govern the behavior of wildlife and faunas of the game universe. The studio is still very discreet about the content or mechanics of the project TL, but after many Delays, the MMORPG should be unveiled at least in beta in 2022. The two titles are aware of a real curiosity in Asia and will clearly have to be up to expectations.

In another genre, 2022 should be the year of the launch of does, the family game of Pearl Abyss. A radical choice for the developer of Black Desert which hears this time immerse players in a colorful and contemporary world in which players collect fantastic creatures, will play together to fill missions or attend concerts. A light and good child game, which claims a solid social dimension, but which should exploit the capacities (impressive) of the new internal engine of the Pearl Abyss studio.

Other games could arouse some surprises among players. Let's mention for example Blue Protocol, developed and edited by Banzai NAMC. In its early phases of tests, the game aroused a strong craze in players before disappearing with the pandemic and being overshadowed by a certain Physic impact, with whom it shares similarities (aesthetics) but all in relaxing more on the group game. The game should come out of the shade worldwide in 2022 (the teasing around the game seems to resume) and it could easily find its audience. Same approach for the project BBQ that fucks the curiosity of long-time players, who is also very discreet, but who should again talk about him in Asia in the coming months, including For his gameplay and his bosses. In this same category, Throne Odyssey (Developed by Pixel ) had made a sensation during his ad at the end of 2020 thanks to a first epic trailer driven by the music of Chris Velasco. Again, the game is discreet, but the developer promises large-scale RVR clashes, 18 class specializations, neat graphics and a game that comes in two versions, one on PC, the other on mobile.

The gameplay or the economic models of Asian MMORPGs are not always well perceived by Western players. However, it is nevertheless to admit that the South Korean, Chinese or Japanese studios are now increasingly at the forefront of technological development and massively multi-playing games will obviously enjoy in 2022: graphic evolutions, accessibility, optimizations of the Gamers to accommodate more and more players, but also progress in artificial intelligence to make these worlds live or help players to evolve in concert... So many technologies that could also help change the ways to play In Asia, but also in the rest of the world.