Bad news for players of Bless Online in Korea: Neowiz announced today that the game is shutting down in that region as its last remaining servers are sunsetting. November 19th will be the Korean players’ final day in the game.
MMORPG vets will recall that Bless Online originally began testing in South Korea in 2014, followed by delays and then a soft launch open beta there at the beginning of 2016. Neowiz merged servers just a month later, then again a few months later, and then just a year after launch, it was down to two. The Russian server was also closed last year. The western version struggled through the same time period as Aeria/Gamigo bowed out of its publishing duties and Neowiz took on a revamp to self-publish here. It then soft launched into an open beta early access mode here in May, and though it was long-awaited, it wasn’t particularly well-received, and Neowiz has spent the summer shoring up the game ahead of its final launch this year.
The company has also teamed up with Bandai Namco for an Xbox One version of the game, Bless Unleashed, though it’s not a direct port. That game is due out next year.
In a producer’s note on Steam, Neowiz hastened to reassure English-speaking players that the game is still on track in NA and Europe.
“In light of this announcement, we’d like to reiterate Neowiz Bless Studio’s commitment to launching in North America and Europe later this year, and let our fans know that as well as maintaining the KR service until its closure, the team’s resources will be turned to assisting us in preparations for Bless Online leaving Early Access on Steam. The Steam version of Bless Online is our sole focus, and all of our efforts are going into making it successful for years to come.”
