Bless Global is back again, this time on mobile and Steam as a shambling blockchain horror

March 2, 2023 9:00 AM

I’m sorry to report this morning that Bless is back and at it again.

Oh, that sounds cruel if you don’t know the history, so let me recap: Bless Online launched here on PC in 2018, and it was a mess that sunsetted in 2019, which was followed with a console spinoff a few months later (killed in 2022) and a PC version of the console version in 2021 that sputtered out on the P2E blockchain then reversed course (but still lives under Valofe now). Meanwhile, Neowiz granted licenses for a mobile version (which no longer appears to be live in the west) and then a crossplatform reboot riddled with more blockchain nonsense.

It’s that very last version – Tigon’s Bless Global – that we’re talking about here, as it’s actually whirred to life on Steam this very week (it’s also on mobile). Readers will recall that Steam actually forbids these NFT-esque games from tarnishing Valve’s platform, so you might wonder how this one is getting away with it. Tigon addresses that question in its FAQ: “How to use the NFTs/BLEC I have minted in the PC version? For now, you can’t use them while playing on PC. But you can do so in the mobile version, as game progress of the same account is synced across devices.” Yes, the tokens are called BLEC. BLECs. BLEX? This is all bad.

“The game is built upon an open economy without the traditional rules regulating player transactions. All types of tokens circulating in this game are not bound to the characters, so players can trade among them to get the items/tokens they need. In this game, anyone has the potential to become a business tycoon!”

This version’s official site claims 2.2M signups to date, which seems unlikely, but in any case, none of them are reading this post because if you read our posts, you already know better than to pour more money down this particular drain.