RIFT Korea closes down

[Deleted]

Seems that the subscription model over there really is dead, i wonder how RIFT will cope in China, it's launching soon over there too.

http://www.mmoculture.com/2013/03/ri...%86+Culture%29

[Edge-]

It's a mixture of that and the fact that Rift is a game designed for Western audiences, not Korean (Chinese players eat up Western stuff). WoW doesn't do too well over there either, so it's not surprising that Rift didn't succeed.

Subscription model isn't quite dead (Aion, Lineage, Lineage 2 and Blade and Soul all maintain their subscriptions and do reasonably well) over there, but it's hard to compete in their MMO market.

[Deleted]

I suppose so, Defiance looks like it is heading for major success in the FPS market, so i hope that puts some money back in the RIFT kitty fund
And if RIFT Korea was losing money, i guess they will see some savings from Korea server costs.

[RoninaThorstone]

I suppose so, Defiance looks like it is heading for major success in the FPS market, so i hope that puts some money back in the RIFT kitty fund
And if RIFT Korea was losing money, i guess they will see some savings from Korea server costs.

I... Think we should give it some time before we start saying things like that.
There is not a very positive vibe from beta weekends. (Hell, when I played the beta most of my feedback ended with "I expect more from a trion game")

like if given a choice between EoN being ready and Defiance I would choose EoN hands down (also did a EoN beta, felt it was a much better game for a lot of reasons)

[Trix]

I suppose so, Defiance looks like it is heading for major success in the FPS market,

Really? My beta experience from the past weekend felt like I was playing a game in alpha, not a game released next week. It was awful and I expected a far more fluid game from Trion after how well they made Rift.

[Lathais]

Hmmm, NA/EU players complain that it is too grindy and I guess for Koreans it is just not grindy enough.

[Valeron]

Perhaps it isn't barbie enough for Koreans. It seems the most successful mmos there have a very "pretty" look with their characters.

[Fencers]

Rift is very likely way too Western for Korea. Which is totally different from Japan and China markets, by the way.

Also, I would hold off on the "Defiance is heading toward success" thing. Haven't heard overly glowing praise for the game. The market & audience for that type of game is seeing some stiff competition; Planetside, Firefall, Dust, Blacklight, Warframe.

[Lathais]

Rift is very likely way too Western for Korea. Which is totally different from Japan and China markets, by the way.

Also, I would hold off on the "Defiance is heading toward success" thing. Haven't heard overly glowing praise for the game. The market & audience for that type of game is seeing some stiff competition; Planetside, Firefall, Dust, Blacklight, Warframe.

Yeah, I have to agree, with most games I at least hear something positive about the betas, if not specific information due to NDAs you still get a lot of buzz. Perhaps I have not heard the buzz because it's not my typical genre or perhaps it is just not there because the game isn't really ready.

With the whole TV Series combo thing it seems to me like they are in a place where they have to get it out by a set date to sync up with the TV Series, and we have seen what happens with other games when they are forced by investors to release before they are ready. Will be interesting to see how it all pans out I guess, but labeling it as "heading for major success"....think it's way too early for that, even too early to tell if it will be any sort of success.

[RoninaThorstone]

Yeah, I have to agree, with most games I at least hear something positive about the betas, if not specific information due to NDAs you still get a lot of buzz. Perhaps I have not heard the buzz because it's not my typical genre or perhaps it is just not there because the game isn't really ready.

With the whole TV Series combo thing it seems to me like they are in a place where they have to get it out by a set date to sync up with the TV Series, and we have seen what happens with other games when they are forced by investors to release before they are ready. Will be interesting to see how it all pans out I guess, but labeling it as "heading for major success"....think it's way too early for that, even too early to tell if it will be any sort of success.

The NDA was lifted friday
So... Yeah...
It's extremely generic bro shooter. There is almost no 'hook' to the game play. It has basic rifts that you might expect in like... freemarch.

[Azuri]

We should continue the Defiance chatter in the appropriate megathread to avoid de-railing.

[Puremallace]

Koreans reject a non flashy game...news at 11.

Ever see Aion or Blade and Soul? Rift was designed for Americans with shitty internet connections on crappy infrastructure. They could release Rift there with the maximum required graphics engine and best combat movements ever and Koreans would love it. This really does prove how badly we are behind the Koreans.

Also NCSoft Korea operates Aion and Blade/Soul there with the same dev interaction and updates as Trion does here in America.

[RoninaThorstone]

Koreans reject a non flashy game...news at 11.

Ever see Aion or Blade and Soul? Rift was designed for Americans with shitty internet connections on crappy infrastructure. They could release Rift there with the maximum required graphics engine and best combat movements ever and Koreans would love it. This really does prove how badly we are behind the Koreans.

Also NCSoft Korea operates Aion and Blade/Soul there with the same dev interaction and updates as Trion does here in America.

Wait, weren't you the one who was talking about how socialism is bad yesterday? Government investment or, in the case of SEA NICs, 'government guided development' into infrastructure makes you a freedom hating red in America.

I am confused.

Also, why is it always Americans? What about Europe?

[Puremallace]

Wait, weren't you the one who was talking about how socialism is bad yesterday? Government investment or, in the case of SEA NICs, 'government guided development' into infrastructure makes you a freedom hating red in America.

I am confused.

Also, why is it always Americans? What about Europe?

We are talking apples and oranges here. I do not in any way shape or form agree with the F2P model as being sustainable in the mmo space. Noone can show me any example of a pure F2P MMO in any market that gets updates as often as Rift and delivers raid content.

What I am arguing in my post is very simple. We are easily 10+ years behind the Koreans in game technology. I mean shit Rift is running a modified Gamebryo graphics engine..Aion, Blade/Soul are running Crysis 2 gfx engines. American infrastructure compared to Korean is a utter joke when it comes to the ability to process these massive battles.

Conquest if done in Korea with an updated gfx engine could hold 1,000's of people with no lag. Ever seen fort battles or Aion played by Koreans? We are talking 1000 v 1000 here. I am not exactly shocked the Koreans rejected a sub based model.

[Edge-]

I do not in any way shape or form agree with the F2P model as being sustainable in the mmo space.

Seems more sustainable than the subscription only model for most games, as you see game after game transitioning and seeing more success under a F2P or hybrid model.

Noone can show me any example of a pure F2P MMO in any market that gets updates as often as Rift and delivers raid content.

Can't show a subscription based game that does that either, though WoW is doing well since MoP so far so they may be able to catch up.

We are easily 10+ years behind the Koreans in game technology. American infrastructure compared to Korean is a utter joke when it comes to the ability to process these massive battles.

Internet speeds? Yeah. Hardware? Absolutely not. There is no reason that a US game can't handle a large battle when a Korean game can. Internet speeds aren't so slow in most parts of NA/EU that they can't keep pace with the data going in/out of the servers during a heavy battle. The lag you experience is due to overloaded servers and the engine not being able to cope, two things that aren't exclusive to one region or another.

Conquest if done in Korea with an updated gfx engine could hold 1,000's of people with no lag.

That's an engine issue or a server issue. Again, things that aren't exclusive to the US.

I am not exactly shocked the Koreans rejected a sub based

Lineage, Lineage 2, Aion and Blade and Soul are all still sub based games, and Archage is a new sub based game. Last I remember they're all doing reasonably well in Korea. It has less to do with the subscription (though that is a factor, since Korea has a massive market of good F2P games that the subscription needs to compete with) and more the style of game. Aion bombed in the West because it's a game made for the Korean market and was only translated for the West. WoW doesn't do too well in Korea (even with proper localization) because it's a Western game designed for a Western audience. There's a reason that they did quite a lot of work and made a number of changes when localizing Tera; it's because the game is designed for a Korean audience, so they needed to make changes to make it more appealing in the West.

[zito]

Noone can show me any example of a pure F2P MMO in any market that gets updates as often as Rift and delivers raid content.

Most subscription games don't do what Rift does with it's steady stream of content updates. WoW prolonged it starting at the end of wrath with 1 raid (with 4 bosses that take less then an hour to kill and you can only do it once a week) and this was between the 11 months it took cata to come out and cata was even worse at delivering content blizzard said it themselves "there just wasn't enough to do". And people still had to pay 15$ a month to play.

They are doing better though with MoP but I feel daily quests are getting a bit stale.

[Arbs]

East MMOs never do well in West & Vise Versa for East to West. Unless your a certain game that will not be mentioned here.

[Linzo]

East MMOs never do well in West & Vise Versa for East to West. Unless your a certain game that will not be mentioned here.

Is it WoW? are you talking about WoW? World of Warcraft? ha?

[Arbs]

Is it WoW? are you talking about WoW? World of Warcraft? ha?

If you talking about China Market than yes, But for Korea no, WoW does good there, but other Korean MMOs do better there.

[Deleted]

Wasnt korea rift f2p to lvl 50?