Throne and Liberty is an upcoming MMORPG from Blade and Soul developer, NCSoft. On March 2022, the developer announced the game with a gameplay trailer, and showcased some of its backstory lore on its teaser website stating that the MMORPG, which was previously titled as Project TL was set to release on 2022.
However, fast-forward to August 2022, NCSoft announced that the game would be delayed and would arrive in 2023 instead. Before this announcement, the AION and Lineage developer produced an in-house beta test and recorded that experience with some of the players. Alongside this information, the developer answered some questions on RuliWeb.com in regard to the monetization plans, and Pay to Win, or as they put lack thereof. Their wording on the subject was iffy at best; they stated that they were developing the game in a way that they could avoid it.
It is being designed as a way to avoid P2W.
To put it bluntly, there is also a change in the model of partial pay-as-you-go in the global environment. In-game items such as Battle Passes in North America and Europe. The partial pay-as-you-go model is being accepted. In fact, all the big game companies are also in a state of prolonged gabble and increased input amounts.
In order to maximize profit acquisition in such a situation, it would be a differentiator to generate revenue through live services, such as NCsoft. By adjusting this well, avoid excessive P2W. If we balance the game’s maturity, we believe that it will perform well in the global market as well.
One month later, the showcase that the developer had promised arrived. On September 27, the Guild Wars 2 developer posted their internal beta highlights, along with the impressions and feedback of some of the players that were involved in this testing phase. More importantly, gameplay was finally shown – given that the game is now slated to release in the first half of 2023.
The game looks fantastic and though it originally started as a continuation to the Lineage series, it’s good to see new IPs coming into the mix. However, it is worrying to see the visible frame drops that occur in the video with large-scale events. Though this has been normal in the past, upcoming MMORPGs like Ashes of Creation have seemed to take a handle on this. My concern comes from a place of knowing that 2023 is practically 3 months away, and if their goal remains to release in the first quarter of 2023, with the frame issues that have been shown – well, let’s just say the last showcase or trailer that an MMORPG put out that showed some lag in the video, didn’t turn out so well. Rest in Peace, Elyon.
Regardless, a lot can happen from now to release, yet it should be noted that this video was recorded in August of 2022, and can very well be the current gameplay, visuals and product that may release in Q1 of 2023. Lastly, the logo truly brings a tear to my eye. Where the original Throne and Liberty logo looked edgy, interesting and flashy, the current one looks from a 2003 game.
Well, apart from weird design choices for their logo, Throne and Liberty is set to release in Q1 2023 on PC. However, if any MMORPG in history is any indication – and based on the optimization that was shown in the video – it would be safe to assume that perhaps it may not be as close to release as we think.
A special thanks to IsumaForever for the heads-up on the video. Follow them on Twitter here.
