Throne and Liberty is arguably one of the bigger attractions of the MMORPG scene for 2023. Since its announcement back in 2022, the game has garnered the attention of MMO enthusiasts everywhere. However, there has been a lot of mystery surrounding the identity of the publisher for the upcoming NCSOFT title, as it was never explicitly explained. This is just as mysterious as how media around the world randomly decided to label the new IP as an Unreal Engine 5 MMORPG, given that this was not the case. To be clear, Throne and Liberty was built in Unreal Engine 4, as announced in 2019 and shown off in 2020 and 2021 using the popular Epic Games engine, after a rework from the original Guild Wars 2 proprietary engine.
Regardless, this information seems to be elusive, similar to the throwaway comments from the Director’s Preview from the latest Throne and Liberty update surrounding mobile streaming and what that entails.
Though not confirmed as of yet, the video below showcases evidence that points towards the potential publisher for North America and Europe, utilizing information from previous publishing deals, licensing, investor reports and more from NCSOFT’s history. In addition to this information, the video also goes into detail on how exactly the “Mobile Streaming” feature is set to work within Throne and Liberty, utilizing the Purple platform – a proprietary platform from NC, which lets players stream PC games to their mobile devices and vice-versa.
Throne and Liberty certainly has potential to be one of, if not the best, MMORPG of the past few years. However, concerns over NCSOFT’s interest in the Play-to-Earn market, as well as adding blockchain technologies in their current and future titles (as well as the Purple platform, as suggested by the Chief Financial Officer at NC back in 2020), is certainly something to be wary of. Still, that aside, given the graphics, environment and exciting nature of the game’s overall design, one cannot overlook the fact that the combat looks a little stiff. Though the game surely will offer a tab-target system, though apparently more of a hybrid between the Action Combat system that has been popular as of late and the classic MMORPG tab-target system, the stiffness of certain combat showcases in recent videos does seem a little underwhelming.
But at the end of the day, only time will tell if Throne and Liberty will be worth the wait, and whether or not it will be worth playing – which of course, there will be a video created for that purpose, as has been done in the past with other MMORPGs. All signs point to NCSOFT self-publishing the upcoming MMO, with a global release on all regions.
Throne and Liberty is set to release the first half of 2023, on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
