Elyon Announcement
Kakao Games dropped some huge news to us just earlier today regarding Elyon Online. We all know 2021 has been the year of MMORPGs. We had titles dropped left and right. From Broken Ranks back in March to Swords of Legends or Phantasy Star Online New Genesis or Crowfall in July, Bless Unleashed PC in August, to multiple expansion updates such as Elder Scroll Online and Genshin Impact. To new titles waiting to be dropped such as the highly anticipated New World or Mortal Online 2. Let’s not forget Blade and Soul UE4 Revival that just dropped yesterday. Looks like the drought season is coming to an end.
We still have releases on pending such as Lost Ark and Ashes of Creation. Although we are raining MMORPGs, we lost quite a few along the way in 2021. Titles such as Eden Eternal, Astellia Online, Magic: Legends and Aika Online just to name a few.
So here is the announcement regarding Elyon going Free to Play and being delayed until 20 October 2021.
My Thoughts on Going Free to Play
I do believe Kakao Games is making the correct choice. I could never see Elyon obtain huge mainstream success with a Buy to Play business model. Not because the game is bad, but more because the price does not justify the game itself, while the game was extremely fun and I was definitely going to be playing it as stated in my Elyon Review, it did not justify a AUD $40 price tag.
My thoughts were that the game was never going to survive long-term due to the business model, where as something like New World had a much better chance, simply because of the huge resources they have behind them to make it work if they deem it was profitable. However, now that this is a Free to Play game, it may just survive much longer as players are free to come and go. With saying this, Kakao needs to plan and understand the most efficient way to ensure the gap between new players and tenure players are not a complete turn off, else new players would feel discouraged to stay and play.
My Thoughts on the Delay
Personally, I don’t mind as much. Going head-to-head with new World is quite suicidal, now that you are delaying it until 20 October 2021, you might have a better chance of not getting sidelined by players who were undecided whether to try New World or Elyon. Further, going free to play can potentially assist you steal all those players that are running around aimlessly in Bless Unleashed because they don’t have anything better free MMORPGs to play.
