This morning, NCSoft announced that the Blade & Soul closed beta testing will begin on October 30th! A total of five beta weekends will occur, typically running from Fridays through Mondays, giving players around 20 days to help test both gameplay and performance of the game. The 2015 beta weekend schedule is available here.
This morning NCSoft revealed the Blade & Soul Founder's Packs, which are now available for purchase in both North America and Europe. Each pack has its own set of perks and will not be available after the game's 2016 Q1 launch.
“We have been hard at work to bring Blade & Soul to North American and European players, and today’s announcement brings us one step closer to our Closed Beta Test this Fall,” commented NCSoft Producer Nicolas Coutant. “Our Founder’s Packs offer players meaningful bonuses and extras that will enhance their experience with the game before launch and well beyond.”
Last month, NCSoft announced that Blade & Soul would be coming to the west, with closed beta anticipated to begin this fall and releasing this winter. During E3 we took the time to catch up with Producer Nicolas Coutant and NCSoft Community Director Omeed Dariani to find out more details about the F2P MMO's business model.
Released in South Korea back in 2013 and since expanded to Asia, Taiwan and Japan, Blade & Soul, developed by Team Bloodlust, is an action-based martial arts wuxia MMO, with its gameplay, business model and more adapted to its respective territory. Since its release, NCSoft has received petitions, emails, PMs and more from western players wanting to be able to play the game. Today it has been announced that Blade & Soul will be coming to both North America and Europe this winter.
We spoke with Blade & Soul Producer Nicolas Coutant and NCSoft Community Director Omeed Dariani earlier this week about the game and its readiness for a western audience.
If you're a Blade & Soul player, you're probably already familiar with this tasty little holiday treat, but for the rest of you, read on to learn about the game's latest dungeon release - The Spiral Labyrinth.
This little preview is for Blade and Soul's new 24 man raid, the Dark Bloody Shark Harbor. Sounds kooky, but then you remember their last dungeon was called Stormy Sea Snake Supply Basement. The video above is the Dragon Stream Tour, and if you want to know more, Steparu has the full skinny on the details, including the DBSH tour, bosses, and loot!
Most of the time you hear about games going from subscription to free to play - this time it's backwards. Blade and Soul publisher NCSoft has confirmed its going to be subscription fee, for KRW 23,000 (which is about $20 bucks in USD). The real question is if Blade and Soul will be able to thrive off of the subcription service, like EVE Online or World of Warcraft before it. And if it doesn't, will it go free to play? And what happens when it hits Western shores?
Around this time last year, fans of NCSoft's games weren't just buzzing about Aion; back then, the company had another recently-announced MMO that gamers were looking forward to. But as time went on, Aion's development pushed ahead into the lead, and it won the lion's share of press coverage and hype. The other MMO—out of the limelight, but not forgotten—is called Blade and Soul, originally announced by NCSoft in July of 2008. Now that Aion's time to shine in the world of pre-release excitement has come to an end, many fans are once again looking ahead to "next big thing" territory.
Part of the reason that Blade and Soul's buzz-factor is on the rise is its distinctive art style and high-octane gameplay. Dubbed with the "next-generation" tagline, Blade and Soul's combat more resembles a console-based fighting game than a traditional MMORPG (check out NCSoft's latest video trailer). In fact, rumor has it that NCSoft is developing the game with the intention of releasing a console version at some point after its PC launch. So it's no surprise that, in a time when every MMO developer on the block is slapping the "innovative" label on their product, fans are yearning for something that truly stands out.
