Bless Online’s Global Steam Version Is Shutting Down On September 9th – What’s Left For The Bless IP?
Following the recent closure notice of the Japanese version of Bless Online, developer and publisher Neowiz has officially announced that the global Steam version of the game will also be shutting down on September 8th, 2019. The closure will take place exactly one month after Bless Japan shuts down.
As we reported last week, Bless Online’s Global version on Steam has consistently performed poorly with a current average of 209 players in the last 30 days and similar numbers for the past five months.
When the global version shuts down, Bless on PC will no longer be playable in any region. The fate of the Bless IP will rely on Bandai’s Unreal Engine 4 iteration of Bless on Xbox One titled ‘Bless Unleashed‘. Bless Unleashed ran a four day closed beta testing in April 2019. No word has been given out in regards to open beta testing.
Full Official Announcement
“To our loyal Bless Online Community,
It has been a little over a year since Bless Online was launched on Steam as an early-access game here in the West. All of the teams here at Bless Online would like to express our deepest gratitude to our players and supporters. Unfortunately, after much deliberation and efforts from everyone here at Bless Online, with a heavy heart, we are sad to announce that the Steam online service for Bless Online will close on September 9th, 2019 00:00.
Starting after server maintenance on June 10th, 2019 and until September 8th, 2019 23:59, sales of all digital products within Steam will be disabled, prices of items in the in-game stores will drastically decrease, the entry limits to all Dungeons will be removed, and the Dungeon drop rates will be increased. Players will also see a 100% increase in Gathering/Mining EXP, Guild EXP, EXP gained from hunting, Dungeon Points, and Combat Points. Gathering, Mining, and Crafting speeds will be increased by 50%.
Finally, we would like to stay connected to our players and supporters through our newsletter by sharing upcoming news and benefits regarding Neowiz games and its future projects. If you want to stay informed of upcoming news and announcements regarding Neowiz, you can subscribe to our newsletter from our Bless Online official website.”
What’s next is less and less MMORPG being developed because the companies will see that they do not last long. It sets a bad example. Game devs need to stop trying to scam us with these unpolished stuff because they are ruining the industry.
Buddy, MMORPGs are pretty much dead at this point. Do you see garbage gamers play these days? They’re either, “dress your character this way with your money” or “Here’s a cash shop give us your money to keep the game alive *wink* *wink*”, or they’re just straight up P2W. Or terrible imitations of WoW. Or all of the above for brain dead players that are entertained by the slightest of gratification with their hand being held all the way. Which brings me to my point, as long as greed remains a factor developers will never take risk or be innovate enough to peak gamers interest into this genre again. They will and have followed the same formula for decades and probably will until the genre is ancient history. The few MMORPGs that are around are held by desperation of those… Read more »
We all just need to start a class action lawsuit against them to set an example.