Japan may not be as MMO-crazy as its East Asian neighbors Korea and China are, but the country is about to get a dose of one of the region’s hottest MMORPGs anyway. Blade & Soul, the MMORPG from South Korean developer NCSoft, is launching in Japan this May.
Specifically, the game will first be available in some brief closed trials from May 7-9 and May 13-15, according to this article. Then there will be an open-to-the-public pre-release trial from May 16-19. The game will officially launch in Japan on May 20th. Developer NCSoft is apparently expecting about 20,000 gamers to take part in the trial offerings.
(See: There’s a patch that makes Blade & Soul characters naked, and it’s pretty creepy)
The Japanese version of the game, which was preceded by a new Blade & Soul anime TV show, will follow the Korean monetization model in charging a monthly subscription fee rather than going free-to-play as the game has in China. Japanese players will have to pony up 3000 yen per month (about $29) once the game goes live.
That seems a bit steep, but the game has been wildly popular everywhere it has launched so far (and I enjoyed it myself) so I wouldn’t count it out just yet.
(via 17173)
