Bless Online TwitchCon FAQ talks business model, free-to-play still unsure

Last week, Neowiz attended TwitchCon at Long Beach, California to talk about Bless Online and its upcoming global release.

The team has just released a FAQ answering some of the questions from the community. Although it's mostly a whole lot of nothing – they want to “avoid any P2W elements”, as if every single studio didn't say the exact same thing about their game -, it's worth reading to learn about things such as Early Access, business model plans and final release.

Neowiz is planning to run a limited Bless Online Early Acess program during 2018, and to join you have to buy one of the Founder's Packs. Bless Online will be released in as many regions as possible, if the licensing deals allow, and it is being localized into English, German and Russian. Oddly enough, the Russian version already exists, although it's now in an indefinite hiatus for improvements.

Is Bless Online going to be free-to-play, just as it is everywhere else it was released? Neowiz isn't clear on this matter, sadly. Let's wait and hope they don't pull a Black Desert Online on us, also because… well, Bless Online isn't exactly Black Desert.

Here is the full Bless Online FAQ.

• When will Bless Online Steam be released?
We are planning to release it as a part of Steam Early Access program in 2018 with limited testing prior to the EA release. We will update the exact dates as we get closer to the launch.

• What is Bless Online’s business model for Steam Early Access?
For Steam Early Access, we are planning a couple of packages that will provide benefits to our early supporters that want to get in early to help us create the final version of the game. We are working on the details and will reveal them when we are ready. We haven’t decided on what the launch version will look like yet and would love to get some feedback from you.

• Where will be Bless Online’s service available?
We are planning to release the game globally in as many regions as possible with some exceptions due to our existing partnerships.

• Which languages will the game support?
The game is being localized into English, German and Russian for Early Access. We will continue to add languages during and after EA.

• What is the monetization plan for Bless Online? (Is it a Pay-to-win game?)
While we are still determining what the right monetization plan is for Bless Online, you can be assured that we heard everyone’s feedback loud and clear to avoid any P2W elements. We promise to continue to solicit and gather your feedback and choose the business model that works the best for Bless Online.

• How are you planning to involve the Community in your development process?
Sometime before the Early Access launch, we will invite some of our fans to test the game for feedback. We ask for your honest and constructive feedback on all facets of the game to improve Bless Online as it marches towards Early Access and beyond.

• What kinds of benefits are you planning to provide for official partners?
We are currently working on partnership programs that will provide exclusive access and other cool benefits. We promise to share more on this soon.