Bless you: Astellia is going to be buy-to-play with a cash shop

Talk about bursting my bubble. One day after the official announcement that Astellia was coming to North America (and apparently Europe as well) in 2019, publisher Barunson E&A has revealed the business model in a chat with Massively Op: it will be buy-to-play with micro-transactions.

Hey, if you want to play Astellia for free, go live in South Korea or something, right?

Anyway, here is the statement that clears everything up: 

“The business model will be Buy to Play with a micro-transaction store. We are actively working to prepare the cash shop, deciding what can and should be sold for cash, and what needs to be made in-game reward only. During our CBT Phase, we will be ready to share our cash shop with the community both to support our NO PAY TO WIN claim, and allow our fans the opportunity they need to make an informed purchase of the game. We do not believe users should be forced to make purchases blindly, as we have seen with so many other games. Our motto has been “Power is not sold, Loyalty is earned.” We apply this to whole-heartedly to our business model.”

Astellia looks decent, could turn out to be a fine themepark MMORPG, and while it's doubtful that it will be a trainwreck of the size of the western release of Bless Online, the odds that it will be a huge success are a mystery. Maybe it will do well as a nice little MMORPG for fans of Aion and TERA, but as buy-to-play? We'll have to wait and see.