The Bless Online soap opera is having more twists than the first M. Night Shyamalan movies combined. The latest development is that a Bless Online western release is still happening, developer Neowiz has confirmed.
But first, a little recap over the last few Bless Online events. First of all, German publisher Aeria Games signed a deal to bring Bless Online to North America and Europe. Later, the publisher revealed – among a merger with Gamigo – that it requested South Korean developer Neowiz some improvements to Bless Online, particularly regarding combat and performance. Several months later, rumors of Aeria Games/Gamigo dropping the western release of Bless Online turned out to be true:
“Together with Neowiz we have come to the conclusion that the technical difficulties cannot be overcome, so we agreed not to complete the game for our respective markets. This has not been an easy decision for us and we put a lot of thought into this step.”
The end? Not quite. While we expressed some hope on seeing other western publisher picking up Bless Online or even seeing developer Neowiz self-publish, this actually happened really fast. Neowiz Bless Studios reached out to MMORPG.com with a statement about the future of Bless Online in North America and Europe, pointing to the intention of delivering the game directly to western players:
“Future EU/NA milestones
You must be curious about future Bless in EU/NA as we ended our contract with AG. NBS believes the EU/NA Bless fans are very valuable to us so we commit to deliver game updates directly to you. We will surely present you with improved Bless in the future.”
Neowiz also shed some more light on the reasons that led to the cancelation of the agreement for a Bless Online western release with Aeria Games. It's all about timing, it seems, as both parties didn't agree on the development period that the in-game performance and combat system improvement would take:
“Reasons for publishing contract termination
Last September, our partner Aeria Games (AG) shared two major concerns: Ingame performance and combat system. We believe these two need to be polished before coming into the western market. We, Neowiz Bless Studio (NBS), have been working on the two issues, but figured out that more time is required to achieve the satisfactory condition.
This additional development period was not aligned with AGs’ business milestone, and of course we respect AG’s opinions. Thus, both parties have agreed to terminate the publishing contract of Bless in EU/NA.”
What a twist, right? While we surely have to wait several months until we see something about a proper Bless Online western release – perhaps on Steam -, it's good to see that Neowiz isn't willing to let down North American and European fans.
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