Lost Ark most likely free-to-play, more closed beta details

New info from Lost Ark seems to be flooding due to the Media Day that Smilegate had, after the pretty cool new Lost Ark trailer. Lost Ark Database has an extensive interview with the Lost Ark developers and there was some interesting info, including the studio's thoughts on the business model.

Here is the devs' reply to the still undecided business model, which we'll analyze right after:

“Since the 2014 G-STAR, the subscription model was what we heard the most from the users, but we are afraid to say that it will be difficult for us. We are planning to choose a micro-transaction model. Many users wanted the subscription model, but we saw the reason for that was that they were sick of the P2W model of some games. There are many employees in our team, who love the RPG game genre, so we are very aware of this problem. We are not going to choose this kind of micro-transactions. We will make a proper BM, so the players will be able to enjoy our game. We don’t want to disappoint them either. I just want the users to know that we are trying very hard.”

So, it seems Smilegate is pending to micro-transactions – more specifically free-to-play, although a “buy once” kind of business model could still be possible -, ditching the subscription model that players requested in fear of pay-to-win. The studio wants to make the cash shop fair so that players aren't disappointed, although experience tells us that what is fair one day, could turn into pay-to-win the next day, something that is happening with Black Desert Online. We'll let you know when we have more developments on Lost Ark's business model.

Lost Ark runs on the Unreal Engine 3 and there are some concern about the game looking outdated, with a lot of the competition going for Unreal Engine 4. The devs aren't worried about this, as they can add extra functions of Unreal Engine 4 and improve the game. They're not worried about a move to Unreal Engine 4 if it really becomes necessary.

As for the other details concerning the closed beta, the level cap is 30 and there will be three playable cinematic dungeons in this beta of a total of eight, as well as seven raids and hidden quests. There are four types of quests and three types of dungeons (Ark – Ruins of Morai, King's Tomb, and Wall of Glory -, Party and Normal) and the UI was redesigned.

We'll get back to Lost Ark if we find new and significant info.