As expected, at Tencent Games Carnival 2015, China’s biggest games company announced Lost Ark for the domestic market. The main highlight for this year’s annual event, several Chinese media outlets got to ask questions regarding Lost Ark. Answering the questions are representatives from developer Smilegate and Tencent Games. Seen below are the summarized details.
Q: When will Lost Ark enter testing (in South Korea)? Will the China server have its test during the same time?
A: From current development progression, we are aiming to test Lost Ark in South Korea early next year. We wish to run both South Korea and China test phases at the same time, but at this point, the South Korea test will definitely start first. We hope to have the first test in China in the first half of 2016. The China server starts later as we are localizing content and settings for the gamers.
Q: With so many online games out there, what gives Lost Ark an edge over the competition?
A: The first core feature is action combat, which is fast and furious, and also gives more of an impact when players attack or cast the various unique skills. Second, Lost Ark has much more content for players to enjoy and discover during their adventures. We aim to build Lost Ark as an action game with various expansive end-game content. As a team, our main focuses are combat and content.
We are also working hard on preventing repetitive content in Lost Ark. It is unavoidable to have repetitive content, but we aim to link and chain storylines and the actual game together in a better way compared to previous titles.
Q: What are some of the game content players will get to enjoy in Lost Ark?
A: In our epic dungeons, players will enjoy a movie-like experience, fighting gigantic bosses with the help of surrounding weapons, and also make use of the landscape strategically for victory. There are unknown islands around the world for players to explore and occupy on a variety of boats. Life content such as fishing, lumbering, mining and more will be available as well.
Q: What can you tell us about the dungeon battles?
A: For example, with our ambush system, a very powerful boss will suddenly ambush players in dungeons or the open world. Players in dungeons will need to stay calm and work out strategies to overcome this boss, while the players in the open world will need to act fast and party together at quickly. We are planning to add in Chinese elements in Lost Ark as well.
Q: What is the current relationship like between Tencent Games and Smilegate?
A: We have always been strategic business partners, and we hope not only to do well in FPS games (Smilegate’s CrossFire is China’s top online game, under Tencent). We wish to do well in the action RPG genre or other genres in the future as well. Although mobile gaming is expanding fast, the growth has actually slowed down this year. There is still a core market for PC MMORPG gamers.
Q: How about a console version of Lost Ark?
A: We intend to consider getting Lost Ark onto other platforms, such as consoles and mobile phones, but at the moment, we are just concentrating on optimizing and running the South Korean and China servers. The Chinese name for Lost Ark has yet to be confirmed, and we intend to use “Lost Ark” as the official game name (in English) now.
