At Hangame’s G*Star 2010 press conference yesterday, CEO Kangsuk Kim and Lead developer, Hyunkyu Park, confirmed that TERA will be going Pay to Play (P2P) in Korea with a monthly subscription fee. Other than NCsoft and Blizzard Korea, there have not been many companies willing to take the risk of using such a business model for some time, as Korean gamers are typically used to the Free to Play (F2P) model.
However, it seems that the TERA community in Korea has already warmed up to the idea, with their only concern if TERA will have enough content to justify the P2P model. The 2 honchos calm these fears by revealing that the team already has 8 months’ worth of content to be updated into TERA once Open Beta is launched. Some new features which are planned includes Server Vs Server wars and new flying monsters. The politics system will also be added soon, where the leader can affect various decisions mad ein the game, including adjusting taxes, changing the location of certain NPCs and even the PK availability of some areas.
CEO Kangsuk Kim went on to explain the current details for the China server, a country where the anticipation for the game has hit pitch fever heights. While confirming that they are currently in talks with various Chinese publishers, nothing is confirmed at this moment. He said that as China is a very big market, much research, localization and modification are needed to suit the gamers’ taste. The developers, Bluehole Studios, will not be in a rush to make a decision. Coupled with a lack of resources and manpower to fully support a Chinese version now, they are focusing on the current versions which are confirmed, including North America and Europe.
