Well, this is Tencent Games’ important media event after all, how could ArcheAge and Blade & Soul be missing from the party? Over at the event, XLGAMES revealed that a new main city will be developed, with inspirations from the orient, China. You can view the 4 early screenshots of the city above and below. More China-inspired game content such as costumes, dungeons, maps and events will be added in the near future.
The first beta phase for the China server will also begin in tandem with Korea’s Closed Beta 5, with the very first “draft” of Chinese localization made ready. Both servers will be with the same content, meaning the China server is sort of being fast forwarded right off the start. The overall game concept now is “Changing the World”, with an emphasis on how elements such as weather, time, day and night, classes, environment, player housing castle siege and naval warfare actually allow players to craft a world which belongs to them.
The Chinese version of the novel (link) will be available in June as well. An interesting note, author Jeon Min-Hee, currently a consultant in the ArcheAge team, will be doubling up as a consultant in Tencent’s newly created literature platform. For the Chinese localized novel, she will be touring the country (woah) to hold autograph sessions. The novel is also rumored to be hitting the big screen in the future (link). Developed using CryEngine 3, some early gameplay footage from CBT 4 can be found here (link).