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Lord of the Rings Online launches in Korea and Russia
Turbine has issued an announcement regarding the regional availability of their number one title. Just ahead of Lord of the Rings Online's second birthday, the folks over in Russia and Korea are now able to join in the Tolkien-inspired fun with new localized versions of the game. Pictured above are the logos for the two new regions, Korean on top and Russian underneath. Noticeably, the Korean logo is in the Mines of Moria format that we've all become used to now, whereas the Russian logo takes after the original logo from vanilla LotRO (Shadows of Angmar). We aren't sure whether this means that Korea's LotRO is Moria enabled and Russia's is not. Perhaps a couple of our readers could translate the sub-headings and shed some light on the issue (and yes, they did! See the comments for info).Korean company NHN is handling their region's version following a deal from December of 2007, and IT Territory made a similar agreement to bring the game to Russia in January of 2008. Both of these companies made statements emphasizing their high expectations for the success of LotRO in their respective markets, but the real test of that begins now. .
More Jeffrey Steefel goodness regarding the Korean LotRO launch
In line with the recent interview at MMORPG.com, Lord of the Rings Online's Jeffrey Steefel speaks in another interview with Ten Ton Hammer regarding the plans to bring LotRO to Korean audiences. This is something that has been discussed for quite a long time now, but with the Korean release imminent, we now get into the details of this launch and what LotRO hopes to offer to this specific audience.One of the most important points made in this article is the projected number of players who could potentially be involved with this game at launch. While Steefel is reluctant to give figures, he says that with half the population of Korea playing online games (which would be a potential market of almost 37 million people), "the numbers could be astounding," he says.
Huxley coming to NA and Europe by way of NHN USA
The rumors of Webzen's North American demise have been greatly exaggerated. News on the inter-streets is that Webzen has found a PC-version publisher for their MMOFPS game Huxley in gaming portal heavyweight NHN USA, which is a subsidiary of the Korean NHN. There still isn't any mention of the 360 version, however. This is a pretty big deal for Webzen as it means that Huxley will be sold through the incredibly huge ijji.com videogame portal. That's the same portal through which over six million people play tons of games including Gunbound, Gunz, Drift City and Soldier Front.You may or may not know about ijji.com, but trust us when we say it's a pretty big win for Webzen. Originally announced when Hoover build the dam, Huxley has been in the works for a long, long time. Which is the main reason we've all been questioning its US release solidity. All joking aside, the real question we should be asking is whether or not NA and European players will even like the game. Some of us here at Massively haven't been decidedly impressed by anything so far. Only time will tell.
Lord of the Rings Online headed to Korea
The Korean online gaming market is getting a new fish in the pond. And it's a big one. Turbine has signed up with NHN (which controls a sizeable portion of the Korean search market) to offer Lord of the Rings Online to gamers in Korea. NHN also operates Korea's Hangame online game portal, claiming 1 million concurrent users worldwide. The company is headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea, and has offices in Japan, China and the U.S. Turbine President and CEO Jim Crowley said, "The Lord of the Rings is a powerful franchise with global appeal, and we are committed to bringing the game to fans around the world. NHN is a powerful force in the Korean gaming market and we are very excited to work with them to bring The Lord of the Rings Online to Korea next year."
ArchLord beta surpasses 150k PCUs in China
Developer NHN's ArchLord had a successful launch in its native Korea earlier this year, and now boasts over 150,000 peak concurrent users in China's open beta after just three days. Shanda (Legend of Mir, DDO) hosts ArchLord in China, while Codemasters will be operating the MMORPG in Europe and North America.Expected to debut stateside in September, ArchLord contains a mix of 2500 story-driven, PvP, and FedEx-style quests, as well as a soundtrack performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Players will also have a chance to become ruler of Chantra (not to be confused with Guild Wars' Cantha) in the main quest, and those who succeed will have their names immortalized on the walls of the ArchLord castle.Gametrailers has several teasers and character background movies.
