TERA: Head to F2P In Japan & Korea

SBFord

NHN, the publisher of the Japanese & Korean versions of TERA, has announced that all servers will be converting to a free to play version in early 2013. Korean TERA servers will see F2P action on January 10th, with Japanese servers heading that way in mid-February.

There is no word from either En Masse Entertainment (NA version) or Gameforge (EU) about whether or not they will follow suit.

Read more at MMO Culture.

Pivotelite

The F2P conversion is coming with some huge changes ... TERA was always missing meaningful PvP, Sieges and raids... well, all that seems to be coming.

 

http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/general-discussion/topics/Teras-Next-Big-Content-Update1

 

Anyways about the F2P, EME always seemed reasonable and if they decide to go F2P I am confident it won't be P2W and too restricted, even Korea which is known for P2W didn't make the F2P model too restricted, it made it so you could only make 3-4 characters per server, it doubled dungeon cooldown and made less bank space. All people who had purchased the game or previously subscribed get veteran perks and have none of these restrictions.

 

 

rojoArcueid

Enmasse NA/EU, take notes from Korea / Japan.

Pivotelite

Anyways about the F2P, EME always seemed reasonable and if they decide to go F2P I am confident it won't be P2W and too restricted, even Korea which is known for P2W didn't make the F2P model too restricted, it made it so you could only make 3-4 characters per server, it doubled dungeon cooldown and made less bank space. All people who had purchased the game or previously subscribed get veteran perks and have none of these restrictions.

 

 

Gameforge/Frogster(EU publishers)...well... I could see them butchering the game to death, more so than they already have.

Superman0X

The NA/EU versions will follow suit a few months afterwards. They will not be significantly different than the KR version, but will have the benefit of time to avoid some of the initial mistakes made in KR.

JudgeUK

EU - Gameforge are making an anouncement in Jan - quote below  from a Gameforge Community Manager (Tiala) taken from Tera eu website:

 

"Hello everyone,

yes, the Korean version of TERA is going f2p which is the next big step for them. Please understand that it is too early right now to talk about this but we will have more information for you about the EU version in January.

Regards,
Tiala"

DamonVile

I hope NA tera goes f2p soon. I really liked the game but didn't want to put in the time to make a sub worth while. I'd play again and have no problems spending a bit on money on it when I do play if it went f2p.

Zalmon

I remember reading on thse same forums that Tera will never go F2P. Boy what a shit storm started when ever this topic was brought up when Tera just released in west.

Pivotelite

Originally posted by Zalmon
I remember reading on thse same forums that Tera will never go F2P. Boy what a shit storm started when ever this topic was brought up when Tera just released in west.

 From my experience I saw more people arguing it will go F2P and that it's already flopping in Korea. You must have been on some other forum.

Pivotelite

Originally posted by Sukiyaki
So many server do they have left in Korea/Japan? Any mergers announced? All I know is they went below 2% share in the Korean (M)MORPG market, but right now I cant find the serverlist on the Korean site. Thats below multiple complete no-name grinder title.

 

 Eh, TERA is still in the top 6 most played MMOs from the Korean sites i've recently browsed. 18th game overall last week for players.

 

But both Japan and Koreas F2P test servers were so successful they couldnt help but pursue the model to its fullest extent.

Asamof

anyone actually surprised about this? about time too

Yamota

I guess it is a question of time before it goes F2P in the West aswell. Pity but not entirely unexpected.

ShadowVlican

AH HAHAHAHAA... now to wait for NA to do the same

Pivotelite

Originally posted by ShadowVlican
AH HAHAHAHAA... now to wait for NA to do the same

 Nothing wrong with that, i'm looking forward to the impressive content beind added alongside F2P conversions.

 

Besides, TERA outlasted TSW and SW:TOR and overall seeing all these MMOs flop is more sad than funny IMO.

JudgeUK

People said the game did not have enough content for P2P and should be F2P.

Game going F2P and content added.

Bit ironic really.

Pivotelite

Originally posted by JudgeUK

People said the game did not have enough content for P2P and should be F2P.

Game going F2P and content added.

Bit ironic really.

  Really odd indeed... but BHS was never good at making quality decisions.

 

DAOWAce

Finally, it's starting.

Was waiting until this game went F2P before I played it.  Beta wasn't a good experience; was never going to pay for it in the first place due to that.

Shame I have to deal with my alias being used by somebody else.  Quit SWTOR after they server merged for that reason; they didn't even bother to send out any e-mails about it.

Pivotelite

Originally posted by Sukiyaki

Originally posted by Pivotelite

Originally posted by Sukiyaki
So many server do they have left in Korea/Japan? Any mergers announced? All I know is they went below 2% share in the Korean (M)MORPG market, but right now I cant find the serverlist on the Korean site. Thats below multiple complete no-name grinder title.

 

 Eh, TERA is still in the top 6 most played MMOs from the Korean sites i've recently browsed. 18th game overall last week for players.

 

But both Japan and Koreas F2P test servers were so successful they couldnt help but pursue the model to its fullest extent.

TERA is last place of of the 10 most played Korean MMOs and that doesnt even include action MOGs and it popped out of the top 20 online games already months ago... thats after that super successfull F2P test... when was that "recently"? A year ago? It allready on par with overhyped superflop Star Craft 2.

I was asking for their servernumbers and existing schedules, not some made up offworld stuff you would love to believe.

http://www.gamenote.com/rank_ongame/?search_mode=weekly

 

TERA just dropped to 20 from 18 last week, well see where it ends up after F2P goes live January 10th. I said test servers for a reason, KTERA launched one server with moderate restrictions and capped at level 58, the server is usually mid/high population so it has spurred them to go full force F2P.

 

Theocritus

    You know you have a bad game if you cant make money in Japan or Korea....The Asians usually love their gaming.

Pivotelite

Originally posted by Theocritus
    You know you have a bad game if you cant make money in Japan or Korea....The Asians usually love their gaming.

  That's an odd assumption. Considering theres very successful games in NA that are complete flops in Korea, different markets. Not to mention LoL is doing the same thing in Korea as it is here... completely consuming everything.

Pivotelite

Originally posted by Sukiyaki

Originally posted by Pivotelite

Originally posted by Sukiyaki

Originally posted by Pivotelite

Originally posted by Sukiyaki
So many server do they have left in Korea/Japan? Any mergers announced? All I know is they went below 2% share in the Korean (M)MORPG market, but right now I cant find the serverlist on the Korean site. Thats below multiple complete no-name grinder title.

 

 Eh, TERA is still in the top 6 most played MMOs from the Korean sites i've recently browsed. 18th game overall last week for players.

 

But both Japan and Koreas F2P test servers were so successful they couldnt help but pursue the model to its fullest extent.

TERA is last place of of the 10 most played Korean MMOs and that doesnt even include action MOGs and it popped out of the top 20 online games already months ago... thats after that super successfull F2P test... when was that "recently"? A year ago? It allready on par with overhyped superflop Star Craft 2.

I was asking for their servernumbers and existing schedules, not some made up offworld stuff you would love to believe.

http://www.gamenote.com/rank_ongame/?search_mode=weekly

 

TERA just dropped to 20 from 18 last week, well see where it ends up after F2P goes live January 10th. I said test servers for a reason, KTERA launched one server with moderate restrictions and capped at level 58, the server is usually mid/high population so it has spurred them to go full force F2P.

 

That list is weekly average and is pushing down current no.8 nd 9 which replaced Tera. Still even by your own list its not 6th and Tera not even close to the 6th place not just by place but total of marketshare. Most MMORPG spots have difference of +100-200% to the next one.

 You said it dropped out of the top 20 months ago, I just pointed out it didn't. And yes the gap between MMO playerbases in korea is large, but it's large here as well, does that mean every MMO after WoW/GW2 is dead/garbage? Obviously not.

NBlitz

Originally posted by Theocritus
    You know you have a bad game if you cant make money in Japan or Korea....The Asians usually love their gaming.

The market is saturated, especially in South Korea with its 50 million inhabitants. 

From what I can remember, without looking how things are as of today...Aion was the Big Kahuna in S-Korea with +/- 50% of the online gaming market cornered but around the time of Blade & Soul dropped to half of what it used to have (too tired to Googlefu this right now).

What I'm trying to say is it's sink or swim for many titles over there (elsewhere too nowadays...) There are plenty of games to choose from and many don't have to put up with slow patches, shitty customer service, crappy content etc. etc.

So it doesn't have to mean that the game is "bad."

moosecatlol

To be fair, the game had poor balance and shallow content, the kind of content that feels that it was simply created to keep players grinding.

Vorch

TERA felt worth the box price, just not the subscription.

 

I would play it alongside GW2 if it went F2P with a GOOD payment model.

kevjards

i would prefer if they just halved the sub price..i like tera even though they are mostly kill x amount of things..those BAM'S make you feel like  a god when you down them..especially when you do  em at the right lvl.the combat is fantastic imo.but what ever they decide i will occasionally log in

Purutzil

I do hope it goes F2P in a way. Easily the best combat in an MMO persistant world (action combat wise) just seemed to be lacking in other areas I do hope it can pick up on. Not to likely it will be well recieved though here (people tend to have the xenophobic "its an asian game" deal) though it should hopefully get enough attention to go for f2p.