Blade & Soul Headed West, Potentially Free to Play

Michael Dunaway
By Michael Dunaway, News Editor Posted:
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It's finally happening guys, Blade & Soul is finally headed to the west. NCsoft announced today their plans for expanding their action combat MMORPG Blade & Soul into western markets. The game has already proven to be an enormous hit in South Korea since its launch almost 3 months ago, ranking one of the top games in PC cafés across South Korea.

For those unfamiliar with Blade & Soul, the MMO combines Asian martial art styles made popular by such films as House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, allowing players to embrace martial arts combat in a vibrant world.

No word yet on the release date specifics or even if the game will adopt a free to play (F2P) model here - it is currently P2P in Korea - but with NCsoft's F2P success with Aion in the west it may be their first F2P release at launch.

If the game does end up going F2P you can expect more coverage from us here at MMOBomb!

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In this article: Blade and Soul.

About the Author

Michael Dunaway
Michael Dunaway, News Editor

Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.

More Stories by Michael Dunaway

Discussion (51)

kira 9 years ago
Can i play this mmo in africa. And how much G ram need?

Shiro 10 years ago
It's coming out in August for China, and 2014 for EU/US server.

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Max 10 years ago
have known of BnS since 09, have been patiently waiting for a release for f2p, love it's trailer, even with limited characters, i would still go for this than to search aimless for another thrill of hunting other mmorpg

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Mizuki 11 years ago
Guys, think about it. They did the same crap with Tera and so many ppl said its going to be p2p .. And it ended up going f2p. all of the mmorpg games that gets to NA/EU eventually becomes free. If its orginated in Korea and brought here its most likely going to be free. But if you're all wondering, a couple of ppl told me that this game should be released soon like this summer or the end of 2013 :b

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pwj1973 11 years ago
If this game is f2p... then im gonna spread the news to the community that will make us leave our former games and try this awesome one. ^^

Akamanaha 11 years ago
Since it's NCsoft publishing the game I doubt it will be F2P but i HOPE WITH ALL MY MIGHT AND POWA!!! That it will be!

Geoage 11 years ago
This game will change the MMORPG world just like Guild Wars 2 did,I'm telling you it's gonna be an awesome game!!
GOD Can't wait for 2013!!!!

Sam3350 11 years ago
Nice but still there is a lot of things to be translated from original lang to English Hence considerable time would be taken !

BrokenArrow 11 years ago
FINALLY!!!!!...waited for this game like forever...played beta and love it, but had lots of bugs and stuff since it was beta so i drop it for the time being...looking forward to playing this again xD

hector 11 years ago
the game is not going to go free to play because when games are this awesome companies usually think that you gotta pay for what you get for but the good thing about pay to play is that there is no overwhelming cash shops that give pay to play players an edge at all and when aion went free2play in EU it had crazy restrictions like not being able to whisper and be invited to party's and not be able to invite people as friends and then they went truly free to play but it was because they failed and sadly enough most mmo company will be as greedy and cheap as possible if other awesome new games didn't exist most mmos till date (Aion,WOW,rohan,etc..) have you grinding for hours with easy enemies slow paced easy game play early on as usual so u will be bored to death and u will have to walk far for them to tell you to kill this and that and all u will be doing is press1 button i understand if the combat was so involving and challenging and stuff but its dull grinding in tera will be way mroe fun then in regular mmos and they have the audacity to charge you for that, thsi game is awesome in every way you can do a tornado moev to make a player or npc go in the air they can try to get out manually u can go around behind them manually with your fast dashing do a shadow holding down move to attempt to get teh shadows to tie them up because they can counter attack and just use the shadow thing as a decoy to burn them and while they are hurt you can g oaround and use the shadow tecnique fast before they stop burning and catch em with these involving game play its no wonder why this game is going to take the cake and whoop arche ages ass

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SoooExcited 11 years ago
F2P: Awesome
B2P: Do Able
P2P: SMD!

blackjoker86 11 years ago
I've been waiting for some more info about this game thx mmobomb for it good looking out

Sansori 11 years ago
I cnt believe they bringing this game to the US , sweeet

Emzy 11 years ago
Quoted from the NCsoft website.

"As the launch date draws nearer, we will have more information to share on price and business models. However NCsoft is actively evaluating what gaming fans in Europe and the United States want, and we are committed to creating a business model that will meet our fans' expectations."

So make sure you sign up for the newsletter, join the community and when its time, tell them your wants. Maybe, just maybe they will listen.

TheGamer 11 years ago
Hmmm, too good to be true...What is the catch?

zenomex 11 years ago
Guys, it's not P2P in South Korea, it's B2P. Buy the game once and play for free, they have a cash shop as well.

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Drizz 11 years ago
so, when it will be Release as F2P?

Zeronoz 11 years ago
Are you guys gonna do a Let`s play for Guild Wars 2? It is technically a F2P...

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Nexzu 11 years ago
I'd rather have a B2P then F2P. It looks and plays amazingly. It should be something like guildwars.

Eviil 11 years ago
I enjoyed all 3 phases of Beta. I will make the assumption that they won't get as much players into the server as if they did F2P. Movie scenes are fun to look at.

Zanelear 11 years ago
I played a private server of thing long ago, I do admit it and yes I enjoyed it, tho the game was still quite... new, not many classes and lagged like crazy in some parts tho I really did enjoy it, now if the game comes out free to play then AWESOME!!!!

Well let us wait and see I guess, this game is quite fun as long as there is no lag and the class choices even tho limited to what I could pick on the private server was still cool.

surice17 11 years ago
itll be free to play watch and f*** finally god couldnt understand what the hell they were saying

Metoxys 11 years ago
Lmao, you would obviously say it's a WoW clone. Everything is a WoW clone right?

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Inflictious 11 years ago
WoW Clone !
All the way !

lmao,
Had to say it sincei know that,No one else will with that game style :D

Inflicitous

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Kaspa 11 years ago
Q: Will it be a Subscription or F2P Microtransaction business model?

A: NCsoft is actively evaluating what gaming fans in Europe and the United States want, and we are committed to creating a business model that will meet our fans' expectations.

Also @Zanak -- Yes, there will be EU server. There is an NA, UK, Deutsche and French version of the website by the way.

Zanak 11 years ago
I think Blade and Soul is the best MMORPG at the moment. I don't think the game will be F2P (NCsoft). One question, no EU server for it?

Vine 11 years ago
It would only be successful here if they made it F2P. NCSoft KR knows how successful NA is with the F2P games they host, and it would be in their best interest to host it for free off the bat, since it will inevitably sooner or later go F2P here.

BlackArrow 11 years ago
I hope there's a Gangnam Style /dance animation. :D

Samuel Kim 11 years ago
I'll never buy an mmorpg game ever again, until I get to try it out first for free. There's too many mmorpgs that are getting unnecessarily hyped and failed. Also, NCSOFT literally killed Aion with horrible management, just like Tera is being raped by En Masse right now. IF it's F2P, I'll be happy to try it out. If it's not, I'll wait for a trail or something.

nubcandy 11 years ago
it will obviously be p2p at launch at least so ppl with buy the game :)

PvtLaw 11 years ago
Wont be free to play. They've been planning to ask monthly subscriptions since it came out in Korea.
If it will be F2P, i'm definately joining :D!

Feitank 11 years ago
Hope its F2P i tried the beta few months ago, and it looks sick, kinda buggy but awesome looking.

Shayzek 11 years ago
Doubt it ll be free2play,atleast at lauch.

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Fan 11 years ago
Looks interesting....but still planetside 2 ALL THE WAY!
VS


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