It's Official! Blade & Soul Coming to the West...By Winter!

By Michael Byrne, Editor in Chief Posted: May 20, 2015

This past week has seen a lot of news from NCSoft, both official and unofficial if you count the anonymous Carbine employee posting on Reddit about WildStar's future. Interestingly, one of the employee's claims at the onset of these discussions was that Blade & Soul had an English version of the game already in internal Friends and Family beta. While this "employee" presented nothing other than their own word at the time, today we received confirmation that this is in fact true.

On top of that, today NCSoft made it official. Blade & Soul will be launching its western version into closed beta this fall and full launch this winter. At launch, the game will be available in the US and EU in English, German, and French with full voice overs in each language.

Blade & Soul is an action-based martial arts MMORPG set in a fantastical Ancient Eastern world, with a story of revenge and vengeance that follows traditional wuxia literature. You’ll be battling enemies with a strategic- and combo-based combat style and channeling your inner chi to perform supernatural Windwalking abilities such as gliding through the air, running across water, and sprinting up walls.

Tomorrow (May 21st) at 10 AM Pacific, the dev team will be streaming the game and answering questions from viewers on their official Twitch channel. Be sure to tune in and check it out if you've been waiting for this free to play MMORPG for years now.

Check out the official announcement for all the details!

Got a news tip? Contact us directly here!

In this article: Ncsoft, Blade & Soul.

About the Author

Michael Byrne, Editor in Chief

Mike “Magicman” Byrne has been a part of the MMOBomb family for years and serves as the site’s current Editor-in-Chief. His love for MMOs and gaming in general has led him to covering games for numerous gaming websites including Gamebreaker TV and XIV Nation where he proudly displays his fanboy flag for FFXIV:ARR.

More Stories by Michael Byrne

Tamara 10 years ago

This game will destroy all other MMOs honestly. The gameplay is extremely fast-paced and fun.

I've played Black Desert and guarantee it will flop harder than Elder Scrolls Online.

AsD 10 years ago

After all this time, they still think people here will play it ? Personally I doubt it but will atleast try it out again. Can't be worse then the pserver experience ( it wasnt even too bad )... but damn it's sooo late...

Nathan 10 years ago

YAY BLADE AND SOUL

Wait I'm Australian, I'll get even worse ping to America than I do to Japan

F*ck me.

Gena 10 years ago

It would be a lie if i say i'm not waiting for this game. can't wait any longer...

Jaske 10 years ago

Wow, if this article didn't pop up I wouldn't have even remembered that they were making an English version. I think a lot of people already lost interest and lost hope in an official English server.

Ace 10 years ago

Waited years- then tried out russian server - enjoyed game for few months-got sick of tea in chat-no progres-few dungs- same shit over and over again to get enough golds (2 weeks of daily for 1 gem is....)-went pvp-lost vs summoner/assasin over and over again (funny that sinn in pvp wont even lose a single hp if stealth/stun build) = so no ncsoft, I thank you but tooooooo late

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fallen 10 years ago

Oh yeah! Been waiting for so long.

70calories 10 years ago

Meh lost interested a long time ago. Good for them though.

Pointless 10 years ago

Really? Way too late. Don't people realize Black Desert beta is around the same time this will be in beta? Why play half ass game when your can play something 100x in ALL aspects. Theres nothing in Blade n Soul have that Black Desert doesn't have and BD does it 100x better. AND BD will be F2P also so what does Blade and Soul have to offer? NOTHING! Pointless release. It was awesome 4 years ago but they missed out on the cash grab and they are way too late now. I'm currently playing the Korean verison of Black Desert with no lag, no vpn, flawless gameplay while waiting for NA release. I just can't imagine myself downgrading playing B&S and I played the Russian server so i have a pretty good idea what B&S does and does not.

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legit4life 10 years ago

can't wait for this to be censored

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slorm 10 years ago

the question is will this be free to play or pay to play? any word on that front?

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Mr Heartless 10 years ago

Will be too little, too late.

well..... 10 years ago

i waited for a western release for bns for years...........!!!!!! (who didnt right?)
but now i stick to black desert kr.
bns? no thank you. its already too late

Rem 10 years ago

Why are you guys are excited about a 4 year delayed launch for the western market? We deserve more than sloppy seconds. This announcement just shows how NCSoft sees us as their market: we are their bottom of the barrel for milking their Asian IPs - a last resort. Many other companies do the same and it's disgusting.

What is going to happen is they use a closed "beta test" to make people purchase founders packs; not to test the game (remember this is a 4 year old game), but rather gauge player interest and maximize the money they make.

What is going to happen is the majority of players with interest in the game have already played in Asian clients. And since they have already invested time and even money into those games, they will not bother starting over. And why should they when oftentimes the content is severely delayed compared to those clients?

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Cloak 10 years ago

Use to play a private server. I only quit because of bad lag on that private server. Looking forward to play it again. Although this was not a unpredictable move form NCsoft. This game will rack in the cash like wild fire from which we've never seen before. R.I.P Your wallet and wallets of whales. And R.I.P to any mmo you're currently playing as well. As old as Blade & Soul is, its still a better game then any out now! And you're delusional to think other wise.

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Ninetenduh 10 years ago

The Real suprise is there are still people hyping it, it indeed is a good game but after Playing on China and Korea i saw enough of the game. If they release it with the latest content than why not, if it comes out with the same content 4 years ago than Get this piece of old crap to retirement. 4 Years is no where near Justified, Tera took around a year to be Censore, Lokalised and Changedd for western market.

rector 10 years ago

FINALLYY...........

Shanex 10 years ago

Best thing ever; finally a good game coming out over here; played a bit on russian server and it was fun, just stopped cause i didn't want to spoil it and it wasn't updated.

People talk about the hype being lost, the hype was lost cause nobody knew when it was coming out; but im pretty sure people are gonna want to play this and jump back on board the hype train now knowing it is coming out. It's still a good game, idk why people say its late when the games that came out recently still are not that great.

Dreadlox 10 years ago

IDK why make an alpha for a game, that already released in other countries? you only need to change the netcode and the typos. Beta is okay, you can test this things out, but an alpha??? Its only used when a game is not complete. This is complete, only minor things missing.

Todoran 10 years ago

R.I.P Tera.....

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WhyBother 10 years ago

They hype for this game is dead, and newer more innovative games have already come out and replaced this....It was cool 4 years ago, but now it's pointless. I'll be surprised to see the servers even remotely packed.

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Skyshatter 10 years ago

well it was about time after 3 years 4 if we count it will be released in the end of the year