Lineage Eternal Switches Engines, "Delayed Significantly"

Remember when Duke Nukem Forever was delayed time and time again, leading fans to dub it "Duke Nukem Whenever"? The same thing might be happening to the next entry in the Lineage series, Lineage Eternal, which Steparu is today reporting as being "delayed significantly." Maybe we'll have to rename it "Lineage Eternal Wait."

The engine for Lineage Eternal is being changed from the Guild Wars engine -- which seems like an odd choice for what is effectively an ARPG -- to Unreal 4. According to Steparu, NCSoft is making the change to "prioritize and maximize the graphics quality of the game."

Lineage Eternal has been in the news for over half a decade already, and even had a closed beta in 2014. With as well as Lineage M is doing on mobile for NCSoft, I'd be a little skeptical of Lineage Eternal ever seeing the light of day. It's a refrain we've been hearing for a while now: Why make a full-featured PC game when a mobile title can be made for a much smaller budget and bring in comparable -- if not greater -- revenue? As Steparu notes, NCSoft's investors call mentioned "3 large scale mobile MMORPG's within two years," including one related to Guild Wars 2, so that might be a clue to the company's new direction.