Lost Ark Developer Smilegate Partners With Russian Publishing Giant Mail.ru
Lost Ark is coming to the West soon! Or at least as far as Russia, though a recent publishing deal might hint at who will be taking the reins of the game in Europe and North America.
Smilegate appears to have a deal in place with Mail.ru to (according to the Google Translation of this page) "gradually begin negotiations for Lost Arc's [sic] successful entry into the Russian market." There's even a Russian Lost Ark website, la.mail.ru, complete with all the information you'd expect -- in Russian, of course.
Now that Mail.ru has its fingers in Lost Ark for Russia, it's only natural to wonder if its subsidiary, My.com, will take up publishing duties for the rest of the world. It would seem like a strong bet, as the company already publishes several MMORPGs, like Skyforge and Revelation Online, in the West. Most of those are free-to-play games, as well, which means we could be one step closer toward a confirmation of Lost Ark's monetization scheme.
About the Author
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
Discussion (14)
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By Michael Byrne - 22 minutes ago
My.com has the SHITTIEST SERVERS from all other publishers of F2P MMO's that comes from ASIA and on top of that, they all become PAY TO WIN.
Lost Ark RU is already PAY2WIN. Before even the Beta starts... FREE STAT POTS and CARDS for $$
RIP You, poor souls /me included/
RIP The Greatest MMO ARPG created so far ;(
Ok guys heres how it works with Asian games that go to Russia first, They give Russia a lower version of the game and change some thing in the game like an attribute and rename it so they can get away with two different versions of the game that has copywrite for both versions.
They then create a different market for the cash shop to drive revenue up more but as its under a different copywrite they can pay less TAX.
They will then release another version for EA/NA and it will be an ever lower version of the existing one in Russia so they can claim a third copywrite and create another new cash shop market to get away with paying even less TAX....
How many times will asians markets do this before people realize there just getting hand me downs and wil be stuck on lower patch versions of the game untill the asian or russian one is updated then and only then will you get an update.
this is typical of most asian games that move to Russian / Eu / NA
LOL seriously guys dont waste your time with this game, its pretty clear to me what there trying to do. Such a shame because I love ARPG, after hearing this news I dont think ill be playing lost ark.
F2P game "Lost Ark Prepare Your Wallet Edition" powered by mail.ru.