Ragnarok Online 2 Surprises Everyone, Announces Global Open Beta Date
Whoa when did this happen? In a move that many in the west were not expecting, Asiasoft Online announced the open beta date for the first English language version of the widely anticipated sequel to everyone's childhood MMORPG, Ragnarok Online.
The sequel which fittingly bears the title of Ragnarok Online 2, has been available in the East since March of this year, but there had been no news of a western publisher for the MMORPG. That is until Asiasoft Online (which is based out of Singapore), announced they would be publishing the game worldwide for English audiences.
The open beta is set for December 27th and will mark the official release of the English version of RO2, but with no word yet as to whether or not the English version will actually have servers based in English speaking areas (notably NA/EU). Fortunately the game will not have any IP restrictions, so players will be able to play the game regardless of the servers location. Unlike the original Ragnorok Online, RO2 will not be P2P nor will there be a P2P option. Instead the game will follow the traditional F2P model supported by an in-game cash shop.
The original English version of Ragnarok Online was released back in 2003 and quickly garnered a cult following. The MMORPG was famously known to have more players playing on unofficial private servers then on the actual official P2P servers themselves, essentially making the game "Free-to-Play" before it was actually Free-to-Play.
More details can be found on the official site here.
Where you a fan of the original Ragnarok Online? Will you be giving RO2 a try? Let us know!
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Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.
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RO2
Dear Asgardians,
We are happy to announce that OBT will start tomorrow, 3rd January 2013, at 1300 HRS (+8 GMT)! That is less than 19 hours from now!
However, it's with our deepest apologies that we announce we will not be able to provide the RO2 game service to players outside of our optimised countries - Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - due to our licence agreement with the game's developer, Gravity Co., Ltd.
These aforementioned licence terms will take full effect from the start of OBT tomorrow and we deeply apologise for any inconvenience caused to players. We are extremely grateful for the support you have shown RO2 so far and we thank you again for being a part of this journey. Thank you all!
taken from facebook RO2 Offical
I've checked this out already and it still has that RO1 experience I've always had, so definitely looking forward to this.
ooooooh XD Can't wait for this! only just 2 more days to open beta.
i was hoping maybe there was a torrent
My patch doesn't working or take to long
Somebody help me.
''The RO2 beta that was linked to is a direct competitor to the service that Gravity US will be offering, so we are removing posts and threads advertising for it.''
thy are tring to hide it from there players lol
from what I've seen so far, it really isn't that much hype since it seems generic like any other 3d-anime style mmorpg like these days are poping out. don't know if the new feature will be enough to keep the players coming back, riding peco peco ain't enough XD
Though after all is said and done, i'll probably still try the game.
well that doesnt matter. announcing a global server instead on regional server. this is a bold move i hope they put it off.
but now maybe u guys will be much more forgiving to lagger cuz u guys gonna experience 1st hand what it's like when asian/oceanic ppl go play on NA/EU server.
I'm shocked it took them this long to come up with something so utterly devoid of originality. It's basically every other f2p MMO out there but with clunky controls and a terrible camera. Way too many good free or cheap games out these days for them to consider this an appropriate game to release.
Newcomers will find a better game in one like Forsaken World or Edda while old-timers will lament the fact that it's nothing like current RO, let alone vanilla RO.