ArcheAge 2 Scheduled For 2024 Release, Eternal Return To Receive More Characters

Kakao Games revealed its Q1 financials yesterday, and, while there's not too much to talk about from a financial standpoint -- revenue is down a little bit quarter-over-quarter, while up year-over-year -- the developer and publisher has quite a bit coming down the road that's sure to interest players.

In the conference call that accompanied the presentation, Kakao said that its subsidiary, XL Games, is also hard at work on a pair new games. One is a mobile game described as a "hardcore MMORPG based off of Unreal Engine 4" and scheduled for release in 2022.

But more important to most players in the West is the sequel to ArcheAge, which is currently scheduled for a 2024 release. ArcheAge creator Jake Song is still heading up the new game, which was described as having a "high level of in-game freedom" and using Unreal Engine 5, which will provide "exhilarating graphics."

Kakao said that the goal for Eternal Return: Black Survival would be to increase the number of characters in the game to 40 in July in Korea, and globally by the end of the year. The call also said that the number of characters would increase to 50 by the end of the year, but that might have been only in Korea. Kakao will also add a battle pass for the game in the future.

For Kakao's non-F2P games, the "expectation level was quite significant" for Elyon's initial launch in Korea, but because of COVID-19, PC cafes weren't as open for business as might be hoped, leading to its revenue "showing a downward stabilization." Oh, and being buy-to-play was also a "constraint" when it came to bringing in new players. Free-to-play when?

Finally, Norse-themed cross-platform MMORPG Odin: Valhalla Rising, releasing in Korea in Q2/Q3 and in Taiwan in the second half of the year, had over 1.5 million preregistered users over its first five days, which has "outperformed our expectations." Kakao touted its in-depth storytelling and "high level of immersiveness" and art style as reasons for its good reception.

You can check out the Kakao quarterly report and conference call on the Kakao investors relations page.