Kakao Games Delays Elyon To Convert To Free To Play

Well, this isn’t necessarily a surprise. Although, I’m not sure anyone was expecting such an announcement today. What announcement? Simply stated, Kakao Games has made the decision to change Elyon’s monetization model to free-to-play. According to a post published on the game’s site, the reasoning behind this has to do with the time players must invest in MMOs not being “compatible with an abundance of choice”. Basically, there’s a shit-ton of MMOs out there, a lot of them are doing pretty well, and it’s likely a B2P or P2P Elyon might not fare well amidst all this competition.

So, what’s the next best move for a game your company has already invested a lot of money and time in? Take it free-to-play and hope players will like it enough to spend money on micro-transactions.

Aside from the obvious, this transition means a few things. First, the game is being delayed because, ostensibly, there’s not just a F2P switch they can flip and go. The good news is, it won’t take that long. The release is being pushed back to October 20...previously September 29th...you know, the day after New World comes out.

The other thing is that pre-orders aren’t pre-orders anymore. Instead, they’re packs. Since – according to Kakao – the actual value of the purchase is in the digital goodies that players receive, they’ve decided that rather than doing away with them, they’ll just add bonus in-game currency to the tune of 2,000 rubies. They’re also granting a 72-hour head start to all players who purchased one of these packs, no matter which one it is. That said. If you’ve made one of these purchases and would rather not keep it, they are offering refunds.