SmileGate Planning Non-P2W Microtransaction Model For Lost Ark

Korean developer SmileGate has yet to completely outline the payment model for their upcoming game Lost Ark despite the game being in development for a while now. However, recently -- at the Lost Ark media conference -- the game's Head Developer did an interview with Korean game press outlet Inven in which he addressed the issue, stating:

Since the 2014 G-STAR, the subscription model was what we heard the most from the users, but we are afraid to say that it will be difficult for us. We are planning to choose a micro-transaction model. Many users wanted the subscription model, but we saw the reason for that was that they were sick of the P2W model of some games. There are many employees in our team, who love the RPG game genre, so we are very aware of this problem. We are not going to choose this kind of micro-transactions. We will make a proper BM, so the players will be able to enjoy our game. We don’t want to disappoint them either. I just want the users to know that we are trying very hard. (Translated by 2P)

This means that the game will be a free-to-play variety of some sort, but we'll have to wait a while longer to find out exactly what it's going to be.

In addition to this bit of information, SmileGate also dropped an 8 minute gameplay trailer, seen above.