MMORPG wanted to convince with action-packed fights and huge battles

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With Elyon, a new MMORPG from the makers of TERA was released in October 2021. But even before the release, many were disappointed by the game. It will be shut down for good on December 7th. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch looks back.

What was that game? In 2017 Elyon was announced under the name Ascent: Infinite Realm. Back then it was supposed to be an action MMORPG with steampunk elements and huge airships. Still, there were orcs, dungeons, raids, and huge aerial battles. That sounded really exciting and back then everyone was hungry for a new MMORPG.

But the combat system was not convincing and the beta feedback in Korea was bad. Only the monster design got any real praise. Publisher Kakao Games even considered scrapping A:IR entirely, but it already cost $40 million.

At the beginning of 2020, the rebranding to Elyon took place and some mechanics were completely revised:

However, the focus of the game remained on PvP. But instead of the epic battles in the air, all players gathered in a thunderstorm on the ground. That didn’t go over well.

The new MMORPG Elyon explained in 2 minutes

Weak start on Steam, no chance against New World and Lost Ark

How did the release go? Even before the release I said that Elyon has potential not to become a complete flop. I primarily saw a niche for PvP fans who could switch to Elyon from Black Desert or TERA. The combat system and the general orientation spoke for it. However, the monetization and release timing should have been right.

But Elyon was released in October 2021, just a few weeks after New World. At the peak, there were “only” 15,500 simultaneous players on Steam. New World, on the other hand, had over 900,000 concurrent players in September and was still attracting a good 500,000 players when Elyon came out.

But it also went down in comparison to other MMORPGs that appeared in 2021:

Bless Unleashed, for example, reached 76,273 concurrent players on release, which took place in August 2021. Swords of Legends Online, which Gameforge primarily advertised in its own client, also had 18,701 players on Steam. The release took place here in spring 2021.

Player numbers from release to date (via SteamDB).

Interest in Elyon was low from the start and still declined rapidly. As early as March 2022, it no longer reached 500 simultaneous players, even at its best. The reasons for this are simply explained:

  • The game’s characters look like generic Asian models.
  • Getting started was totally confusing – with lots of skills and a chaotic world. After a cutscene you were then thrown into a completely different environment that was much quieter. But by then a lot of people would have dropped out.
  • There was PvP in the open world.
  • Upgrading equipment could break it completely.
  • In addition, there were items in the real-money shop that made upgrading easier and prevented destruction.

    • So in the end, from a Western perspective, Elyon did everything wrong that could possibly go wrong.

    Elyon will also be shut down in Korea

    When will Elyon be discontinued? Elyon is scheduled to shut down on Wednesday, December 7th, just in time for regular maintenance. This usually takes place at 10:00 a.m. German time.

    So if you want to see Elyon again, you should hurry. In fact, two new classes have been released since release, one even after the shutdown was announced.

    By the way, Elyon will die not only in the west. The service also ends in the home country of Korea on March 2, 2023. The MMORPG then ran there for about two years, because the release in Korea took place at the end of 2020.

    What do you say to Elyon? Do you mourn the MMORPG or was the shutdown obvious to you? What do you remember well and what not?

    By the way, Elyon is one of the MMORPGs whose death I predicted earlier this year:

    I predict these 6 MMOs will die in 2022

    mmod-game