Back in August of last year, Amazon Games revealed that it would be working together with developer Smilegate, publishing different video games from the Korean developer. Among the different titles that Amazon will publish in the West is Lost Ark Online.
In case you’re not familiar, Lost Ark is an MMORPG that has been released in Korea for a few years now, later becoming available in Russia and Japan. Seeing as it looks like an interesting take on the genre, it unsurprisingly caught the attention of many Western fans, particularly in Europe and North America. Despite its growing popularity outside of Korea, Smilegate didn’t make the move to release the game globally.
As such, fans have spent years trying to figure out when Lost Ark Online was heading to the west, if it was getting released there at all. Fans were at a lost until last year, when Smilegate and Amazon announced the partnership.
In Amazon’s official announcement, it didn’t mention Lost Ark. It simply stated that Amazon will bring one of Smilegate’s “AAA games to Western players.” However, Smilegate’s official announcement on GameMeca specifically stated that Lost Ark is included in their deal with the publisher. What’s more, the announcement even mentions that the MMO will be launched in Europe and North America some time in 2021.
Seeing as we’re on the third month of 2021, this means we can look forward to a Lost Ark global release some time soon. If not, then either Amazon or Smilegate will most likely offer some kind of update to see how things are going. Although, it’s worth keeping in mind that the original announcement on GameMeca is in Korean and had to undergo Google Translate, so there may have been some details lost in translation.
To be more specific, the Google translated statement says that “the company’s flagship game, Lost Arc[sic], will be officially released to users in North America and Europe by 2021.”
Even though there are already countless MMORPGs available in the industry, fans are looking forward to Lost Ark Online because it has a unique element to it that makes it stand out from others. Namely, it’s a game that has been likened to the critically acclaimed Diablo.
Other than Lost Ark, Amazon Games has other titles up its sleeve. The publisher has been internally working on another MMORPG entitled New World, which was recently pushed back once again. Given the current circumstances, what with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it would make sense if Lost Ark Online’s global release would be pushed back too.
Either way, it’s still a win for gamers. After all, the MMO is confirmed to be in the pipeline for Western fans, so it’s all about remaining patient. Fans should look forward to some kind of announcement anytime soon—whether it’s a good or bad one, we’ll have to wait and see.
