Astellia Online is an MMO that never really took off. Partly due to the fact that it just didn’t really do anything to capture the attention of the MMO playerbase, and partly due to the fact that at the end of the day, it was another cheap, copy>paste Korean MMO grinder.

So you can imagine players’ surprise to learn that Bless Unleashed, which is a largely reviled MMO with almost no anticipation managed to launch to almost 50 times the active playerbase of Astellia. Even Astellia Royal, which was a free alternative to the premium Astellia Online title only ever averaged less than 1,000 concurrent players, whereas Bless Unleashed had at its peak 76,000. Even PSO2 New Genesis had over 50,000 via Steam alone.

With this knowledge, the developers behind Astellia have confirmed that as of October 18th, the entire Astellia service, pertaining to Astellia Online, Astellia Royal and even their Astellia website will be shutting down.
There will be nothing left of the Astellia IP anywhere online. While it’s unfortunate to see the closure of an MMO, this game has been dead for months now, with less than 10 people logging in to play it each day, so it was only natural this would happen.

I can’t believe this is real. That this is actually happening. Astellia Online, which has been buy-to-play for over a year now is going to be receiving a slight overhaul in the way of Astellia Royal. And.. wow, I’m actually completely shaken that the developers behind the game care so little about their community – rather, that they’re so focused on the short-term increase in revenue they’ll receive converting the game to a free-to-play title.

I-I..what? Is this for real? Are you serious right now?

So, guys, as you know I’ve covered Astellia in the past. When it was in Beta testing, after it launched, and again like.. a week or two ago.
But this- this is something I never saw coming. I thought Astellia might go free-to-play or something, but this.. this is Bless Online all over again.
After Astellia Online was shut down in South Korea, the North American version of the game, which continued to run as a buy-to-play MMO was more than happy taking on the refugees from its predecessor.
However even the North American version of Astellia has an uncertain future after hearing the latest news concerning the brand new upcoming “Astellia Royal” MMORPG. Yes, “Astellia Royal.”

Not only will Astellia Online- or rather, Astellia Royal be the very same, pre-existing MMO, but the only difference to set itself apart is the fact that it’ll have a new zone, Tulie, the City of Forgotten Time, a new dungeon, and 2 new summons?
That’s.. barely enough to even be called an “update.” I’ve seen Blade & Soul get larger updates than that every update cycle.
Astellia Royal doesn’t have a guaranteed business model at present, but this.. this right here is how to lose the faith and support of your players.
Take a free MMO from South Korea, make Western players pay for it, then relaunch it, overhaul it or rebrand it using the money you earned to fund your next project or endeavor.

My god this is dumb. We don’t need an “Astellia Royal.” The game is dead as it is, stop trying to milk the market and its players for every cent we have!