TERA is considered one of the best action MMORPGs – but in 2 months it will close forever

With The Exiled Realm of Arborea (TERA), an MMORPG from Korea was released in the West in 2012, which is appreciated by many for its action-packed combat system. But in June 2022, the servers worldwide will be shut down forever. This comes as a surprise, because a major update was released in February.

Why is TERA closing? As the western publisher Gameforge announced on April 20, the MMORPG will be discontinued because the developer Bluehole is no longer producing new content. That’s why the company feels compelled to switch off the western version as well.

Gameforge has been the publisher for the European version for over 10 years and later also took over distribution in Russia and most recently in America in 2020.

When exactly do the servers close? On June 30, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. German time, TERA will be shut down. In Korea, too, the service is scheduled to end on June 30 (via Gamemeca).

Shutdown comes as a surprise to many

How was TERA last? The MMORPG got new updates regularly. It was only in 2020 that we wrote a big report about the development of TERA, the upcoming companion update and many adjustments. A new MOBA mode for PvP was even released shortly thereafter, but it was quickly deactivated again. He was not well received by the players.

The last major update was in February 2022. 3 new dungeons were released there, some old dungeons were revised and a new season including a season pass was started.

In addition to new updates, there were regular events and rotations in the dungeons. So there was never a feeling that TERA would be discontinued for the foreseeable future.

YouTuber Josh Strife Hayes last watched TERA in early 2022 and praised the combat system, even if he otherwise had some criticism:

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What about player numbers? There are no exact player numbers for TERA, since many played via the Gameforge client and no information is shared there.

The Steam version was only released in 2017, but the number of players there remained at the same level for many years, namely between 800 and 1,400 simultaneous players. It was not until the beginning of 2022 that the numbers fell permanently into the three-digit range and for the first time below 600 simultaneous players.

In Korea, TERA has been among the top 50 most played online games for many years. It last appeared there in May 2021 at number 40 (via Gamemeca).

TERA was known for action-packed combat and lots of PvE content

What game is TERA? In TERA you create a hero with which you can complete many quests and defeat enemies. There are 13 different classes to choose from.

Highlights of the game were the varied dungeons and the action combat system. The action-packed combats were an absolute highlight when the game was released in the West in 2012, but to date they have aged relatively well, unlike other content in the MMORPG.

Because in combat you have to keep moving, actively targeting enemies and dodging or blocking their abilities.

What is the criticism? TERA has always received criticism for aggressive monetization in the shop and the fact that there is no consistent style in the world. In addition to normal mounts, there are also flying carpets, pigs or police cars as mounts.

Everything is also possible with the costumes, which considerably limits the immersion in the game.

How are the players reacting? Although TERA was no longer one of the big MMORPGs, it had a loyal community, like the comments on reddit demonstrate:

• “That’s sad. This game ruined the combat in most other MMOs for me.”
• “TERA was so much fun in its prime, it’s a shame.”
• “That’s sad. TERA was my first introduction to action combat and I was extremely hooked for a couple of years.”
• “One of the games I enjoyed the most when it was still full of players. Haven’t played it for years but still kinda sad to see it going down”

What do you think of the surprising demise of TERA? Will you miss the game? Will you watch it again before the shutdown or have you already finished with the MMORPG?

However, TERA is not the first MMORPG to shut down in 2022:

2022 already has 2 MMORPGs on its conscience – one of them is now dying for the 2nd time