Conglomerate uses money from frowned upon Pay2Win MMOs to finance game of wise MMORPG guru

The Korean publisher Kakao Games is known for MMORPGs that use very aggressive monetization and are often Pay2Win. Now, however, they put a lot of money into the company Playable Worlds. This is the studio of Raph Koster and some other legendary MMORPG developers.

What is the investment all about? Raph Koster was lead designer on Ultima Online (1997) and creative director on Star Wars Galaxies (2003). Both games are among the great pioneers of MMORPGs.

In 2019 he founded the company Playable Worlds. He is developing a new sandbox MMORPG with other veterans of the genre, but little is known about it so far.

However, the Korean publisher has now invested a lion’s share of the newly won 25 million dollars (about 23.3 million euros) in this company. Although the exact value is not known, they obviously believe in Koster’s ideas. In a statement it says:

We invest to drive innovation in MMO games and bring new concepts to life. The technology that Playable Worlds has implemented and proven to date has had a significant influence on the investment and will certainly play a role in Metaverse development. The caliber of the team behind Raph and Eric [Eric Goldberg, Co-Founder von Playable Worlds] ultimately tipped the scales and we are confident in their ability to execute.

Statement by Kyehyun Cho, CEO of Kakao Games (via Playable Worlds).

Ultima Online, one of Raph Koster’s games, is among the old MMORPGs still played today:

Kakao Games makes a lot of money from Gacha and Pay2Win

Where does the money come from? Kakao Games gets almost 50% of its income from mobile games, which, however, from the point of view of many rely on Pay2Win:

• Guardian Tales, for example, relies on gacha mechanics for heroes and equipment. Here you need real money and also luck.
• World Flipper is a sort of hero-collector MMO that also relies on gacha.
• The mobile MMORPG ODIN: Valhalla Rising, on the other hand, sells mounts with better stats and in-game currency for real money.

The PC MMORPG ArcheAge, whose developer Kakao Games bought in 2020, is also considered Pay2Win for many due to the direct exchange of real money for in-game currency. The upcoming ArcheAge Worlds, which is due to appear in 2022 with NFTs and Play2Earn, tends to fall through with many MMORPG fans:

Why is the investment special now? Raph Koster, the head of Playable Worlds, is considered an old MMORPG veteran and fan. He’s more of the “subscription model” type and explained in an interview why the subscription still works.

So his new MMORPG would likely be based on a subscription or buy2play model, similar to Crowfall, which Koster recently worked on. However, the lion’s share of the investment for his Playable Worlds studio comes from a company that focuses on the exact opposite, namely Free2Play and aggressive monetization.

What the model will look like in the end for the MMORPG is not yet known.

MMORPG relies on new brand with modern technology

What do you know about the MMORPG exactly? Almost three years after it was founded, not many details about the game have been revealed:

• It should be a sandbox world that relies on features that have already been tried and tested in the genre
• The game is said to use a new brand
• It should appeal to as many types of players as possible, whether adventurers, group players or PvP players
• It will use modern techniques such as AI, cloud and simulation
• It aims to bring community interactions to a new level

What do you think of the previous information about Playable Worlds? Are you looking forward to the MMORPG or has Raph Koster already passed his zenith? Feel free to write it in the comments.

Another MMORPG legend, Richard Garriot, is working on a new game. However, this relies heavily on NFTs and the boss also explains directly why:

Developer legend makes new MMORPG with NFTs because there is a black market on eBay anyway