Smilegate’s MMORPG Lost Ark has certainly managed to successfully connect with the western audiences with its launch, with over 20 million players jumping into the game over time, and with the team’s commitment to fixing lingering issues in the experience. Similarly, Smilegate RPG and Amazon Games recently also shared an update post regarding the game, detailing what is up with it and its plan for future updates.
The post, which has been shared on the official Lost Ark website, provides a very clear round-up on what is in the works for the game, detailing certain key changes. The majority of the post focuses on the game’s progression and future updates, where they detail that even though players have been pacing through the tier 1 and 2 content, this has had an unfortunate side effect. The March update, which saw the release of the Abyss Raid Argos, required an item level that only those with a lot of spare time, energy, and money could reach, affecting the health of the game and leading to the scarcity of tier 3 honing materials.
Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG note that they have been actively monitoring and gathering data on play patterns in the western version, and that in the future, they will inform their players about future content roadmaps in a better way.
Additionally, they also admitted that even though the community wants new cosmetics skins and advanced classes very enthusiastically, bringing that stuff in is a tad bit tricky. However, they have been releasing them at a quicker pace compared to Korea, and are keeping an eye on feedback. For new classes, the team assured that they will be added at a faster pace, with new options coming soon.
Furthermore, to fix the shortages of tier three materials in the game, which is made worse by bots inflating the prices and increasing barriers to the endgame content, the team is adding additional sources of materials through pre-existing sources, new events, and a new event guardian raid, which is meant to be a more relaxed experience.
Finally, as a thank you to all the players who have stuck with the game since its launch, the developers are dropping in some free items for players who log in during the week of March 21, in the form of a care package that will include the following
LOST ARK, MARCH 21 CARE PACKAGE GOODIES
- New Animal Skin Selection Chest
- Mokokon Pet Selection Chest
- Moko-board Mount Selection Chest
- Lost Ark United Structure
- Appearance Change Ticket
- Pheons x132
- Menelik’s Tome x5
- Legendary Card Pack Selection Chest x2
- Jukebox songs will be provided when Jukebox content is released in the future.
It is refreshing to see a developer admitting to their game’s shortcomings post-launch, and committing to addressing those issues and being transparent about it. Of course, they now have to put their money where their mouth is, so here’s hoping we see that soon.
