Mmm, very sad, mean they do not want to continue the development at all, but perhaps is possible that someone else can take over the project and restart it? With some improvements? Fix what didn't work and add new content, expecially teamwork content? Hub quest were solo content and was very boring, korean devs should learn from games like GW2, how to make the leveling experience more fun and engaging with the help of other players in thesame zone, without channels.
Hope to see Tera back for the better since there is nothing like that on the market at all.
ps: Any news about a possible Tera 2? I read something a while back (remember new Elin model) but since then no news.
Since over an year has passed since the official closure of the PC version, Krafton doesn't seem to have plans to sell off the TERA intellectual property. Console continues chugging along, but it's mainly recycling dungeons, cycling the seasonal events, performing general tweaks, and battle pass updates. The last remaining developed content from the PC version that hasn't been released yet for console is Exodor and Baldera (it's possible they are stringing that out since they've also kept the level cap at 65 yet).
As for TERA 2, that never really existed as an actual in development project at Bluehole. The concept artwork that was first reported by Steparu in 2015, was posted by the freelance 3D artist on their
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(Jang Seonghwan was contracted with Bluehole at the time, and would often times post a bunch of concept art); those concepts have long been removed from it. The Elin one of course created a bunch of speculation in South Korea at the time; Bluehole quickly came out and stated there was no TERA 2 being worked on, and that such a sequel would likely not be happening. There's been a bunch of rehashed clickbait though (leading to the renewed rumors on at least 3 separate occasions).
Ever since PUBG (which made them revenues/profits many times over what TERA had made them), the companies focus has shifted away from MMORPG's (it's even more clearer when you go through
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). Project W aka Ascent: Infinite Realm was a contractual obligation due to the investment/partnership agreement (for the publishing rights in Korea and NA/EU) by Kakao Games in 2014 and was rebranded to Elyon after the bug filled SEA OBT in 2019 caused them to pull the game, and re-evaluate it. It unfortunately resulted in this watered down soulless failure that was finally shutdown in Japan back in September; they were the sole remaining region running (there was even a TERA collab event in July which a
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) since NA/EU closed in December 2022, KR in March 2023, and SEA in April 2023. But since the Project W prototypes, they had no other MMO design concepts in the work. Furthermore, the company began using TERA development as a "bootcamp" for interns and new designers hired by the company. Most of the veteran MMO designers at Krafton, either moved on from the company, or transferred to other projects. One veteran dev who continued to work with the game until the end, gave a rare interview to a reporter in the Korean gaming media that one of my former colleagues (who lives in Seoul), had kept trying to get them to find sources that would provide a bit more insight on the closure; that finally happened in April 2022 under anonymity.
I
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(which quotes that
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regarding how TERA was considered the companies "military academy" since it was the bootcamp for wannabe MMO game designers, but also how they felt disappointed about development ending and how they felt that company has changed to this lifeless thing; where it lacks that old school collaborative design ethos the company had when their primary breadwinner was TERA). On top of this, the game had multiple design teams over the years (the original one that came from NCsoft; the early patches that people have huge nostalgia for, was from that team; but that whole lawsuit thing, caused a lot of those folks to bolt for cover) resulting in this schizophrenic mess of ideas, game system changes, and zero sense of cohesion/direction. Now imagine throwing in this "bootcamp" mentality for aspiring designers to learn and cut their chops on; you end up with TERA post Fate of Arun... and this just got worse when they hired some ex-Pearl Abyss (Black Desert Online) folks which I believe the last product director was from to initially work on Ascent: Infinite Realm, before they were assigned to take over TERA around the 2017 timeframe when they did that
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.
Coming back to the present, Krafton had little to show this year at G-STAR 2023; they are still running on momentum from PUBG since that is still doing well for them especially in Asia. But as I tell people realistically, Krafton has long stopped looking at MMORPG development. Elyon turned into a wasted investment/rapid failure and as of now, Krafton's Bluehole Studio subsidiary which was in charge of both Elyon and TERA, effectively only has TERA console (and that studio subsidiary was already on the financial ropes when the decision to end development was made on April 20, 2022). So yeah, it's only a matter of time IMHO before the franchise ends up going poof completely (which makes these official server binaries even more precious; they may not be the best of what the game once was, but it's something that those of us who played and enjoyed over the years, can continue to do so in some capacity).