It would make the most sense having a server there in general. Get the population from that area, is what? Half the worlds population or something insane. Besides they seem to love their grindy games.

But no idea on the reasons they didn't. Maybe it's harder to setup a server there. Of course most probably wanna play it in their native language as well. Which really seems worth the money cost to break into that market.

Personally I will always wonder why they never put the server in Singapore. Surely that couldn't be so bad for Asians. Since most Asians seem to have a shit lag to both NAW/APAC. While being an Aussie I get, not a bad ping to Singapore either.

Small studio, so reducing the localization effort? Almost all of Oceania speaks English or French. Localization for the EU languages will cover the Oceania needs just fine.

It's also perhaps a legal issue. Dealing with the different laws and tax laws of different nations adds overhead, legal and admin overhead that a small studio might not be ready for yet.

Why do so many Korean MMOs only come to the West years later? Building for both markets is a substantial increase in effort.

Asian players use Oceanic servers, and a direct server would mean changing aspects of the game. For example, when WoW went to China they had to censor a lot of things in the game. I don't think it's worth it in the long run. And we can't forget that micro-transactions are a big part of gaming in Asian countries, so it's likely they'd want that too.

Posted By Morne at 03:05 AM - Mon Feb 12 2018

Asian players use Oceanic servers, and a direct server would mean changing aspects of the game. For example, when WoW went to China they had to censor a lot of things in the game. I don't think it's worth it in the long run. And we can't forget that micro-transactions are a big part of gaming in Asian countries, so it's likely they'd want that too.

Asian players also have mostly shit net connecting to APAC servers. Seen some saying around 200, somehow NAW is a bit lower. All the while Singapore is pretty good for me, well you know still high, but way lower than NAW. It would at least open up the door, more so since there is still a worry APAC won't have the population to last long term.

Which not sure if it's still true now. But for WoW, Asia was basically half their population for the whole game. When people compare other MMOs to WoW, most have not pushed into the Asia market. So when Asia did hold 4-5 million players alone. Every other MMO doesn't seem that bad really. (Counting when the sub numbers for WoW was high and publicly known).

Posted By Gunnlang at 12:58 AM - Mon Feb 12 2018

Posted By Morne at 03:05 AM - Mon Feb 12 2018

Asian players use Oceanic servers, and a direct server would mean changing aspects of the game. For example, when WoW went to China they had to censor a lot of things in the game. I don't think it's worth it in the long run. And we can't forget that micro-transactions are a big part of gaming in Asian countries, so it's likely they'd want that too.

Asian players also have mostly shit net connecting to APAC servers. Seen some saying around 200, somehow NAW is a bit lower. All the while Singapore is pretty good for me, well you know still high, but way lower than NAW. It would at least open up the door, more so since there is still a worry APAC won't have the population to last long term.

Which not sure if it's still true now. But for WoW, Asia was basically half their population for the whole game. When people compare other MMOs to WoW, most have not pushed into the Asia market. So when Asia did hold 4-5 million players alone. Every other MMO doesn't seem that bad really. (Counting when the sub numbers for WoW was high and publicly known).

Blizzard have the bank balance to cover their loss if Asia failed, but it didn't. They also have the bank to allow them to change their game freely, without damaging it or their company. Soulbound currently lack that luxury, and I don't believe they want their game to turn into another P2W MMO. And on the topic of servers, Oceanic/APAC servers rarely live long in general, if we're honest.

Posted By Morne at 01:10 AM - Mon Feb 12 2018

Posted By Gunnlang at 12:58 AM - Mon Feb 12 2018

Posted By Morne at 03:05 AM - Mon Feb 12 2018

Asian players use Oceanic servers, and a direct server would mean changing aspects of the game. For example, when WoW went to China they had to censor a lot of things in the game. I don't think it's worth it in the long run. And we can't forget that micro-transactions are a big part of gaming in Asian countries, so it's likely they'd want that too.

Asian players also have mostly shit net connecting to APAC servers. Seen some saying around 200, somehow NAW is a bit lower. All the while Singapore is pretty good for me, well you know still high, but way lower than NAW. It would at least open up the door, more so since there is still a worry APAC won't have the population to last long term.

Which not sure if it's still true now. But for WoW, Asia was basically half their population for the whole game. When people compare other MMOs to WoW, most have not pushed into the Asia market. So when Asia did hold 4-5 million players alone. Every other MMO doesn't seem that bad really. (Counting when the sub numbers for WoW was high and publicly known).

Blizzard have the bank balance to cover their loss if Asia failed, but it didn't. They also have the bank to allow them to change their game freely, without damaging it or their company. Soulbound currently lack that luxury, and I don't believe they want their game to turn into another P2W MMO. And on the topic of servers, Oceanic/APAC servers rarely live long in general, if we're honest.

Bit old post i guess but seems relevant for me. I am in the Philippines. I was thinking the same thing about the Oceanic server situation. Most of them seem to die off. Anyone know of a server other then the Oceanic that asian players are looking at?

Wow didnt try the Asian market until Pandaria, it was a large financial gamble. They gave a local server to the oceanic area but only for general play, I get a 300 ping when I play an instanced WOW dungeon cause most of those servers are still in US. So even WOW only gave our area a token local server. I love the idea of having a real local server for this game with a low ping.