MMOs In North America are So far Behind in Content

Why are MMOs in North America so far behind their Asian counter-parts in terms of updates and expansion packs? MapleStory for example in South Korea has way more content than the English version of the game. Heck even less known MMOs are MUCH further developed in Korea. FreeStyle Street Basketball (A basketball themed MMO) for example is published by GameKiss in the U.S. And is SO far behind the South Korean version of the game. Heck, FreeStyle has been in the U.S. For over 3 years now and still lacks full court gameplay – which is something the Korean version of the game has enjoyed for 4 years! It doesn’t make sense. Why can’t the developer release this game mode and other content updates in North America sooner? I can understand that major expansion packs need to be localized before release, but for a sports MMO like FreeStyle, adding this feature should be easy.

Even MMOFPS games like Combat Arms and Sudden Attack are way ahead in updates in South Korea than in the U.S. Nexon publishes Combat Arms in America and GameHi publishes Sudden Attack here. In fact, Nexon recently bought GameHi, but that’s a discussion for another day. Since both games already have English versions, how hard could it keep the game up-to-date with the Korean version? Seriously. The Korean Version has SO many more weapons, maps and game modes. It’s not like this stuff has to be re-programmed or re-developed. The code is already there, it just needs to be implemented. The fact that all of these games are SO Far behind their Korean counter-parts is absurd. Game developers are only hurting themselves by doing this, as the more “fun” a game is, the more players it will attract.

Things are getting better though. Nexon released Vindictus in the U.S. Only 6 months after it was available in South Korea. So the gap between major game releases and updates is shortening. Plus, game developers are starting to self publish their games world-wide. ChangYou for example, a Chinese MMORPG developer, launched Zentia, Dragon Oath and Blade Wars in North America and Europe recently. Since they also developed the game in China, they’re doing a good job keeping it up to date. Another thing I noticed is that the ijji version of Soul of the Ultimate Nation (S.U.N.) is behind the Webzen version of the same game. The ijji version is designed for North America while the Webzen version is WORLD-WIde. So North American users are starting to flock to the Webzen version of the game, as it has MORE content and updates. It’s silly that the game is competing with itself, but this shows that MMORPG players WANT to play more up-to-date versions of their favorite MMOs.

Like I said though, things are getting better, so I’m not too worried. I just find it weird that North American games are so far behind their Korean counter-parts.