Lost Ark, Smilegate RPG’s MMOARPG has put pressure on its developers after the turbulent launch on Steam. After the game managed to break a couple of milestones in concurrent player numbers set by Valve’s Dota 2 and CS GO, the developer team stumbled on further issues. Now, the developer is working on increasing the server capacity, and it’s even adding a new server region to circumvent the lingering queues.
In a recent blog post, the developer said it’s working on a distinct new region, separated from Central Europe. You can find the writing below:
Please note that this will be a distinct new region (separated from Central Europe) without cross-region play availability. This also means that region-wide features, such as your Royal Crystal and Silver balances from Central Europe will not be accessible in the new European region. The new region will be ideal for players who have not yet created their character or haven’t otherwise committed to staying on their existing server. If you plan to restart in the new region, you may wish to hold off on claiming any “per Account” items, such as the additional Founder’s Pack Redemption, until you have created a character and are able to redeem in the new region.
In theory, Amazon Games should’ve known better, and I am still baffled how they did not anticipate this when they had the same issues with the launch of New World. Did they maybe believe that New World is a better MMO than this one? I am confused and shocked too.
Lost Ark launched over the weekend, which is a rough period to see an MMO of this caliber being found. Over the same weekend, Lost Ark managed to reach 1.33 million players, setting a new record in concurrent player peak, beating both Counter-Strike Global Offensive and Dota 2 by a small margin. Now, Lost Ark is at second place in concurrent player’s peak, with PUBG confidently at the top with 3.3 million players.
The first day of launch wasn’t even so bad. The queues were not as big as on Sunday when most of the EU servers had a queue from 12,000 to 24,000. That’s large, considering the large population trying to play the game. Therefore, Central Europe has to be addressed ASAP. Either that or a better AFK detection system that would eliminate those using macros. We remember that the improved AFK algorithm in New World dealt with the queues quite well.
