Recent Events: Combat Arms America and Europe Merge; Cyphers Shuts Down in China and Taiwan

So popping back to life at last there’s certainly been a heck of a lot which I’ve missed out on posting about. Two of those things are Combat Arms going transatlantic and the Chinese service of Cyphers being shut down.

As of June 30 2015, Combat Arms Europe and Combat Arms America have merged into a single service managed primarily by Nexon Europe. Both Nexon Europe and Nexon America accounts can now be used to log into the game. As it’s the pre-merge European client that is being used for this unified service, previous Combat Arms America players may notice some minor differences in game content due to prior localization differences. Servers for three regions (Europe, North America, Global) are available for play. The united service seeks to bring together Combat Arms’ 7 million European users and 6 million North American users so that Nexon can “provide the best possible service to the dedicated Combat Arms community” and will be available for play in English, German, Italian, Polish and Turkish. Nexon America appears to be keeping Combat Arms present on its game portal. The English website can be accessed at http://combatarms.nexon.net/.

This merge comes as both Nexon America and Nexon Europe are running the beta testing phases of brand new first-person shooter (FPS) games. Nexon America’s Splash Damage-developed Dirty Bomb is presently in its open beta phase (http://dirtybomb.nexon.net/) while Nexon Europe prepares the next beta test for Combat Arms: Line of Sight (http://calineofsight.nexoneu.com/en/).

Meanwhile, both the Chinese and Taiwanese services of 3D multiplayer online battle area (MOBA) game Cyphers Online have been shut down. The contract period between Nexon and respective publishers Tiancity and Gamania expired and were not renewed. The title from Nexon-owned studio Neople, the developers of Dungeon Fighter Online, strove to appeal to a similar base as the global phenomenon League of Legends but has clearly failed to connect as well as anticipated. The Korean service of the game enjoyed success for a period but its community has waned in recent times.

[CAFB] 1,000,000 Likes

Congrats to the Combat Arms community on your achieving of one million (1,000,000) likes on the official Combat Arms Facebook page. Combat Arms is the first Nexon America game to achieve this and soon Combat Arms players will be able to take advantage of a weekend of 200% EXP and GP which will be announced soon.

With 164,696 likes, Combat Arms Europe is also Nexon Europe’s most liked game on Facebook.

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[NX] [CA] Nexon Partners With Syncopate To Take Combat Arms To Russia

Combat Arms has already seen great success in the global markets it has been released, namely North America, Europe, Brazil and South Korea. Combat Arms has hit 28,000 concurrent users and 26,000 concurrent users in Europe and North America, respectively. But Nexon isn’t satisfied just yet. Developed by South Korean Doobic Studios and developed towards Western markets, Nexon and Syncopate have partnered for the publishing of Combat Arms in Russia.

“Combat Arms has seen rapid adoption in every territory we have brought the game to,” offered Nexon’s DongSun Kim.

“With Russia’s huge, ever-growing market for online games, particularly high-quality, free-to-play games, and the expertise and reputation of our partner Syncopate, we expect a very successful launch.”

The companies expect to kick of Combat Arms Russia’s beta test in the second half of the year with the official launch following soon after.

Nexon has partnered with other publishers to service their games in Russia in the past with Crazy Arcade (PopTag!) Russia and the now closed Kart Rider Russia both being published by Innova Systems. This is the first time Nexon has partnered with Syncopate.

 

[VINEU] [MSA] [CA] Vindictus Europe CBT Begins + MapleStory Adventures 1.10 + Combat Arms Fusion Stage 2

Nothing annoys me more than when a game publisher says “Close Beta” instead of the correct “Closed Beta”.

Europe’s most anticipated free-to-play MMO ever has finally entered its closed beta! Welcome Europeans to the land of Vindictus! Unfortunately, players of Vindictus live in a less attractive time than that of players of Mabinogi which takes place several hundred years after the events of Vindictus. Less attractive, that is, unless you enjoy endless bloodshed. Vindictus Europe is currently available in English and German.

The air is thick with despair, and the battles never cease. Rain falls, yet the land is barren, as if the earth has been drenched in too much bloodshed to bear fruit. Monstrous creatures lurk in every trench, cave, and valley. To survive, people have huddled together, forming ramshackle towns with high walls. Yet, cowering behind those walls does not guarantee safety…

What has become of the outside world? Few people know. Fewer care to find out. As the common folk trudge from one empty day into the next, only one thought keeps them going: the Legend. The Legend will come to pass. The people yearn for it, pray for it. They hope and believe. And because they believe, they know.

One day, they will be in Erinn.

In this world, there is but one moon, and it shines upon a wasteland where Fomors and beasts roam, hungry to tear flesh from bone. Not so in Erinn. In Erinn, there will be two moons, Eweca and Lateka, and they will shine with the brightness of the gods. There, no one will age or fall ill, and the land will be rich with bountiful resources.

It is the dream of Erinn, the paradise promised in the Legend, which fuels humanity in these dark times. The people wait, as they have for countless generations, for the black-winged goddess to come and save them.

They wait. Because the Legend is truth. It must be, for it is all they have.

[CABR] Combat Arms Celebrates Its 1st Anniversary in Brazil

Brazil MapleStory’s closure is approaching fast, but Nexon gaming in Brazil goes on as Combat Arms, the successful first-person shooter, celebrates its first anniversary of service in Brazil.

Level Up! Interactive, the publisher of Combat Arms and MapleStory in Brazil will celebrate one year of ‘Online FPS Action’ with the launch of CABR exclusive content and lots of other content. Check out the details here.

The latest Combat Arms global user statistic report in late April had the game at 10 million players worldwide, including 5 million in North America. At that time Combat Arms Europe had 3 million players. Nexon Europe has more recently announced that the European service has surpassed 4 million players just earlier in September.

Level Up! Interactive is the premier free online game publisher in Brazil with an impressive portfolio of titles including MapleStory, Combat Arms, RuneScape, Allods Online, Perfect World, Grand Chase, Ragnarok Online, Lunia Z and RF Online.

[CAEU] Rapidly Growing Combat Arms Europe Surpasses 4 Million Players

One million new players in five months. Nexon Europe has announced that its most popular game and Europe’s most successful free-to-play shooter has surpassed 4,000,000 registered users, less than five months after the 3,000,000 player announcement. It’s no surprise, though, as Combat Arms is Nexon’s only game to be developed primarily towards Western audiences and everyone knows that core action shooter is the genre that Western players crave.

Combat Arms premiered in Korea in 2008 where it failed to impress, mostly due to the market dominance of Sudden Attack (Nexon), Special Force 2 (CJ E&M) and a few other shooters which have more than buried their roots into the Korean FPS market.

The game was then localized for its premier in the West through Nexon America where it was a success and quickly became one of the greatest free shooters.

Europe MapleStory may be a success, but that’s nothing in comparison to Combat Arms’ performance. Combat Arms Europe is Nexon Europe’s most popular game and continue to grow extremely quickly.

Most recently, Combat Arms has been ported to Brazil by Brazil MapleStory publisher Level Up! Games. It seems it has been successful and Brazil is another gaming market that favors shooters. Brazil MapleStory, by the way, closes on October 31.

The latest report which was several months ago had Combat Arms at 10 million global players, including 5,000,000 in North America. But that was when Combat Arms Europe had 3,000,000 players, so who knows what the user statistics look like now.

Combat Arms’ success in the West can not only be seen in the user statistics reported by the publishers, but also in the number of Facebook likes.

Nexon America

Combat Arms: 644,067
MapleStory: 633,349
MapleStory Adventures: 529,346 + 2,866,261 monthly active users
Atlantica: 136,832
Vindictus: 121,721
Dragon Nest: 108,558
Mabinogi: 77,913
Dungeon Fighter Online: 67,858
Nexon: 26,438
Nexon Mobile: 470

Total: 2,346,552 likes + 2,866,261 monthly active users

Nexon Europe

Combat Arms: 111,000
Vindictus (which isn’t even in closed beta yet): 32,037
MapleStory: 23,193
Nexon Europe: 8,479
Mabinogi: 7,443

Total: 182,152 (61% of likes are from Combat Arms)