There have been plenty of failed Korean MMO imports over the years but not many attempts to try again post-closure, much less attempts by the original developer. This is where things truly deviate from the norm. The writing was on the wall well before 2013 but no one could have guessed what was in store for the game a mere year later. You can't expect to retain a playerbase like that, especially since high level content and class updates took an eternity to find their way over.
You did the same low to medium-level dungeons in 2013 as you did in 2009 and they were exactly the same. Cash shop prices were high, there were stringent IP blocks forcing those not in North America to play via VPN, the huge amount of unique events seen in other regions never made it over, and the base game was never truly updated to keep with the times.Īll of those issues are pretty big deals, but the last one was the real clincher. There were a lot of things wrong with the original Nexon-run DFO. There's a small but immensely dedicated niche demographic for these types of games in any region, so what was going on? Why did their biggest game die so pitifully in North America under a publisher? Sure, it's grindy - but it's the only MMO with gameplay so close to fighting games. It must have been confusing to Neople that the game would do so disastrously outside of the region during its 2009 to 2013 stint. This original release closed its doors in June of 2013.Ī year after its closure Korean developer Neople decided to test whether they could make their Asia-region hit actually survive in the West, publisher or no.ĭungeon Fighter Online is a very popular game in Asia and has been for years. Initially published in North America by Nexon for a total of four years between closed beta and eventual closure, Dungeon Fighter Online was once known for its poor servers, lack of overall publisher support, and minimal content updates despite its tight (albeit grindy) gameplay.