Blade & Soul English release coming this Winter, Beta in Autumn

Did you ever think we’d actually be seeing Blade & Soul make it over to the West? I have to admit, I’d lost hope. Going so long with no good news in sight is tiring, so much so that much of the game’s potential fanbase had headed for the hills.

But here we are! It’s 2015 and NCWest are finally coming out and telling us that yes, Blade & Soul is coming this year. And yes, it’s going to be free to play.

MassivelyOP broke the news yesterday as the official Blade & Soul site updated for the first time in nearly three years. Three years of silence and we are finally seeing some real communication as to the future of the game from NCWest. Late is better than never.

NCWest community staff held a Blade & Soul stream earlier today to discuss the game’s release and any changes it might be seeing in localization. Some of the community’s biggest questions were answered, and here’s the gist of what was said:

• Closed beta is coming in Autumn.
• Launch is happening in Winter.
• Blade & Soul will be free to play with no VIP system.
• There will be no fatigue system (as seen in the Chinese version).
• Character models and designs will not be Westernized and there will be no censorship.
• NCWest will be handling both the North American and European versions of the game. The NA server will be located in Texas and the EU server in Germany.
• Chinese and Korean voiceovers will be available. Some European language voiceovers will be available as well.
• NCWest staff will be communicative with players over social media (especially Twitter) in the months leading to beta.
• Signing up for the newsletter will give you an earlier chance to get into the first closed beta.
• NCWest are hoping to make Blade & Soul an eSport in the West as it is in parts of the Eastern market.

Overall it was very refreshing to actually have NCWest communicating with players and being upfront with how they are going to approach the game.

There’s a ton to be excited about here as someone who played with 250ms in China and Taiwan. Blade & Soul may not be the most amazing MMO, but it’s a fantastic action game on all fronts. It’s been far too long since we’d heard anything from NCWest on the fate of the game, but now we’re so close.

Make sure to get signed up for the newsletter to get first closed beta signup notice, and get hyped! Blade & Soul is finally reaching us. It’s about time — I’ve been itching to actually be able to play Kung Fu Master.