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View Full Version : Our grim fate is near (official news)



Arkalite
2nd March 2006, 14:58
K2 is our owner now... BUT... we never really knew if they were going to or not comercialize mu online... well here it is... THEY ARE.


Webzen Establishes Publishing License Agreement with US Based Company, K2 Network Inc. for MU Online Global Server
Thursday December 1, 9:00 am ET

SEOUL, Korea, Dec. 1 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Webzen Inc. (Nasdaq: WZEN - News) announced today the company established a publishing license agreement with US publishing company, K2 Network Inc. for their MMORPG MU online. MU online global server is scheduled to be commercialized during the beginning of 2006.

With this agreement Webzen will be able to service MU online in both the American and European region through K2 Network for 3 years after commercialization. The license agreement amount of US $2,000,000 is the highest global server publishing license agreement ever made by a Korean game company.

Through this agreement, Webzen will provide continuous technical support and game updates, and K2 Network will conduct operations such as server maintenance/operation, marketing, and PR. The global server will be serviced to all the countries worldwide besides the ones which have previously been entered through local license partners, such as China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, or countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, and CIS countries, where Webzen will establish partnership in the future.

"Through the agreement with K2 Network, we will penetrate in countries which do not have a big online game market and have been hard to enter individually, and will be able to expand our overseas market, and generate additional revenue. Our goal is to present the superiority of Korean games in the overseas market." CEO Nam Ju Kim said.

Since October 2003, Webzen has been operating a global server for MU Online for all the countries where the company hasn't commercially launched the game. The users in these countries have been able to enjoy the basic version of MU online for free through the global server. Now the users will be able to enjoy all the new updates of the game, and experience much more content.

According to the company, during the free service period of the global server, countries such as Brazil and Poland have shown high concurrent user numbers, and with the commercial service, the number is expected to increase. Also, K2 Network will be able to enhance the service quality through a 24 hour operated customer service center in India.

In the mean time, MU online is the first 3D Massive Multiplayer Online Game to be launched in Korea, and celebrated its 4th anniversary of commercialization last 19th of November. Currently, there are about 60,000 users playing through the global server worldwide.

Private Securities Litigation Reform Act Safe Harbor Statement

Except for the historical and present factual information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements as to the expected benefits of the commercialization, and other statements identified by words such as "expects," "projects," "plans," and similar expressions are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the possibility that the anticipated benefits from the commercial launch may be fully realized, the impact of competition and other risk factors relating to our industry as detailed from time to time in each of Webzen Inc.'s reports filed with the SEC. Webzen Inc. disclaims any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements.

Source : http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051201/hkth002.html?.v=19

:dead: tuche to all of use in global.

pd69
2nd March 2006, 17:46
i think the bold part of that quote was refering to when Webzen had control over the global servers and not since k2network took over since that press release was released last year some time.

Hardcoe
3rd March 2006, 00:16
Seriously... I dont think mu online ever get Pay2Play

pink_panth3r
3rd March 2006, 04:15
this is old new... tehy have already done that :S, and it wont be p2p... the games to crap.. they will loose 70-80% of players if they make it p2p, i belive it will offer a premium account in which you recive more benifits if u do pay to play

vietfrost
3rd March 2006, 08:16
I think it will become p2p. I mean come on now, who the hell buys the license to a 2 million dollar game and not make any profit off it? Webzen did make global p2p because they used it as advertisement. Worked well I might add.

jayhawker7
3rd March 2006, 08:25
maybe they make it free beta
and when everyones happy
they make it pay to play
just like other games ^_^

Adderus
3rd March 2006, 13:14
lol this game has been in "beta" for a while now(a couple years at least). We all knew this day was coming. If you really want to make it free again then just don't play on global lol. Make the supposed 60,000 users amount go down to about 5 or 10,000 and just watch it crumble to pieces :)

cody99
3rd March 2006, 18:21
Yo adderus wassup,im just saying hi and i like your pic...

Anyway,Vietfrost has a point,,k2 will not buy the company franchise for 2m and NOT make it p2p it wouldnt make sence if they didnt get any profit out of it...unless...their generous...or just plain crazy...

pd69
3rd March 2006, 21:06
i think they will first make an effort to make a profit out of selling items and levels.

we would have to see how the item shop works out first before saying "oh they are 100% going to go p2p"

if they have an item shop, and the average person spends $20 on each char that would mean them making atleast $6mill from that.

its possible to keep a game from going P2P, but it wont be easy.

especially if they keep the game as its setup now.

especially the low EXP.

im playing MU-Philipines right now, which is P2P. they have the exp set so that a level 50 char can kill elite yeti (with buff from npc elf) and get 8k experience from each yeti.

i like MU-Philipines and for the £4 a month that it costs, its not exactly a hole in your pocket either.

if Global does the same, i might start playing it again.