“We developed Red Knights in a way that brings together the best of the Lineage series,” said Lee Won-seok, head of development at NCSoft. (image: NCSoft)
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – The legendary Korean videogame Lineage is finally coming to the mobile realm.
The game’s developer, NCSoft, announced Thursday that the game’s mobile version titled Lineage Red Knights is set for launch on November 8 in twelve countries.
Lineage is a series of fantasy MMORPG videogames for PC, first released in 1998. The series has so far attracted 43 million players from Korea and overseas, and it’s been one of the most influential domestic games, one that helped shape the nation’s videogame industry.
The new smartphone game will be in an RPG format, and will bring together main characters and ‘items’ as well as gaming features like ‘blood alliance’, all taken from the original series. The characters were redesigned to fit a ‘smaller’ mobile environment, a company official said.
One of the series’ core contents – ‘siege warfare’ – however, will come with an update in the near future.
“We developed Red Knights in a way that brings together the best of the Lineage series,” said Lee Won-seok, head of development at NCSoft.
NCSoft plans to launch another Lineage-based mobile game called Lineage M in the first half of 2017.
According go the company, Lineage Red Knights was designed so that players new to the franchise can easily get accustomed to the platform and the game’s virtual universe, whereas Lineage M will focus more on “bringing the exact same kind of fun that users experienced in the PC series to the mobile platform”.
Meanwhile, another mobile Lineage game coming in November is Lineage 2: Revolution, developed by Netmarble Games – NCSoft’s competitor, but also a strategic partner. Just like Lineage Red Knights, Lineage 2: Revolution was also developed using the IP (intellectual property) of the original series.
According to industry watchers, Netmarble’s adaptation will be in an MMORPG format, and has so far received positive feedback from users in its beta testing. The game’s basic features were introduced to the public at the pop-up Google Play Arcade in July at Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
By Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
