We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Lost Ark year two aims to “greatly reduce the gap” between regions

As Lost Ark year two begins for the western release of the fantasy MMORPG game, Amazon Games says it wants to bring the game much closer to its Korean servers.

Lost Ark year two - Beatrice, an angelic guide with blonde hair, a white dress, and black robe

As Lost Ark year two begins for a worldwide audience, Amazon Games tells us it hopes to close the gap between the western release and Korean build of the fantasy MMO game “faster than players expect.” Following the release of the Lost Ark Anniversary update, developer Smilegate and publisher Amazon Games say they are planning announcements soon to help bring the editions closer together.

“After the first year of release in the west, we feel great about the differences between the Korean and western versions of the game,” Amazon Games franchise leader Soomin Park tells PCGamesN. The worldwide release of Lost Ark is still some way behind, and Park admits, “catching up with the Korean build is challenging, to be realistic,” citing the time taken to localise content from the Korean version.

“However, I can say that we are planning to greatly reduce the gap between the western build and the Korean build in our second year compared to our first year.” Park adds that “the speed of reducing that gap will be faster than what players expect, and new classes will be released at a faster pace than that of new continents and Legion Raids.”

Despite the differing schedules, Park tells us the western release is better for it, saying it “benefited greatly in general from the Korean version in how much polish Smilegate put into the game’s content before it comes to our region.” With the ability to monitor how players handle content such as Legion Raids and new continents, “Lost Ark players in the west are able to benefit from years of refinement and improvement of content and balance by the time updates come to the west.”

Lost Ark year two - King Thirain holds up a banner in the centre of a large courtyard, surrounded by the people of the city

As for those who are looking to get into the game now and are worried they won’t be able to catch up, Park reassures us there are plans for more improvements in this regard. “We are continuously discussing this with Smilegate, and will soon have an announcement on an update that will allow new and returning users to catch up a bit faster aside from the existing tools like Power Pass and Hyper Express.”

You can read more about Lost Ark’s first year in worldwide release in our full Lost Ark anniversary interview right here on PCGamesN.

In the meantime, we’ve taken a look at the upcoming Lost Ark Tulubik Battlefield – which features up to 96-player PvP conflict. We’ve also got all the details on the Lost Ark Witcher crossover and a Lost Ark tier list of the best classes, along with a guide for all the Lost Ark Mokoko Seeds so you can find every last one.