Netmarble has released its new title "Sol: Enchant," intensifying competition in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) market in the second half of this year. Starting with the launch of Sol: Enchant, major game companies including Com2uS, Kakao Games, Smilegate and Wemade are preparing to release new titles within the year.

According to the industry on Thursday, "Sol: Enchant," published by Netmarble, was formally released the previous day. It was developed by Altnine, a new developer led by key members of the "Lineage M" core development team. The game highlights a "divine authority" system in which users directly intervene in operations, such as the direction of updates and unlocking the business model (BM).

As of its release, there are not many new titles that will compete directly. That is because most major new titles planned for the second half of the year are aiming for launches after the third quarter. At the same time, that also means Sol: Enchant is set up to secure early users and then compete in earnest with new titles that follow.

"Zeus: God of Hubris," published by Com2uS and developed by Averton, is targeting a third-quarter release. It puts forward an original worldview based on Greek mythology, seeking differentiation in an MMORPG market where Western medieval fantasy is the mainstream. The narrative is structured around users proving their role as a "vessel of god" in a world fractured by Zeus' hubris. Chaos surrounding Pandora's box, the 12 Titans and the revival of Cronos forms the central axis of the story. Key NPC "Pandora" is performed through facial capture by actor Park Ji-hyun (박지현), increasing character immersion. A feature is the casting of an actor not as simple star marketing but as a figure who leads the narrative. It applied Unreal Engine 5's Lumen and Nvidia DLSS, aiming at both the atmosphere of mythic spaces and operational stability.

"OdinQ: Valkyrie's Call," under development by Lionheart Studio, a Kakao Games subsidiary, is targeting a third-quarter global launch. Kakao Games opened a teaser site on Wednesday and revealed the subtitle and key visual for the first time. Its previous title, "Odin: Valhalla Rising," maintained the No. 1 spot in Google Play sales for 18 consecutive weeks after launch, reshaping the mobile MMORPG market. OdinQ: Valkyrie's Call chose a strategy of directly inheriting that fandom and worldview. It is based on a reinterpreted worldview of the Norse myth epic "Edda" set against the backdrop of Ragnarok, the final war. It is designed to allow users to plan flexible growth paths through various race and class choices and a cooperation-centered combat structure.

"World of Dokkaebi," published by Kakao Games and developed by Supercat, is scheduled for a third-quarter release and plans to begin pre-registration in July. It is a 2.5D MMORPG based on the intellectual property (IP) of the Korean-style cultivation fantasy web novel "Myeolgwi Sudujeon," and depicts a journey in which humans and dokkaebi create a new era, set about 300 years before the original work. Kakao Games collaborated with original author Yeon Woo-sol (연우솔) from the early stages of designing the worldview so the original and the game would connect naturally within a single universe. It highlighted as strengths 2.5D hybrid graphics combining 2D dot characters with 3D backgrounds, a high-freedom skill deck-building structure that breaks class boundaries, and sect-centered cooperative content. Kakao Games said a previously conducted focus group test (FGT) confirmed positive evaluations of the Korean-style worldview and the freeform growth structure.

A new title based on the "Night Crows" IP, published by Wemade and developed by Mad Engine, is also being prepared for a global one-build release within the year. Wemade signed a publishing agreement with Mad Engine and has begun full-scale launch preparations. The original "Night Crows" recorded 750.0 billion won in cumulative sales at home and abroad and 14,000,000 cumulative users since its 2023 release, and surpassed 450,000 in peak concurrent users globally. The new title is a multi-platform MMORPG supporting both PC and mobile, and Wemade's strategy is to recreate the original's success based on its competitiveness. Alongside the new title, it is also pushing for the original game's release in China, raising expectations of a second-half global offensive.

"Eclipse: The Awakening," published by Smilegate and developed by NPIXEL, is set to be released within the year as a cross-platform title for PC and mobile. Smilegate overhauled its teaser page on June 10 and revealed key visual images and a teaser video, formally signaling the launch. A feature is that it adds depth to strategic fun through "Sanctuary," the game's core content, and provides a new play experience that expands the existing genre. The released teaser video raised anticipation for the new game experience Eclipse will offer by posing questions about gameplay familiar to existing MMORPG fans.

In the industry, many view retention after 3 to 6 months as more important than early MMORPG indicators. With multiple new titles pouring out around the same time, user churn can be fast, and how quickly each game company responds in post-launch operations is likely to determine final results in the second half.

An industry official said, "Early launch success indicators are just figures that reflect marketing effects." The official added, "In the end, what matters is not the originality of the system but how stably it actually operates in the service environment."