NCSoft to release Blade & Soul 2 in August

NCSoft will release new multi-platform game Blade & Soul 2 next month, the game publisher said Monday.

Blade & Soul 2 comes as NCSoft's third new game in 2021, following the release of mobile games Pro Baseball H3 in April and Trickster M in May.

It was initially scheduled to launch within the first half of 2021, but was postponed due to "internal reasons." It has surpassed over 4 million reservations within 23 days.

NCSoft still hasn't specified exactly when in August the new game will be released.

The first Blade & Soul game was released in June 2012 as a massively multiplayer online role-playing (Mmorpg) computer game. Blade & Soul 2 will be available on both mobile and computer.

NCSoft will release its new multi-platform game Blade & Soul 2 in August. [NCSOFT]

NCSoft set up a website for Blade & Soul 2 earlier this year, offering a peek at the gameplay and characters. It released a web entertainment program featuring K-pop star Shindong of boy band Super Junior on Monday, with Shindong reenacting the journey of a character within the game who must build his own team of warriors to fight evil.

The company will reveal key concepts each day until the release date. Three words were revealed on Monday: Unveiling, countdown and finale.

Blade & Soul 2 will compete with Kakao Games' latest multi-platform game Odin: Valhalla Rising. After its release on June 29, Odin has knocked NCSoft's mobile games Lineage M and Lineage 2M off the top spot on Korea's mobile games charts, ending a four-year reign. Odin currently sits atop Korea's Google Play Store revenue chart.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]